My 2011 Hyundai Genesis Sedan Ride is Rougher Than Expected

[hvarsov]

I have had a 2010 3.8 for 6 months now----The problem I have, and have had, is the hard hard ride.....It never has "softened up" and everybody who rides in the car brings it to my attention too......Sort of takes the joy out of what otherwise would be a great car.....Will have to get rid of it soon as I cant take the jarring bumpy ride about town, every day, day after day a jarring ride.........Its great on the hwy but I dont ride the highway that much.....very disappointed

 

[Vince2]

"....Sort of takes the joy out of what otherwise would be a very good car..." There's the rub! It is so close to being a really great car. It makes me delay the eventual sale of the car. I think that as soon as I trade in the Genesis then Monroe (or someone taking note of what must certainly be a growing concenus about the suspension) will provide just the right solution. Just imagine a Genesis with a great suspension! Now that's a car I would love to own.

P.S. tried lowering the pressure...still harsh especially at low speed over rough road surfaces

 

[thomaspf]

I recently bit the bullet and got myself a set of Bridgstone Turanza Serenity for my V8. The tires make less rolling noise and cause less jolting over gaps and bumps.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[Duaine]

If you want a Buick-like ride, buy a Buick

If you want a Buick-like ride, buy a Buick

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. 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.

 

[waveman]

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.

Why is the fact that some people are satisfied with the ride of the Genesis any more mystifying than the fact that other people aren't? If you love your Buick, great. Just don't insult those of us who are very happy with our choice.

 

[Duaine]

Why is the fact that some people are satisfied with the ride of the Genesis any more mystifying than the fact that other people aren't? If you love your Buick, great. Just don't insult those of us who are very happy with our choice.

Now wait a minute I'm not insulting anyone. Look, I wanted and still do hope that the Genesis keeps getting better and better! I have heard there will be an AWD option coming. That is great news I'm sure for many. And it's to bad Hyundai didn't set the Genesis up to switch between prefered suspension settings to satisfy everyone.

I was just sharing the history and facts about my 2009 Genesis. I understand that some people like a firm ride and I have no problem with that. But my Genesis certainly acted different than just having a fim ride. On many of the highways around here (Iowa) the winters,just like a number of other states, are hard on the highway expansion joints. It was with these expansion joints that the car would get into this non stop out of control bouncing up and down motion. Now an occasional pot hole that one wheel dropped in was fairly well absorbed. It was always in my case expansion joints where both wheels on the same axle hit the bumps at the same time. As you drove along this teeter totter action between the front and rear axles started getting worse. But I would have to say that those that rode in the back got the worst end of it. It was like energy being released in a sort of whipping that ended up worse in the back seat. Kind of reminded me of being in the back seat of a school bus.


I don't find anything mystifying about why some people like the Genesis ride. What I was talking about was in most cases smooth is more exceptable than rough in many other instances. You often here people ask a person who just got back from a flight somewhere with the question "did you have a smooth flight"? There are other examples but that is all I meant.

I found it very odd that I didn't get one comment from anyone in the 10 months that I owned the car that thought it had a good ride. And on the other hand I had people telling me the ride was horrible or just wouldn't ride in it again.
I also found it interesting that the Hyundai district rep admitted it had the worst ride of any Hyundai and also that he wouldn't suggest taking a long trip in it.

I also find it interesting that already on the 2010 Genesis they were talking suspension changes and that the 2009 Genesis suspenion tuning didn't have the desired effect that was hoped for.

I think my car along, with more than you know, had problems worse than just a so called "firm ride" especially the 2009's. When I called the Hyundai Genesis number in 2009 I had been told they had many customers, although they never gave me a number, that reported "harsh rides".


Unless you have driven every Genesis out there since the 2009's arrived it is you sir that have insulting those of us that did have terrible ride quality problems and you seem to care less about it. I still see many posts of people trying to swap out suspension parts here on this forum. That seems odd to me for a $40,000+ car.

Look I wouldn't want what happened to me to happen to anyone else! Even with an acceptable trade I lost thousnds of dollars trading my Genesis off. Like I said it was my fault for buying it. But I still say that there was a problem other than just firm ride because I have had sports cars with firm rides in the past and not do anything like what my Genesis was doing. So after the puchase what choices did I have really? My dealer, the service manager, the mechanic I worked with, and finally the district rep as well admitted that my car had an unusal "porpoising" effect to it was the term used. But they went on to say that everything was within specs. and everthing was performing normally.

