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Road Test : 2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe
Car Reviews

Road Test : 2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe

·
October 20,2013
·
11 min read

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While the new Toyota 86 has brought back affordable rear wheel driving motoring to the masses, causing even Nissan to drastically cut the price on their 370Z. However, people seem to forget that for a good few years now, Hyundai has offered the Genesis coupe and while it may not be the last word in handling precision, it is capable to the daily grind and quite a lot of fun for the weekend hoon.

 

The model was updated for 2013 with a price tag of AED 123,000 that’s puts it just below a fully specced 86 and about AED 20k less than a basic automatic 370Z. Does the Genesis coupe cut it as a sports car in this market? Is the low price being used to justify inherent shortcomings? The only way to find out is to get our hands on it and get the answers ourselves.

 

Style

The Hyundai Genesis Coupe is a great looking car. It has all the visuals indicative of a proper performance car. The silhouette leans more towards the car being a grand tourer with  its long nose and sizeable proportions, but it sits well on the roads.

 

The front has been made a bit fussier over the previous model. Hyundai has thrown in the customary daytime running LEDs which are fit into the front bumper and some very cheesy fake bonnet air scoops. If its not functional, why fit it Hyundai? That does lead to a very wanna-be feel which the Hyundai really doesn’t need.

 

The rest of the car looks fantastic. There are two distinct character lines that run down the side of the car. The first starts behind the front wheel arch and ends at the kink in the car’s window (basically at the B pillar) and the second starts from the door handle and ends up over the car’s rear lights and into the boot lip. Two fat shapely exhausts poke out of the rear giving people no doubt of the car’s inclination towards performance.

 

The package is rounded off with 19 inch 5 double spoke alloys that hide red callipered Brembos. The white on our test car is not the ideal colour. We’ve seen the Coupe in red and blue on the roads and find those to look much better.

 

That said and done, I am itching to see if this has the go to match the show.

 

Interior space and comfort

 

Open the long driver’s door and you are greeted by an enthusiastic two tone interior. The dash, steering wheel and tops of the doors are decked in black soft touch plastics while the seats and centre arm rests are clad in red. It makes for a very inviting interior. The seats are semi-leather and while they look very well contoured, they are ok for comfort but below average for actually holding you in your seat when cornering hard. The real issue though is that the seats don’t drop low enough to give you a proper legs out driving position. This is probably down to the drivers seat being electric as the passenger seats drops to a nice low position.

 

Interior finishing and technology

Materials are also very average. I think this is why Hyundai still doesn’t have a rep to match its rivals. Lot of hard scratchy plastics are littered across the cabin. The cheesy acceleration percentage, torque and oil temperature dials on the centre console are also really unnecessary. At no point in time did I want to know what percentage of the accelerator pedal I had left to depress and if they wanted to emulate the Veyron and show much torque is still in reserve, atleast put it on the dashboard in the line of sight and not low down by the gear lever.

 

For a performance model, the steering wheel is another disappointment. Theres nothing wrong with it, but it looks to be lifted straight out of the ordinary saloons offered by the Korean company and its just not inspiring. Its down right dull. The dials are nice and bright and read out well. However, there is not much else in terms of options. A tiny screen with a light blue background is almost illegible during the day with sunlight falling on it and theres a distinct lack of gadgetry to fool around with. The sound system in itself is quite nice but there was a distinct lack of reception when using the radio. The nicest touch are illuminated sill plates with ‘GENESIS’ glowing as you open the door and it lends a nice quality touch to the package.

 

The general feeling is that Hyundai could have done a little bit more to distinguish its performance model – added a few special touches.

 

Drive performance

Push on the start button beside the steering column and the 3.8 litre V6 rumbles into life. With 300bhp and 400Nm of torque, you depress the pedal with a little bit of care but soon realise that driven ordinarily, the car is a doddle to potter around town in. The steering is quite heavy requiring you to really use your shoulders at low speeds, but otherwise, the throttle is not overtly sensitive and the brakes are nice and progressive. Yeps….this really does fulfil that mini-GT tag mentioned earlier by being a pretty usable car. That is until you try and fit someone in the back. It’s not the lack of rear legroom thats the issue but more so the fact that your passengers will be required to detach their heads from their shoulders to sit in the back. The head room is abysmal and only children less than 5 feet of height could fit in there.

