quote: Originally posted by jusunlee
actually, prototype, you have a bit of misunderstanding here. when you exchange currency, there is more than the exchange rate involved. what's more important is inflation, the real value of the currency. a 1 dollar bill is equivalent to around 1200 won. yet, you can buy a lot more with the latter because the inflation is much lower in korea than america. likewise when korean car manufacturers make cars and export them to america, they have little need but to sell them extremely cheap, simply because a dollar there has a lot more worth than a dollar here. so yes, 4 dollars can in fact be worth more than 16 quarters in certain circumstances.
in a traditional sense, companies have little reason to inflate the value of their products as long as companies are able to post a profit in their board meetings. and believe me, hyundai is getting a lot more for their cars sold here than back in korea, where everything is cheap, cheap, cheap. so it's no problem for them to sell cars (in america) in what americans think is very cheap, because, as far as their concerned, its overpriced. so hyundaiwrc would be correct in this case. had hyundai been a japanese car company, whose yen is inflated more than the american dollar, cars from hyundai would have sold for a lot more in the american market.
all in all, in a business perspective hyundai undervalue their cars, which gives the average consumers a predisposed idea that hyundai cars are low quality. that's hardly justified, considering most people in korea drive a hyundai and have little problems with it. the company would have went bankrupted long before, the way some of you guys portray the company to be. aside from street rsx and hyundaiwrc, i wonder if anyone of you guys have had a direct experience with the quality of their cars. but you guys already seem to have this belief that they're low quality simply because you see them as under priced.
ehhhh. funny, considering this is coming from a person who has ABSOLUTELY NO interest in cars. heck, i don't know what a suspension is, if that is really in the car enthusiasts' vocabulary. but i do understand a thing or two about how inflation works, seeing that ive lived in four different countries. so spare the bashing please, im just an innocent bystander. really. ^__^;
ps. why are all of you so mean to hyundaiwrc?!!!
bah, jusun he started the beef. I'm just finishing it.
and inflation makes sense, but then when koreans sell cars to the american market, korean inflation doesnt apply.
because they are selling to the american market, the cost is 'inflated' like you said, because americans have higher standard wages than those of korea and thus we can afford to pay more for a car.
But then if you were to buy a car from korea and import it,you would find it would cost you even more.
and micron, everything you said just makes my stance stronger.
if the prices on korean cars is inflated by quite a bit for the american market, would they not be even cheaper if the prices werent inflated?
This is what I dont understand. sure labor costs in korea would be greatly reduced, but not enough to lower the price of a car by a significant amount.
materials bought my japan and korea would both be bought in the same places at the same price.
but a korean car is worth much less than a japanese car in the same class.
Why.
could it perhaps be craftsmanship?
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