Hyundai started in 1947. Was founded by Chung Ju-yung and was a construction company at the beginning. Its location was in South Korea. In the year 2001 the company was split in to 5 separate and independent business entities.

Hyundai´s first enter to US market was in 1986 with cars Excel, Sonata, Stellar and Pony. The same year Hyundai broke a record, they sold more cars in their first year on the market than any other brand. Totally they sold 126 thousands vehicles.

But their image went down very quickly because Excel model had many faults mainly due to efforts to bring the car costs down.

Later, Hyundai started to introduce own models, their first in house design was a midsize sedan Sonata, but it still had many Mitsubishi parts and some of its design.

As their poor reputation continued, sales went also down more and more and many dealers had to abandon their franchises.
So instead of dropping out from automotive market, Hyundai started to invest heavily in the quality, manufacturing and design in 1998 and they also added 10 years or 100k miles warranty for their cars in the USA. This approach brought rewards to the company as they quality became opposite to what it used to be before.

In 2004, Hyundai received very good ranking for their quality, they ended behind Toyota and received the same ranking as Honda in the US market.

Investing brought excellent results for Hyundai in the US market as its sales grow faster and faster than other brands and it seems not to change soon.

Hyundai constructed a new manufacturing plant in Montgomery, Alabama in 2004. They are going to manufacture their new models Sonata and SUV Santa Fe for the North America market. That is first Hyundai´s plant in America.