TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein

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Filed under: Budget, Hyundai, Kia, Luxury, South Korea

Even growing up in New York City barely prepares you for the sprawling metropolis that is Seoul, South Korea. Spend a few days wandering the increasingly affluent town and you'll be hard-pressed to miss the many coffee shops, seemingly at least one on every block. Seoul is a highly caffeinated city, a Seattle on overdrive, and for good reason. Its people seemingly never sleep. Workers in few countries clock more hours on the job.



"We are a driven people," suggests Hyun-Soon Lee, vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Co. And while he hesitates when I ask what it is that drives the Koreans so much, he admits that, more than anything, it is the need to show they are the equals of the Japanese, who brutally occupied the country for so much of the last century.



Straddling the Han River, the capital city has come a long way since I first visited the so-called Land of the Morning Calm more than a quarter century ago. Back then the wounds from the Korean War were readily apparent in a town that was just beginning to claw its way out of the Third World, its streets largely populated by bicycles, scooters and a small but fast-growing number of primitive Hyundai Pony sedans.



These days, Seoul is a thriving city that is climbing ever skyward, its builders nearly as busy as those in Shanghai and Beijing. And the densely packed streets are overflowing with automobiles, a surprising share of them highline products from Europe, Japan and, of course, Korea, where the country's carmakers are making a rapid push into the luxury market.

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Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of TheDetroitBureau.com, and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.

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TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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