HYUNDAI/KIA: Small cars power gains

South Korea’s auto brands bucked the industry trend in October, eking out a 1.3 percent gain in U.S. sales between them, thanks to the continued strength of their small cars.Hyundai Motor America reported a 4.2 percent rise to 62,505 sales, which included 1,201 units from its new Genesis luxury division.Hyundai was boosted by some surprise gains from its compact Veloster hatchback (up 66 percent to 3,548 units) and its subcompact Accent (up 27 percent to 6,498). Its top-selling model, the compact Elantra, was flat at 15,917 units in October, but is down 18 percent for the year.Excluding Hyundai’s Genesis and Equus models (which were reported as the Genesis G80 and G90, respectively, for October 2016), Hyundai’s 41,294 car sales were a 4.7 percent gain over October 2015.Its light trucks -- the Tucson and Santa Fe crossovers -- were up a total of 5.7 percent.Kia resultsSales at Kia slipped 2.1 percent to 48,977 units, the company said today.Kia’s small cars saw the biggest gains: the subcompact Rio rose 16 percent, and the compact Forte surged 54 percent.But overall, Kia’s car sales were down 10 percent because of significant drops in its larger models. The Optima was down 31 percent to 9,974 sales, the Cadenza was down 72 percent to 289 sales and the K900 was down 65 percent to 81 sales.Kia’s light trucks had mixed success. The Sportage compact crossover was up 28 percent, while the larger Sorento was down 11 percent, and the Sedona minivan was essentially flat.Kia’s top seller this year, the Soul subcompact car, gained 6.5 percent, but it’s down 3.3 percent for the year.

HYUNDAI/KIA: Small cars power gains

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