By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
There has been a long-standing controversy over the difference in quality between domestic and exported vehicles made by Korean carmakers.
The answer is still up in the air, but it seems clear that at least there is a difference in the way owners of Hyundai and Kia vehicles are treated at home and abroad.
Tackling the recent rust-related issue of the K7, Kia's latest luxury sedan, the maker is refusing to do anything for its local buyers who suffered corrosion damage to their vehicles.
However, it turns out the carmaker and its parent company, Hyundai, recalled their products in the United States for the same reason, several times last year.
The K7 premium sedan was launched here last November, with a global sales target of 40,000 vehicles in the first year.
A couple of months after its launch, a driver posted a photo of the vehicle he bought, with the front bottom sub-frame seriously covered with rust, on an Internet blog.
The Korean carmaker was embarrassed as the story rapidly spread online with a description of what happened when he took the car in for service.
Kia refused to provide any service for the rusted car as it was "made of quality materials."
The original post has been deleted from the message board.
Hyundai-Kia said earlier it is looking into the matter to figure out the cause of the problem. But now, the company says it's not planning to recall the vehicles or replace the frame in question for local customers.
"(The K7's sub-frame) is made of stainless steel, and doesn't rust under normal circumstances. But it snowed far more and far heavier than usual this winter, so drivers may have had their cars exposed to salts that might have sped up the corrosion of the frame," a Hyundai spokesman said.
"Obviously the rust issue doesn't cause any serious malfunctions to the model. So there will be neither recalls nor a replacement service for the model."
But in the United States, the company recalled their products several times last year due to corrosion.
Last December, Hyundai recalled its Sonata sedans registered in the snowy northern U.S. states, often dubbed the "salt belt," due to the large quantities of salt used to thaw frozen roads.
The road salt could result in a progressive corrosion of the front sub-frame leading to the thinning or perforation of the sub-frame steel, Hyundai said.
Its local dealers checked out the thickness of the front sub-frame and inspected corrosion damage. Those with serious problems were replaced with new sub-frames.
It provided protective services for cars not requiring replacement, by having dealers add drainage holes to the sub-frame and treat it with a rust-proofing material.
In June, Hyundai and Kia issued a recall for 36,538 Kia Optima sedans sold in salt-belt states.
This was also due to the salt-inflicted internal corrosion of the front sub-frame, and occurred only two months after Hyundai had a recall issued in some 20 states.
It appears excessive corrosion on the front frame was a chronic problem for the Korean maker's vehicles sold in those states, as Sonata sedans were also subject to a rust-related recall in April 2008.
Hyundai-Kia will need to set up measures to tackle the issue as soon as possible, citing the recent large recall case by Japanese giant Toyota.
"However, they are downplaying the effect of frame corrosion. It remains a serious flaw of the product after such problems were found just months into the launch," Daelim University College professor Kim Pil-soo said.
"The current Toyota crisis is mainly attributable to its negligence toward U.S. customers. Unless the carmaker does something about the case, it will give the impression that it discriminates against local customers," he added.