Korea Car Sales By Brand : 1995-99

The first Samsung SM5 based on the Nissan Cifero/Maxima.

Things were going well in Korea, until the Asian financial crisis of 1997 arrived. It started in Thailand and spread to other Asian nations including South Korea, which was badly affected. The slump in Korean domestic sales can be clearly seen in the chart below.

Local: After a very sad 1998, 1999 bounced back strongly. Kia in particular did well after a massive slump. Daewoo was sold off to GM due to the economic crisis. Samsung Motors started up and picked an unfortunate time to launch. It became a subsidiary of Renault in 2000.

Imports: The crash saw a few import brands disappear altogether, while premium marques were quicker to recover than mainstream ones. Overall though, they scarcely registered compared to the total market.

95	96	97	98	99	Make	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
1	1	1	1	1	Hyundai	596,963	618,261	524,084	222,771	363,776
2	2	3	4	2	Kia	288,320	311,113	240,164	92,690	240,222
3	3	2	2	3	GM Daewoo	235,343	278,713	348,735	188,680	234,160
5	5	5	6	4	Ssangyong	25,725	27,466	36,232	20,852	62,930
4	4	4	3	5	Daewoo Hvy	44,327	103,918	58,642	104,590	18,010
-	-	-	5	6	Samsung	-	-	-	41,593	6,362
6	6	6	7	7	Asia	3,058	3,387	2,072	1,477	3,275
11	8	9	10	8	BMW	714	1,447	1,219	320	833
7	7	8	8	9	Chrysler	1,118	2,139	1,650	619	510
8	9	10	12	10	Mercedes	1,074	1,216	732	101	343
19	22	19	17	11	Land Rover	32	38	87	31	168
9	10	7	9	12	Ford	1,018	1,175	1,810	598	161
12	12	14	15	13	Saab	561	777	302	67	141
10	11	11	14	14	Volvo	853	1,070	485	82	115
14	14	13	21	15	Cadillac	442	580	403	1	68
-	16	15	18	16	Toyota	-	286	242	9	22
13	13	12	13	17	Audi	451	696	409	87	12
18	20	21	20	18	Jaguar	46	89	78	3	12
17	19	20	16	19	Citroen	100	119	78	33	8
21	23	24	19	20	Porsche	1	11	20	9	6
16	15	17	11	21	VW	171	315	189	115	2
15	17	16	-	-	Peugeot	338	170	203	-	-
-	18	18	-	-	Lancia	-	139	117	-	-
-	-	22	-	-	Suzuki	-	-	61	-	-
-	21	23	-	-	Fiat	-	48	49	-	-
20	-	25	-	-	Rolls Royce	2	-	2	-	-
					Total Import	6,921	10,315	8,136	2,075	2,401
					Total	1,200,657	1,353,173	1,218,065	674,728	931,136

Data source: Thanks to KAMA and KAIDA.
Picture credit: Wikimedia/Chu.