Official announcements have confirmed that the US sales of the 2011 Sonata sedan have been ceased by South Korea's Hyundai Motor, mainly because of door lock issues, a development which sent the shares of the company down by over 4% over fears that it might become stained in a damaging recall crisis like Toyota Motor Corp., the Japanese competitor.

On Monday, Hyundai sent out notifications to dealers about potential faults in the front-door latches of the latest model which might have affected about 5,000 vehicles, and the stop-sale order was put into immediate effect across US dealers starting Tuesday.

Analysts, however, have drawn a marked line between Toyota's recall problems and Hyundai's decision to stop sales of the new version of the Sonata, mainly contrasting the way the problems have been handled.

"We were startled by news that the new Sonata, which people have pinned high hopes on, also had flaws. But investor reaction is emotional. Hyundai has already found the defect and has started to ship replacement parts, unlike Toyota which appears to have been unclear about the causes of its defects since late last year", said Lee Seong-jae, a Kimwoo Securities analyst in Seoul.