No news on training yet, if there is any I think it'll be in November. It's usually one month before car launching. We still don't know if it is CBU or CKD, we are hoping it is CKD so the pricing becomes more competitive and delivery time is shortened.

You are truly lucky then. Many converts from say, Toyota and Honda has been complaining a lot about their cars. Unless you're saying these customers who have bought Hyundais are a bunch of liars talking bad about Toyota/Honda? I thought of listing it down here, but I'd be too long winded. I do not not own any of these cars, but I have enough 1st degree friends and customers who owns cars of same build having similar issues.

The irony, we received no complaints from Hyundai owners while we do 1 year follow up for insurance+road tax renewal - year after year. I don't hear stories of customers' Hyundai falling apart like a straw house.

I do not have a reason to lie or make up stories here, what do I gain portraying myself as a liar and ruin any chance of making any sales here?

In car sales, we learn from experience, and majority of that comes from customer's testaments. We are not Chinaman salesman, if there is ever a customer saying this car is better than ours, we do our research and if it's true, we will never deny it, and submit feedback to Hyundai for them to improve at what we lacked. Chinaman salesman would be like those who say their car got resale value, as high as 70% after 5 years. Sadly to say, I met many 5 years ago , and all obeyed the law of depreciation(10% per year) and what's left of their car is half price deal, plus it's pretty insulting to call foremen from authorized service centres old school; don't be surprised, we know many of these people and we share A LOT of stories many drivers out there NEVER heard of. What do you think SAs and managers do on slow days in a showroom?

Malaysia since 2010, majority of Hyundai owners(Especially Tucson and Sonata) are converts from Japanese marques, and why do they convert if Toyota/Honda can offer more than Hyundai? Surely if Japanese marques can offer more, the higher pricing is justified right? How did Hyundai increased it's market share by 40% in 2010(Which coincidentally, also the same year Tucson LM launched, Sonata YF launched, and Sime Darby became the official distributor)?

So why hasn't Toyota taken the CVT approach, but continue to develop CAT and minimize shift jerks? The current generation Camry excelled in that, despite being 4/5 cogs, or Toyota is selling inferior technology for a premium people foolishly paid for since 4 years ago? Oops, touche

What annoys us who truly like our Korean cars is people pushing their brand worshipping mentality and expect us to follow suit. As a Chinese saying goes, 井水不犯河水. It starts to get ridiculous when there are people who claims Vios is far superior than the Sonata in term of cabin space, or that Hyundai consist of all Japanese employees working in Korea.

Anyone who is tired of reading wall of text by a 'Chinaman' salesman should just google up and read these stuff, GIYBF still.

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Oct 29 2011, 11:31 PM

Training haven't start in Malaysia for the Elantra MD. It's probably a month before car launch, which mean if it is launching in december, training will be in november.

Got SAs said that they went training for the MD?

Fact is fact, we've been saying that for very long time and it is not going to change tune to cater you=.=

Recap :

The reason for this delay is due to dispute between Sime Darby and Hyundai Motoring Company(in Korea) over the Elantra being CKD or CBU. SD wants CKD, HMC wants CBU. This delay has NOTHING to do with GLC mentality or anything, SD can't take step 2 without resolving step 1 first.

The stories for imported cars is the same everywhere, KIA Sportage and Sorento having the same waiting period problem with the Starex, Sonata(Yes, along with the Tucson, these are CBU direct from Korea). Hyundai and Kia's supply is being outstripped by demands and we are struggling to keep up even with increased productions.

This is why SD is fighting with HMC to get Elantra CKD'ed so as to shorten the waiting period for the car and eliminate AP issues plus bringing down the price of the car. Are you willing to sit in a waiting period of 6 months for a CBU Elantra, like what's happening to the Tucson now? By then all the die hard J brands will come say Elantra tak laku

If you have been in the car business, you'll know how big a risk is to keep CBU stocks, especially when you have to undercut most of your competitors in term of pricing. Of course to certain car brands it's no problem, CBU price on CKD models, big fat profit margin

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Oct 30 2011, 10:31 PM

Accurate or not, that depends on the source I hear from, if the source lied to me I wouldn't know. I am not directly employed by Sime Darby to know all this things in details.

The dispute is close to resolving BUT there is no conclusion whether it's CBU or CKD yet.

No news on the Veloster yet, but uncomfirmed info from within is pointing to a 2012 launch, along with Accent.

Take it or leave it I have no reason to twist the words I heard from SD. Maybe you've heard different 'fact' from other SAs, but it's up to you to interpret who is telling the truth and who is lying. All I can say is I have no reason to lie, why risk losing potential sales by twisting lies? I'll reach a point that I couldn't twist any more and customers will find out that I am lying, that would makes thing even worse.

