I'm approaching 100k mi on mine, and mechanically it's been pretty reliable. Most of the repairs have been fairly inexpensive, especially compared with my previous Mercedes.
However, with any modern car like the Genesis, I suspect that the electronics will end up costing the most as they age. I recently had my electronic parking brake module fail. The parking brake could not disengage, meaning that the car had to be towed for repairs. Luckily, it was still under extended warranty, since the overall repair cost over $1,600.00 for parts and labor and took several days to order the part. I recommend keeping several thousand dollars in reserve for the eventual computer/electronics failure (including the cost of a rental while you wait on parts) with any out-of-warranty modern luxury car.
During the test drive:
- Try every button and feature during the test drive to ensure everything works. You can download the manuals here to see how the features are supposed to work.
- Listen carefully when accelerating at city speeds to about 35 MPH. You may hear a flutter/rattle coming from beneath the car (it's hard to describe). It's likely driveshaft vibration, and there's a large thread about this.
- Make sure the sunroof closes smoothly.
- Take it up to highway speed, and with the sunshade open listen for excessive wind noise or rattling from the panoramic sunroof. These cars should be very quiet at highway speed.
- You could also have a pre-purchase inspection done by a Hyundai/Genesis dealership. This is common with German luxury cars.
There are several differences between model years and features. The 2015 uses either the high beams or the turn signals as DRLs, while the 2016 uses the LED strips around the headlights. There are two navigation/audio systems. The base system can be updated for free to include
Apple Car Play and
Android Auto. The premium system, on the other hand, will never support ACP/AA. The easiest way to tell if a car has the premium system is to look for the DIS knob in the center console as shown in the picture (the base system is touch screen only, the premium includes the knob).
Don't worry if the navigation maps are out of date. Updates are now free as long as you have a 32 GB SD card. The updates also change the appearance of the maps and add several features.
Lastly, the connected features, including remote start, will be discontinued at the end of this year. These cars use an older cellular antenna that is no longer supported with the switch to 5G.