I think that is excellent advice! In fact I did do just that! In September of 2009 I traded my 2009 4.6 Genesis in on a 2010
Buick Enclave CXL2 AWD and never looked back!!! Oh I know I'm talking completely different types of vehicles but first a bit of history.
I assume some of my early comments still may be here on this forum if people want to look back. I'll just start by saying that I was and still am a Hyundai owner.
I have owned the following: 2000 Sonata, 2000 Elantra, 2002 Sonata, 2003 Santa Fe, 2004 Elanta, 2006 Elantra, 2006 Azera, 2009 Genesis 4.6, and a 2010 Elantra. I still have the 2010 Elantra and it is mainly my work car. My son drives the 2006 Elantra.
My favorite was the 2006 Azera, which I traded for the 4.6 Genesis. My least favorite was the 2000 Sonata. It looked ugly but it was at least a comfortable car to drive.
So then where does my opinion of the Genesis 4.6 fit in? Well when I first saw the hint of Hyundai coming out with the Genesis and offering it with V-8 power I knew I wanted one! I guess the reasons was, for one thing if I loved My Azera and I figured this was a huge step up. And the other thing was the last time I had a V-8 with any power to it was my 1971 Pontiac GTO when I was in high school. Although it was the first year they had all ready started lowering the compression. By then my goat was just rated at 300 hp. I think the "70" GTO was rated at 360hp. At any rate my "71" with the 400 V-8 4 speed was still quite capable of lighting the tires up real nice like. I did have one other car after that with a V-8. It was a 1980 Pontiac Trans Am with the turbo charged 301V-8. It was a pooch! So right or wrong I think I was trying to bring some youth back in to the performance area and yet have a fairly big family hauler as well. Needless to say I waited and waited and saved and saved. I had saw posts right here of some of the first 2009 V-6 owners complaining in various degrees of the ride quality. I think I posted at first that I wouldn't let that stop me so I continued waiting until my dealer got mine in.
I had test drove 2 different 2009 V-6's and while I thought I could notice the expansion joints and bumps being fairly pronounced I was still excited about getting my 4.6 V-8 in.
So it finally comes in and we all took it for a test drive. I drove the car with my salesman up front and my wife and son in the back. We were driving down Interstate 380 here in Iowa. My wife and son were riding in the back and they had both commmented to me that the ride was very rough. I was so consumed with the rest of the car that their concerns really wasn't getting my attention at all. I of course bought the car.
Part of the reason I wanted a larger car was because my parents are elderly and un-able to drive anymore so I would continue to have to take them places which was no big deal. My first real eye opener was when I took my parents to my nieces b-day party. My parents are the type that if they don't have something good to say they just remain silent. However they just rode in my Genesis one time. After that they insisted that I take their car when they needed to go anywhere.
A few weeks after that I invited some friends of ours to go to a local casino. They also rode in the back. Although one friend does not go to land-based casinos, because he plays gambling
here from the comfort of his home. We had to take some county highways that weren't good but not real bad either. They complained that it was the roughest riding vehicle they had ever been in! This went on and on with probably around 20 different people. The funny thing is no one liked the ride especially in the back seat!
I didn't ride in the back seat until about a month after I owned it. One day I told my wife to drive so that I could see what it felt like. It was very different than being in the front and thought it didn't make sense. I found out what my wife and son meant when they said that the back seat cup holders were worthless to use with a full can or bottle of pop!
I went through the whole Hyundai thing. I did get an appointment with the mid-western Hyundai district rep after visiting my dealer several times. I told him when I saw all of Hyundai's first hints about the Genesis it was to be a luxury car. I did see other bits of information saying it was a luxury sport sedan. I asked him which it was. He claimed it was a luxury sedan. Then I took him for a ride making him ride in the back. I asked him to describe the ride as I saw his head bobbing up and down with every expansion joint in the road in the mirror. He said well it was rough but was performing as designed. I asked him to truthfully tell me which model of vehicle in the Hyundai lineup had the worst ride? He said well you know that answer already. I said why don't you tell me.
He said well yeah it is the Genesis. I asked him if he would like to ride back there on a 12 hour road trip? He just responded by saying "no sir".
I asked him how is it then that the higest priced Hyundai by a long shot, one that he says is classified as a luxury sedan, have the worst ride of any Hyundai?
His response was look what do you want me to say. The car isn't broke, it's preforming as designed and there isn't a fix for it (at that time anyway). Now as far as the design I would have to agree with you that the ride is very harsh. That said you had the choice to buy or not to buy. He of course was right.
I let my youthful past and simply wanting some V-8 perfermance again completely dominate my decision to buy the car dispite what I had read prior and despite the concerns from my family about the ride before the purchase. After the purchase I was in denial for a time before reality just sat in.
Also I had convinced myself it would be ok to drive in Iowa through the winter. The very first time I backed out of the garage in snow and had to go up the hill on our street it just spun out. I returned and put 400 lbs. of water softner salt in the trunk and tried again and after 6 attempts I did make it. Oh I know there will be those who say you should have got snow tires. The extra cost and hassle wasn't for me.
I got lucky because I got a good price back out of the Genesis. The dealer where I bought my
Buick Enclave had no idea what a used Genesis V-8 tech pkg. was worth since even new ones were scarce. He called several sources and was confused. I suggested he call the dealer where I bought it. The sales manager there is a personal friend of mine and he ceratainly helped me out big time on setting a value on it because he knew it was my car.
Needless to say the dealership sat on my old Genesis for 14 months before they sold it. It only had 7000 miles on it. They always gave me crap when I brought my Enclave in for service. They said they could have sold it several times on just people looking at it. After driving it however they always backed out. He said he had no idea back when he asked me why I was getting rid of it and I told him that it rode rough what that really meant.
To those that say that firm rough ride is the way to go sort of mystifies me. You know I figure most people spend about 95% of their time going straight down the highway. If I have to give up 5% of going around a corner quicker to get a smoother ride 95% of the time so be it. Also I have seen it said that some people like to feel every bump in the seat of their pants. So these people have to love earthquakes, lots of turbulance on a airplane (so they can feel the air in the seat of their pants) and a great love of jack hammers.
As for the
Buick Enclave.........It's one of the quiestest, smoothest, luxurious, and most versatile vehicles I have ever owned. To me one key of a luxury vehicle is ride. What should that ride be? Well to me it is, as much as possible, not even knowing that your driving on a road. My only complaint now is I feel like at times I could fall asleep if I am not careful. The other complaint is when I come out to a parking lot there are so many Enclaves, many times the same color, that you have to pay more attention as to where you parked.
I don't know how well the Genesis has sold since 2009 but in my area to date not counting mine I have saw only 6 of them (on the road). I'm not sure what that means and will leave that to other people to figure out. I haven't been on this forum for a long long time so I just wanted to see what was goin on. As it turns out many of the same concerns are there spread over every model year.