 

Fuel consumption

As you drive along, you tend to wonder whether the claimed power figures are true. The engine pulls adequately from low down, but never feels particularly powerful. Couple this to an 8 speed transmission that keep shifting up at the earliest possible point and you wonder where the excitement is. The benefit of all those ratios is a better fuel economy figure than the previous model. While highway driving can be maintained at 8-10 litres/ 100kms, the truth is you’ll most likely average about 12-13 litres/ 100 kms when you factor in the city crawl.

 

Suspension

The suspension does err on the firm side and can get crashy over uneven surfaces – probably down to this big, heavy looking rims - but in general is still forgiving enough for regular use. It’s allows for sedate motorway cruises at upto highway speeds. The car also doesn’t ride too low so you can still get over most sleeping policemen and come in close to a curb without the fear of a scrape or two.

 

The Genesis Coupe is not going to win any awards tomorrow but it does go about its business in an inoffensive manner.

 

Power and acceleration

To call the Genesis Coupe a sports car is a bit of a stretch. It’s a fast car, no doubt – 300bhp and 400Nm of torque will take you to the tonne in just under 6 seconds – but it does lack the driving precision associated with that term. Unfortunately, UAE gets the engine carried forward from the previous model but in other regions, there is an uprated version of the V6 with 348bhp. That would definitely pep things up.

 

Transmission

The power delivery is a bit peaky with horsepower and torque really building up at the top of the rev range. This is where its mating to the 8 speed automatic falls apart a bit because the transmission needs to drop 4, even 5 gears when you stomp on the loud pedal before falling into the thick of the power band. I did ache for a manual throughout my time with the car because with 8 gears, the car is always hunting through the transmission to pick the right one and transmission will not hold on to gears, shifting up at every chance it gets to do so.

 

The Genesis always feels heavy whether accelerating or cornering. The steering doesnt give any decent feedback and lacks consistency, changing between heavy and light as you go from lock to lock.

 

Handling

High speed cornering usually results in understeer, in no small part due to the sheer weight but being rear wheel drive, you can give it a boot-full and have the rear swing around. If you do so, traction control does cut in sharply and kills the fun completely so if you want to push this car, you should take it to a track with wide areas and switch the electronics off to really get the most of it. Hyundai claims to offer a limited slip differential but to be very honest, I never really felt it work. The fat tyres provide ample lateral grip but once physics takes over, there’s not much chassis trickery to dip into. And also, while those Brembo brakes with the bright red callipers look set to be taken to a track, the truth is that they serve up average stopping power and never really inspire confidence. The brakes will haul you to a stop but the pedal requires a firm shove and always feels like its digging deep into the meat of its braking power to bring the car down from just highway speeds.

 

The good bit though is that this is a car you can really go broke in replacing rear tyres because if you switch traction control off, those rear wheels will spin up everytime you prod the accelerator. Spec a manual if the local dealers will oblige and you get a drift racer straight out of the showrooms. Its not a mature way of driving but it sure is fun to go around every corner sideways like a lunatic.

 

Verdict

To sum things up, lets put away any misconceptions now and admit that the Genesis Coupe is not a sportscar. It’s a fast coupe. Its like a boxer that didn’t make it – strong arms and shoulders but a bit tubby around the midriff. That lets us dismiss the Toyota 86 and Nissan 370Z as being rivals to the porky Korean.

 

This is a handsome coupe with a grunty engine that you can use everyday and hoon around in should the petrol-head in you take over. This is a rear wheel drive alternative to the Renault Laguna Coupe, the Honda Accord Coupe and the Nissan Altima Coupe. Just as quick but with the added pleasure of drifts on demand. The Hyundai does not have the best materials but it makes up with keen pricing and that makes it a promising contender for anyone looking to buy a coupe at this price level.

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