PsychDoc

First off. let me say that I think they are going to have a very serious uphill battle trying to sell this vehicle from Hyundai dealerships. The salespeople are clueless and certainly not upscale. The layout of the showroom floor is cramped and definitely does not inspire an "upmarket" feeling or mind-set.

Now, on to the car. In a word, I was sorely disappointed. Keep in mind that I had almost difinitively made up my mind that this would be my next car when my present lease on the ES350 was up in June '09.

The interior is very stark and rather drab looking. The LCD center stack instrumentation illuminated by a pale blue backlight has a decidely 1980's pinball arcade look to it. Very cheap looking. The remainder of the interior is stark and cold. No wood to be found anywhere. In the 6 cylinder model (which is what I drove) there are only seat warmers, no seat coolers (as far asI could tell).

The front seats are very comfortable, clearly far better than those found in the ES350. The passenger front seat, however can only be adjusted for seatback angle and foreward and aft. It's essentially a stripped down version of the driver's seat which has all the expected adjustment options.

The air conditioning is effective but is VERY loud when in the max output condition. The ES350 A/C is equally effective (or even better) and is MUCH quieter at max.

The trunk is huge and well proportioned. The underside of the trunk, however, shows very poor attention to detail as the underside of the speaker just sort of protrudes down with no finishing or cover. Very "afterthought-ey" in my view and certainly not what one expects in a car with luxury pretensions.

Now on to the most important aspect of the car...how it drives. It has plenty of power but the deal breaker for me was that it has HORRIBLE transmission lag after you slow down to a crawl at a stop sign. What I mean is that when you begin to accelerate from an almost stop, the engine just spins for a couple of seconds with no effect on the transmission and then kind of slams forward. It's almost impossible to modulate this behavior and is remiscent of what drove me nuts about the 2002 ES300 which is still present (to a far lesser degree) in the ES350. This is utterly unacceptable in a car of this class and, absent everything else I've said so far, would be a deal breaker for me under any circumstances. Now I suppose it's possible this was a defect in this one test vehicle (which, in fairness, hadn't even beeen prepped yet) but it's disquieting enough that even if I was still interested in the vehicle (I'm not sure that I am....that drab, cheap looking interior...ughhh) I'd have to test drive at least 3-4 more to be sure there was no repetition of this problem.

The steering is heavy...very heavy. Now this is maybe something that you could get used to and may not even be a bad thing, but coming from a Lexus, it's heavy.

The brakes are very good but are quite touchy. Again, hard to modulate. Perhaps something that you would get used to but this is certainly not something I'd expect in a car of this class. And it certainly wasn't present in the M-B E-class I test drove or the BMW 5 series prior to buying the ES350.

So all in all I'd say I was sorely disappointed. I guess I really shouldn't have been. After all, how often is it that a company specializing in relatively cheap econo-box cars comes right out of the gate with a home run on it's first effort into luxury car terratory? Perhaps only Lexus/Toyota with it's amazing original LS400 (which I was one of the first in the US to take delivery of....now that was a great car) pulled this off.

Anyway, just thought I'd share some random thoughts with you guys after actually getting behind the wheel of the new Genesis.

Good try Hyundai, but I think it's a 'swing and a miss.'

superchan7

I will try to stay away from the past reputation of Korean cars in the US, and be as objective as possible:

I'm surprised at the remarks about the interior (guess the press photos didn't quite show it in enough detail), but from the start I thought the exterior styling was a bit too derivative. I'm also a bit surprised that the driving experience has some glaring problems as I thought Hyundai was beginning to "get it."

The passenger front seat emphasizes this: They really don't understand that upscale luxury cars are as much about the passengers as they are about the driver. How can the passenger seat have inferior controls?

Looks like there's an excess of vain "me too" mentality in this car, like someone who dresses in a suit for the first time--only to have his pants fall down on stage. I suppose I feel the same way as you do, except I haven't even driven the car yet.

MD350

Nice analysis! I guess we will wait and see what sales look like. It is probably a good upgrade from a Sonata. But, not from a Lexus.

garsarno

Well that kills the Genesis for me. Maybe the Lincoln MKS will fare better versus the ES350.

codex57

Hmm, hearing about the poor interior disappoints me.

I recently convinced my sister and uncle to buy Hyundais. Interior materials are stylish looking, but have some unfortunate cost cutting in places they should have put more expensive stuff in. Still, you could see the potential for a nice interior if they just took that extra step. Looks like they still need some work.

The drivetrain doesn't surprise me. Hyundais are great if you want a disposable car. Something to pack on a lot of miles and then toss away. If it gets into an accident, no biggie - it's a disposable car. That's why I recommended them to my sis and uncle. They either don't drive much, or I expect the car to be totalled soon (and true to form, we're waiting to find out if my sis totalled her Tiburon). Anyways, my point was that part of why I consider them to be "disposable" is cuz their engines and trannys are crap compared to the Japanese. Gas mileage is horrible in comparison, and they're much more laggy and rough when shifting. They can afford to be 80% cheaper than the Japanese competition because the cars are only about 80% as developed.