Many Korean and Chinese car models came to Vietnam with great "faith and hope" but in the end they achieved nothing and gradually disappeared from the market.

Korean cars sink

A series of car brands, including names that had a grand debut decades ago, but until now sales are still sluggish and unfamiliar to consumers.

In early October 2005, a ceremony was held to officially launch the PMC Pronto 7-seat multi-purpose vehicle at a luxury hotel in Hanoi. This is a product of Pyeonghwa Motors Corp (PMC), Korea, assembled in Vietnam by Mekong Auto.

The most impressive point of this product is its beautiful design, with two diesel engine options: Mitsubishi or Isuzu (Japan). In particular, it has a very reasonable price: about 500 million VND.

PMC Pronto 7-seat multi-purpose vehicle

The PMC Pronto at that time was considered to fully meet the requirements of a modern multi-purpose vehicle with a luxurious interior, equipped with many automatic devices... Mekong Auto's management believed that the Pronto would convince customers with moderate incomes.

However, consumers criticized the PMC Pronto. The design is beautiful, the price is affordable, but the assembly is too rough: the joints are loose, the car doors do not open and close smoothly, the engine is loud, climbing uphill is slow, spare parts are too expensive, after running about 10,000 km everything has degraded,... Some reviews say that this is a Chinese car with a Korean brand.

Up to now, although the car still exists, sales are sluggish. According to data from the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association, in 2015 Mekong Auto only sold 55 PMC Pronto cars, but in the first 4 months of 2016 it was better, selling 34 cars.

With the current rapid pace of new product releases and many modern technologies from car manufacturers, it is predicted that PMC Pronto will soon become a thing of the past.

Another Korean car brand that has been in Vietnam for 2 years now but is also quite sluggish, even though it is imported completely, has a good configuration, technology and design, that is Samsung. Samsung is a very familiar car brand to the people of Kim Chi. However, when it comes to Vietnam, this brand is submerged under Hyundai, Kia - other Korean brands.

The main reason for Samsung’s failure is because its brand is too weak. After 2 years of presence in Vietnam, this is still an unfamiliar car brand to many people. Businesses selling this product admit that the biggest barrier today is the brand. Many Vietnamese consumers place too much importance on the brand, and end up ignoring quality, low-cost products.

A Samsung car

In 1998, the East Asian financial crisis spread to South Korea, pushing large corporations like Samsung into difficulty.

To cope, this group was forced to sell its "child". After 2 years of negotiations, Renault (France) bought Samsung Motors. Since then, this brand has been a combination of Korean "name", Japanese "soul" and French "body". The products carry the Samsung name, but use Nissan engines and Renault bodies.

In May 2014, Samsung Renault Motors introduced its two newest models in Vietnam, the SM3 and QM5. Although it is a “newbie”, the number of customers coming to test drive the cars is very large. This brand has had initial success in Vietnam, with prices ranging from 685 to 965 million VND.

Trains 'out of breath'

Many Chinese car brands have appeared in Vietnam in recent times but seem to not attract much attention from Vietnamese people.

A car company from southern China, 5 years ago, introduced a series of products in Vietnam with affordable prices aimed at the common people, but it received more criticism than praise. Up to now, most of the car models of this brand have not attracted customers' attention and sold very little.

Compact SUV CS35

One name is Changan, China's second largest automaker, which has been present in Vietnam since the middle of last year through complete imports.

On the occasion of its launch, Changan launched two car lines, including the small SUV CS35 priced at 559 million VND/car and the minibus G50 priced at 769 million VND/car. Previously, Changan had sold two car lines Eado (sedan) and Honor (7-seat MPV) since the end of 2014 in Ho Chi Minh City, but sales were not much and customers in need were not very interested.

Another Chinese brand from Beijing once advertised 3 car models in Hanoi. Targeting the mid-range car segment with a price of 500 - 600 million. However, after 4 years, this brand has gradually lost its image in the market, it is very difficult to see a car on the road.

Vietnamese people do not like Chinese cars, in addition to the low quality and quick deterioration, the Chinese car brand is too weak. Along with that, the repair and warranty stations of these car brands are very few, while the cars break down quickly. Moreover, used Chinese cars cannot be resold. Used car dealers always say no to used Chinese cars.

This predicts that the above Chinese car models are at risk of following names like Lifan, BYD, Chery,... and having to withdraw from the country.

According to Vietnamnet.vn