QOTD: Is Hyundai Growing Too Fast?

A Reuters article on Hyundai's recent quality problems raises an interesting question. Has the company grown too fast following an unprecedented image makeover? Reuters quotes a Korean professor of automotive engineering discussing Hyundai's recent quality issues "Hyundai has built factories very fast around the globe until recent years, but its quality improvement has failed to keep up with its rapid volume growth," said Kim Phill-soo, a professor at Department of Automotive Engineering at Daelim University College in Seoul. "The latest recall highlighted loopholes in Hyundai's quality system." The most recent recall, which involves a brake lamp switch, affects 1.9 million vehicles in the United States alone, according to Reuters. There have been other recalls as well, including rusty subframes and self-deploying airbags. Despite these problems, Hyundai has managed to ride a wave of goodwill on the strength of their products and their image turnaround. Hyundai has become an underdog company that people are willing to root for, and the recent fuel economy snafu, that ended up becoming a non-event for many people, is strong evidence of how effective they are at managing their PR affairs. On the one hand, I have to wonder if the latest recall is a result of the increasing standardization of auto parts. The nature of this phenomenon suggests that when parts fail, the failure can cascade across mass quantities of vehicles, resulting in the mega recalls we've seen over the past few years. With the implementation of modular architectures and further standardization, the potential for these mega recalls only increases. Just wait till Volkswagen's MQB cars suffer their first recall for a look at the "new normal" of recalls will be. But that shouldn't discourage us from asking if there may be underlying quality issues at Hyundai. Jack Baruth noted that the Elantra he rented last year looked a little worse for wear compared to other cars of a similar vintage – though notably, the car's fuel economy did meet his expectations. Lacking the requisite manufacturing and engineering knowledge, I'll put this one to the B&B, rather than submitting my theory as a definitive answer. Have at it. from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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