So Hyundai wasn't going to help me. I could have spent more money buying and experimenting with suspension parts and buying another set of rims and snow tires for the winters here. But would it have been acceptable?

It hurts ones pride, at least it did mine, to have family and friends trash talk the car. I didn't buy it to drive around myself in all the time and yet that is what it had become.

I just thought I would make a brief visit back to this forum and found many of the same things being said. I didn't think it would hurt to share my experiance. Yes I was one that had a bad experiance. But hopefully my post along with all posts good and bad helps inform potential buyers as to what to be sure and check out in great detail. I had some warning sides before I bought and didn't pay attention to them. Hopefully the brand new Genesis don't even have any suspension debates anymore. Still I wouldn't want anyone to go through what I went through. I find nothing wrong with that.

I'm sorry if I insulted anyone! That was certainly not the intention.

 

[Cut-Throat]

I think your post was well thought out and accurate. I have also driven a Buick Enclave and was quite impressed with it. That said, I love my 2011 4.6 Genesis and may buy another one exactly like it.

The ride is on the bouncy side on certain highways, but this is not offensive to me. I have back seat passengers once in awhile, but its usually out to a restaurant and nobody has complained so far. One question though - Have you ever Driven or ridden in a Porsche? They don't bounce at all, they hit the pothole and make your spine do the bouncing.

No car is perfect, but this Genesis 4.6 2011 comes damn close for me. Reliability is my #1 concern and so far the Genesis fits the bill.

I for one appreciate your post. I don't think we should be a cheer-leading forum for the Genesis, but each state our honest opinion.

You should have heard them Scream on the Lexus Forum where I derided my GS350 and claimed the Genesis was the better car. Eventually I got banned.

 

[chilly mac]

You should have heard them Scream on the Lexus Forum where I derided my GS350 and claimed the Genesis was the better car. Eventually I got banned.

Oh snap - love to read it. Link please?

 

[waveman]

For the record, I had a problem with the following in your post:

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..

In effect, you were saying that anyone who likes a firm rough ride (which is how I take it that you characterize the ride of the Genesis) is likely to love earthquakes, airplane turbulence, and jack hammers. The implication is that you have to be a bit crazy either way.

Now wait a minute I'm not insulting anyone. I'm sorry if I insulted anyone! That was certainly not the intention.

I believe you, and I sincerely thank you for saying that.

Unless you have driven every Genesis out there since the 2009's arrived it is you sir that have insulting those of us that did have terrible ride quality problems and you seem to care less about it. I still see many posts of people trying to swap out suspension parts here on this forum.

Where did I say that I don't care about your or anyone else's problems? I meant what I said about considering it great that you're happy with your Buick, nor do I casually dismiss others who find the ride unacceptable. I did a lot of research before purchasing, including reading threads about the ride in these forums. I did three test drives and didn't find the ride at all objectionable. My experience to date hasn't led me to think otherwise. I have no way of knowing whether that's just me or because of some change that Hyundai has made or what. All I can say is that I'm very pleased.

To anyone reading this who's considering a Genesis, I strongly recommend that you take a long test drive over the types of roads that you typically drive and see for yourself.

 

[Cut-Throat]

Oh snap - love to it. Link please?

Just go to Club Lexus GS 3rd Generation and search for Genesis. You can read lots of Posts about 'it's only a Hyundai' - They deleted a lot of my posts that they didn't like. Actually, I got banned for posting links to the Lexus Forum from the Genesis Forum. You'd think a forum sponsor would welcome links to their forum, but not this one.

They really don't want to hear about the Genesis over there.

______________________________

Help support this site so it can continue supporting you!

 

[waveman]

Just go to Club Lexus GS 3rd Generation and search for Genesis. You can read lots of Posts about 'it's only a Hyundai' - They deleted a lot of my posts that they didn't like. Actually, I got banned for posting links to the Lexus Forum from the Genesis Forum. You'd think a forum sponsor would welcome links to their forum, but not this one.

They really don't want to hear about the Genesis over there.

Thanks for the link. I went through one long thread that you posted to several times - it was an interesting read, to say the least.

 

[Seattle Genesis]

I found a way to combat the harsh ride. I keep my tires at 26 lbs and put 350 lbs of sand bags in my trunk. Cuts down on the MPG a bit and I cant put much in the trunk if I travel. It seems to work until I can trade out of it.

