Are you a child of the eighties? If so, you know that Hyundai was building Ponies and Excels while we wore Hypercolor shirts and drooled over cars like the Nissan 300ZX, Mazda RX-7 and Toyota Supra.
Attainable dream cars like these mostly died off-- but the enthusiast community's love for them didn't. For years, thousands of shoppers prayed for an affordable, imported rear-drive sport-compact to return, perhaps as modern acknowledgment of an era when high-performance from across the pond was more affordable.
Hyundai's answered the call of these enthusiasts with their new Genesis Coupe. Designed to make us twenty-somethings remember the hot cars of our collective youth, it even shares its name with a video game console from the same era.
A Genesis for almost anyone
Genesis Coupe is fast becoming a headache for product planners at Ford, Nissan and Chevrolet, since it's flexing serious cut-price muscle in the face of cars like the Mustang, 370Z and Camaro.
All Genesis Coupe models are two-door, rear drive 2+2 seaters. Standard power comes from a 210 horsepower two-litre turbo four-cylinder engine, and a 3.8 litre, 306 horsepower V6 is available. Both come standard with a six-speed manual transmission, and a 'GT' model is available with either to add track-ready hardware like Brembo brakes, sport suspension and a limited slip differential.
The tester was a loaded Genesis Coupe 3.8 GT that came with all the options except the automatic transmission. Perfect!
Easy going performance
After some 2,000 kilometres at the wheel, your writer found the test car to be a highly livable and addictive coupe. Standard complaints regarding entry, exit and rear-seat space apply-- though the extra-wide body and generous front-seat space make it a comfortable ride for two occupants, even for the above average sized.
Despite the stiffer track-oriented suspension bolted to 19-inch wheels, the big coupe rode with an appreciable softness around the edges, too. It's low, wide and sticky, but it doesn't pummel driver's spinal column relentlessly over rough roads. Structural rigidity here rivals that of the average boulder-- so the Genesis feels solid and tight driven over just about anything. Goes like absolute stink, too.
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| Where bang for the buck is concerned, the Genesis Coupe 3.8GT is like a three-dollar bag of dynamite. (Photo: Justin Pritchard/Auto123.com) |
Attainable dream cars like these mostly died off-- but the enthusiast community's love for them didn't. For years, thousands of shoppers prayed for an affordable, imported rear-drive sport-compact to return, perhaps as modern acknowledgment of an era when high-performance from across the pond was more affordable.
Hyundai's answered the call of these enthusiasts with their new Genesis Coupe. Designed to make us twenty-somethings remember the hot cars of our collective youth, it even shares its name with a video game console from the same era.
A Genesis for almost anyone
Genesis Coupe is fast becoming a headache for product planners at Ford, Nissan and Chevrolet, since it's flexing serious cut-price muscle in the face of cars like the Mustang, 370Z and Camaro.
All Genesis Coupe models are two-door, rear drive 2+2 seaters. Standard power comes from a 210 horsepower two-litre turbo four-cylinder engine, and a 3.8 litre, 306 horsepower V6 is available. Both come standard with a six-speed manual transmission, and a 'GT' model is available with either to add track-ready hardware like Brembo brakes, sport suspension and a limited slip differential.
The tester was a loaded Genesis Coupe 3.8 GT that came with all the options except the automatic transmission. Perfect!
Easy going performance
After some 2,000 kilometres at the wheel, your writer found the test car to be a highly livable and addictive coupe. Standard complaints regarding entry, exit and rear-seat space apply-- though the extra-wide body and generous front-seat space make it a comfortable ride for two occupants, even for the above average sized.
Despite the stiffer track-oriented suspension bolted to 19-inch wheels, the big coupe rode with an appreciable softness around the edges, too. It's low, wide and sticky, but it doesn't pummel driver's spinal column relentlessly over rough roads. Structural rigidity here rivals that of the average boulder-- so the Genesis feels solid and tight driven over just about anything. Goes like absolute stink, too.
 |
| It's low, wide and sticky, but it doesn't pummel driver's spinal column relentlessly over rough roads. (Photo: Justin Pritchard/Auto123.com) |