"U.S. Consumers no Longer consider Hyundai and Kia to be low-end-brands."

Long considered the bread and butter of the United States new car industry, the midsize segment was until recently forbidden fruit for Korean automakers. Sure, Hyundai and Kia offered midsize cars, but it wasn’t until their latest models that either brand was taken seriously enough to sell in big numbers.

The tides have changed, with last month marking the biggest milestone yet: The platform-mate Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima combined for 30,155 units, enough to take home the largest slice of the midsize segment. That’s 22,754 Sonatas and 7,401 Optimas. Together, the Korean twins captured the largest share of the midsize sedan segment in March. And it’s likely that this trend will continue through the summer as inventory levels for Japanese-branded cars like the HondaAccord and Toyota Camry continue to be low.

Last month’s best-selling midsize sedan was the Chevrolet Malibu, but with the discontinuation of the Pontiac G6 and Saturn Aura, the Malibu is the only GM product to still ride on the automaker’s Epsilon architecture. Second in line was the Nissan Altima, but it too doesn’t share a platform with any other North American-market midsize sedan. That leaves the Optima and Sonata, both of which share powertrains, suspensions and platforms.

Certainly, it takes some number twisting to consider the Sonata and the Optima as the combined market share leaders for the midsize sedan segment. But that’s not stopping Korean media from jumping all over the story.

“The ranking signifies that U.S. consumers no long consider Hyundai and Kia to be low-end car brands,” an unnamed Hyundai spokesperson told the Yonhap wire service earlier today.

Gas prices down, truck sales up

Following a slight dip in May, industry experts are calling for improved new car sales in June. May car sales slid by 4 percent, but June’s figures could increase by as much as 14 percent.

Projections vary a bit, but industry analysts are calling for a May sales bump somewhere between 8-14 percent. That would put June’s seasonally adjusted annual sales rate in the 12 million unit range. May posted a SAAR of 11.78 million units.

May’s sales were slightly depressed due to higher gas prices and crimped inventories, both those burdens have eased during June. June’s stronger sales are so far being fueled by trucks and small cars.

“There has been some easing of negative variables in June, as the inventory shortage has not been as severe as expected, and gas prices have dropped noticeably from higher levels in April and May,” Jeff Schuster, executive director of global forecasting at J.D. Power and Associates, said in a statement.

Retails sales are expected to come in at 884,800 units, representing a SAAR of 9.9 million units. That figure outpaces May’s 9.3 million unit clip.

Official sales figures will be announced on July 1.

Is there really a market for hybrids?

With gas prices nearly a dollar above last year’s levels, convention wisdom might dictate that hybrids would be flying out of showrooms. That’s not quite the case – instead, buyers are flocking toward more premium compact sedans like the Chevrolet Cruze, Ford Focus and Hyundai Elantra over hybrids.

Hybrids had 3.6 percent of the market back in July of 2009, but they accounted for a mere 1.6 percent of all new car sales last month. In part, the demand decline could be attributed to the fact that inventory of the industry’s best-selling hybrid, theToyota Prius, was extremely low. But other hybrids like versions of the Ford Fusionand Hyundai Sonata weren’t exactly finding many buyers.

Automakers from Detroit and Seoul are hedging their bets on premium compact sedans, which come equipped with the kind of luxuries and uplevel engineering typically found on midsize cars. More expensive to build and engineer than traditional bargain basement compacts, these new wave cars are also priced higher – a loaded Ford Focus approaches $30,000.

Still, upmarket compacts are cheaper than similarly-optioned hybrids thanks to their relative lack of complex engineering, which more than offsets their marginally higher fuel consumption.

Hybrids aren’t a dying breed, however. Volkswagen has reportedly committed to offering a hybrid – and a diesel – variant of every model in its lineup and Toyota, with an expanded Prius family on the way, is still bullish.

“There are three things you can carve in stone: death, taxes and expansion of the hybrid market,” Toyota General Manager Bob Carter told the USA Today.

