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Hyundai is considering including the cost of servicing in the price of a new car as the Korean brand looks to consolidate its place in the Australian market after a big growth spurt in recent years.

Hyumdai is considering including the cost of servicing in the price of a new car as the Korean brand looks to consolidate its place in the Australian market after a big growth spurt in recent years.

The company's local boss, Edward Lee, says the company will look at a range of measures, including free or fixed-price servicing, to ensure the customers the company has won in recent years stay with the brand.

Hyundai sales have grown from about 45,000 units in 2008 to more than 80,000 last year, making it the fastest-growing major brand in the country.



But the company that wooed buyers from its rivals with attractive drive-away pricing is looking to shed its ''cheap and cheerful'' image. The transformation is likely to begin when the Getz small car, one of the spearheads of the company's growth, is retired from the Australian market in the next three to four months.

The Getz now sells alongside Hyundai's i20 small car (pictured), which is more expensive and has sold in only modest numbers since its launch last year.

But Lee says the company won't be rushing to offer drive-away deals on the i20 to fill the gap left by the Getz. ''I do not incentivise a lot,'' he says. ''You know, there are so many different ways to sell the product. Basically, I'm not crazy about the incentives.''

When asked if free servicing costs could be a way to win customers without discounting, Lee tells Drive he is considering ''something like that''.

He also says the company is ''studying at this moment'' whether to match Toyota's capped-price servicing initiative, which guarantees the cost of regular services for the period of the warranty.

But a company spokesman, Ben Hershman, backtracked when asked for details of the plan, saying there are ''currently no plans to introduce any kind of complementary service program''.

Hershman says he would not rule out an offer in the future, though. ''Hyundai is always studying ideas and the opportunities for best practices globally,'' he says.

No brands offer free servicing in Australia but Mazda is trialling the initiative in New Zealand, while Hyundai has offered it in the US for limited periods.

My comment..if Hyundai do this, then Ford will have to consider it also. The price of servicing at a Ford dealer is expensive. It just might sway a buyer from Ford to Hyundai..Toyota already has fixed price servicing.