MSNBC:Hyundai no longer the Dangerfield of cars

[Pwrplay]

Nice little review of the Coupe:

After two decades of offering shoddy, disappointing, and short-lived cars in the U.S., Hyundai is finding it an uphill battle to convince consumers that its products really are good now.

Quality scores have soared and hands-on tests of Hyundai models introduced in the last five years have been worlds apart from earlier tests, but consumers remain skeptical — and it is hard to blame them.

What the company needs is a new product that embodies improved quality, but also one that appeals to a customer for whom product features are more important than brand image or historical reliability. What it needs is a product targeting a group so determined that it would make excuses about the unreliability of Italian sports cars or rationalize the inability of British sports cars to keep the rain off their heads.

What Hyundai needs is a sports car. Performance enthusiasts would drive hot-rod Yugos if they were truly fast, as demonstrated by the buzz Chrysler created in the late ’80s with its turbocharged economy car junkboxes, such as the Dodge Omni Shelby GLHS. That car went like stink. And looked like it, too.

This game plan has worked before. Four decades ago, a lightly regarded Asian car maker broke into the big leagues in the U.S. by introducing a sport coupe that directly challenged the established order by offering fresh styling and exhilarating performance at a bargain price.

The Datsun 240Z’s value proposition so crushed the snooty Jaguar E-Type that the English company fled the sports car segment entirely (until it returns next year) for the safer confines of the cushy grand-touring market.

It would be an exaggeration to call Hyundai an upstart, but decades of maladroit product quality has left the company with a dreadful brand image among consumers. To offer a genuinely desirable and exciting model is a huge advance for Hyundai, one that could catalyze perceptions of Hyundai the way the Z-car shifted the conventional wisdom of Datsun 40 years ago.

Hyundai’s Genesis Coupe employs much of the rear-wheel-drive hardware that underpins the larger Genesis sedan, giving it the powertrain layout needed for more dynamic driving characteristics enthusiasts prefer.

Although the sedan is a nice product, Hyundai’s attempt to position it against prestigious European competitors is doomed to fail because prestige sedan buyers demand, well, prestige.

Hyundai has recently demonstrated an impressive dedication to product quality, both in terms of durability of construction and product usability, and the company has seen its quality ratings climb correspondingly. But earlier in this decade, it was Hyundai’s strategy to engage in spec-sheet competition, listing all the check-off boxes it could for each product. This is the approach employed by bored 14-year-old Internet flame warriors arguing the automotive version of whether Batman could beat Superman in a fight.

While the specs provide ammunition to geeks who send scathing e-mails arguing with those who actually drive the cars and have some basis in fact for rating them, they prove to be largely irrelevant in the real world.

What good was having a Hyundai V6 engine if Honda’s four-cylinder was smoother, quieter and more powerful at the time? So when Hyundai announced the Genesis Coupe, with powerful engines, modest curb weight and rear drive, the specifications had to be viewed with a hopeful skepticism. Fortunately the company’s new dedication to quality has produced exactly the kind of sport coupe enthusiasts would hope for.

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[Mayhemm]

They were spot on about the touchy gas pedal! I've only had my 3.8GT for a few days, and my back is already protesting the jumpy starts. At this rate I'll be crippled in a year's time.

It is possible to have a smooth take-off, but it requires more effort than it should.

[Hyundai Genesis]

Originally Posted by Mayhemm

They were spot on about the touchy gas pedal! I've only had my 3.8GT for a few days, and my back is already protesting the jumpy starts. At this rate I'll be crippled in a year's time.

It is possible to have a smooth take-off, but it requires more effort than it should.

Let's keep track of your complaint. If we hear enough of it, than it'll be something Hyundai needs to look into for the next model year. If not, than maybe this is simply an issue that your dealer can remedy...

[dtreter]

I just got my coupe this past weekend, 3.8 V6, and this makes 2 Gennys in our family. The sedan for my wife (9 months ago) and the coupe for me. I agree that it has a touchy gas pedal, but I like this. It doesn't take very long to learn a smooth start, but I like the look on my passenger's face when I do the jackrabbit start with a burst of quick acceleration. Priceless!

I've gotten more 'stares' and comments about the coupe than I ever got about the sedan.

Thanks for sharing the MSNBC article.

[Hyundai Genesis]

Originally Posted by dtreter

I just got my coupe this past weekend, 3.8 V6, and this makes 2 Gennys in our family. The sedan for my wife (9 months ago) and the coupe for me. I agree that it has a touchy gas pedal, but I like this. It doesn't take very long to learn a smooth start, but I like the look on my passenger's face when I do the jackrabbit start with a burst of quick acceleration. Priceless!

I've gotten more 'stares' and comments about the coupe than I ever got about the sedan.

Thanks for sharing the MSNBC article.

Hmm.. Maybe I need to make a second position for which Genesis we drive here. Then again, we can always add more cars in our signatures...

[Mayhemm]

Originally Posted by dtreter

I agree that it has a touchy gas pedal, but I like this. It doesn't take very long to learn a smooth start, but I like the look on my passenger's face when I do the jackrabbit start with a burst of quick acceleration. Priceless!

I guess I should have been more specific about my complaint. I too like a snappy start in a car with this much power.

However, my issue is that the burst of power does not last more than a second or two and then falls off, so it doesn't really go far enough to really do anything more than give you a jerky start. The article is right, it feels like Hyundai was trying to cheat with its gearing when this car can readily stand on its own. That's what I have the real problem with.

[ramnj]

Originally Posted by Mayhemm

They were spot on about the touchy gas pedal! I've only had my 3.8GT for a few days, and my back is already protesting the jumpy starts. At this rate I'll be crippled in a year's time. .

How old are you? I'm 52 and getting ready to get the 3.8 w/Track A/T and I have enough problems with my back (my son says I'm in my mid-life crisis). Also my 19 year old son will use the car every once in a while.

Sorry for the hijack.

[Mayhemm]

I'll be 28 next month.

And my advice to you is, unless your roads are in pristine condition, forgo the Track and get a GT. Your back will thank you for it.

I liked the look of the GT here in Canada (Track in the USA) and enjoyed bragging about my LSD and Brembo brakes, but after a few months of punishment I'm kind of regretting it. The car will never see a track and for daily driving it's rougher than my truck for work!

At least test drive one of each before buying. I wish I'd done that myself.

Note: I'm fairly sure it would be the US GT package you'd want (w/o the harsh sport suspension). I've only got a passing familiarity with the American models, so you should probably check me on that.

[GripperDon]

Sounds like it runs in the family.

[QCTLG]

Originally Posted by GripperDon

Sounds like it runs in the family.

there, there...feel better now???