What We Know About the Facebook IPO

• JUNE 13, 2011, 2:21 PM ET

CNBC has caused a bit of a stir today with its reporting about Facebook and its IPO, which CNBC pegs as likely in the first quarter of next year. Without a doubt, Facebook will be the most hotly anticipated stock debut at least since Google, and maybe ever.

Associated Press

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

The Wall Street Journal has swarmed all over Facebook’s evolving IPO plans like the Dallas Mavericks defense on LeBron James. Here is a look at the highlights:

Next Stop: $100 Billion: This is not a typo. People close to Facebook believe the company is growing fast enough to justify a valuation of $100 billion or more when the company goes public, our Journal colleagues Geoffrey Fowler and Anupreeta Das reportedsix weeks ago.

CNBC also reported the $100 billion plus valuation today. Only a couple dozen U.S. companies, including lions of corporate America such as Exxon Mobil, General Electric and J.P. Morgan Chase, have stock-market values above $100 billion.

Profit Powerhouse: Facebook is on track to exceed $2 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for 2011, Fowler and Das reported six weeks ago. That’s even higher than the expected 2011 profit circulated in the early part of the year when Goldman Sachs and Russian investment house Digital Sky Technologies invested in Facebook at a $50 billion valuation. If Facebook ends the year with $2 billion in Ebitda, would IPO investors stomach a 50 times trailing multiple valuation? Seems bubble-like.

The IPO Swarm has Begun: Trust us. Wall Street bankers, lawyers, P.R. mavens, caterers and everyone else are slobbering for a slice of the Facebook IPO magic. Facebook has been meeting with potential bankers that want to shepherd the IPO. Goldman Sachs is thought to have an inside track to lead the IPO thanks to its recent investment in Facebook, but don’t count out big banks such as J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley, which have led recent big tech IPOs.

Why Go Public? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been non-committal about an IPO for a long time. As recently as December, Zuckerberg gave his weird deer-in-headlights stare when “60 Minutes” asked him whether he would ever push his baby into the public markets. “Maybe,”was Zuckerberg’s answer. But momentum is taking over.

As The Journal has reported, the SEC requires companies with 500 or more private investors to begin disclosing financial information. Facebook has said it is slated to cross that mark by year end, giving Facebook until April 2012 to begin spilling its financial guts to the public and putting pressure on Facebook to go IPO to reap some benefit from the SEC requirement. Employees also are antsy to be able to sell the stock they’ve been accumulating in Facebook. The company has closed the door to employee stock sales in private markets such as Second Market and SharesPost, which have provided a controversial venue to buy and sell shares of non-public companies.

Even Zuckerberg’s adult supervision, COO Sheryl Sandberg, recently said a Facebook IPO is“inevitable.”

Chevrolet's All-Conquering Camaro Convertible

During his journey east to conquer the world, ancient Macedonia's Alexander the Great encountered an interesting challenge in the town of Gordium, located in what is now Turkey.

There, the ox cart of a former king was secured to a pole by a knot so complex that it was said to be impossible to untie. Not surprisingly, a local oracle foretold that whoever could do so would become ruler of Asia. Since that was exactly what he hoped to do, Alexander considered the puzzle at hand, pulled out a sword, and sliced the rope. The rest, as they say, is a Colin Farrell movie.

Flash forward a couple of thousand years, and it appears that someone at General Motors has been reading up on old’ Alex’s problem solving skills.

The resurrected Chevrolet Camaro is the current champion of the pony car sales wars, and there is little sign of it being bested by the Mustang or Challenger anytime soon. However, the coupe is also a flawed hero with a notable Achilles heel. While its curb appeal has proven to be unmatched among American cars today, its headroom-robbing roof and peephole windows have been universally panned by critics and suffered with a smile by the helmet-wearing faithful.

