AUTOMOTIVE

Grand Opening: Hyundai Motor America held the grand opening of its new $36-million, 216,000-square-foot headquarters in Fountain Valley earlier this week--nearly three months after the company moved into the extensively remodeled former ITT Cannon facility.

Amid the congratulatory speeches, Rod Hayden, executive vice president and chief operating officer, noted that the South Korean auto importer is facing a big challenge.

“If you think the real estate market has gone soft,” he commented, “then the automotive market is downright slushy.”

Although Hyundai set and still holds the foreign car makers’ record for the greatest number of cars sold in the shortest period of time in the United States--924,000 in four years--sales have tumbled 30% in the last year.

Analysts say the overall industry slump is only partly to blame for Hyundai’s sagging sales--that the company waited too long to introduce a new model after setting the marketplace afire with the low-priced subcompact Excel in 1986.

Last year, Hyundai brought out a larger compact car, the Sonata, and gave it a V-6 engine. It also redesigned the Excel. But buyers apparently had become bored with the old styling and wandered away, and the company hasn’t had much luck luring them back in the droves it was once accustomed to. Hayden said he hopes “exciting plans for new product” like the Scoupe, a 2+2 sports coupe that will hit the dealer showrooms later this year, will boost Hyundai’s sales and image.

Both Hayden and Hyundai Motor America President H.W. Baik said the company’s commitment to the U.S. market, despite the recent sales slump, is demonstrated by its investment in new facilities, including the headquarters, a $22-million eastern regional headquarters and a $12.2-million vehicle processing center in Portland, Ore.