Ford famously (or infamously) pulled out of the conventional car space a few years ago, leaving nothing but SUVs, pickup trucks, and the Mustang on its lots. Certainly, the SUV and truck markets were profitable and growing in ways that the sedan market wasn’t, but that didn’t mean the market had dried up entirely. This year, in fact, Hyundai and Kia are seeing surprisingly solid sales of their sedans and hatchbacks.
Hyundai’s Sedans Are A Minor Sensation
Of the two brands, Hyundai reported the most positive sedan sales numbers. The entry-level Elantra had an excellent month with 39% better sales than the same month last year, going from 12,354 to 17,115 units. Those sales brought the total for the year to 96,954. That’s an 11% increase over the 87,122 Elantras sold last year through July. The bigger Sonata sells in lower numbers, but also saw increases for the month and for the year. Hyundai sold 5,218 Sonatas in July, an increase of 18% over July 2025. Total sales so far have come to 42,275, a 13% increase over the 37,399 sales last year.
2025 Hyundai Sonata N LineJared Rosenholtz/CarBuzz/Valnet
While Hyundai’s compact sedan outperformed its midsize sedan by percentage, the inverse was true for Kia. The family-sized K5’s monthly sales increased by 14% from 5,879 to 6,694. That brought the total to 45,088 for the year, an 11% increase over last year, and a higher overall total than its Hyundai twin. The story for the K4, the replacement for the Forte, was a bit more mixed. The monthly sales, which were blended with remaining Forte sales, were slightly up from 11,188 for July 2025 to 12,094 for July this year. Total sales are slightly down for 2026 at 85,673 versus 86,723 for last year.
It’s also worth noting that the Elantra and the K4 are some of the biggest sellers for each brand. The Elantra is the second-best-selling model for Hyundai, behind the Tucson and ahead of the Santa Fe. It’s basically the same deal with Kia, as the K4 is behind the Sportage and just barely ahead of the Telluride.
2026 Kia K4 Hatchback heroJared Rosenholtz/CarBuzz/Valnet
Kia’s Budget SUV Is Having An Amazing Year
Ford didn’t just drop out of the sedan and hatchback market, but also abandoned the most affordable sub-compact segments across body styles. This is arguably a stranger decision than the one to abandon cars, since SUVs remain popular at every price bracket. Some of the strongest evidence for this comes from Kia and its subcompact SUV, the Seltos. Month over month, Kia nearly doubled Seltos sales from 4,917 units to 8,807. Total sales for 2026 reached 41,311 units, a 38% increase over the 29,856 of last year.
Over at Hyundai, the Venue was slightly up for the month and for the year, with a 12% increase to 2,879 units in July, and a 3% increase to 18,504 for the year. The Kona was actually slightly down. Monthly sales dropped 4% to 6,040, and sales for the year were down 8% to 42,209. Still, that put it about even with the Sonata, so it still made up a good chunk of the brand’s sales.
2020 – 2025 Hyundai Venue 1st Gen (QX) SUVHyundai
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
SUVs are still the heavy hitters in the car market, but Hyundai and Kia are showing that plenty of customers still want sedans and hatchbacks. Not only did they see growth for those models over July, they remain some of the better sales for the brands. It’s not bad to have diversity in a line-up, too, in the even that customer tastes begin to shift.