I am not the CEO of HSDM to be able to give you 100% true and accurate information. I can stop sharing information and urges other SAs in this thread to stop doing the same if you think we're beating around the bush with you guys, since you guys are shooting us like it's our problem that Elantra having delayed launching.

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Oct 31 2011, 08:13 AM

We are hoping just as much as customer because we currently do not have proper B and C segment cars to sell X20 already sold out long ago, and Accent's age is bogging it's sales figure down.

So long before Veloster launching Or you guys want to create another anti-SD thread?

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Oct 31 2011, 05:27 PM

Veloster different class car already. I read back NST wrote that SD plans to bring in veloster with GDI engine. If that is true we 'might' see GDI engine in Elantra as well.(Don't get too excited, it's my POV and MAYBE only)

I wonder if our petrol quality is up to par for GDI engine...

Still different i30 is 5 door hatch, Veloster only '3' doors.

i30 still looooooooooooooooong to go. It is not even launched in Europe yet.

Beats me, it's a year old's story actually, there's actually GDI engine for the Tucson and Sonata. The story may be different now, since it's been more than a year they made such decisions.

As I said, I respect your opinion. When you mentioned something about X20 resales value, I already know there is no point to continue this 'debate' further, because however good the Korean gets, you'll never ever look up to them.

Such mindset will never ever change, no matter how much you earn, nor how easy you had that money.

Should've just ignored you from the start.

As I said before, while CVT holds many advantage to the CAT, it is not the holy grail of gearbox technology. 'Infinite ratio' marketed along the CVT technology is a bluff as well, since 99.99% of CVT we have seen are programmed to pre-determined ratio, that's why you get 'X-Speed CVT' in technical specification.

There is definitely something not right if CVT > CAT in every aspect and yet the likes of BMW/Volkwagen still developing cog based CAT for their cars. I am not saying nor had I say CVT is everything bad news vs the CAT, but CVT has limitation that CAT easily addresses, and vice versa.

Japanese car die hard really never dies around here eh, they're more active in non-japan thread than their own thread Discuss about Elantra can end up with Sonata vs Teana and a garage show-off

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Nov 4 2011, 07:09 AM

I'll explain it in my post later, to get back on topic.

The latest generation i30 is not even out in Europe(estimation 2012 Europe launching), it'll take a while more before it hits our shore. I am not too sure about i40, since we're expecting the '2' model to launch next year being Veloster and Accent.

i30 is a 5 door hatch, while the Elantra is a C-segment sedan.

As a salesman, it's my responsibility not only to inform customer as bolded, but to keep customer informed about our cars in every detail possible. I will let picture do the talking.



We know our rivals better than you think we do. This is all from my trainings I went through, omitted Sonata and i10's, left it in my office's shelves.

Only salesman with no standard harp about how good their cars' resale value is and couldn't even go into minute technical detail, and those who only worries about resales value are people who can't appreciate the true value of a car, which is the last kind of customer I would accept feedback from.

I'd be really busy if I listen to nonsense like Hyundai is a bunch of Japanese working in Korea, or Vios is more spacious than the Sonata. I think at this point I should just ignore you, like everyone else does. We salesman ignores and just smiles at customers who treats us with no respect, because however we say it, you won't buy it, they're getting the kick out of their sadistic behaviour of treating other people like dogs.

To those who is still bashing Sime Darby, I hope you all understand a few things. First, I am not working directly under Sime Darby, I am merely a sales consultant working with a dealer authorized by Sime Darby to sell Hyundai's products.

Secondly, the situation with Elantra now(As I know so far, might not be the latest 'news') :

- Hyundai Motoring Company(A.K.A. Hyundai Korea) wants Elantra MD to be CBU model.
- Sime Darby is fighting for CKD, HMC is not budging on it's stance, hence the lengthy delay and negotiations.

Why SD wants Elantra CKD? With the current AP quota, HSDM is having difficulties keeping up with demands for the Tucson and Sonata, waiting period for the most popular 2.0 high-spec(both model) is now at least 4 months. Elantra being a C-segment sedan, will sell as well if not better than the Sonata.

Now imagine this scenario, if say 200 Tucson + 200 Sonata per month has broke the limit point of the AP quota, causing delivery delay, can you imagine squeezing in 200 CBU Elantra into the picture?

So the questions now is :

- Are you willing to wait more than 4 months for a car that functions very well as a go-to-work-and-back-home car?
- Are you willing to put up with a higher price tag due to the imported tax?

