One fourth of urban residents prefer foreign cars: survey

SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Yonhap) -- Roughly one fourth of all city dwellers in South Korea
said they would rather buy an imported car over locally made vehicles, a survey
showed Wednesday.

The survey, conducted by The Nielson Co., a global information and media firm,
revealed 26.2 percent of urban South Koreans prefer foreign automobiles for their
superior quality and high performance, among other reasons. The poll was
conducted on 1,000 consumers living in five of the country's largest cities.
Another 58.4 percent said they preferred locally produced cars, mostly because of
their relative price advantage and quality, while the remaining respondents had
no interest in buying a car.
Owners of foreign automobiles attached the most importance to a car's design and
price, while owners of domestic cars mostly considered price and safety.
"South Korean automakers are improving the design and performance of their cars
to better compete with the new products being offered by their foreign rivals on
the domestic market," said Kim Dar-seul, associate director of the automotive
research division at Nielson.
"Consumers wishing to buy a car will face an increasingly large pool of cars to
choose from," Kim added.
Meanwhile, the survey also showed the largest disadvantage of imported
automobiles to be their high maintenance and repair costs. Other discouraging
factors were the large price tags on foreign cars and the insufficient number of
after-sales service points.
Imported cars accounted for 5 percent of the total number of registered cars in
the first 11 months of this year, according to the Korea Automobile Importers &
Distributors Association.
ecuedy@yna.co.kr