Hyundai-Kia sales jump 17.8% in U.S. in September

Automakers of South Korea, the U.S and Japan saw double-digit sales growth in the recovering U.S. auto market last month, while Volkswagen`s sales increased less than 1 percent. While some analysts say that the embattled German carmaker took a beating from its emissions test rigging scandal, others forecast a reshuffling in the U.S. auto industry.

According to the Automotive News, a U.S. specialized auto weekly newspaper, on Friday, a total of 1.44 million vehicles were sold in the U.S. market in September, a year-on-year increase of 15.7 percent. South Korean and Japanese automakers as well as the Detroit 3 saw their sales increase significantly. The GM group (Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC) sold a total of 251,310 vehicles in September, bouncing 12.5 percent year-on-year, while the Ford group (Ford and Lincoln) saw its sales rise 23.3 percent to 221,269 units year-on-year in the same month. The Toyota group`s (Toyota, Lexus, Scion and Toyota/Scion) September sales increased 16.2 percent year-on-year to 194,399. At Nissan Group, sales jumped 18.3 percent to 121,782.

The Hyundai-Kia group also performed well. Sales at Hyundai Motor Co. advanced 14.3 percent to 64,015, and Kia`s sales surged 22.6 percent to 49,820. Combined, the two South Korean brands saw September sales gain 17.8 percent to 113,855 from a year earlier.

European auto brands` growth was relatively limited. At the BMW group (BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce), sales rose 4 percent, while the Daimler group`s (Mercedes-Benz and Smart) sales increased 6 percent.

Despite Volkswagen`s sales increase was not so much retraction as gains. Volkswagen sales edged up just by 0.6 percent to 26,141 in September. Its Audi brand sold 17,340 cars in September, up 16.2 percent from a year earlier, leading the VW group`s overall sales growth rate to 7.2 percent. The VW group`s sales ranking went down by a notch to the ninth after Subaru. Automotive News reported that the VW brand benefited from Labor Day weekend promotions and low oil prices.

Meanwhile, the prices of pre-owned VW cars are showing signs of declining in the South Korean used car market amid the German automaker`s rigging scandal. SK Encar, South Korea`s largest second-hand vehicle sales company, said Friday that both the ratio and number of pre-owned VW cars` price adjustments has increased since the onset of the VW scandal. For the 10 days before the scandal, 17 percent of VW car sellers lowered their asked prices. During the same number of days afterwards, the ratio almost more than doubled to 35 percent. SK Encar said pre-owned VW cars` prices dropped by 1.6 percent to 5.7 percent.