The car actually costs way more than that to produce, but the Korean government is subsidizing the car because they want to break into the luxury auto market. It's gotten great reviews and I hear that it realistically compares to the BMW 5 Series. However, they do have the stigma of the "cheap car" to overcome.

However, 30 years ago when the Corolla and the B210 were first introduced to the American market, nobody would have expected that we would one day be paying what we do for Camry's and Maxima's.