Frequent breakdowns, inconvenient after-sales service, and weak resale value remain the top Korean car quality complaints among Korean Americans, according to a recent consumer survey.
The findings come from the 2025 Korean American Car Preference Survey conducted by the Korea Daily’s Research ON, which examined attitudes toward Korean brands such as Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. Respondents who expressed dissatisfaction most often cited concerns tied to reliability and service.
In multiple-response results, 75.6% of dissatisfied respondents cited “frequent breakdowns” as their top issue, followed by 61% who said “after-sales service is inconvenient.” Complaints about resale value were also common, with 39% saying Korean vehicles suffer from low used-car value.
Other issues cited included “poor ride comfort” (24%), “low brand prestige” (15%), and “lack of driver convenience features” (12%). Only 2% pointed to vehicle design as a problem, suggesting dissatisfaction was concentrated on performance and ownership experience rather than styling.
By brand, dissatisfaction rates were 4.1% for Hyundai and 5.2% for Kia, showing little difference between the two. Genesis recorded a lower dissatisfaction rate of 2.1%, though dissatisfied respondents across brands cited breakdowns, service inconvenience, and resale value decline as recurring issues.
Despite these complaints, overall satisfaction among owners remained high. Of the 968 respondents who currently own Korean vehicles, 84.2% said they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied.” Another 11.6% described their experience as “neutral,” while only 4.2%—or 41 respondents—reported being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.
High satisfaction also translated into strong repurchase intent. 88% of Korean American respondents who own Korean vehicles said they would consider buying one again. Genesis owners reported especially high loyalty, with positive repurchase intent exceeding 95%. The share of owners who said they would not repurchase was 11.8% for Hyundai, 12.0% for Kia, and 5.2% for Genesis.
Satisfaction levels were generally similar across age groups, though dissatisfaction was relatively higher among respondents in their 40s and 50s.
Among the 1,483 respondents who have never owned a Korean vehicle, only 2% said they would consider one as their next purchase, indicating that while Korean vehicles draw strong loyalty from current owners, converting non-owners remains a challenge.
BY HOONSIK WOO [woo.hoonsik@koreadaily.com]
