VW and Hyundai prepare for US sales battle

Two of the most important cars on show at Detroit, the new US-made VW Passat and US-specific Hyundai Sonata will be hugely influential in Europe.

How so? The US Passat is VW's attempt to solve its biggest problem – the fact it sells comparatively few cars in the USA. Until it overcomes this, it can't reach the global No. 1 spot it craves. And the car company it most fears? Hyundai, whose Sonata the Passat will have to defeat. VW worries about Hyundai, because it Hyundai is a car company on the way up – Toyota it regards as being a company which has already peaked.