By the Way, I Got a New Car

It’s been a while since I wrote anything about the car search. To be honest, it came to an abrupt end. I didn’t drive everything I wanted to, but in the end, a dealer made an offer I couldn’t refuse. I went with the Hyundai Genesis. I really liked the car the first time I drove it. By the time the dealing was done and factoring in insurance, the cost was less than the Optima I had. I’ve actually been driving it now for a couple months. It’s taken me a bit to get to the point where I felt like sitting down to write. I figure that’s ok anyway, because it gave me a chance to really get to know the car before I wrote about it.

So let’s start by going through my list of requirements and see how the Genesis matches up. 

NEW – yep. It’s a 2016. It had less than 50 miles on the clock.

AFFORDABLE – I got a great deal on this car. My Optima was close to base, no options. This is a car that Hyundai is trying to position against BMW and Mercedes, and I’m paying less than I did for the Kia.

AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION – yep. 8 speed with paddle shifters. It gets really touchy about letting you hold the gears too long in manual mode though.

AWD/4WD – It’s rear-biased AWD. It has a “snow” mode. The one brief opportunity I had to use it, it was pretty good.

SEATS 4+ - It seats 4 no problem. Five looks doable but it might not be comfortable for the person in the middle.

WIFE’S APPROVAL – This actually was a hard one. It was dusk when we pulled in to the dealer, and the lights on the lot at that time of day made the car look like an odd shade of brown (it’s red). It’s also big. She was won over by the features and the comfort.

The car checked all the boxes for the needs. What about the wants?

SEATS 4 COMFORTABLY –There’s plenty of leg room, and the seats are comfortable enough. With two in back there’s still plenty of room. There have been complaints about the seatbelt being hard to reach, and my mom had a hard time not accidentally hitting the seat warmer button. I’ll go with mostly there in this area.  

25 MPG COMBINED – We fall a little short here. The Genesis has a 3.8 liter, naturally aspirated direct injected engine. It pushes out 311 horsepower. In a world of turbocharging and supercharging and twin-charging and hybridizing It feels a little old fashioned. That 311 HP is pushing a little over 2 tons of car via AWD. It’s not the most efficient thing in the world. On the other hand, I’ve been getting around 23 MPG on average for my daily commute, so it could be worse.

HEATED/COOLED SEATS – I got the heated part, and the rear seats are heated too. There is an option for cooled seats, but I would have had to get a bunch of other things I didn’t want along with them. It wasn’t worth the price.

HEATED STEERING WHEEL – YES! My wife made fun of me for this one until we had a cool day and she used it. I don’t think I’ll ever go back.

REMOTE START – sort of. This is one of the few issues I have with this car. The only way to get remote start from Hyundai for this car is through their app. Which is an extra charge. Which I will pay, because I can preheat my car in the winter and precool it in the summer. I will still grumble about it. My understanding is this will be complimentary in future versions of the car, when it becomes the Genesis G80.

USABLE CARGO SPACE – The trunk is pretty big. I managed to get two six foot (portable) folding tables and three camping chairs in it with no fussing. You could probably fit several pieces of luggage in there, or maybe two or three bodies. I probably wouldn’t use it for hauling bodies though, or yard and garden stuff. It’s too nice to dirty it up.

FUN TO DRIVE – The Genesis is not a sports car by any stretch of the imagination. That said, it’s by no means slow. The 311 HP I mentioned above moves the car easily. If you step down on the pedal at 65 the power rolls on pretty much instantly.  The car lets you know it’s go plenty more to give and it’s happy to do so. It makes a happy grunting sound when you step on the gas that may be at least partially simulated and pumped through the speakers, I can’t tell. But it’s a fun sound, like it wants to be driven hard. The car feels planted in corners for a big sedan and doesn’t waddle all over the place like say an old Crown Vic or a new Impala would. At the same time the suspension is soft enough that you don’t rattle your teeth out on Rhode Island’s fantastically cratered roadways. It smooths out the road without disconnecting you from it. Steering is right in the middle, not overly sensitive, but not sloppy. There’s a sport mode. I’m not entirely sure what it actually does. It appears to change the gear mapping and tighten the steering. That could all be psychological. It does appear to make a noticeable difference at least in fuel economy.

That’s all well and good. But I spend a lot of time commuting in heavy traffic and crawling along at 25 miles an hour. Speed and handling don’t do me much good there. What the Genesis does offer in this situation is a very comfortable seat. It’s possibly second only to a Volvo S60 in this area. The sound system is good and the radio controls are fairly intuitive, with a voice command system that actually works pretty well. Apple CarPlay is available, but I haven’t installed it at this point. So while commuting isn’t really ever fun, at least it’s relatively pleasant.

It will be interesting to see what happens as the Hyundai stands up Genesis as a separate brand. This car, renamed the G 80 for the 2017 model year is the pivot point, along with an Equus replacement. I think it has the quality and enough of an upscale feel to hang with the Lexus and Mercedes crowd without all the badge snobbery. Hyundai is also promising white glove top notch service from the Genesis dealerships. This will be a necessary component, especially given that there will be no standalone Genesis dealers to start. I’m a little skeptical of the plan. Hyundai dealerships have never impressed me as being detail oriented or refined. The one I got my car from is crowded, dark, and didn’t strike me as being terribly clean. They are building a new building, so that may change. At this time however, they are not on the list to get the full Genesis line. That may be inconvenient when it comes time for another round of car shopping.