S. Koreans shun U.S. cars on clunky, gas-guzzling image

SEOUL, Oct. 21 (Yonhap) -- American cars aren't selling well in South Korea due to consumer perception of U.S. vehicles as clunky and having poor gas mileage, the head of Chrysler LLC's local unit said Tuesday.

U.S. automakers such as Chrysler and General Motors Corp. are lagging far behind
Japanese and German rivals in sales in the nation's booming market for imported
vehicles.
Sales of imported cars in South Korea are expected to grow more than 20 percent
from a year earlier to 60,000 units this year, but no U.S. models have taken the
top-10 sales ranking here.
South Korean consumers have "negative perceptions that U.S. cars are sizable, but
have poor fuel-economy," said Ahn Young-seok, the country manager of Chrysler
Korea, at a press conference to launch sales of a mid-size sedan Sebring.
To boost sales in South Korea, "The most urgent task is to change those
perceptions, but it's difficult to resolve the issue in the short term," Ahn
said.
Ahn said Chrysler aims to sell 4,000 units in the Korean market this year,
without saying how many vehicles it has sold so far this year.
For years, many U.S. auto state lawmakers have complained that sales of U.S. cars
in South Korea were low because of Seoul's trade barriers against American
automakers.
South Korea and the U.S. signed a free trade agreement last year. The deal needs
to be ratified by legislators from the two nations.
If implemented, South Korea's eight percent tariff on imported U.S. autos will be
eliminated to zero.