Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America Inc. and sister company Kia Motor America Inc. of Irvine reversed months of declines by growing auto sales in January, the companies said Tuesday.
Hyundai, part of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co., saw the biggest gain, a 14% rise in auto sales from a year earlier. Kia, also part of Seoul-based Hyundai, was up 3%.
Hyundai Motor America, the largest automaker with operations here, sold 24,512 U.S. vehicles last month.
It was a big shift from December, when Hyundai saw U.S. sales drop 48% amid an ongoing industrywide slump.
For the first part of 2008, Hyundai did better than other automakers as high gas prices prompted auto buyers to look at more efficient vehicles.
But for the past months, Hyundai’s sale declines fell in line with or exceeded those of the overall industry.
The company rolled out an incentive plan in late December that allows auto buyers to break contracts and return vehicles if they lost their jobs or income, which may have helped January sales.
“We got off to a quick start in January thanks to the rollout of our new Hyundai Assurance program, which has struck a chord with the American consumer,” said Dave Zuchowski, vice president of national sales at Hyundai.
Hyundai also been more aggressive than other automakers in marketing its vehicles, even though its advertising spending is down from a year earlier.
Kia Motor America sold 22,096 vehicles in January.
Last month was the automaker’s second best January in its history with sales led by its Sorento and Sportage, both posting increases from the same period last year.
Overall U.S. auto sales in January stayed at quarter-century lows for the fourth straight month.
Irvine-based Mazda North American Operations saw sales decline 27% to 15,420 vehicles sold in January.
Mazda, part of Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp., saw sales fall 11% to 263,949 vehicles sold in 2008.
“The new year is already starting to look a lot like the last half of 2008,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief executive at Mazda’s Irvine office.
Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motors North America was also down 34% from a year earlier with 4,730 vehicles sold last month.
Mitsubishi, part of Japan’s Mitsubishi Motor Corp., saw sales fall 24% in 2008.
Brea-based American Suzuki Motor Corp. said its January sales declined 48% to 3,655 vehicles from 7,120 vehicles last year.
The automaker, part of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp. said the declines were part of a steep drop in demand for its crossovers and sport utility vehicles.
