Hyundai recalls new Sonata due to lock faults

Hyundai Motor will recall 47,000 of its new Sonata sedans to fix faulty door latches, seeking to avoid the damaging criticism Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp faces for its handling of a series of safety problems.

The South Korean automaker announced the voluntary recall after earlier saying it would suspend U.S. sales of its 2011 Sonata, a move analysts said was in contrast to Toyota's sluggish response to concerns about sudden unintended acceleration.

"Recalls have become a highly sensitive issue since Toyota's recall," said Yim Eun-young, an analyst at Dongbu Securities.

"Hyundai seems to have decided to deal with these issues as fast as they can."

Hyundai, which was the only major automaker to increase sales in the battered U.S. market last year, has targeted Toyota customers rattled by the acceleration problems linked to dozens of crashes and the recall of more than 8.5 million vehicles.

Shares in Hyundai Motor fell as much as 4.3 percent in early Wednesday trading and ended down 2.6 percent versus a 1 percent drop in the wider market. The stock had risen 13 percent since Toyota's recall woes spiraled in January.

Stephen Ahn, auto analyst at LIG Investment & Securities in Seoul, said the recall would undermine Hyundai's image at a time when customers were sensitive to quality following Toyota's mass recall.

"But given that the flawed part is a not a key function such as the accelerator, powertrain or electronic controls, it will have little impact on Hyundai's sales," he said.

The Sonata and Elantra are the two top selling models for Hyundai, the world's No.4 carmaker with affiliate Kia Motors Corp.

"We have upgraded quality problems to a safety problem and decided to make a voluntary recall," the company said in an emailed statement in Korean.