Tuesday, 18 September 2012 06:47
HARI's sales up by 19% in August; Passenger car figures jump 59%
Twenty years ago, who would have thought that a Korean automaker could outsell an American giant three-to-one in the Philippines? That's right. Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (HARI) recorded 1,454 units sold in August 2012, which is almost three times more than what the blue oval brand achieved in the same month.
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Industry Update
Monday, 18 June 2012 07:09
Hyundai strikes gold; May sales up by 29%
Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. (HARI) has done it again. In just the five months of the year, the exclusive distributor of the Korean automaker in the Philippines managed to sell 10,395 units, which is a whopping 29% jump over the 8,062 they achieved in the same period last year. Looks like they're really giving Mitsubishi a run for their money.
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Industry Update
Tuesday, 03 April 2012 08:26
In the Fast Lane | 2011 Hyundai Elantra 1.8 GLS AT
Words by Charlie Cruz | Photos by Christopher Kho
The moniker “Elantra” should be familiar to most of us these days. You probably first heard of it in the mid 90’s, saw the car, then forgot about it. After a few years on sale, it slowly faded away. It has now risen from the shadows after a long hiatus, reborn as the all-new 2011 Hyundai Elantra - a new breed of car that surpasses all my expectations and offers more… loads more.
Having the car on a busy weekend, judging a car show in Manila on a Friday, organizing a drag race at the Clark International Speedway on Saturday, and attending a private corporate event in Batangas the very next day, I was sure that my itinerary would test the Elantra’s city and highway dynamics, as well as its practicality. Plus, it was a good chance for me to find out basically what it would be like to own one.
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Compact
Friday, 30 March 2012 01:33
Hyundai Elantra hailed as the 2011 - 2012 Car of the Year Philippines
The long wait is finally over. After spending a total of eight test days under the sun, several weeks tallying score sheets, and countless sleepless nights in anticipation, it all boiled down to one special awards night as the Car Awards Group Inc. (CAGI) hailed a new a successor to the Car of the Year title last March 29, 2012 at the 8th Manila International Auto Show (MIAS). Selecting through a total of 36 nominees and 11 finalists, the Hyundai Elantra is now the 2011 - 2012 Car of the Year Philippines (COTY-P).
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Car of the Year
Thursday, 01 March 2012 08:20
Team Hyundai on an all-out Elantra assault at the 2012 STV ARCC
Words by Christopher Kho
Now on its third consecutive year, Sunshine STV is once again all geared-up to go for the 2012 edition of the Auto Rally Corporate Challenge (ARCC) this Saturday, March 3. This year's competition has left the beautiful roads of Subic and moved to a fresh new venue in Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga. But as always, “on time, all the time” still remains to be the name of the game.
Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (HARI) takes the 2012 ARCC head-on with a fleet of four all-new Hyundai Elantra's. Heading the pack are Roadwise Motoring's Art Guevarra and Mike Reyes with Gef Buraga from the Elantra Club Philippines. The boys from Top Gear Philippines consisting of Dinzo Tabamo, Raynard Olarte, and Aeus Reyes occupy car number 2, while the jocks of Jam 88.3's Gearbox, Eric Tipan and Andre Palma, will be joined by HARI's own Adrian Santos from Brand Management in car no. 3. Of course, rounding up the pack is the all-star team of Ferman Lao representing Top Gear Philippines, 99.5RT, and Kotse.com; Wave 89.1 Racing Beat's Charlie Cruz; and yours truly.
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Motorsports
Monday, 13 February 2012 08:08
Off to a good start: HARI's January 2012 sales up by 40%
Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (HARI), the official distributor of the Korean marque in the Philippines, kicked off the New Year by posting an impressive 40% growth with a total of 2,153 units sold this January. And if that gives any indication of their performance for the rest of 2012, then they might just be on the path to snatching 2nd place from Mitsubishi in the Philippines' car manufacturer's race. The biggest movers in Hyundai's line-up last month was the Passenger Car (PC) models, comprised of the i10, Accent, and Elantra, with 1,286 units sold - a remarkable 84% jump over the same month last year. Total Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) also went up by a modest 3% or 867 units sold compared to January 2011's performance, still with the Tucson leading the field.