 

[bpa5152]

At 26 lbs, how do you keep your TPMS tire pressure system display from staying on constantly and telling you your tire pressure is low?

 

[Duaine]

For the record, I had a problem with the following in your post:



In effect, you were saying that anyone who likes a firm rough ride (which is how I take it that you characterize the ride of the Genesis) is likely to love earthquakes, airplane turbulence, and jack hammers. The implication is that you have to be a bit crazy either way.

For the record, I had a problem with the following in your post:



In effect, you were saying that anyone who likes a firm rough ride (which is how I take it that you characterize the ride of the Genesis) is likely to love earthquakes, airplane turbulence, and jack hammers. The implication is that you have to be a bit crazy either way.



I'm certainlly not crazy and retract my statement about you possibly insulting those of us that had trouble. What I failed to do was to accurately get my point across as to what I meant with the above statement. What I should have said was that anyone that thought "my Genesis" simply had a firm ride would make me wonder if they also love the above mentioned. But you are right... in reading my comments back to myself I put the whole catagory of a firm riding Genesis as a comparison to the above statements. That was the wrong thing to say.

Yes I can't speak for any 2010 or 2011 4.6 Genesis I did drive 3 other 2009 models. One was another 4.6 identical to mine except color. It was built 6 months after mine. The other 2 2009's were both V-6's and also built after mine. Those were all firm riding yes but they did not exibit, and I have trouble describing it, at highways speeds the teeter totter feeling or if your in the back seat kind of like bull riding. Yeah that probably sounds lame to...... but you know the further back you are on a bull the higher you get bucked in the air?

On identical roads with expansion joints pretty much equal in roughness those other 2009 Genesis's treated each expansion joint in an equal manner. Pretty firm but at least in a stable, consistent and unchanging manner. My Genesis once up to the same speed treated the expansion joints in an ever increasing up and down motion. If you maintained a steady speed with no change this would increase in severity but did finally seem to reach an upper limit. If you either slowed up or speeded up you could in effect change that. But once you maintained steady speed again the jolts would gradually start getting worse and worse. It seems weird but it almost seemed like if you changed the timing in which these expansion joints were run across it changed the ride.

This frustration was how I even came up with that statement. I was just thinking today about all of this again today and wished either myself or a member of my service team would have mounted a camcorder solidly inside my Genesis with it recording rear seat passengers. It could have been a very valuable tool. Because you could either turn around or look in the rear view mirror to see what was going on.

It was not unusal to see the passengers heads bobbing up and down from just being noticable all the way up to possibly 3"- 4". I don't know if there is a standard distance for expansion joints but at 60-70 mph I would say you would get this at the rate of about 2-3 jolts per second. All of these Hyundai people experianced this. And even if my memory of the numbers are a bit off I do have a couple of un-scientific comments.

One is my wife loves to read books all the time in cars. She has read in everything including a rough riding 15 passenger car pool van for work. In our Genesis she either complained she couldn't read at all or got a headache if she tried to.

Two I had a co-worker bring his laptop with him when we went to lunch one day. After a bit he just slammed it shut! I looked back and said whats wrong? Same thing...........couldn't or had trouble reading it.

And I already mentioned that you couldn't use the rear cup holders very often at all unless you always had containers all sealed up. Liquids would just spill out.

Anyway all of the 2009 Genesis's specs were all checked out before testing them. Mine just had way different things going on. The bottom line was they said all were to spec., all were identical (according to them), and all were performing normally. They could not however tell me why the big difference. I fimly believe that not every Genesis was created equal. I did not want a battle to drag on for a year or two while I wasn't happy. Thus I did what I did.

At any rate I'm gone as freely as I came. I perhaps let frustration guide my thoughts as I revisited a dream of mine that became a nighmare. I'm sorry if I offened anyone and also sorry if I was overly defensive. I just wished I could prove that the ride issue (at least back then) was not just an apples to apples comparison. I still believe that there was more going on than just ride preference thus all the confusion.

 

[waveman]

It sure does sound like your Genesis was cursed, even though it may have been operating to spec. It's a shame that Hyundai didn't step up and offer you another vehicle, if only to dissect yours to see what was going on.

I know that some Genesis owners who didn't have the problems that you did still find the ride unacceptably harsh. I can understand that, even though I don't. I think that a lot has to do with what you're used to and what your expectations are. I'm coming from an Infiniti G35, which has the ride characteristics of a sports sedan. By comparison, my Genesis feels much smoother while still making me feel connected to the road.

