The Genesis and the Prestige will be competing for the same customers. The people who buy the big name luxury cars for the status will not even consider a Hyundai no matter how good it is. Hyundai dealers cannot handle the Genesis customers properly they sure can't handle an even more up market car customer. I think Hyundai is about to shoot its self in the foot.
Thank God you don't run Hyundai (or any other auto manufacturer).
Do you think the people who are in the upper class care about more pockets or leather over brand name? The Benz, BMW, and Lexus would surely be the car of choice for the rich.
Are you really this obtuse?
How many times does it have to be said that if Hyundai does bring the Equus over to the States, that it will be under a new "prestige" brand?
And many people in the upper class (not the brand wh*res who know little about what they buy) do their due diligence before they buy and buy mostly on quality of the product and price per performance ratio - which is why Lexus, a "no-name" brand a couple of decades ago became so successful.
To rich people its not whether the car performs the best, although all of the expensive cars listed above do perform far better than the Genesis, and I'm sure will perform better than the Equus, its whether the car can take you to your destination in the most classy way possible.
You're basing this on what?
Hyundai is in no means like Benz or BMW. Those two are top of the line imports. BMW used to make airplanes, check me on that, and Mercedes came to life as one of the first cars in 1886, and has had decades of racing experience. Both of these car companies started out geared toward the rich.
Uhh, BMW during the 60s and 70s was hardly considered catering to the rich. It was only during the 1980s did it start being the "yuppie" vehicle of choice and even then, it wasn't considered a true luxury marque like Mercedes.
Hyundai is quite the contrary, started in 1967 Hyundai is not all that old, or experienced. Toyota on the other hand started in the 1930s and has become the world's largest auto producer with exceptional quality and service.
Wow - a 3 decade difference! Big whoop.
Mazda otoh, was founded in 1920 - gee, I guess that must mean that Mazda must be a powerhouse in the auto industry and clearly better than Toyota since it predates Toyo by 17 yrs.
And Suzuki even more so since it predate Toyo by nearly 3 decades (about the same as Toyo predates Hyundai).
To me it seems that Hyundai has a long way to go. Their first genesis coupe accident resulted in a tragedy when the airbags didn't deploy, and just look at the genesis airbag recall now. Hyundai doesnt seem to have the experience nor the service capabilities to be able to produce such high quality cars. Honda tried to create a luxury line with acura, and that didn't turn out to well.
1st of that was a pre-production model and the driver wasn't wearing his seatbelt.
2nd, there have been no other such incidences.
3rd, I guess Toyota has a
"long way to go" as well since since the
airbags didn't inflate when Eric Stromer, one of the hosts of Top Gear USA,
flipped and crashed his Camry.
You have to be all in when you decide to create a luxury line. You cant sell a $16,000 car in the same room as a $100,000 because lets face it, the rich don't want the same door knob or door screw as the poor. Toyota has done an incredible job separating Lexus from itself. My family has 2 Lexuses and you dont see one little symbol for Toyota. Acura had that problem, where the windows had Honda on them.
God - you know jack about the auto industry.
Again, Hyundai would only bring over the Equus under a new prestige brand due to the peculiarities of the US market.
But Mercede-Benz in Europe (and elsewhere) sells the
econobox A and B Class alongside the $100K S Class (MB does sell the B Class in Canada).
Until a few years ago, Lexus models were all
sold as Toyotas (the LS was known as the Toyota Celsior) in Japan and Infinitis and Acuras continue to be sold as Nissans and Hondas.
Furthermore, a no. of Toyota models continue to be just as luxurious, if not more so than the top Lexus models.
The Toyota Century is a limo class auto and the special edition Toyota Century Royal is used by the top members of the Japanese royal family (yeah, they ride in a "lowly" Toyota; prior to that, the royal family rode in a Nissan).
The Toyota Crown Majesta is considered to be an S-Class fighter in Japan and is classed higher than the Celsior/LS.
There are 5 things they should do:
- Make a designated dealership
- Combat Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus directly in ALL fields
- Build better performing, more comfortable, and better looking cars (the Genesis looks way to generic)
- CHANGE THE NAME!!!
- and slow down the pace or do something extremely extraordinary
Sorry - but the LAST THING Hyundai should do is to take any "advice" from you.
And oh, there was nothing more generic-looking than the LS430 (well, maybe the entire run of the ES) - which, btw, was a blatant rip-off of the S Class.
the genesis coupe can barely compete with a nissan 370z, let alone an
infiniti.
Uhh, the Genesis Coupe is not a luxury coupe.
And it competes very well w/ the G37, thank you (bettering it on the track).
what im saying is that hyundai is calling everything that they are taking out a genesis. The genesis sedan would do fine in a luxury dealership with suspension fixes and less recalls, but the coupe is a joke for luxury.
Again, the Genesis Coupe is not a "luxury coupe" - and what was a joke for "luxury" was the interior of the
Infiniti G35 for the first few years.
Also their styl eis stolen from other cars.
Funny - that's what they said and still say about Toyota/Lexus.
And whats up with the new
emblem on the equus, do they plan on confusing everyone so that they will buy a hyundai without realizing it. All BMWs, Benzs, and Lexuss have one
emblem for all of their cars. Hyundai is just confusing everyone with their
emblems. But then again they were to ashamed to put their flying H on their flagship genesis.
Uhh, that "
emblem" has been on the previous gen Equus and it's not something one wouldn't also see in Japanese limo-class models.
And oh, Hyundai wasn't ashaed to put the flying H on the Genesis, they gave the public the choice of 2 grilles, one w/ and one w/o and just did what the consumer wanted.
Lets put this in terms of apparel. Think about it as hyundai's Genesis line as being a $50 purse that you can buy at a Marshall's. Now think of Mercedes as a Luis Vuitton, BMW as a Channel, and Lexus as a Gucci. Suppose the $50 purse has far more leather and a lot more pockets than all of the others.
An incorrect and rather stupid analogy (shocking!).
First off, Hyundai in no way considers itself a competitor to Mercedes, etc. in the US (until it launches a prestige brand).
Second, what was the ES, which for a large part of its history, was a mishmash of Toyota parts - Camry, Vista, Windom, etc. as well as the the LX, which is basically a re-badged Land Cruiser?
Third, a better analogy would be Hyundai being like the leathermaker, Coach, moving its product-line gradually upscale over the years - but launching a new "ultra-luxury" to compete w/ Prada, Chanel, Bottega Venetta, etc.
Fourth, the CEO of Toyota considers Hyundai to be their biggest threat (I think he has a much better idea about this than you do - who basically doesn't know much about the auto industry).
). I am in no means trying to tell you that hyundai is a bad brand, all I am saying is that they have a hell of a long way to go, but they started on the right foot with the Genesis. However, I believe that the Luxury brands that exist today will kill out Hyundai's dreams of becoming a luxury brand manufacturer, just like they did for Acura and 
