Why VW and GAC's biggest competitor is Hyundai

German auto giant Volkswagen, which once brought down Toyota Motor Corp. from the No. 1 spot, has now targeted South Korea's Hyundai-Kia Group, viewing the South Korean automaker as a stronger competitor than the struggling Japanese firm.

Volkswagen Chief Executive Wendeln recently told the German newsmagazine Focus, "The one I respect the most is Hyundai in Korea." Increasing quality and the trend toward a weakening Korean currency were the initial reasons why Hyundai came to his mind.

Previously, the once-unbeatable Toyota also saw Hyundai-Kia as its top competitor. Former Toyota Motor President Fujio Zhang called the company "a formidable rival" and its European and American counterparts called it "the next Toyota. In the wake of Toyota's "recall", Hyundai is closer to its goal of catching up with Toyota, and in September 2009, the U.S. economic magazine BusinessWeek once again said that Japanese car makers viewed Hyundai, with its rapidly rising quality, as the most threatening of its competitors.

From Making Cheap Cars to Making Cheap and Good CarsOn June 18, 2010, J.D. Power survey results showed that Hyundai Motor pipped Toyota, Volkswagen, and other mainstream automotive brands to the top three.On July 12, 2010, Hyundai Kia Motors Chairman Chung Mong-goo was named by Automotive News, a leading U.S. automotive magazine, as the "2010 Asia's Best CEO in the Automotive Sector", reaffirming the recognition of adherence to quality management.

The Quality Management Headquarters was established for the first time in March 2002 at the Hyundai Building in Seoul, followed by the establishment of a new quality management organization in North America and overseas the following year to manage maintenance and quality, and the establishment of a "Global Quality Status Office" to improve the quality of Hyundai vehicles in more than 20 countries around the world in order to open the doors of the global automobile market. In December 2008, Hyundai Kia proposed the strategy of "Creative Quality Management" and the strategic goal of "GQ-3355," which is "Product Quality Management" within three years. In December 2008, Hyundai Kia put forward the strategy of "Creative Quality Management" and the strategic goal of "GQ-3355", i.e., to be ranked among the top 3 in the global automobile industry in 3 years in terms of product quality and among the top 5 in the global automobile industry in 5 years in terms of brand image. At the beginning of 2010, President Zheng Mengjiu gave "quality" a heavier weight, focusing on the enterprise's own production of "quality management" to enhance the customer-centered "quality marketing". And just after 4 months, May 2010 is elevated to the level of "emotional quality".

Hyundai Kia has implemented a series of detailed measures to ensure the strict implementation of quality management. For example, in order to realize the goal of "zero defects" in products, the birth of the "Quality Pass System", and spare parts suppliers *** win strategy, etc. HS Automotive's automotive analyst Ian Fletcher pointed out that Hyundai and Kia's cars are now able to achieve the same level of quality as those of other companies. Ian Fletcher, an automotive industry analyst at HS Automotive, pointed out that Hyundai and Kia's cars are now comparable to the quality of cars made by Japanese automakers, and said, "They're not just making cheap cars, they're now making cheap and good cars."