This is the 2 things Sime Darby is trying to avoid from happening. They learnt the hard way when they confidently announced Elantra MD's launching month, not very wise if they're going to say things that aren't finalized again eh?

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Nov 4 2011, 09:37 PM

Well I kinda stepped out of the line over that argument as well and overlooked some points too, my apologies to you on that.

Adding to AP quota woes, there's also the issue of demand outstripping supply. It's easy to say 'just increase the production', but having too many stock in hand can spell trouble, a sudden shift in an already volatile economy can send car sales plunging and pushing many car companies into the red.

Not much news coming out lately, internal is keeping mum on the Elantra MD, guess they realized it's not a good idea to say something before it's solidly finalized.

Expectation is hopefully year end, or early of next year, within first quarter. They should be below 100k if they're CKD. Forte can be a good indicator of how Elantra will be priced. CBU might push the price up however, but will definitely maintain below our Japanese's competitors. We are definitely hoping for CKD to keep price competitive and avoid AP issues.

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Nov 5 2011, 12:07 AM

Maybe HMC has some good reason, or the initial condition set by HMC is not satisfactory for SD; maybe HMC softened their stance, allowing CKD on some preset conditions which are in the process of setting in place, we don't really know. SD is really tight lipped on the Elantra MD now and latest I heard is it's close to being resolved so we're keeping a high hope it's going to launch very soon.

I'd doubt the Elantra will be underspeced, take the Sonata for example, it's still competitively priced despite all the extras.

Let it pass, it was wrong for me to even argue back in the first place, so I am sorry on that.

I won't say his views are outdated. Just like the Korean camp, there's opposite camps that is in constant conflict of opinions with us and they're not always wrong in their opinions too, take for example, we won't deny that Teana's seats are more comfortable compared to the Sonata, but that's due to the fact that Sonata is designed more on the sportier side(stiffer suspension, sportier interior) compared to the Teana's high emphasis on comfort. At the end, it's still boils down to individual preference for car, which goes back main point - personal opinions. Accord wouldn't even sell a single unit if every D-segment buyer look only for comfort in their cars, every car has it's draw point.

Better not to do the same to them as to what many die hard Japanese fans tries to do on us. Right?

I am glad you liked your Tucson and Forte. How's the Tucson so far? We would like to hear some feedbacks from you, so that we can forward them to Sime Darby.

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Nov 5 2011, 12:06 PM

X20 was RM98,888 IIRC, adjusting for inflation the highest spec it would probably exceed 100k, but not to a point the price comes close to the Civic or Altis, at least that's what I hope.

Japanese's 1.5/1.6 not same class with Elantra actually. Elantra MD 1.6 is actually going up against 1.8 Civic/Altis/Selphy, 1.8 will be with the 2.0s.

I don't know if there'll be a 2.0 Elantra MD, only 1.6 and 1.8 in other countries as well.

CC is not everything now, the important thing is drivability of a car. It's a mentality instilled in many people because Malaysians puts high emphasis on car price and engine cc when buying a car, big thanks to NAP this mentality will be extremely hard to change.

Sad to say, many will just keep comparing the Elantra 1.8 to the 2.0s C-Segments due to cc size, and not compare the entire car as whole.

It's the same crap I have to put up everything when people refuse to believe that 1.25 Kappa produces equal BHP and more torque than a certain 1.3 engine due to the 50cc difference.

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Nov 6 2011, 06:53 PM

No new update, although there's a persistent rumour of a late December/January launch. Another one is that it may be launched together with the Veloster in Q1.

Still need to go to product training to find out all the small details of the car, which following previous pattern will be a month or less before the real launching. I am not confirming anything till I see everything in black and white, so sorry ya

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Nov 17 2011, 11:40 AM

I bring some news to you all.

First the good news, all Elantra will be 2012 model.

Second the bad news, you guys have been given the runaround by SAs all over the country. Unless SD decided to hold training 2-3 months ahead of launching, there won't be any Elantra MD training in 2011.

Third, the conclusions and the not so good news : Elantra is now expected to be launched in Febuary/March 2012.

Tada, I am getting close to being correct at predicting double launch event for Elantra+Veloster, unless HMC or HSDM has a change of heart again just to throw my predictions off.

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Nov 22 2011, 08:28 PM

Got confirmed date for training already

In December, date is classified information for now

Administration level information, not convenient to say further. It's in the first quarter of december, that narrows down guesses to just 7 days

Really? Since Elantra is full CKD and local assembly plant has already started assembly Unless SD thinks first batch CBU is better.

This post has been edited by FluidicSculpture: Nov 26 2011, 08:07 PM