Sorry if I was defensive as well. All the best.

 

[Seattle Genesis]

Ditto !

For the record, I had a problem with the following in your post:



In effect, you were saying that anyone who likes a firm rough ride (which is how I take it that you characterize the ride of the Genesis) is likely to love earthquakes, airplane turbulence, and jack hammers. The implication is that you have to be a bit crazy either way.

For the record, I had a problem with the following in your post:



In effect, you were saying that anyone who likes a firm rough ride (which is how I take it that you characterize the ride of the Genesis) is likely to love earthquakes, airplane turbulence, and jack hammers. The implication is that you have to be a bit crazy either way.



I'm certainlly not crazy and retract my statement about you possibly insulting those of us that had trouble. What I failed to do was to accurately get my point across as to what I meant with the above statement. What I should have said was that anyone that thought "my Genesis" simply had a firm ride would make me wonder if they also love the above mentioned. But you are right... in reading my comments back to myself I put the whole catagory of a firm riding Genesis as a comparison to the above statements. That was the wrong thing to say.

Yes I can't speak for any 2010 or 2011 4.6 Genesis I did drive 3 other 2009 models. One was another 4.6 identical to mine except color. It was built 6 months after mine. The other 2 2009's were both V-6's and also built after mine. Those were all firm riding yes but they did not exibit, and I have trouble describing it, at highways speeds the teeter totter feeling or if your in the back seat kind of like bull riding. Yeah that probably sounds lame to...... but you know the further back you are on a bull the higher you get bucked in the air?

On identical roads with expansion joints pretty much equal in roughness those other 2009 Genesis's treated each expansion joint in an equal manner. Pretty firm but at least in a stable, consistent and unchanging manner. My Genesis once up to the same speed treated the expansion joints in an ever increasing up and down motion. If you maintained a steady speed with no change this would increase in severity but did finally seem to reach an upper limit. If you either slowed up or speeded up you could in effect change that. But once you maintained steady speed again the jolts would gradually start getting worse and worse. It seems weird but it almost seemed like if you changed the timing in which these expansion joints were run across it changed the ride.

This frustration was how I even came up with that statement. I was just thinking today about all of this again today and wished either myself or a member of my service team would have mounted a camcorder solidly inside my Genesis with it recording rear seat passengers. It could have been a very valuable tool. Because you could either turn around or look in the rear view mirror to see what was going on.

It was not unusal to see the passengers heads bobbing up and down from just being noticable all the way up to possibly 3"- 4". I don't know if there is a standard distance for expansion joints but at 60-70 mph I would say you would get this at the rate of about 2-3 jolts per second. All of these Hyundai people experianced this. And even if my memory of the numbers are a bit off I do have a couple of un-scientific comments.

One is my wife loves to read books all the time in cars. She has read in everything including a rough riding 15 passenger car pool van for work. In our Genesis she either complained she couldn't read at all or got a headache if she tried to.

Two I had a co-worker bring his laptop with him when we went to lunch one day. After a bit he just slammed it shut! I looked back and said whats wrong? Same thing...........couldn't or had trouble reading it.

And I already mentioned that you couldn't use the rear cup holders very often at all unless you always had containers all sealed up. Liquids would just spill out.

Anyway all of the 2009 Genesis's specs were all checked out before testing them. Mine just had way different things going on. The bottom line was they said all were to spec., all were identical (according to them), and all were performing normally. They could not however tell me why the big difference. I fimly believe that not every Genesis was created equal. I did not want a battle to drag on for a year or two while I wasn't happy. Thus I did what I did.

At any rate I'm gone as freely as I came. I perhaps let frustration guide my thoughts as I revisited a dream of mine that became a nighmare. I'm sorry if I offened anyone and also sorry if I was overly defensive. I just wished I could prove that the ride issue (at least back then) was not just an apples to apples comparison. I still believe that there was more going on than just ride preference thus all the confusion.

 

[doug725]

Many have had issues same as you. I had the same problems (and more!) as you and got rid of mine after 3 frustrating months.

Good luck.

For the record, I had a problem with the following in your post:



In effect, you were saying that anyone who likes a firm rough ride (which is how I take it that you characterize the ride of the Genesis) is likely to love earthquakes, airplane turbulence, and jack hammers. The implication is that you have to be a bit crazy either way.

