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What is it?

Hyundai's first attempt to build a serious luxury saloon capable of challenging BMW, Lexus and Mercedes. Hyundai executives describe the Genesis as being the car they "always wanted to build" - a full-sized executive saloon with rear-wheel drive and a choice of two V8 engines to power it.

The Genesis is clearly aimed at the American market, where Hyundai boasts that it offers the space of a 7-Series, the pace of a 5-Series and the cost of a 3-Series. We sampled t...Read the full article

Autocar:

Dynamically, it feels good by the standards of the American market.

Well if that isn't damning with faint praise, I don't know what is.

Seriously though, were I in the market for a car that scrapes 15mpg round town, looks like a cheap Chinese knock-off 5-Series and depreciates faster than a falling piano, this would be top of my list.

So what is it? A 7 series rival? It sounds OK, but we aready have the very slow selling VW Phaeton in this role, and I rather think that is likely to be a vastly superior offering. Why didn't Steve mention it? It doesn't sell because it doesn't have the badge. So what hope has the Hyundai? Let's face it, the Phaeton provided the underpinnings for the Bentley Continent GT and Flying Spur. Again, what hope has the Hyundai, unless it is priced alongside the Superb? No, I can understand why it is not coming to Europe.

Yup, definately a white elephant, even in the States, with fuel prices going through the roof and the credit crunch taking place. This car is a decade late.

 Oh, and the picture of the engine, (why bother - all we ever see is a nice plastic cover design these days), states that this is a V6.

So I suppose Hyundai make no apology for makinfg the front like a Mercedes, middle like a Passat and the rear like a 5 Series.

While the interior trim compares to the standard set by the Germans, the ride can only compete with the Americans!!! and this is the car they always wanted to build!!!

Stick to the bread and butter stuff.

Guys, you're foolish if you don't take this car seriously.  Hyundai have already shown that they can compete with the best with the i30, and they are going all guns blazing with this one.  Its capabilities (at the first attempt, I remind you) indicate not only what they can do in this category, but their potential for the other ones...

Jon Hardcastle:

Stick to the bread and butter stuff.

Oh dear. The badge snobbery here is highly entertaining. Entertaining like Bernard Manning was entertaining.

"Stick to bread and butter stuff". This is exactly the kind of garbage that people were spewing back in the late 1970s, when Datsun and Toyota had the temerity to rise above their station in life and produce (gasp) sports cars and (bigger gasp) executive cars.

The arrogant inability of US and European manufacturers to appreciate the threat posed by Japanese car makers in the 1970s is just one reason why (for example) GM is now going down the pan, and why modern Toyotas and Nissans are built in Europe.

Dynamically, any top flight Nissan or Toyota is (at the very least) the dynamic and equipment-laden equal of any equivalent European car.

Except when it comes to the badge.

In 15 years time, the likes of Hyundai will be up there with Porsche and BMW, and, Jaguar having long since disappeared, the UK PM will probably be being ferried around in one.

Dan McNeil:

In 15 years time, the likes of Hyundai will be up there with Porsche and BMW, and, Jaguar having long since disappeared, the UK PM will probably be being ferried around in one.

Uh huh...      8-)

Viscount Biscuit:

Yup, definately a white elephant, even in the States, with fuel prices going through the roof and the credit crunch taking place. This car is a decade late.

Just come back from the states - $2.14 a gallon in Orlando - yes very expensive! Thats what £1.42 a gallon on current exchange rate of 1.5ish. Wish we had fuel that cheap!

People under estimate the amount of "foreign" cars in the US - mazda are doing a roaring trade with the new Mazda 3 - yes fuel in america is too expensive for a 5.7 litre v8 truck - but a car this size is still acceptable in america - and you are in fact seen as down sizing!

I'm surpries Hyundai hasnt cottoned on t the idea that budget volume brands cant sell luxury cars in Europe - maybe it needs an equivalent Infiniti or Lexus nameplate to ease depreciation.

Stll with remapped Euro suspension and a low enough price tag it may sell in small numbers here.

This car has won a multitude of awards in North America and Hyundai in general has superior reliability (JD Power, Consumer Reports) when compared with Audi, BMW and VW - yep, the hallowed ground that Brits believe german built cars are unsurpassable in terms of build and reliability doesn't wash with the US & Canada - hence why the Japanese luxury divisions trounce them (Acura, Infiniti, Lexus).  And now Hyundai with the Genesis (btw, Hyndai offers one of the best warranties in the business and in NA they will even take your vehicle back if you lose your job!).  Don't underestimate this first attempt - the Japs are shaking!

Here's another gripe about the Autocar road test - it sounds like the car was pushed to its limits like it was meant to be racing car and then have the balls to complain about it kicking back a bit! I mean common, this thing was designed as a luxury cruiser, not a tearaway supercar.  Why doesn't Autocar do the reverse with the likes of an Ariel Atom or a Westfield or Lotus Elise and drive these kinds of vehicles for 3 plus hours on a motorway?  I bet their summary would be different then.