This may be old news but I have not blogged on it before as it happened way back in February 2005 before I shifted the focus of my blog to automobiles.
A high-level Toyota executive sent a letter to Hyundai chairman or better known as the Hyundai Tiger Chung Mong-koo requesting that Hyundai be allowed full access to Toyota’s Nagoya plant, in exchange for Hyundai allowing Toyota personnel access to Hyundai’s plant in Ulsan.
The letter said it would allow the companies to learn more from each other, especially Hyundai.
Guess what. Chung rejected the proposal. Hyundai’s PR officials said their chairman found no urgent need for such a collaboration, even though Hyundai could learn alot of things from Toyota, a world-class manufacturer.
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You know, things may not be as they seem. A lot of people think Japanese engines are more advanced than Koreans, when it could very well be the opposite.
From a business point of view, it may not be nice to let a rival to view your operations for their own benefit even if they are allowed to do vice-versa. Plus, doens't Toyota sound desparate by sending out a kind of trade-off invite instead of a request letter?
8555: look at the spec sheets, torque curves, mileage achieved. then you tell me how korean engines compare to japanese engines.
True Paul, he must be day dreaming ……
Until recently, Kia has been using Mazda engines with revised heads and Hyundai has been using Mitsubishi engines with minor revisions for most of their cars.
Hyundai and Kia stopped using Japanese engines roughly in the mid to end 1990s.
I've been a Toyota Salesman and I'm currently a Hyundai salesman. There's absolutly no contest that Hyundai's engines are the most robust in the world. I recently sold an unlimited mile warranty 1.1 Getz to a gentleman who is a driving instructor by day and a taxi driver by night. 6months and 248,000 miles later, his car is as fresh as the day it left here. He has had to buy four new tyres though. Show me a Yaris that could take that punishment and I'll eat my South Korean hat!
sorry paul, i think i used the wrong words. Instead of 'opposite' i should have used 'Koreans are catching up'. and perhaps i shouldn't have limited it to the engines. :p
actually,i think toyota is quite afraid of hyundai bcoz hyundai tech is catching up…if u read some magazine,u can see it hyundai car is less problem against toyota car.Do u think japanese will easily let u exchange their information or tech?i dun think so…….
even the hundai gets is using the same 1.3 fuel injection found on wira,jus minor mod ,all same,only the gearbox is diff….
i'm just curious.. we always talk about performance of the engines… but whats your view point or opinion on the customer loyalty to certain brand.. i mean toyota been up there for a long time.. whats your opinion on this?
actually i'm not surprised..
Hyundai(Kia) are no longer small time players .. and the company is growing faster than even the mighty Toyota.
basically any car build by them in the last decade is crap. no so true anymore.
What is currently going thro Toyota now i feel is that they have reached a point where they have reached a saturation of ideas and concepts. What Hyundai and Kia have been doing is to be doing more practical things at a more cost-effective manner. If Naza can import Kia cars (while Kia still makes money) for 11,500 Ringgit, that's some cheap stuff. The only possibility for a company to achieve that is thro having a mass market. we all know that volume makes up for that small profit and that if for one car, they earn 1000 ringgit, for 20000 cars, they earn 20million ringgit.
Also, the reason Toyota might want to do this is because they don't want to lose out in terms of tech. We do know that toyota cars have started becoming boring hasn't it? Oh wait, they have always been..=P I guess toyota just lack that X factor, something you get from a BMW, because of social perceptions built from way back.
One thing for sure, IT IS A MONEY MATTERS!!
Business….exchange……technical ………Pui…..all talks about HOW TO GAIN more MONEY!!
I guess Hyundai (kai) might Calculated they had no advantages at all, therefore decided to REJECT toyota. If WIN WIN occurred I don't think Korean will REJECT it. Lu Ingat saya (Korean) BOROH kah?
Hyundai like any Korean manufacturer is a big time copy-cat. So, by getting Toyota to visit their factory may lead to copyright lawsuits or some other legal problems related to "copying your competitor" nod for nod.
Hyundai also need to protect their competitive advantage and knowing that Toyota will beat them without blinking, inviting them to see the Korean facilities may lead to consequences that would leave Hyundai at a disadvantage.