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Industry Update
Friday, 20 January 2012 08:30
Hyundai Elantra and Range Rover Evoque named 2012 North American Car and Truck of the Year
On its 19th year running, a jury of 50 independent automotive journalists from the U.S.A. and Canada diligently selected through more than 50 new vehicles to find the best of them all. Almost anything and everything on four wheels that are either completely new or substantially changed were evaluated based on factors such as innovation, comfort, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction, and value for money. And after a lengthy deliberation, the Hyundai Elantra and Range Rover Evoque were hailed as the 2012 North American Car and Truck of the Year.
In the car category, the Elantra received a total of 174 points, edging out on runners-up - the VW Passat with 161 and the Ford Focus with 155. No strangers to the accolade, Hyundai has won the same award in 2009 with the Genesis, while the Sonata was one of the three finalists last year.
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Industry Update
Tuesday, 13 December 2011 10:56
Accent and Elantra punches Hyundai's November figures by 40%
Shaped by Hyundai's radical “fluidic sculpture” design philosophy, the new Accent and Elantra were born to slug it out in the competitive sedan stage. But when Hyundai Asia Resources Inc.'s (HARI) November 2011 passenger car sales catapulted by 81%, it completely blew its rivals out of the water.
By fixing their supply issues, HARI was finally able to show what they're made of. On a year-on-year range, HARI's sales increased by 40% in November to 2,217 from 1,578 units - a 22% improvement over the previous month on the account of a 14% and 38% growth in the passenger car (PC) and light commercial vehicle (LCV) categories. HARI also beat the odds in the year's first 11 months by registering a 1% growth from 2010, besting the automotive industry's negative sales outlook in the wake of a slower GDP growth and natural calamities that hit Japan and Thailand.
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Industry Update
Monday, 14 November 2011 09:24
Wake Up Call | 2011 Hyundai Elantra 1.6 MT
Words by Ferman Lao | Photos by Christopher Kho
When the all-new Elantra came about in early 2011, it looked to me like the engineers at Hyundai had just rehashed one of their previous designs. By pulling and stretching the Accent's basic shape to the necessary dimensions, they've managed to come up with a new compact car. But in my mind, the Accent was already the mini-Sonata, and therefore had no room left for another car to sit between the two. Add to this Hyundai's habit of recycling design concepts, which made me take the Elantra not so seriously.
Warming Up
Fast forward a couple of months ahead and I found myself in South Korea, sitting behind the wheel of an automatic 1.6 Elantra for a media test drive experience. This was my chance to get acquainted with Hyundai's latest compact, away from the hustle and bustle of Metro Manila's streets. For first impressions, I was quite impressed at how its 6-speed auto behaved very much like a manual transmission would, and how good it was for an affordably-sedan. That experience left me thinking, "If the auto's this good, I wonder what the manual's like?"
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Compact
Thursday, 29 September 2011 08:00
COTY 2011 - 2012 Test Fest Day 3: Third Day’s the Charm (w/ video)
Words by Jade Lu | Photos by Christopher Kho
The third day of qualitative testing for the 2011 – 2012 Car of the Year - Philippines (COTY-P) was definitely jam-packed. Last Sunday, September 25, 2011, nine cars were on our chopping board at the All-Terra Cyclery in Ortigas Home Depot. It was a welcome spike in numbers, as far as we were concerned. Moreover, the lineup was pretty sweet: we got three Hyundai Elantra’s (1.6 M/T, 1.6 A/T, and 1.8 A/T), one Hyundai Accent, three Chevrolet Spark’s (1.0 M/T, 1.0 A/T, and 1.2 M/T), and two Mini Countryman’s (Cooper and Cooper S).
The weather was on our side, warm as a summer’s day, and with surprisingly little traffic along Julia Vargas Road throughout most of our runs. We were able to test most of our victims to their road-legal limits, resulting to some mixed emotions concerning certain models. To those that have been following COTY-P so far, it seems to be a common phenomenon among the Car Awards Group, Inc. (CAGI) members to have some startling new revelations, totally opposite from their initial impressions.
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Car of the Year
