http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/i...kia-sales-rise/

Oh Oh, Sonata July sales down 22.6% in July. What does that say???? :w00t:
First thing my wife said was" Geez you suppose others have found the road noise and suspension noises are unchanged still, in the 09's???
We test drove an 09 Limited and were not impressed in the lack of improved ride qualities,:puzzled: although I loved the new interior! :wub:

maybe cause the 09's are UGLY!! BAHHH!!! I want to kick one everytime I see them! Maybe if they woulda took the effort and turned the 08's models into something more modern instead of adding just a new UGLY front end and doing just about nothing else to the exterior beside the ugly rims!! Gosh I dont even want to think of it anymore :D haha

sorry..i needed to vent :imsorry:

Could have fooled me. For the past 2 months Elantra's were flying off of the lot at work. Now for the past 2 or 3 weeks Sonata's are selling like crazy. This could be due to the fact that we just got about 45 Sonata's in and have about 65 which is what we usually keep in stock.

Hmmmm.... Optima sells better than Sonata?
Is it good advertising or we are all here being stupid? :P

Do you think car sales are genarally down right now?

YES AND NO, Small car sales are up, SUV, pickup and larger car sales down! That seems to be the general reporting I hear on TV.
:grin: Despite all the doom and gloom and what I first posted, I want an 09 Limited this month. :grin: Hope my 06 LX is trade worthy.

All domestic sales are down as well as Toyota, Honda and other imports. Just the time f year and buyers are spending their money a lot more carefully.

I looked at it a different way. It was an buying opportunity. I got a great deal on my 09, top $ for my trade and two dealers fighting over my business. One person's problem is another's opportunity.

Yea I noticed the suspention thing, at least I know it isn't just my car doing it. Funny thing is we just got my wife a new Altima & that thing is a smoooth & quiet as can be! Also the 09 rims I hated at first, but got used to them & actually like them now, I think it gives it the foreign look!!!

All we know is July 2008 sales are 22.6% less than July 2007 sales. To make any meaningful deduction about current sales from this data, we need to know more about July 2007 sales. Were July 07 sales off the chart? If July 07 was a record-breaking month, it doesn’t necessarily mean July 08 sales are dismal. July 08 sales may be acceptable and not indicative of any problems, especially in a slowing economy. They may only look bad compared to last year because last year was so good. I would not jump to any conclusions based on this information alone.

In one wants to play comparative-statistic games, the fact that Kia increased sales by 5% means nothing. If 2007 was a terrible year for Kia, so what if they sold 5% more this year. For all we know they may still have a terrible year. A five percent increase of a small sales-total is still a small sales-total.

Car sales are down almost completely across the board. Small car sales fare a little better as do foreign cars over domestics. I'm not surprised Hyundai has taken a steep hit in sales though. Most of their cars are reasonably priced and the people hardest hit by the credit crunch from the housing mess, high gas prices and job losses are probably Hyundai's target buyers. The new 09 Sonata is more expensive than the previous years and although it is a nicer car, I'm sure that is a contributing factor. People are putting off expensive purchases like a new car in these uncertain economic times. I expect this trend to continue for quite sometime into the future.

Yes, in a sense that there are lots of SUVs and pickups that are still on the lot waiting for new owners. I'm not interested in buying trucks but I've been looking around what the prices are. I looked at 2008 tundra and 4runner. A $33,000 brand new tundra V8 4x4 was selling for 22,000. A $41,000 4runner limited 4x4 was selling for $33,000. I personally used to own 2004 tundra and it had some seriously annoying problems so I would not even consider buying it although current tundras are priced low.

On the other hand, I see that there are still people looking to buy used SUVs since they are priced low due to the gas price.

If you try to save gas money by trading in your SUV to buy a more fuel efficient sedan, you are going to have to wait about 3 to 5 years to break even.

...unless you drive 1,000 miles a week (like me).

BTW, last top-off (after about 210 miles) got 39+ mpg (actual).
Here are the last few top-offs:

Odom. / Gal. / MPG
60882 4.4 39.55
61090 6 34.67
61302 5.4 39.26
61665 9.9 36.67
62124 13.7 33.50
62485 9.7 37.22
62892 11.1 36.67
63290 11.5 34.61
63655 10 36.50
63844 4.8 39.38


Regards,
GEWB

What do you do to drive 1000 mi a week!
I thought I had a lot of miles on my car. 71,000 mi and I got the car Jan '06

So in 2 years and 6 months (Got it at end of the month) which is around 130 weeks; I've driven 71,000 miles
71,000 divided by 130 = ~ 546 [miles driven per week]
~546 divided by 7 = ~78 [miles driven per day]

Wow, now that I think of it that way I really need to cut down on the driving.

No wonder I'm filling up 2-3 times a week. And at 20 mpg on a 17 g tank

I get 340 miles per tank. 546 divided by 340 = 0.6

60% of one week is 4.20 (no pun intended) days.

With gas at $4.20/g (no pun intended) if I were to fill up 17 gallons each time

for a total of $71.40 every 4.20 days. Factoring in the remaning 2.8 days of the

week I would spend a grand total of $124.95 ON GAS PER WEEK!

Considering I work a summer job of 45 hours a week at 10 dollars an hour.

I SPEND A WHOPPING 28% OF MY INCOME ON GAS!

PREPOSTEROUS!

This post has been edited by dcjwlee: Aug 4 2008, 09:07 PM

Somebody please tell me how to test for the suspension problem? I've asked before if this problem affected the 09 Sonatas and nobody commented, but looks like it does. I've already gone on 09 Limited i4 and v6 test drives, but of course didn't know what to look for, or knew the problem existed on this year's model.

It's my commute to work. Was supposed to be an 18 month gig (that's why I bought the '03 Elantra) - that gig is now 5 1/2 years along with perhaps another year to go. I'm at 4,000 miles per month (64K in 16 months driving Nelly).

When I started this contract gas was $1.50 per gallon and the 3 1/4 hour per day commute (average based on weather) was tolerable. Now gas is around $3.75 to $4.00 per gallon - my monthly gas bill is equivalent to a nice car payment - and the hours in the car are adding up. Really glad I bought the Sonata 'cause the seats and ride are very comfortable, not to mention the safety factor! :trophy:

Right now the Sonata lifetime average is just over 32.9 mpg. In 63,844 miles I have spent $5,804.60 on 1950.3 gallons of fuel.

Regards,
GEWB

At work we have Kia as well and Optima sales definitely picked up last month. We are selling them dirt cheap. Actually Kia sales have picked up for us, especially the rondo, sportage and optima. We still have 07 Amanti's and loaded up Sedona's we can't get rid of.

You're just braggin" I saw you fill that thing up the other day....it really was me...ha just kidding. It wa