Hyundai Genesis test drive since 2008 sedan

All photos of Hyundai Genesis since 2008

Hyundai Genesis 2009

We recently tested the new Hyundai Genesis in Korea, preparing for production. According to representatives of Hyundai, this car can open a new level of automobile luxury. Brave claim!
The main thing that you should know about Genesis: if the car is really luxurious and at the same time remains in the price range that they claim to, the car will really justify every center invested by Hyundai in its production. We will find out why this is so.
Dry numbers indicate the following. Genesis is a large and powerful car. The car is longer, wider and has a longer wheelbase than the BMW 5er, Mercedes E-Klasse and Lexus ES. He has a good view:

massive and smooth, but not convex, bends. Although in his design there is nothing unusual and even, frankly, nothing memorable, except for the radiator grille. And this is not bad, because many people do not remember exactly what Lexus ES looks like, for example. But Genesis is more economical than all of the above.
You can choose a car with a 4.6-liter V8 or 3.8-liter V6. A larger car has 375 horses on premium gasoline, or 368 when using ordinary fuel. Power indicators bring the car closer to Infiniti, BMW, Mercedes. The first Hyundai V8 manufactured in the homeland also receives high -tech gifts in the form of a two -stage adjustable induction system and a system of change in gas distribution phases. The power of the 3.8-liter Lambda V6 is 270 hp.

Inside Genesis is pleasant. We mean it is pleasant. We like that the instrument panel looks like a spacecraft control panel, but only until we start looking for a button at high speed to turn off a stream of air directed to our face. Then we begin to hate her. We are grateful to Hyundai for right away we liked the dashboard, similar to the jaguar xf panel. True, Hyundai does not have a touch screen, but this car is one of the first released. In addition, instead of one touch screen, there are many other interesting things on a Korean car.
The chair is regulated, and the visibility from the inside at the highest level. Most of all, however, the rear seat enrolled for us. On cars with an enlarged wheelbase, there is always enough space, both in the first and in the second row. If you do not drive all the speeds, you can calmly sit on a circle and talk to friends, there is enough space there.

The selection of interior materials, their quality and fitting the details to each other are very good. Recall that we are talking about a car whose cost does not exceed $ 40,000 and this is for V8. We do not want to often remind of the price, not counting this exception, is what is called competition. The interior is as pleasant as the BMW interior. In absolute terms, of course, this is not the case: if the BMW design level is 10, then we can give 9 points. This is practically justified, because the improved finish will cost an additional $ 7,000.
You can say thanks to the BMW for the Hyundai control system (both for Comand, and MMI, etc.). BMW, being a pioneer in the use of automobile interfaces, can learn from competitors how more correctly they are used by other companies. The DIS system is actually very easy to use, it is built-in the HDD navigation system, the voice control system, Bluetooth, audio, climate control and control of traffic modes.

Let's get behind the wheel. We had only one day to get acquainted with Genesis, and for the sake of fairness, we can’t talk about that a car is somewhat convenient on long trips: we can tell about the comfort of the car and the quality of the suspension only after we can travel on it for a whole week .
Moving along a winding road, we increased the speed in corners, noting that the car does not fall to one at all and behaves very well. Having passed six turns with a speed exceeding the recommended, we reached the end of the path, without even feeling dizziness. It is only necessary to crush the gas at the time of the turn, and the car will react instantly. Genesis does not have such a movement mode, but the capabilities of the car are enough for any emergency situation when you need to squeeze everything possible from the car.

We will accelerate to 70 miles per hour and sharply hit the brakes of Genesis after only 160 feet. Among its rivals, only the BMW 535i can dwell at this distance 10 feet earlier.

The passage of steep turns on the sedan, especially with an integrated electronic security system, must be said about this separately. Open to the full throttle throws the car forward, but if the wheels are trying to slip, the system slightly slows down the skid wheels. However, the intervention of the electronics occurs softly: no squeal is heard, and at any time you keep driving.
Moving at high speed, we first thought about the difference between the V6 and V8. V6 motor for large

speeds (120 miles per hour) in hilly areas behaved collected, while at V8 when driving at a speed of about 145 miles per hour, the softness of the suspension and screening was felt. On a flat road at 100 miles per hour, the V8 was hard as granite, and the V6 lacked slightly hardness. Probably, all this was due to different engines weight.
And the last thing to say: modifications with V6 and V8 engines are almost the same. V6 is almost as fast. The interior is the same. Cars look almost identical only to the icon on the back sidewall indicates the difference. Even exhaust pipes are the same. But V6 has a larger specific run per liter of fuel. And if we had to buy Genesis, we would prefer V6.

Reasonable question: who will compete with this car? Probably, this car was created as an intermediate step in the development of Hyundai. We know that at present Hyundai does not have a car that would adequately correspond to BMW. Bye. Although we do not say that they will not solve this to us. But remember, once BMW had no cars that she has now.
Based on what we learned about Genesis, we can say: everyone who is ready to pay $ 35,000 per luxury sedan may be pleased with her. By European standards of luxury, the car is gaining 9.5 points out of 10 possible. But are you ready to buy it and save $ 10,000? It remains for us to believe that most people will answer yes.