2012 Genesis R-Spec - Big Mistake!

[Cpt]

I bought the 2012 Genesis R-Spec in October 2011. I was so proud to have the car. What a performer. What I didn't realize was how unreliable the car would be. Since that time, I have had the following maintenance issues:

-Windshield wiper motor needed to be replaced (and I live in Phoenix, so it hardly got used)
-Engine light came on and required EIGHT trips to dealership to finally fix
-Entertainment/navigation system has gone out multiple times and I have to wiggle the fuse to get it to work (and yes, the dealership ADVISED me to do this)
-Tires lasted 25K miles
-Mileage has been a joke. It was listed at 25/17. It's more like 22/14. And this is taking premium gas.

In short, I would never, never buy this car again. I have gotten to know my car dealership service waiting area WAY too well. Next time, I'm going to take reliability (Honda) over "performance".

 

[ckon]

I bought the 2012 Genesis R-Spec in October 2011. I was so proud to have the car. What a performer. What I didn't realize was how unreliable the car would be. Since that time, I have had the following maintenance issues:

-Windshield wiper motor needed to be replaced (and I live in Phoenix, so it hardly got used)
-Engine light came on and required EIGHT trips to dealership to finally fix
-Entertainment/navigation system has gone out multiple times and I have to wiggle the fuse to get it to work (and yes, the dealership ADVISED me to do this)
-Tires lasted 25K miles
-Mileage has been a joke. It was listed at 25/17. It's more like 22/14. And this is taking premium gas.

In short, I would never, never buy this car again. I have gotten to know my car dealership service waiting area WAY too well. Next time, I'm going to take reliability (Honda) over "performance".

Call Hyundai and explain what you've been through. Give them a chance to compensate you - it's like chicken soup - it can't hurt.

 

[homeofstone]

My last car that the Genesis replaced was an Acura. My Acura was in the shop for numerous problems, so any car manufacturer can build a bad car. I do agree that Honda in the past has had a very reliable record but Hyundai is nearly equal now and my Genesis has been the most trouble free car I have ever owned. I have owned Acura, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Ford, Mercury, and Chevy.

 

[Mark_888]

I bought the 2012 Genesis R-Spec in October 2011. I was so proud to have the car. What a performer. What I didn't realize was how unreliable the car would be.

We have found out since then than a lot of people have had problems with the early 2012 5.0 GDI engine. Many have had their engines replaced by Hyundai under warranty.

 

[brfatal]

I bought the 2012 Genesis R-Spec in October 2011. I was so proud to have the car. What a performer. What I didn't realize was how unreliable the car would be. Since that time, I have had the following maintenance issues:

-Windshield wiper motor needed to be replaced (and I live in Phoenix, so it hardly got used)
-Engine light came on and required EIGHT trips to dealership to finally fix
-Entertainment/navigation system has gone out multiple times and I have to wiggle the fuse to get it to work (and yes, the dealership ADVISED me to do this)
-Tires lasted 25K miles
-Mileage has been a joke. It was listed at 25/17. It's more like 22/14. And this is taking premium gas.

In short, I would never, never buy this car again. I have gotten to know my car dealership service waiting area WAY too well. Next time, I'm going to take reliability (Honda) over "performance".

LOL, that's all you've experienced? And you're mad? I've been through much worse. And I wish I got your gas mileage. 15/19 here.

 

[landtuna]

We have found out since then than a lot of people have had problems with the early 2012 5.0 GDI engine. Many have had their engines replaced by Hyundai under warranty.

Except that the OP didn't specify any engine problems.

 

[Aquineas]

Sorry to hear you got a bad apple.

 

[landtuna]

I bought the 2012 Genesis R-Spec in October 2011. I was so proud to have the car. What a performer. What I didn't realize was how unreliable the car would be. Since that time, I have had the following maintenance issues:

-Windshield wiper motor needed to be replaced (and I live in Phoenix, so it hardly got used)
-Engine light came on and required EIGHT trips to dealership to finally fix
-Entertainment/navigation system has gone out multiple times and I have to wiggle the fuse to get it to work (and yes, the dealership ADVISED me to do this)
-Tires lasted 25K miles
-Mileage has been a joke. It was listed at 25/17. It's more like 22/14. And this is taking premium gas.

Most of what you wrote are not "maintenance" issues.

I live in Phoenix too but took delivery of my '12 R-spec in December 2012. I have had no problems - none.

Who was your dealer and why did you keep going back after they were so apparently inept? What was the cause of the indicator lamp?