Seen one at an autocross lately? I didn’t think so

Related Slideshow

2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible SS

The rock star of muscle cars.

Drag Strip Tease

The 2010 Camaro SS hits the track

But, with one fell swoop of the sword, or in this case the proverbial Sawzall, Chevy has simply cut the top off of it and created the 2011 Camaro Convertible, opening it up a new market of gigantic and claustrophobic customers. So let it be written.

It’s actually a much nicer job than that makes it sound. The new Camaro was designed from the start with a convertible version in mind, it just took a while for GM to get around to making it. Cash had been a little tight there for a while.

The conversion is, in fact, one of the best ever. Changes to the cabin are minimal, even in the back seat where leg and shoulder room are a tenth of an inch more than in the coupe. Top up, headroom increases a notch, too, and I’d much rather have what’s left of my hair rubbing up against a fabric soft top than rock hard mouse fur or glass when I’m stuck in the cheap seats. Surprisingly, the trunk is only about one cubic foot smaller than the coupe’s: a very useable 10.2 cu. ft.

Substantial bracing underneath the skin adds a large passenger’s worth of weight to the already hefty chassis, but keeps it stiff enough that the engineers didn’t need to install a mushy suspension to keep the car from falling apart on bumpy roads. Springs, dampers, etc. are all unchanged from the coupe, regardless if you choose the base $30,125 V6 or $37,625 V8-equipped SS model.

Power is identical, as well, with the 6-cylinder providing a substantial 312 hp and 28 mpg highway, while the V8 is rated at 426 hp when paired to a quick-shifting 6-speed manual transmission, 400 hp with a the optional 6-speed automatic.

In the very American, but Canadian-built SS that I thoroughly tested on a trip to Asbury Park, NJ – a seaside down that is the cradle of Bruce Springsteen’s musical career and historically dominated by muscle cars like the Camaro - I discovered two things.

First, like The Boss, it is a rock star. Everywhere I went it turned heads and caused thumbs to be upturned. No polarization here, people simply love it, and if they don’t they keep it to themselves. I encountered none of the nastiness once doled out to drivers of IROC-Zs on those very streets, some of which came from me.

Even the storage case that the cover for the stowed convertible roof comes in is shaped like a guitar. Plus, with the top down, the throaty burble and bark of the V8 is delivered to the driver in full quadraphonic sound. Why should the people you're passing have all the fun? They shouldn’t, that’s why this car exists.

Unfortunately, the second lesson is that SS is loud, period. The soft top isn’t exactly an isolation chamber, and when it’s up it still lets in many of the sounds of the great outdoors. Get stuck next to a diesel bus in a tunnel and you’ll wish you’d taken the bridge. The available Boston Acoustics audio system that includes a subwoofer between the rear seats is a smart option at $495 and very useful for making a spectacle of yourself if you plan to go cruising often on the Jersey Shore.

In dash navigation is not available, but cars like this are about mindless journeys, not the destination. OnStar does offer turn by turn directions if you really need to get somewhere you’ve never been before, and the system works well. The dreamy leather seats make long trips a snap, the springy, non-linear clutch, not so much.

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Dynamically, the drop top feels very much like the coupe. Same blistering acceleration, quick steering, stop-you-in-your-tracks Brembo brakes and tons of grip for the turns. Only when the road gets very rough does it start to do the shimmy-shake, but it’s enough to remind you that this is not a car meant for the highest-performance antics. Instead it is a mighty chariot that – hopefully - raises your profile among your peers and bestows you with enough power to eliminate many of them in short battles.

You won’t conquer Asia in it, but the East Coast is yours for the taking, at least for the rest of the summer.

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2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible SS

Base Price: $37,625

Type: 2-door, 4-passenger convertible

Engine: 6.2L V8

Power: 426 hp, 420 lb-ft torque

Transmission: 6-speed manual

MPG: 16 city/24 hwy

What do you think of the Camaro Convertible?

HotNotI want a hard top