Sacramento, California â€" Hyundai has made major strides in the United States with a fairly basic approach: Quality, luxury and performance for less money.
Or in simpler terms: You might want an Infiniti or Lexus or an Acura, but you can get pretty much the same things for a lot less dough in an equivalent Hyundai product.
This wasn’t always true. Years ago, Hyundai produced cheap cars that looked and felt cheap. It was a bad plan.
The current lots-for-less plan is much better and way more successful.
Which brings us to the new-for-2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe. Here’s a sleek, performance-laden, sporty ride offered in a mind-blowing 16 trim level s. My tester, which wore the lengthy formal title of 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track A/T with Navigation, is the most expensive of all the rear-drive coupe offerings.
And yet that top-of-the-charts number was only $32,000. Opt for a Genesis Coupe with a peppy 210-horsepower, turbocharged, 2-liter, four-cylinder engine matched up with a six-speed manual gearbox, and the starting price is a mere $22,000.
Overseas automakers producing higher-priced sporty fare have reason to fear these numbers. Ditto the makers of Mustang and Camaro.
My tester had the 3.8-liter V-6 with 306 horses, and you could dish up that power courtesy of a ZF six-speed automatic linked to steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. Performance was neck-snapping. If anything, I thought my ride put out too much torque in the low gears. It took me some time to master the paddles so as to not leave rubber on the roadways coming off a standing start.
Naturally, some folks wo uld not consider this a problem.
And it’s agile. The Genesis Coupe took on a slalom course like a champ. High-speed, uphill curves were carved up like a super-tender meatloaf. I was amazed at the car’s muscular agility. The engine could be noisy, but who cares when you’re having this much fun?
Hyundai goes to great pains to say that this coupe was built to be a coupe, not a knockoff of a sports sedan. The South Korean automaker succeeded on that score. No one is going to mistake this two-door Genesis for a midlife crisis family sedan.
On my tester, the cars already striking profile was enhanced by 19-inch wheels, awesome Brembo brakes and a nifty rear spoiler.
Exterior and interior perks read like something out of a Lexus manual. Standard features above and beyond my expectations included leather heated front seats, power tilt/slide sunroof, xenon headlights, heated mirrors with illuminated signals, a touch-screen nav system and all the contemporary iPod/Bluetooth bells and whistles.
Tons of top-tier safety features? Check. Over-the-top Hyundai warranties? Double-check.
Shouldn’t this car cost something like $50,000? Probably.
The only thing you’re likely to lose money on is gasoline. Fuel mileage is a not-so-hot 17 miles per gallon in city driving, but a not-too-bad 27 mpg on the open road.
So, it’s really a matter of choice: Do you want to impress the neighbors with a pricey luxo-sporty nameplate, or would you rather have all that in the Genesis Coupe and pocket an extra 20-grand?
Given this economy, I’d call that a no-brainer of a question.
Or in simpler terms: You might want an Infiniti or Lexus or an Acura, but you can get pretty much the same things for a lot less dough in an equivalent Hyundai product.
This wasn’t always true. Years ago, Hyundai produced cheap cars that looked and felt cheap. It was a bad plan.
The current lots-for-less plan is much better and way more successful.
Which brings us to the new-for-2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe. Here’s a sleek, performance-laden, sporty ride offered in a mind-blowing 16 trim level s. My tester, which wore the lengthy formal title of 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track A/T with Navigation, is the most expensive of all the rear-drive coupe offerings.
And yet that top-of-the-charts number was only $32,000. Opt for a Genesis Coupe with a peppy 210-horsepower, turbocharged, 2-liter, four-cylinder engine matched up with a six-speed manual gearbox, and the starting price is a mere $22,000.
Overseas automakers producing higher-priced sporty fare have reason to fear these numbers. Ditto the makers of Mustang and Camaro.
My tester had the 3.8-liter V-6 with 306 horses, and you could dish up that power courtesy of a ZF six-speed automatic linked to steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. Performance was neck-snapping. If anything, I thought my ride put out too much torque in the low gears. It took me some time to master the paddles so as to not leave rubber on the roadways coming off a standing start.
Naturally, some folks wo uld not consider this a problem.
And it’s agile. The Genesis Coupe took on a slalom course like a champ. High-speed, uphill curves were carved up like a super-tender meatloaf. I was amazed at the car’s muscular agility. The engine could be noisy, but who cares when you’re having this much fun?
Hyundai goes to great pains to say that this coupe was built to be a coupe, not a knockoff of a sports sedan. The South Korean automaker succeeded on that score. No one is going to mistake this two-door Genesis for a midlife crisis family sedan.
On my tester, the cars already striking profile was enhanced by 19-inch wheels, awesome Brembo brakes and a nifty rear spoiler.
Exterior and interior perks read like something out of a Lexus manual. Standard features above and beyond my expectations included leather heated front seats, power tilt/slide sunroof, xenon headlights, heated mirrors with illuminated signals, a touch-screen nav system and all the contemporary iPod/Bluetooth bells and whistles.
Tons of top-tier safety features? Check. Over-the-top Hyundai warranties? Double-check.
Shouldn’t this car cost something like $50,000? Probably.
The only thing you’re likely to lose money on is gasoline. Fuel mileage is a not-so-hot 17 miles per gallon in city driving, but a not-too-bad 27 mpg on the open road.
So, it’s really a matter of choice: Do you want to impress the neighbors with a pricey luxo-sporty nameplate, or would you rather have all that in the Genesis Coupe and pocket an extra 20-grand?
Given this economy, I’d call that a no-brainer of a question.
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