South Korea 2006: Hyundai Sonata and Grandeur best-sellers
Hyundai Grandeur
* See the Top 40 best-selling local models by clicking on the title! Thanks to Pedro *
The Hyundai Sonata is the most popular car in South Korea for the 7th time in the last 8 years thanks to sales up 25% year-on-year to 116,482 units. The rest of the Top 10 is completely reshuffled: the Hyundai Grandeur is up an outstanding 46% to land in a best-ever 2nd place with 84,861 sales, followed by the Samsung SM5 up 36% to 71,920 units. The new generation Hyundai Avante HD lands directly in 4th position with 59,145 sales, ahead of the Hyundai Santa Fe up 5% and one spot to #5 and 50,673 units.
Kia Lotze
The Daewoo Matiz continues to resist and is up one rank to #6 this year in spite of sales down 16%. The Kia Lotze is up 240% and 21 spots to #8 and 34,704 sales for its first full year in the country, the Daewoo Tosca (aka Chevrolet Epica) arrives at #10 and 31,624 units, the Kia Carens is up 119% to #13, the Kia Pride up 49% to #14, the Kia Opirus up 102% to #19 and the Daewoo Winstorm (aka Chevrolet Captiva) appears at #22 with 15,322 sales.
Previous year: South Korea 2005: Hyundai NF Sonata most popular by far
Full Year 2006 Top 40 Ranking Table below.
South Korea 2006:
| Pos | Model | 2006 | /05 | 2005 | Pos |
| 1 | Hyundai NF Sonata | 116,482 | 25% | 93,045 | 1 |
| 2 | Hyundai Grandeur TG | 84,861 | 49% | 56,950 | 4 |
| 3 | Samsung SM5 | 71,920 | 36% | 52,890 | 5 |
| 4 | Hyundai Avante HD | 59,145 | new | 0 | - |
| 5 | Hyundai Santa Fe | 50,673 | 5% | 48,432 | 6 |
| 6 | Daewoo Matiz | 39,230 | -16% | 46,649 | 7 |
| 7 | Kia Sportage | 35,867 | -37% | 57,032 | 3 |
| 8 | Kia Lotze | 34,704 | 240% | 10,194 | 29 |
| 9 | Hyundai Tucson | 34,359 | -22% | 43,778 | 8 |
| 10 | Daewoo Tosca | 31,624 | new | 0 | - |
| 11 | Samsung SM3 | 29,795 | 7% | 27,816 | 10 |
| 12 | Hyundai Avante XD | 29,067 | -63% | 79,278 | 2 |
| 13 | Kia Carens | 25,348 | 119% | 11,586 | 27 |
| 14 | Kia Pride | 23,045 | 49% | 15,429 | 18 |
| 15 | Kia Sorento | 21,589 | -27% | 29,521 | 9 |
| 16 | Kia Cerato | 21,469 | -8% | 23,217 | 13 |
| 17 | Kia Morning | 20,346 | 24% | 16,404 | 17 |
| 18 | Kia Carnival | 19,731 | 37% | 14,433 | 20 |
| 19 | Kia Opirus | 18,835 | 102% | 9,325 | 31 |
| 20 | Samsung SM7 | 17,373 | -32% | 25,675 | 11 |
| 21 | Daewoo Lacetti | 15,913 | -22% | 20,275 | 15 |
| 22 | Daewoo Winstorm | 15,322 | new | 0 | - |
| 23 | Hyundai Equus | 14,109 | 2% | 13,836 | 21 |
| 24 | Hyundai Verna | 12,868 | 33% | 9,663 | 30 |
| 25 | SsangYong Chairman H | 11,611 | -24% | 15,283 | 19 |
| 26 | SsangYong Musso SUT | 10,919 | -18% | 13,278 | 23 |
| 27 | SsangYong Actyon | 10,886 | 58% | 6,907 | 34 |
| 28 | SsangYong Kyron | 9,926 | -15% | 11,701 | 26 |
| 29 | SsangYong Rexton | 9,796 | -28% | 13,697 | 22 |
| 30 | Hyundai Trajet XG | 8,010 | -32% | 11,753 | 25 |
| 31 | Hyundai Click | 7,330 | -33% | 10,952 | 28 |
| 32 | Daewoo Rezzo | 4,375 | -31% | 6,336 | 36 |
| 33 | Hyundai Veracruz | 3,825 | new | 0 | - |
| 34 | Daewoo Gentra | 3,557 | 45% | 2,449 | 39 |
| 35 | Hyundai Terracan | 3,442 | -42% | 5,980 | 37 |
| 36 | SsangYong Rodius | 2,930 | -62% | 7,752 | 33 |
| 37 | Hyundai Tuscani | 1,875 | 1% | 1,855 | 40 |
| 38 | Hyundai EF Sonata | 1,055 | -95% | 21,483 | 14 |
| 39 | Daewoo Kalos | 966 | -76% | 3,960 | 38 |
| 40 | Daewoo Statesman | 830 | -13% | 957 | 43 |
| 41 | Hyundai Lavita | 387 | -40% | 649 | 44 |
| 42 | Daewoo Magnus | 271 | -98% | 13,032 | 24 |
| 43 | Kia X-Trek | 15 | -99% | 1,765 | 41 |
Source: KAMA, many thanks to Pedro for sharing the data!
