Coupe alignment issue...

[monblanc]

My posts are meant to help others that may be considering a Coupe, or are experiencing the same thing with one they already own. I'm not trying to bash the Coupe - it's a great looking car for the money.

I value steering feel/feedback above just about every other quality in a car. Despite this, I failed to thoroughly get to know the Coupe before buying. The looks, the power, the price and other qualities blinded me to what I value, since (unfortunately) I drive a lot of highway miles. Frankly, I've made a stupid mistake which I may have to correct.

The Coupe fails to provide good feedback through the wheel, coupled with an artificial weight to the steering. Although the steering is heavy (but pretty dead), deviation from center results in an overboosted feel/overreaction to small inputs. Undulations in the road surface (ie dips) cause the car to want to alter course - not good. I recently experienced an unsettling instability when passing a truck; the weight transfer caused the steering to require excessive correction to stay controlled.

My alignment guy suggested that better tires may improve the situation slightly, but this is too expensive for an unknown improvement.

I know that the magazines have made little mention of the Coupe's steering, but I know what I like and I have my standards. I'm not trying to critique others that have no issue with the steering, but for me, the Coupe's steering leaves much to be desired.

This sounds like a problem specific to your coupe. I would test-drive the same model to make sure yours is not a defective one.

 

[need4speed]

Funny this situation came up. When edmunds ran the 1st tests on the car. They got lack luster results. It turned out that torque impedence program and flaws in the alignment were the culprit. Edmunds ran a second battery of tests and everything went well. Although there numbers are the slowest of the magazines. In another part of this site. Someone said that he's been calling dealerships to find out if hyundai kept its promise on the computer recalibration to stop the torque reduction at gear shift. It seems track models handle better according to magazines. This sucks cuz I really luv this car but every week there's a new problem arising. Some of them I know will pass over time but others like this one. I'm not sure. If it doesn't get better I think I'm just gonna buy a used G35 or possibly a G37. I really luv the hyundai and don't want to resort to that. But I always also hear about lousy customer service and dealerships not honoring warranties and the corporation backing up the dealerships. I been defending this car since the concept. I had hope in hyundai cuz they are doin good things in there models. I know its a 1st year model. But in just 7 weeks. The issues seem to be piling and it seems like this car won't be any good till the 2nd generation models?? I hope that's not the case.

 

[ConceptVBS]

The Base and GT models tends to feel "floaty" on high speeds on the highway, meaning the air tunneling under the car seems to "lift" the front end up a bit.

However, the Track model, with stiffer springs and thus a lower front end height, does'nt have this characteristic. It feels absolutely planted on the ground.

 

[Goose]

The idea of the Track version not having my Grand Touring's problem makes sense to me if its suspension is more agressive. I wonder if the suspension setup on the Track version extends beyond Bigger wheels/tires and stiffer/lower springs? Could the Track have more caster/camber/toe/etc over the other versions?

When I get the chance, I'm going to go down to the big dealer in my area and drive a Track - if they'll let me. Unfortunately for me, the dealer might not be interested in me putting miles on their demo just satisfy my curiosity! EDIT: I guess I could "suggest" that I'm in the market for a Track instead of my Grand Touring...

 

[monblanc]

Funny this situation came up. When edmunds ran the 1st tests on the car. They got lack luster results. It turned out that torque impedence program and flaws in the alignment were the culprit. Edmunds ran a second battery of tests and everything went well. Although there numbers are the slowest of the magazines. In another part of this site. Someone said that he's been calling dealerships to find out if hyundai kept its promise on the computer recalibration to stop the torque reduction at gear shift. It seems track models handle better according to magazines. This sucks cuz I really luv this car but every week there's a new problem arising. Some of them I know will pass over time but others like this one. I'm not sure. If it doesn't get better I think I'm just gonna buy a used G35 or possibly a G37. I really luv the hyundai and don't want to resort to that. But I always also hear about lousy customer service and dealerships not honoring warranties and the corporation backing up the dealerships. I been defending this car since the concept. I had hope in hyundai cuz they are doin good things in there models. I know its a 1st year model. But in just 7 weeks. The issues seem to be piling and it seems like this car won't be any good till the 2nd generation models?? I hope that's not the case.

