Kia's Morning becomes top seller in first 8 months

Kia Motors' subcompact Morning was ranked as the best-selling model in South Korea in the first eight months of 2013, data showed Tuesday. Kia sold 62,123 Mornings in the January-August period, with Hyundai Motor's mid-sized Sonata sedan following with 61,532 units. Hyundai's full-sized Grandeur sedan was in third place with 61,153 vehicles sold, according to the sales data released by Kia and Hyundai. Morning became the best-selling model in the country between January and June before slipping to the second spot in July. In the first seven months, Hyundai sold 54,696 units of its Grandeur sedan, beating Morning with 54,384 units. Still, Morning became the best-selling model again in the first eight months of this year due to its brisk sales in August when Kia sold 7,739 Mornings. Last month, the Grandeur sedan trailed behind Morning with 6,457 units sold, according to the data. Last year, Hyundai's Avante compact became the best-selling model in South Korea with 111,290 units sold. Hyundai and Kia are the two major flagship units of Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automaking group. Also on Tuesday, Kia's union and management began a fresh round of negotiations to try to work out differences over the union's demands, which include a special bonus amounting to 30 percent of the company's net profit last year, which reached 3.8 trillion won (US$3.4 billion). Details of the negotiations were not immediately available, as the negotiations were still underway, a company official said. On Monday, Kia's 30,000 unionized workers staged a partial strike to press their demand for a wage hike and other fringe benefits. The walkout marked the fourth time that the workers have downed tools since mid-August. Kia's union has gone on strike every year except in 2010 and 2011 since 1999, when the country's No. 2 carmaker was taken over by Hyundai Motor following the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.