South Korea: 1997-2011 Historical Data now available!
The Hyundai Sonata was #1 in South Korea for 10 years between 1999 and 2010
* See the direct links to these 17 Historical posts by clicking on the title! Thanks to Pedro *
Thanks to Pedro, South Korea now has proper coverage on BestSellingCarsBlog with 15 years’ worth of Historical Data! Instead of odd rankings here and there prior to 2009, there is now an All-local models ranking for absolutely every year since 1998! While in 1997 the Hyundai Accent was #1, the South-East Asian economic crisis cut the South Korean new car market in half in 1998 and crowned the Daewoo Matiz for the first time.
2009 Hyundai Sonata
The Hyundai Sonata would then top the models ranking 10 times over the following 12 years, spanning 3 generations from 1999 to 2010, and was only interrupted twice: in 2004 when the Hyundai Santa Fe took the lead and in 2009 when the Hyundai Avante (aka Elantra) was in pole position. However, both years corresponded to generation changes for the Sonata, with different generations counted separately. The Sonata nameplate would have led for 12 consecutive years.
The Daewoo Rezzo (aka Tacuma) was #3 in South Korea in 2000.
The Daewoo Nubira was #3 in South Korea in 1999.
Discover or rediscover forgotten nameplates like the Hyundai Atos #2 in 1998, the Daewoo Nubira #3 in 1999, the Daewoo Rezzo #3 in 2000 for its first year of sales in the country, the SsangYong Musso #7 in 2003 and the Kia Lotze #7 in 2006. Notice also the Kia Carens #2 in 2000, the Kia Carnival #3 in 2001, the Kia Sportage #3 in 2005 and the Hyundai Grandeur #2 in 2006.
The Samsung SM5 sold a record 100,777 units in South Korea in 2002.
Apart from the Hyundai Sonata and Avante, only 3 additional nameplates managed to crack the 100,000 annual sales barrier over the last 15 years: the Samsung SM5 peaking at #2 and 100,777 units in 2002 and the Kia Morning (aka Picanto) reaching 102,082 sales in 2009, then breaking its record again to 117,029 units in 2011, and the Hyundai Grandeur at 107,652 sales in 2011 also.
Hyundai Avante
The last two years have been the property of the Hyundai Avante in South Korea and 2012 will mark the first time in over 15 years that a model other than the Hyundai Sonata manages to stay atop the South Korean ranking for two consecutive years…
Most recent South Korean post: South Korea October 2012: Kia K3 up to 6th place
The direct links to 17 South Korean Historical posts are below.
South Korea Historical Data:
South Korea 1997: Hyundai Accent in the lead
South Korea 1998: Daewoo Matiz takes pole position
South Korea 1999: Hyundai Sonata new best-seller
South Korea 2000: Hyundai Sonata, Kia Carens & Daewoo Rezzo on top
South Korea 2001: Hyundai Sonata and Avante dominate
South Korea 2002: Samsung SM5 up to #2 with 100,777 sales
South Korea 6 months 2003: Hyundai Avante new leader
South Korea 2003: Hyundai Sonata keeps Avante at bay
South Korea 6 months 2004: Hyundai Sonata on top
South Korea 2004: Hyundai Santa Fe takes control
South Korea 2005: Hyundai NF Sonata most popular by far
South Korea 2006: Hyundai Sonata and Grandeur best-sellers
South Korea 2007: Hyundai Sonata and Avante fight it off
South Korea 2008: Hyundai Sonata clear leader, Kia Morning up to #3
South Korea 2009: Hyundai Avante #1, new Sonata sells 60,000 in 4 months
South Korea 2010: Hyundai Sonata and Avante shine
South Korea 2011: Hyundai Avante and Kia Morning dominate
Source: KAMA, many thanks to Pedro for sharing all the data!