I don't think it's uncommon to "new" model. I remember more serious issues(engine) at early stage of the new BMW 335. If you are uncomfortable with this kind of issues, you might want to go with G35 (But G35 has this issue of excessive brake pad wear but never really addressed. My guess is G37 corrects it but I would check it before the purchase).

I agree with you about the Hyundai dealership. Half of Hyundai dealerships I visited seem to share space with Chrysler. This is 3-4% US market share company. Heck, I think Hyundai invests more in India/China/Latin america where Hyundai is one of the leading maket share (outside South Korea).

I would not expect higher quality of Hyundai dealership any time soon unless Hyundai increases their market share significantly in US. And they have motivation to invest more in dealership.

But currently, my impression is Hyundai is simply renting space/service from Chrysler dealerships...

 

[Goose]

The lack of Hyundai dealer support has pretty much killed the Genesis for me; I wanted to pass this along since they've kinda pissed me off today.

My local dealer has clearly demonstrated that they really couldn't care less about me. As a result, I made my trip down to a larger dealer, about an hour and a half from my hometown, to check out a Track model and get another sample of Hyundai "support". Before going to the showroom, I stopped by the service department to ask about disabling the seatbelt warning chime. I buckle my belt and don't need an intrusive beep reminding me to do so. Without getting into detail, let's just say the service advisor was a smartass, telling me tersely to "buckle my seatbelt". I stopped by the parts counter to see if they had any info on accessories - no dice and no idea of when anything might appear.

By this point, I had enough of poor dealer "service" so I decided not to bother with the test drive of the Track version.

I wanted to share my experience as an owner in case a prospective Genesis buyer is concerned about Hyundai dealer support. Every dealer is different, so be sure that a potential dealer is going treat you well after the sale. My dealer experiences have been pretty poor. To me, $25,000-$30,000 is pretty good chunk of change - especially for a Hyundai. If Hyundai thinks that they're going to compete with Lexus/Acura/etc, they had better improve their dealers' after-sale service.

I hope someone will benefit from my experience. EDIT: I gave Hyundai USA a call and mentioned the two "stellar" dealers I dealt with. Hyundai was very interested - I hope they ream these dealers for such poor service.

 

[wild willy]

Service is very important to me during the warranty period...especially in a 1st model year car. This sight has proved very informative and is really swaying me away from this car for the time being. Hyundai ain't ready for Willy yet

 

[BroadbandBrat]

Sorry I am late to the party. I currently own a GT coupe. The problem is NOT the alignment, the problem is the tires. I had these same tires on a 98 Firebird as a Firestone tire test drive. The handling was exactly as you and I are experiencing now. I ended up putting some Potenza RE730s on the Firebird and the problem went away. I will wait untill these tires are worn out on my Genesis before I replace them. I think the all season tire sidewall is too squishy. I hope that not all 4 season tires are like that. I loved those 730s, best summer tire ever! 'cept for the noise....lol

 

[Sayantsi]

Goose, late to this thread, but one of the things you are describing sounds like tramlining - the desire of tires to track along road imperfections instead of go straight. Tires can play a big part in a car's desire to dart instead of being steady, and not all tires are created equal. Its an expensive option, but switching tires may be the best solution. As a test, try inflating the tires to 38 psi and see if the behavior diminishes - this will "crown" the tire, giving you a smaller contact patch that will react less to the road, but allows you to possibly differentiate the problem from the suspension. Do not continue to drive with such a high psi though as traction will be decreased and you can stress the tire. Fwiw Bridgestone tires have very stiff sidewalls - good for cornering stability, bad for tramlining, I've had RE050A PPs on other cars and the traction is great but they like to wander.

I would also look at increasing positive castor as that will give the car a stronger desire to return to center at speed, aiding in high speed stability, but increasing steering effort (which may help you with the overboosted feeling). This will also give you more camber in turns, aiding turning ability - what is the current caster and what happens when you go up to around 5%? Post up your alignment specs so we can see them.

 

[mosfet32]

Goose,

did you ever get your alignment issue resolved? I am having the same problem with my 2010 coupe 3.8 GT. It pulls right on average, but pulls HARD right or left if it grabs onto any small imperfection in the road. It is dangerous! Caster is out of spec on the low side after 3 trips to the dealer. Camber is off by more than .5 between the right and left (which may be causing the right pull). But I think the light steering and the erratic pulling is due to the low caster. Any feedback would be appreciated.

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