Test Drive of Hyundai Genesis

SeattleAuto.net was fortunate enough to get our hands on the new, award winning 2009 Hyundai Genesis. We took this sleek sedan through the streets and highways of Seattle and were quite impressed. Check out our video below to see our thoughts:

Cars that Are Selling…or Are They?

Seattle drivers, for the most part, are smart. They follow the beat of their own drum and rarely do we follow any type of national trend. But seeing between the lines of national statistics can tell you a lot.Take into consideration the Top 15 Cars Americans Are Still Buying by Forbes.com.

Numbers can be deceiving. They can be manipulated to serve a purpose by just about anyone. In terms of the Forbes story they used recent sales numbers provided by Autodata based on sales each month. They compared the number of sales from February 2008 and February 2009. But take it with a grain of salt. While individual models made gains, it wasn’t enough to save the overall losses by the company.

According to the Forbes.com story written by Hannah Elliot:

Despite the gains, individual models don’t reflect the industry at large; most of the cars with the strongest gains come from brands that lost ground last month. Audi’s A5 and S5 coupes, for instance, gained 28.6% in sales from February 2008, but the brand declined 24.4% in overall sales. Models like the Audi A3 (down 51.6% in February), Audi A6 (down 47.5% in February) and Audi A8 (down 67.5% in February) did more than their part to drag Audi down.

Similarly, the Nissan 350Z’s 33% gain couldn’t fully mitigate the brand’s 37.1% loss compared to February 2008. All told, only Kia (0.4%), Smart (28.5%) and >Subaru (1.4%) posted overall gains last month over February 2008.

Manipulation of individual numbers is a good way to avoid the doom and gloom of the overall auto industry. Take the BMW M3 convertible, according to last years sales there was only one sold in February 2008! All they had to do was sell two and it would’ve doubled their sales for 2009.

Therefore, the best thing to do is eliminate the sales that are less than 1,000 and take a look at the rest. When you do that, what’s left is a better overall picture of cars that sold better to the masses.

If you go by that method, Hyundai is making a lot of waves this year with the Genesis, Elantra, and Accent. This isn’t the first “top” list they’ve made this year. Check out these individual sales for Hyundai models in the United States from last year to this year.

Hyundai Accent
MSRP: $9,970

February 2009 sales: 4,334
February 2008 sales: 3,335
Increase: 30.0%

Hyundai Elantra
MSRP: $14,120

February 2009 sales: 8,978
February 2008 sales: 6,750
Increase: 33.0%

See the entire article and list at Forbes.com.

The Best 2009 Cars for the Money

Everyone is looking for value. Gone are the days when you spend too much on features and buy something loaded with items you don’t need. The Seattle area driver for the most part is smart. In today’s Seattle car market, most people looking to purchase a vehicle are educated, and aren’t willing to spend frivolously. Read more

Beware Buyer: The Used Car Listings

This is the third part of SeattleAuto.net’s series on Buying a Used Car for Under $1,000.

You’ve got your car requirements down: that was the easy part. Now comes one of the hardest aspects of buying a used car, finding the car you want.
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