With the advantages of being much lower than the people-friendly price of other B-class cars and high value, Hyundai Sonata and Kia K5 Chevrolet Mai Ruibao were once known as "Di Si Sanbao", which has a market among young consumers. But with the passage of time, these models in the market now have basically no voice in the past. In particular, Sonata and K5 are almost forgotten, last year's cumulative sales of K5 were 10927 vehicles, while Sonata was lower only 8321 vehicles, and The Mribao XL reached 51128 vehicles, which is much better than the previous two, why did Sonata and K5 fall into this fate?
First, it has a lot to do with the brand. As we all know, the two major Korean brands have not been satisfactory in China in recent years, but in fact, they are still quite strong in the international market, last year Hyundai and Kia jointly won 6.667 million sales in the world, but the contribution of the Chinese market is also 510,000 vehicles.
The THAAD incident is the fuse, and the continuous rise of domestic brands in these years has also weakened the high value and cost-effective advantages of Korean cars. There are even many people who believe that the current Korean car may not be as good as domestic, although this recognition is not objective, but to some extent, hyundai and Kia in the country's slower update speed and the fact that some models are double standard at home and abroad will indeed give people this impression. If you want to buy a joint venture car, consumers may prefer to choose mainstream brands such as Japanese Toyota, Honda or Ashkenazi Volkswagen.
Second, let's get back to the product. Sonata and K5 used to be low prices and sports design as selling points, but in the current sports style design has become the mainstream, the appearance of these two models has no longer been so impressive to consumers. Looking at the price, taking our Hunan Changsha region as an example, the Sonata discount is about 156,800 yuan, while the K5 Kaiku is about 142,000 yuan, which is actually not much of an advantage in the B-class car, and once it could win the Maiteng or Passat.
In addition, Sonata and K5 have a double standard phenomenon in both domestic and foreign markets. This generation of Sonata was once a crash test at the IIHS in the United States, when the car received a Top Safety safety rating and a G rating in the 25% bias collision project. Unexpectedly after coming to the domestic market, in the C-NCAP known as the "five-star wholesale department" for crash testing, in the 40% bias collision project there was a case of A-pillar bending, the safety performance gap is obvious, and Sonata and K5 are no exception, in the overseas full series of matching is their own 8AT transmission, but the domestic 1.5T model only provides a 7-speed dry dual-clutch transmission, reliability will be greatly reduced, and the reduction of these two models is ultimately to save costs.
With the more mature market environment, today's consumers are actually very transparent and rational, from these three models only Sonata and K5 no one cares, and Maribal XL can maintain relatively good sales, in fact, can also reflect this. Also in Changsha, Hunan Province, for example, the price of Therabao XL has reached 124,900 yuan after the discount, which is basically the same as some joint venture compact cars, and the whole series is equipped with 9AT transmissions, which is full of sincerity, and consumers can certainly feel it.
All in all, Sonata and K5 can not sell is not that young people do not know the goods, on the contrary, because the current young people buy cars more and more rationally, the market environment is changing, competitors are also upgrading, but Sonata and K5 do not attach so much importance to the Chinese market, and it is understandable that they are eventually abandoned by consumers.