Sean's Blog

In doing the due diligence that any buyer of a new sporty car would do, I took a test drive in a Hyundai Genesis Coupe today. As I was heading out the door to take it for a spin, the salesman said to me, “don’t have too much fun in it.” Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t much of a challenge for me. It wasn’t a boring car, but it was disappointing to see one of the few inexpensive (under $25,000) RWD cars fail on a few different levels.

Before I say anymore, I need to add a bit of a disclaimer. The Genesis Coupe I drove was a 2.0T model with an autotragic. Now, I would have definitely preferred the manual, but from what I’ve read about the manual in that car, it’s not exactly a prize winner. That, and the automatic was quite good for an automatic, with relatively quick shifts, but it couldn’t mask some of the fundamental problems with the car.

And speaking of problems, let’s start with the interior. The car shares its name with the Genesis sedan, but you would never know it by looking at the interior of each car. The Genesis sedan has a truly nice interior, with materials of an excellent quality, but the coupe can’t say the same thing. The coupe had lots of cheap and hard plastic, which was a real letdown for a car whose sedan counterpart has had tons of praise heaped upon it.

The driving experience wasn’t quite that bad, but it didn’t make me fall in love with the car either. It felt like most any other “sporty” car I’ve ever driven: hints of sporty pretensions, but generally quite forgettable, especially the engine (a very mediocre 2.0 liter turbocharged four). Perhaps I’m expecting too much in sub-$30,000 cars, but then again, Mazda has had an incredibly entertaining and unforgettable car in the Miata for years, and the price on that one has always been quite reasonable. And as I’ve found, Volkswagen has done the same with the GTI. And since Infiniti was kind enough to design the exterior of the Genesis Coupe for Hyundai, it’s a real shame that they couldn’t put some better mechanicals behind it. But I do have to thank Hyundai. They certainly made my new car decision easier, and with any luck, they’ve given other manufacturers a new target in the sporty car arena. Or so I hope.