Automaker looks to build US trust

Len Hunt

Len Hunt, chief operating officer of Kia Motors America, is an automotive veteran who headed US operations for Audi and Volkswagen and did a brief stint at Bentley. Hunt's challenge at the resurgent Korean automaker is much the same as it was at Audi more than a decade ago: instill American consumer confidence in the brand. Hunt spoke to Globe reporter Royal Ford at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit earlier this month.

Q At the New England Auto Show last fall, you said one of the keys for Kia is that you are now building good cars but you have to get people into the showrooms. How are you going to do that?

A. The path that we're on is fourfold: You've got to get confidence and integrity and then pride and fashion. What we're doing a good job of at the moment is building people's confidence. And to be honest, it wasn't there a few years ago.

We went on a very concerted drive to improve the quality, and we started winning J.D. Power initial quality awards. That gets people in. We put the 10-year warranty in place. That gets people in. But the thing that started to get people into showrooms over the past year was safety.

Q. On safety, you leapfrogged Toyota and Honda with your multiple airbag systems and stability control on cheaper models. How small can cars go and still be safe?

A. The Rio is a good example of that. We're still on a strategy of building in airbags, building in electronic stability control, which we think is a major contributor toward safety. Yes, you can be safe and small.

Q. Kia seems to be leading the pack in making electronic stability control, side airbags, and side curtain airbags standard in most of its vehicles. Studies have shown these systems cut the risk of an accident by more than 40 percent and the risk of death if an accident does happen by more than 40 percent. Are these systems going to become standard on all cars?

A. Eventually, yes. Certainly the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to go that way. And we support it. The evidence is there.

Q. What's the difference, since you've worked at all these companies, between selling Audis, Volkswagens, Bentleys, and Kias?

A. Really it goes back to what I said about the steps on the ladder. When I came to Kia, they were really strong on building great cars. When I worked briefly at Bentley and for 12 years at Audi, what I realized was that passion can sell cars.

And the things that you do -- design, racing -- all those lessons I learned at Audi. Audi (in the early 90s) had to re-establish confidence with its customers. And I was part of that.

Q. Who do you consider your direct competitors?

A. It's interesting. Our direct competitors are a lot of the domestics. We're very strong in middle America, we're very strong in towns which have strong Ford, Chevrolet, Buick representation. So whereas our sister Hyundai tends to cross shop with the Japanese, we're a little bit more domestic.

Q. I was told by a General Motors executive several years ago that GM did not need to build small cars, that the Koreans can have that market. Did the US industry make a mistake there, relying too much on profitable SUVs and pickup trucks?

A. What happened in 2006 is evidence for that. You saw the Honda Fit, the Nissan Versa, the Toyota Yaris exploding onto the market. And we sold over 70,000 Spectras last year. People want value, they want fuel efficiency, they want safety, and small does not have to be cheap.

America's first encounter with small cars wasn't favorable. It's a bit like their first encounter with diesel. People are going to be surprised by the comfort, the safety, the quality of small cars.

Q. What kind of car do you drive?

A. I drive regularly the Amanti [a flagship sedan], and now I also have a Sorento [a midsize SUV].