Sometimes first impression are everything. Back about 1992 or so a woman I worked with asked me if I could look at her car, a first-generation Excel like the junker above, who complained that the steering wheel wouldn't return to center when she made turns. Obviously something was amiss with her power steering hydraulic system and rather than volunteer to investigate further than a brief test drive I told her to get the car to a mechanic ASAP. The worst part was the car had very low mileage and aside from literal killer-steering otherwise appeared to be in great shape. Oh, except for an innate cheapness that permeated every square inch of the damn thing from stem to stern. I thought the styling atrocious as well. The car was a complete turd and I vowed then that no Hyundai would ever set tire in my garage.
No Hyundai ever has since although a Hyundai Genesis Coupe like this came close fairly recently when my older son was shopping for a car. He was smitten with his aunt's husband's Genesis Coupe and part of me thinks he went with the 2017 Chevrolet Camaro he ended up buying because we couldn't find a Genesis Coupe for him to even test drive. My sister in law's husband had long given his Genesis back after the lease expired on it so there was no chance at him test driving his. Besides, they live like twelve hours away. However, when my son was looking for a car that Genesis Coupe left a strong enough impression with him that he didn't forget about it.
I can't say I blamed him for liking the lines of the Genesis Coupe either. Frankly, I like the styling on these cars better than even the 2010-2015 retro-chic Chevrolet Camaro and even more so than the current crop of Camaro's like my son has. His '17 Camaro, incidentally, is a delightful car to drive although I think it ugly and visibility is a joke. He loves it, thinks it's cool and that's all that matters. He's making the payments on it too so I ain't got no dog in that hunt.
These cars were world-beaters too. A 2011 Car and Driver comparison test of a Genesis Coupe V-6 against a similarly powered Dodge Challenger, Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro had the editors of C&D pegging the Hyundai first. Imagine that.
Based on the underpinnings of the first Genesis sedan, albeit with a shortened wheelbase and no V-8 engine option, Hyundai checked most of the boxes that fans of sporty or "pony" cars ascribe too. That being rakishly handsome styling with at least a dollop of performance pretense whisked in. However, that's the recipe that us oldster pony\sporty car fans remember and we didn't know better. Our ponies of yore rode and handled like squeaky old trucks compared to even performance cars from a decade ago. Today's performance cars, even performance cars from a decade ago, perform at levels that exotic cars from when we were kids performed at. Most likely better.
The Hyundai Genesis Coupe didn't sell well which was a shame and these days they're oh-so-rare unlike dime a dozen Camaro's, Mustang's and Challenger's. Hyundai killed off the Genesis Coupe after the 2016 model year and while they hinted at a replacement model to be launched under the new "Genesis" line, one with a turbocharged 3.3-liter turbo V-6, it never came to be.
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