Price wise the Genesis competes with the A4, 3-series and C-Class, size wise with the A6, 5-series and E-class (the Genesis is actually larger than all of those).
Think pretty much everyone here is well aware of that.
At the level where Hyundai is discounting the Genesis ($10k+) I wonder how much money (if any) they actually make per car.
According to Hyundai, they are making $$ on Genesis and Equus sales in the US.
That wasn't necessarily the case for Toyota when they launched the LS400.
From a sellers perspective I'd rather sell fewer cars with a huge profit margin than a lot of cars with no or little profit per car (that works with mass market vehicles, not with luxury cars).
Well, that's assuming the other luxury makes are selling at a big enough profit margin despite the lower volume.
History tells us that usually isn't the case.
Nissan canceled the Q flagship and the M/Q70 is barely selling.
Infiniti was in so much trouble that Ghosn pondered whether to shut the brand down, but decided to keep it afloat but knew that the ROI on
Infiniti wasn't worth it, so cut back on R&D costs by using a # of Mercedes components (and increasingly relying on FWD models for sales volume).
Nissan also
pimped out the Fuga/Cima/M/Q70 by allowing Mitsu to sell a rebadged version as its flagship sedan - the
Proudia/Dignity.
Ironically, the Proudia/Dignity were the names of the Mitsu versions of the sedan jointly developed w/ Hyundai - the 1st gen Hyundai Equus/Centennial.
So, things have turned around onto the other shoe.
Akio Toyoda had to be talked out of canceling the GS and the LS460 has had an extended shelf-life w/ 2 refreshes since Toyota is trying to wring out every penny from the current platform/powertrain.
LS sales worldwide aren't enough to warrant changing things up as quickly as the Germans do.
Acura has become a crossover company that sells some sedans.
Even Jaguar knows it has issues w/ its sedan lineup - notwithstanding the new XE.
Having more vehicles out in the hands of the driving public creates interest/buzz about a car like the Genesis (as evidenced by people asking us about ours almost daily). In the long term, that's helpful to maker and dealers. Hyundai really needs that momentum to successfully establish and market Genesis as a separate brand along the lines of Lexus and
Infiniti.
Exactly.
Right now, Hyundai is working on getting market acceptance and gaining market share.
There are more than a few owners here who are on their 2nd (or even 3rd) Genesis or have moved up to the Equus, w/ other indicated showing an interest in one of the forthcoming Genesis crossovers.
While Hyundai's margins probably aren't that great right now, they are still making $$ even w/ the discounts.
One reason is that Hyundai didn't have to spend $1.5 billion plus to launch a new luxury brand and build out a dealer network (which is also a reason why the Genesis is priced more like the 3 Series, as Hyundai didn't have to price in the cost of such things, among others).
And b/c Hyundai is offering a value proposition, a higher % of buyers are opting for the (profitable) equipment packages and/or for the V8.
For the month of March, Hyundai sold a total of
10,216 of its luxury sedans in Korea and the US.
Nissan can't touch those nos. w/ the Fuga/Cima/Q70 and I'll bet that's a good bit better than what Toyota does with the GS and LS in Japan and the US.
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