You didn't make the shop fix your Nav/Entertainment fuse but instead accepted their lame workaround?

The combination of poor tire mileage and poor gas mileage indicate to me you are heavy on the throttle and perhaps a bit hasty on the corners. I just passed the 8,000 mile mark in mine and the tires are showing no wear whatsoever. I have them rotated every 5,000 miles (you didn't say whether you did that or not).

I have run regular in my R-spec since new (along with full synthetic oil) and my mileage in town runs in the low 20's. I recently did a round trip to L.A. and got close to 30 MPG and that was running 75-80 most of the way. There is no reason to run premium gas in the Genny unless you like spending money.

I wouldn't call your car a lemon without knowing more details about the failures but it seems like you bought a performance car and are driving it like one.

 

[Mark_888]

Except that the OP didn't specify any engine problems.

I would bet that the following items are related to same problems others experienced with excessive oil consumption:

-Engine light came on and required EIGHT trips to dealership to finally fix (I wonder if they really fixed this, or just disabled the light in the computer)
-Mileage has been a joke. It was listed at 25/17. It's more like 22/14. And this is taking premium gas.

 

[Cpt]

I have driven the car normally...I haven't tried to make the car do more than it is capable of. I spent five hours at dealership today for electrical issues. The most likely culprit was the battery and it was replaced (the original was still in there). Get home and...nope - same electrical issues: door locks, sound system, navi all don't work and clock and gauges reset to factory. I've had it with this car. Going to get this latest problem fixed and then going to trade it for an Acura TL. $50K cars shouldn't be like this - 10+ trips to dealership this year.

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[Vince2]

I was a Toyota user exclusively, for years, because Toyota makes (in my price range) the most reliable cars...I wanted something with a little more sport than an Avalon SO I took the plunge and bought the Hyundai 2012 Genesis 3.8 tech. To date I've had three complete head unit changes, a door lock controller quit, my cruise control died and had to be replaced, my idle pulley became really noisy was exchanged, the car limped home half heartedly and Hyundai changed out a bad fuel injector, occasionally the window controller will fail and I have to tap it make work....despite this I do like the car, when it works, BUT when the time comes to replace my car I'm going back to Toyota/Lexus. I mentioned the arrival of the all new 2015 Genesis to my girlfriend and she stared back with a "you've got to be kidding me" look. She's right. I'll enjoy this mostly good car until the warranty runs out and I recoup some of my investment.

 

[thebells]

15 mos in and no problems here. Admittedly not a lot of miles but everything is working great and the car runs really smooth. Sorry you are struggling but every manufacturer turns out bad eggs sometime I guess....

 

[GenesisCaptain]

I wonder if these cars are one extreme or the other in terms of maintenance and reliability? By that I mean, I wonder if a car has issues, it is likely to have lots of issues; otherwise it is likely to have no issues. It seems like most of the posts I am reading are many things over a protracted period of time. And, those are often countered by posts that read like "5 years and no problems here." So, it makes me wonder if the Genesis tends to be one end or the other.

The 2002-2003 BMW 7 Series was kind of like this. Many owners had no problems at all. But, if an electrical issue cropped up, dealerships might brick the car trying to fix it. They bought back a lot of cars. After 2003, they figured out how to manage all of the computer stuff, and the onslaught of owner complaints quieted substantially.

My car has been perfect since day 1. It has every indication that it will be perfect for its entire life. My father-in-law's 2010 has been perfect since day 1. However, my next door neighbor had multiple unresolved electrical issues with his over about four years. Electrical stuff seems to be one of the most common threads, but component replacement has not seemed to solve it. It reminds me of the same 2002-2003 BMW issues.

 

[brfatal]

There is no reason to run premium gas in the Genny unless you like spending money.

Or, unless, you know, you like to avoid detonation.

What a clueless response.

 

[Mark_888]

Or, unless, you know, you like to avoid detonation.

What a clueless response.

+1

 

[landtuna]

I have driven the car normally...I haven't tried to make the car do more than it is capable of. I spent five hours at dealership today for electrical issues. The most likely culprit was the battery and it was replaced (the original was still in there). Get home and...nope - same electrical issues: door locks, sound system, navi all don't work and clock and gauges reset to factory. I've had it with this car. Going to get this latest problem fixed and then going to trade it for an Acura TL. $50K cars shouldn't be like this - 10+ trips to dealership this year.

