Re: What was your previous vehicle(s) and what did/are you comparing with your Hyunda
For me to buy a Hyundai, or any other Asian vehicle for that matter, would've been unthinkable.
My driver's ed car was a Toyota Corolla, which I drove until my sister totalled it in a drunk driving accident. I hated that thing - way too wobbly, lackluster performance, no amenities. Toyota's reliability was the only thing going for it, but the fact was that my high school classmates/friends were getting the Honda Civic, a vastly superior vehicle in all aspects, for less.
For a while, I insisted on the European philosophy, emphasizing razor-sharp handling. My first car was a Ford Contour, which of course was the Americanized Ford Mondeo. It was indeed fun to drive - but Ford cut too many corners to sell me that thing for $16K; it should've cost $25K and above, but no American wants a smallish Ford at that price.
I moved on to the epitome of razor-sharp European handling, a BMW 3-series. And if BMW weren't such an a-hole of a corporation, I'd still be insisting on the 3-series. Not only did I get fed up with BMW itself, but I also started to hate the 3-series' high price tag and its relatively lower content (cut-rate ergonomics of the newest 3-series, rock-hard ride, and so forth).
My decision to sell my 3-series came when I was 6,000 miles away from home on an extended trip - South Korea, to be exact. Even before leaving for South Korea, I had been driving a number of Japanese vehicles stateside, including a Honda Accord and a Toyota Prius, and had decided that I could give up a bit of performance for the vastly superior Asian ergonomics. (And that while the Corolla was a grossly overrated POS, most other Asian cars weren't.) And after soaking in the Korean culture and having surprisingly good interactions with the locals, I decided that a Hyundai might be the car that I need, and decided on the Genesis, as I had a sizable savings account that I was willing to blow on a new car. A few days later, a nine-day road trip in a Sonata pretty much sealed the deal, and I made sure to contact CarsDirect to place an order for my Genesis a week before leaving South Korea.
Never really cross-shopped other vehicles, as the Genesis is in a class of its own. Comparable vehicles cost too much, and comparably priced vehicles require too many sacrifices. If I had to get something other than the Genesis, however, my shopping list would've consisted of the Audi A4 and the
Infiniti G. A Subaru may have been a longshot choice too.
