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CAR Online has just driven Hyundai’s new rear-wheel drive Genesis Coupe. And it’s good. Very, very good. Hyundai hasn’t yet committed to bringing the car to the UK, but our first drive confirms that – like Barack Obama and the US – the Genesis Coupe would be a transformational character for Hyundai.

CAR getting hot under the collar about a Korean coupe? Are you well? Is the Hyundai Genesis Coupe that good?

Absolutely. We drove this car hard for three full days on everything from motorways to dual carriageways and the twistiest, emptiest back roads we could find. As you can tell, we came away impressed.

Don’t confuse this Genesis Coupe with the front-wheel drive variants Hyundai has been knocking out since the 1990s. This is an all-new rear-wheel drive platform developed not only for the Genesis Coupe, but also the Genesis saloon and the VI Equus – a large four-door saloon that posh Korean hotels use as taxis.

There are two basic versions to chose from: a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo making 207bhp and a 299bhp 3.8-litre V6 with six-speed manual and six-speed automatic transmissions. We sampled the larger engine with the auto gearbox, although it’s worth pointing out that any UK cars would be fine-tuned to suit our roads.

Put me in the driving seat.

Climb inside and you’ll sink into comfy leather seats, find plenty of headroom and clear, simple controls. The plastics covering the upper sections of the dash have a soft-touch quality feel to them, and while the quality deteriorates lower down and the centre console is a little bland, it’s hardly a deal breaker.

What’s particularly striking are the echoes of Infiniti G37 – the black dials that fade to blue at the edges, as though you’re looking at a solar eclipse; and there are even similarities in the seats, rooflining and the thin and tactile steering wheel.

Press the starter button and the deja vu continues: the V6’s hollow warble is strangely familiar and it can be no coincidence that, at 3.8-litres, the Hyundai out-punches the Nissan 370Z/Infiniti G37 by 100cc.


Full Story: Hyundai Genesis Coupe (2008) CAR review and video | Road Testing Reviews | Car Magazine Online


M

The front looks like the face of somebody who just had his balls kicked

I always had the same thinking about this car, "generically weird" ...!

Unfortunately it still looks like a mad man designed the front end...

While reading this, all i could think of was:

"Now that Korean manufacturers are doing RWD, when the hell will VW/Audi wake up?!"

Before everybody slags the design and has to put their foot in mouth - I'll remind you that the Hyundai's chief designer is ex-Mercedes Michael Fink, the same guy who penned the CLS and the W208 CLK.

I won't call the Genesis Coupe the styling triumph of the decade, but the scalloped-out window and beltline "dip" aft of the B-pillar is something new, and the car appears well composed in the metal. Its imperfect and slightly too homogenous in some details (notable the back lights), but is overall the most impressively styled Hyundai to date.

This is the product Hyundai has needed for a long time and it looks like they got it right. Shame that the car is debuting in the middle of the toughest times for the automotive industry in decades.

To Siko's point - It's really something that it took Hyundai of all companies to step up with a RWD platform for downmarket consumers. Honda? VW? Scion?

i just can't get pass the front lights.

I guess I don't see what all fuss is about. For a Koren car this thing is gorgeous IMO. Sure its a poor man's G37 Coupe but still.

M

It personally reminds me too much of those past Hyundai Coupes, which might not be a good thing considering that Hyundai is targeting the premium market with this vehicle.

They won't. I dunno about VW, but the stubborn asses at Audi must think they're being all different and against-the-grain by offering drivetrain configurations that don't work for premium brands. Best to just stick with quattro or 4motion