Three years on an OEM battery in Phoenix is about all you should expect. That said however I would say you are having gremlins that your incompetent dealer hasn't been able to address. If it is possible I would try another shop instead of going back to the same people who have failed you before. I can only say that both myself and my cousin bought Genny's at about the same time and neither one has had a single problem so you may have gotten a bad one. Seems to happen to every manufacturer from time to time and fully agree you shouldn't have these problems with a car in this class. However, with electronics becoming a bigger and bigger part of modern luxo cars we are going to see this much more often than before due to the complexity and difficulty of resolution. I love my Genny but my next car is going to be a lot more basic. I simply don't need or want all the bells and whistles that came with this car.

I might add that when my wife drives either of our vehicles (the Genny and a small pickup truck) she does not ever obtain the same MPG that I do. She either has her foot on the gas or the brake and doesn't believe in coasting. She also thinks she needs to feel acceleration in her back away from stop lights. It doesn't take driving like this to result in lower average mileage.

 

[landtuna]

Or, unless, you know, you like to avoid detonation.

What a clueless response.

The Genny 5.0 is tuned to use either premium or regular gas and will not detonate on a good quality of either blend. Even at wide open throttle. Read your manual.

 

[brfatal]

The Genny 5.0 is tuned to use either premium or regular gas and will not detonate on a good quality of either blend. Even at wide open throttle. Read your manual.

No offense, I don't need to read my manual, I know how tuning works. It's not tuned to run either or. There is no octane sensor that determines what map to run. The ECU has one map "optimized" for 91 octane, and running less will cause enough detonation (per Hyundai's opinion on a minor enough scale, otherwise it would say Premium Required) to pull timing to produce less power until detonation ceases. This is what results in that "7 horsepower" reduction. However since the ECU doesn't know what the quality or the octane of the fuel is, it will try to advance again until detonation it found, where timing will retard once more. It will do this over and over until an acceptable (nearly) knock free tank of gas is used.

However there are other factors that go into timing advance that can contribute to detonation. Environmental factors like altitude, temperature, and humidity as well as the quality of gasoline can cause issues beyond the octane, and when you run a lower octane than recommended/required, you are reducing the ECU's ability to adapt for these conditions since it's already trying to compensate for octane. So why Hyundai says "we don't think the detonation from 87 is that problematic on this ECU", all it could take beyond that is a bad tank of gas, hot weather, and someone with a lead foot to make something expensive happen. Remember, the ECU pulls timing not so that you can run lesser fuel, it's the computer trying to save the engine.

Not to mention that since the maps work most efficiently without knock, you should get noticeably better responsiveness (it's not the peak power differences I'm referring to) and slightly gas mileage from premium.

TL;DR Reasons why premium is not nothing but a waste of money.

 

[geops]

The point being that the tau engine works perfectly fine on 87 even though everything you said might be true. Difference in power cannot be recognized by a dyno, let alone a person.

 

[kf4zra]

Not to mention that since the maps work most efficiently without knock, you should get noticeably better responsiveness (it's not the peak power differences I'm referring to) and slightly gas mileage from premium.

TL;DR Reasons why premium is not nothing but a waste of money.

i tried premium 91 and regular 87 and saw 0 difference.
I average between 20.0 and 22.5 mpg/tank according to the display, and nearly exactly 1mpg lower according to the odometer and gas pump.

I did see an average increase in MPG by changing to 89 octane e0 over the e10 that is prevalent in my area. I now average b/w 21.5 and 24mpg.

I have a ballpark idea on how mapping works, so I am not saying you are wrong, but I think the car is looking at more than just knock sensor, temperature, and air pressure information, like you make it sound. I am pretty sure that a car this advanced also bases a lot of timing information by looking at o2 sensor information. Since the o2 sensor essentially analyzes the exhaust gases to determine the most efficient burn, wouldnt the computer also see that certain fuel (like e0) fuel requires less volume for the proper stoichiometric mix instead of letting the car continuously verge on knocking, then retard timing as you suggested

Since the e0 has more btu per gallon than e10, and since the car is looking at more information than just knock sensor and atmospheric info to judge fuel management, knock, timing etc, wouldnt you agree that 89 octane e0 gives you more MPG than 93 octane e10.
I have documented proof that it does.
Saying that higher octane means higher mpg for this car is not technically accurate. I could never feel any difference in acceleration or performance when running premium.
most people couldnt feel any difference of 9 hp on a car this powerful.
9 more hp on a car with 50hp would be noticeable though.