Hyundai Auto Canada's fortunes have been steadily improving in the last few years, following a boom and bust cycle that began in the late 1980s with the spectacular launch of the low-cost Pony subcompact. It was the best-selling car in Canada for a couple of years, until its poor quality reputation started to get around.
Hyundai worked hard to overcome the history of first the Pony and then the Stellar, and by the mid-90s was starting to get its act together. An ill-advised move into building cars in Quebec set the company back again, but since then the growth in sales and reputation has been quite impressive.
Using a value-for-money marketing policy, Hyundai has managed to double its Canadian market share in the last couple of years, from two to four percent.
Things haven't gone as well in the first three months of 2004, but Kelleher genuinely doesn't seem worried about the 20.5 percent decrease in sales. It's clearly an anomaly in his mind, and won't stop the firm from bigger things.
Bigger would be six or even seven percent of the Canadian market, Kelleher says, and that translates to 100,000 or more units in an average sales years.
Kelleher admits ''we have some work to do to get there,'' and that it probably won't happen until the end of the decade when all those new entries in all those added segments gain consumer interest, but he seems convinced that it will.
In Kelleher's view, the new products will make it easier for Hyundai to attract buyers in western Canada, so he's busy setting up a bigger dealer body to handle that. He wants some ''controlled expansion'' of the dealer base, with the count going to over 190 from the current 162.
Those current dealers are behind all this, Kelleher says, describing them as being ''pumped'' by the new warranty and the expansion of the product lineup. ''They've jumped on this program with enthusiasm. They had to expand for future growth, in showrooms and service bays, and they've done that.''
Kelleher says ''This is one exciting time here, launching this warranty,'' and he sounds at least as enthusiastic about it as any customer looking at a new Hyundai product with its vastly improved coverage.