Hi there,

Been reading your posts on paultan with regards to the Forte. How did that dare game end btw?

As usual you make this point "The car itself it good but its the loacl dealers which are killing it". Actually, you sound like a firebrand who hates the "local dealers" and I agree with you after my experience with Naza chasing for my car for 4 months plus. I'm talking from the SA level all the way to their branch manager , careline operators and their so called careline managers. Its a shame really...

Also I share your view on the pricing, it could be a tad cheaper if the local dealers wanna do this right, just probable that if sales are not as expected, massive discounts will be given again... sighhhhh

Anyways..its just my opinion, please don't dare me to reveal my identity ya or kritik me kau kau.

Well i dont bash the cars itself that much. I bash the distributers and the service centres. They are the main culprits behind the poor sales of the Korean makes.

HEHE! No dont worry my friend. Im just someone who speaks his mind thats all. I think the new Korean makes in the past year or so are quite good cars with better specs but the local dealerships are really killing the brand here. I want some serious competition for Toyota and Honda as their prices are going up but the specs are remaining moderate. But the way the Koreans are going with their distribution network and pricing, i dont see any real competition for Toyota & Honda in the near future.

(p/s: Paultan killed the thread before the dare could end. But i guess Paul knew that i would have nailed that bugger well n good. He hasnt even showed up on the other ongoing threads in Paultan at the moment. I mean if he were genuinely able to prove me wrong, im sure he could have easily continued the dare on another thread. But his nick hasnt appeared since and i think he's still there but with a different nick thats all. All fun and games!)

U think all cars are built perfect? Even a Porsche has defects. When u rate quality u have to rate the NUMBER OF DEFECTS PER 100 UNITS. Thats how u rate the build quality. Not by just saying 1 Vios had to change the shock absorbers after 6 months (which i know to be untrue since u didnt provide any further details). Toyota has been rated as having the least problems per 100 vehicles in the world by JD Power & Associates. I shared this on a forum in Paultan as well. Honda is not known to have quality standards as high as Toyota for your info but still remains in the Top 10 for vehicle quality. When i complained about the Kia, i did so after MANY bad experiences. There are also makes from Hyundai in my family for your info and all of them have problems although Kia seems to have more issues.

I know alot more about cars then u think i do. I wouldnt be commenting on cars if i didnt have knowledge in the first place. I say my absorbers are good because of these factors:

1) Over bumps/deep dips in the road the car only bounces once (minimal bounce not excessive)
2) In emergency braking the car doesnt rock back & forth after coming to a full stop
3) During hard braking, the car doesnt sway from left to right. It remains straight and has an alligned stop.
4) The car does not nose dive under emergency braking
5) The car is stable at high speeds (120-130kmph) on the highway even on sharp bends

All this happens even with a full load of 3 adults sitting at the back. For your info, this is 1 of the parts i always get the Toyota SC to pay attention to during my regular maintenence in addition to the brake pads and disk brakes.

So now care to tell me if my shock absorbers are in good condition or otherwise?

Megat, i know ure a Hyundai salesman and i dont mean to spoil your rice bowl but the Sonata can win 1000 world awards and have the best specs but if the LOCAL AFTER SALES SERVICE is crap, it still WILL NOT SELL IN MALAYSIA. Malaysians pay thru their noses for cars (thanks to the Gov's protection of Proton) so for them the after sales service standards, maintenance costs & quality and resale value are more important than specs and physical beauty.

Look what happened to the Kia Forte. It had more publicity than the Sonata and it was more competitively priced with great specs. But yet after more than a year since its launch it still only sells about 500+ units per month. For the whole of 2010 only 2241 units were sold in comparison with 13,285 units of the Vios for the same period. Even the Camry sold 5277 units for that period.

The Korean makes are being whacked well and good by the Japs and this will continue. The reason is because of the after sales service. When u have low sales figures your resale value will suffer tremendously since u dont have the economies of scale.

The same fate awaits the Sonata. If Hyundai wanted the Sonate to compete with the Camry and Accord it should have priced it at least 20K cheaper and not 11K as it is now. Plus, its general market knowledge that the new Camry will be launched next year with the new Kia Optima to be launched as well.

Actually Sime Darby Hyundai did strip off quite a number of stuffs from the new Sonata, although they can choose to introduce them all in the 2.4 high spec version. My guess is Sime Darby saving these features for the facelift or just simply reap more profit now.

Regarding the Vios, brand power aside, the major selling point is also because of the cheaper J spec. Also the recent facelift does play a part, despite nothing exciting announced. Therefore even the Honda City does not come close, not to mention Kia Forte which is in a different class although pricing is almost on the same level for Vios E & G spec.

By class, the Forte is actually faring quite well against the Altis especially & not that too far from Civic.

This post has been edited by deeplyheartbroken: Jun 29 2010, 11:28 AM

Hmm if u asked me, aftersales and presales do play a part on getting good car sales in mysia.

A good car SA is essential to get good car sales for the companies and to put the food on the table for the SAs, despite any car brands. I visited the subang Toyota SA and boy they are snobbish, and i not happy with the SA from Mazda showroom at Taman Megah. Keep on bashing nonsense which makes me feel this guy dont deserve my money.

However, despite whatever brand, a good SA who is patience to answer ur queries, gives u test drive, never bash competitors and follows u up is hard to find and really makes u feel they deserve your purchase. For instance, my Toyota SA in Taman Mahuri is one exception and i gave him 5 stars for his servicing to me during my car purchase.

Recently the new sonata is out so my family went to the nearest Hyundai showroom in Puchong to have a look. Disappointingly, there is no new sonata and there only 1-2 SAs around. To make matters worse, the SA was disinterested to service my dad and asked him to come back next week. If he is a good SA, he should have taken his contact and call him when the new sonata arrives, or at least ask him to visit the Glenmarie showroom.