For the record, I had a problem with the following in your post:



In effect, you were saying that anyone who likes a firm rough ride (which is how I take it that you characterize the ride of the Genesis) is likely to love earthquakes, airplane turbulence, and jack hammers. The implication is that you have to be a bit crazy either way.



I'm certainlly not crazy and retract my statement about you possibly insulting those of us that had trouble. What I failed to do was to accurately get my point across as to what I meant with the above statement. What I should have said was that anyone that thought "my Genesis" simply had a firm ride would make me wonder if they also love the above mentioned. But you are right... in reading my comments back to myself I put the whole catagory of a firm riding Genesis as a comparison to the above statements. That was the wrong thing to say.

Yes I can't speak for any 2010 or 2011 4.6 Genesis I did drive 3 other 2009 models. One was another 4.6 identical to mine except color. It was built 6 months after mine. The other 2 2009's were both V-6's and also built after mine. Those were all firm riding yes but they did not exibit, and I have trouble describing it, at highways speeds the teeter totter feeling or if your in the back seat kind of like bull riding. Yeah that probably sounds lame to...... but you know the further back you are on a bull the higher you get bucked in the air?

On identical roads with expansion joints pretty much equal in roughness those other 2009 Genesis's treated each expansion joint in an equal manner. Pretty firm but at least in a stable, consistent and unchanging manner. My Genesis once up to the same speed treated the expansion joints in an ever increasing up and down motion. If you maintained a steady speed with no change this would increase in severity but did finally seem to reach an upper limit. If you either slowed up or speeded up you could in effect change that. But once you maintained steady speed again the jolts would gradually start getting worse and worse. It seems weird but it almost seemed like if you changed the timing in which these expansion joints were run across it changed the ride.

This frustration was how I even came up with that statement. I was just thinking today about all of this again today and wished either myself or a member of my service team would have mounted a camcorder solidly inside my Genesis with it recording rear seat passengers. It could have been a very valuable tool. Because you could either turn around or look in the rear view mirror to see what was going on.

It was not unusal to see the passengers heads bobbing up and down from just being noticable all the way up to possibly 3"- 4". I don't know if there is a standard distance for expansion joints but at 60-70 mph I would say you would get this at the rate of about 2-3 jolts per second. All of these Hyundai people experianced this. And even if my memory of the numbers are a bit off I do have a couple of un-scientific comments.

One is my wife loves to read books all the time in cars. She has read in everything including a rough riding 15 passenger car pool van for work. In our Genesis she either complained she couldn't read at all or got a headache if she tried to.

Two I had a co-worker bring his laptop with him when we went to lunch one day. After a bit he just slammed it shut! I looked back and said whats wrong? Same thing...........couldn't or had trouble reading it.

And I already mentioned that you couldn't use the rear cup holders very often at all unless you always had containers all sealed up. Liquids would just spill out.

Anyway all of the 2009 Genesis's specs were all checked out before testing them. Mine just had way different things going on. The bottom line was they said all were to spec., all were identical (according to them), and all were performing normally. They could not however tell me why the big difference. I fimly believe that not every Genesis was created equal. I did not want a battle to drag on for a year or two while I wasn't happy. Thus I did what I did.

At any rate I'm gone as freely as I came. I perhaps let frustration guide my thoughts as I revisited a dream of mine that became a nighmare. I'm sorry if I offened anyone and also sorry if I was overly defensive. I just wished I could prove that the ride issue (at least back then) was not just an apples to apples comparison. I still believe that there was more going on than just ride preference thus all the confusion.

 

[mcginnpm]

What's a Stoof? It's the slang name for a Grumman S-2 carrier based aircraft that I flew off aircraft carriers as a Naval Aviator. Our mission was to find Russian submarines during the cold war. Consequently-Stoofpilot

Completely off topic, but to add some detail...it was the Grumman S-2F Tracker, or StwoF (thus "stoof"). It was a "knarly" old twin engine radial recip flown by "knarly" old Navy carrier pilots.

 

[bpa5152]

I found a way to combat the harsh ride. I keep my tires at 26 lbs and put 350 lbs of sand bags in my trunk. Cuts down on the MPG a bit and I cant put much in the trunk if I travel. It seems to work until I can trade out of it.

I would like to get my question answered. How do you keep the TPMS (tire pressure system) from constantly displaying with only 26 lbs of air in the tires?

 

[Seattle Genesis]

Not sure. Sometimes its on and sometimes its off. Not sure what the threshold is. The car does not steer all that well with low pressure. It follows all the ruts in the road.