I think this is the first attempt between two rivals, are there any similar visit exchange initiations amongst the Japanese and Korean companies? I think not.
Globalisation will see to it that there will come a time when only the big boys will be left standing. You can be sure Toyota is going to be one of them. I think Toyota wants to buy over Hyundai and one way of assessing the deal is by finding out what they have.
Not sure about the tactics though. Kinda stupid way.
Dear Martin,
From what u wrote, I gather that you live in the US coz Yaris is not available here in Malaysia. Your claim that Hyundai’s are the most robust engines in the world need to be taken with a pinch of salt. First, 248,000 miles in 6 months is nothing to call home about. Before going into mass production, car manufacturers will usually subject their engines to rough testing and in certain instances exceeds 1,000,000 miles. Could the same car clock another 250,000 miles in the next FIVE years and still work and look as fresh? I doubt it. Carbon deposits and wear and tear will normally accumulate over TIME, not Mileage. I wager my one month salary that 80% of brand new cars will achieve the same feat (i.e. 248K miles in 6 months).
Jared
Dear Martin and Jared,
I've been quite perplexed at the numbers being quoted. The only way you can do 248k miles in 6 months is to drive non-stop everyday at a distance of 92.4 kilometers every hour, 24 hours a day for 6 months.
Even if you were to drive on a highway at 110kmh steady, you still need to stop for food and toilet breaks.
I don't get the figures here.
marmitecrab,
That makes the claim even incredible…. har har har
Jared
Funny way to make such comparison, usually how we rate a good car ?
Engine ability to widstand abuse?
Fuel Consumption?
I should say the major concern still are there, cost versus performance, Toyota, although I dont like it too much as well, have been delivering their cars with good value for their money, not too good, not super fast cars with instant accerelation, not build to last to like tahan lasak, but powerful enough to drive and good enough durability. Ultimately it is how they manage to strike a balance between cost versus performance so well, that the other car maker couldn't match.
Though the car is little boring, (Vios and Advanza everywhere in M'sia now >_
Is the Toyota chairman asked Tengku Mahalel before to see Proton's plant here?
dear rainbow7j,
if vios and advanza is everywhere in m'sia, will that also mean that the cars have its royalty or goodwill among the buyer? which also mean better performance compare to other, am i right? of coz, don't pull POTONG in, that special case. ^_^
Having owned both Japanese cars and Korean ones, I think the Japanese have forgotten more than the Koreans will ever know about powerplants
ya 200+k in 6 months puiew,bluek
u said he was a driving instructor haha
unless that driving school only have one car and everyone share the same car,wakkakka
holy crap or do u mean km
if in km 280 000 km divided by 6
that means 1 month 40000km
and that means 1333.3km/day that means he have to service car after one day he get liao
hahhahahha and one day have to pump at least 3 times oil
thats a very ridicoulous statement
customer loyalty is one toyota after another
or one honda after another
but not one proton after another hehe
i think tht move is either faking move fr toyota or foolish or plain foolish…
its like USA asking China to let them into their military plant and let China visit their pentagon…etc
well, theres an exchg of infomation aint there….LOL
stupid korean. say no to korean cars! uwekkk…!
Koreans will be above japanese cars.
Koreans are very smart and very dedicated in their works ( i.e Koreans clone first dog in the world, everyone said i cant take this anymore.. i quit yet the koreans dedicated, achieved mount everest of cloning)
Korean cars will come on top of Japanese cars in the near future within year 2010-2015 for sure.
For you Korean haters, it will be harder and harder to hate on Korean cars or anything every year muhaha
Hi..seems like jap car owners hate to see korean cars catching up…I've owned 2 korean cars before..both elantra…my current ride also from korea…a Tuscani…value for money and looks are areas which I can't get from jap cars….and who the fiak in the world would want to drives a car that was manufactured by someone who Raped their grandmothers????
guys,
toyota has just set in India but after the floods in my city (bombay) i would not recommend anyone to buy a toyota car coz the cars they make for india are of bad quality and to make it worse they are not able to service these cars back to being worty of driving. My car is still lying with them after 5 months and they havent yet decided whts wrong with it. Very bad choice toyota !!
kumar
(India)