Therefore regardless of what brand, a SA makes a huge difference on car purchasing. You would;t want a SA who gave u a pain in ur butt despite the car his offering is world award winners.

correction, toyota is not the top,not even in top 10, and honda(not known to have quality standards as high as Toyota) and hyundai(There are also makes from Hyundai in my family for your info and all of them have problems) are in top 10. maybe you might want to update abit 1st before you post the facts, as i know that you always challenge ppl about fact and figure.

JD power ranking

please do not doubt the result, as the result is brought to you by JD power you mention.

I think what he meant is the JD result from malaysia. I remembered reading that in local car mags and toyota and honda did score very well in JD research in Mysia. However the scores are based on volumes hence for low volumes like Hyundai, hence the data in Mysia will not able to represent all the smaller volumes brands here. Here the link for proof:

http://www.motortrader.com.my/NUS/articles...2163/page_m.asp

I do recalled KIA in mysia scored below average here. Naza needs to pick up badly.

Ur link here is based on US's data, and i do agree toyota took a dip there due to the recent massive recalls. So ur data isnt do much justification here in Mysia.

This post has been edited by travis_ckf: Jun 29 2010, 12:43 PM

he mention toyota has been rated as having the least problems per 100 vehicles in the world by JD Power & Associates, so i dun think he means in malaysia.

my bad to bring in the US data, i didnt notice it.

but for malaysia data, i must admit that Naza indeed need to buck up.

actually i kinda agree with cybermaster98 on this matter,although his words are kinda harsh

korean makes can never compete here (maybe but jz slightly) in msia if the services by the distributors here (naza and SD in this case) are not up to par.i used to get my old accent from kah bintang (now closed or bankrupt i believe),the service is ok for me,but tht car was one hell fuel drinker now

on the other hand,i have been hearing quite a lot complaints actually bout toyota's and honda's service here.so i feel this is a vry good chance for naza and SD to prove themself

Bro,

Pls don't give false info down here pls.
Forte launched in end of Nov 2009 OK.

Well... I guess the production capacity does limit the Forte's sales... Imagine having only 1 factory trying to churn on cars for two great value cars... (forte and 308)... moreover i don't think it is a big factory at that too...

Guys,

I think it is a little out of track cos we should focus more on the car itself rather than their after sales by SC,distributor etc..
This is sonata 2011 thread. Perhaps a more appropriate thread named Naza,Sime darby,UMW etc ?
So, talk about the car, Korean cars have improved tremendously over so many years ever since Automotive industry started in Korea.

http://www.cars.com/go/crp/buyingGuides/St...tories&year=New

Above link is a comparison btw Kia Forte, Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla/Altis...

No doubt Kia Forte beats the other 2 in many aspects...
if wanna talk about sales figure, why not open our eyes wider & see the global sales.
Kia Forte global sales, Sonata 2011 global sales?

Vios/City global sales? ...No, cos they only meant for 3rd world country like us...The jap just wanna suck our hard earn money.

They not even stand a chance to compete side by side with forte....

Cheers

Ok my mistake. Nov 2009. But the sales figures are accurate. Or do u want me to prove it to u as well?

Yes the Forte sales arent far from the Civic and Altis but u must remember that ure comparing a latest model with a much older one. So despite the Civic being launched in 2006, it still sells more units than the Forte. When the new Civic comes out in 2011 or 2012, the margin will be much wider.

bro, u said it urself in the bolded one.. so why always take ur wife korean for example? what about getting 100 person that have same defect and voice it out together? u think ur wife car is representative for all korean car?
if what u claim about ur vios is true, then congratulations, ur toyota is really the best, although it is still the lowest line in toyota car list
and dont get me wrong, i never said i drive vios.. im driving toyota avanza as well and the shocks really did spoilt within 6months and i successfully claimed it although with some arguement that absorbers are wear and tear parts but hey, at least it can sit 7 person with "reasonable" price back then before its competitor unleash their own range of small mpv

now u support ur vios coz it got no defect, but what if u got a defective vios? i think u gona curse up and down by then
just like my case, yeah, honda, nissan, toyota, perodua, proton i owned before but owning all this car tells me that no car is perfect and no manufacture is superior than the other..
all my cars has fair share of their problem and im not ashamed of sharing that (unlike some ppl) coz it is the fact..

old korean car are indeed problematic, i never deny that but seeing how they progress over this few years compared to other japs car, it gets me thinking.. if korean can create such car and price way lower than japanese, what are we actually paying for in japs? reliability? performance? egoism?
just because u dont dig it u dont have to be hostile over the koreans.. i did encounter problems (yes, all of the cars i mentioned) and yet i never shoot them like what u did.. just chill la bro, not all car is perfect like ur highly vios

u still cant understand eh? Did u remember me saying this:

When i complained about the Kia, i did so after MANY bad experiences. There are also makes from Hyundai in my family for your info and all of them have problems although Kia seems to have more issues.

Im not refering to just 1 issue unlike what you said. Even in the 2009 JD Power World Vehicle Dependability Survey, the Koreans manufacturers are not even in the top 10. Hyundai ranks No 11 while Kia ranks 20. Why do u think this is so?

so u recommend me to be like u, bashing all the japs coz my honda accord 2009 got faulty engine mounting, loud engine whinning noise, defective wheel bearing, clinking noise in cabin? dont get me start with the city, toyota and nissan

i dont care what the JD power bla bla bla said.. i buy what i deem worth and it is entirely up to my decision and ppl like u nor the jdpower bla bla bla wont change my mind easily

Nope..Thanks!