Hyundai Home Advantage Vanishes as Koreans Say Camry Best

For more than two decades, Hyundai Motor Co. could count on the sun rising each morning and for South Koreans to buy South Korean vehicles. Then Toyota Motor Corp.’s Camry became the country’s “Car of the Year.”

Sure, it’s the same staid sedan that won consumers’ hearts around the globe as more than 14 million units rolled off Toyota production lines since 1982. But given Korea’s fraught relationship with its one-time and sometimes brutal occupier, it was a surprise the country’s auto journalists awarded the title to any Japanese car.