Hyundai Genesis Coupe Review

The Genesis Coupe Is Hyundai’s take on an affordable rear wheel drive sprots car? How well did they do?

The car is powered by two engine options, a four cylinder 2.0 turbo that makes 210 BHP and a 3.8 litre normally aspirated V6. This one above (also my girlfriends) is a V6. The Lambda V6 makes 306 BHP. The motor has gobs of torque oozing out of it, and no, this car has no leaks. The engine response is a bit off depending on where you had the throttle positioned. From what I understand the calibration of the electronic throttle is like this, nothing a tune can’t fix though. Unfortunately the car has a short redline ending your triumph of power at 6500 rpm. Luckily the car is mated to solid 6 speed manual so you can row gears all you’d like. The noise produced is a symphony, the thundering intake coupled with the crackling and barking exhaust is a delight all in its own. The video at the bottom has sound clips so make sure to watch after you read this!

The chassis is one I didn’t expect from Hyundai. It is extremely ridgid, steering is FAST and the car offers loads of grip. It even has back seats that can fit a big guy like me so that’s impressive all on its own. The weight for a car like this with the V6 ranges from 3,389–3,613 lbs depending on trim level (I will talk about trim in a bit). Unfortunately the car has Macpherson struts in the front. The geometry is great, there is little to no bumpsteer which is indicative of a good Macpherson setup. The most unfortunate part is the Macpherson setup takes a lot of room. As you can see we modified this car for autocross. One thing that helps a front heavy rwd vehicle is having a square wheel and tire setup. Because of the front suspension all we can fit in the front is a 9” wide wheel with a 255 section tire (without extensive modification of the fender). The rear easily gobbles a 10” with a 275 wide tire. Because of this we are left for a desire for more front grip. But in all honesty, this is the only thing that plagues the chassis.

Let’s talk about the trim levels. All apply to each engine. There is the base, the R-Spec (What we have above), the Track and lastly the Grand Touring/Premium. The base is the base, The Grand Touring adds cruise control, leather powered and heated seats, sunroof, automatic headlights. All the luxury bits. The R-Spec adds this over the base: tighter suspension, a Torsen LSD, massive Brembo stoppers. Hyundai even supplied camber bolts for the track so you can run a higher amount of negative camber for your track days (bro). The Track trim level combines both of the two, the performance bits and the luxury bits. Ironically the track is the heaviest model. The R-Spec is the serious model, only performance bits, none of that luxury to distract you. By the way, the Torsen differential is splendid, load the car up in a corner and roll into power and you can feel the differential locking and catapulting the car on corner exit.

Lets talk about long term ownership of the vehicle. I was with my girlfriend who bought this car at 38k miles. It currently sits at 93k miles. Within the span of mileage maintenance has been a breeze. Other than basic oil changes we have changed the spark plugs which requires removing the intake manifold, but the difficulty of pulling the intake manifold is as difficult as changing the spark plugs (Read: E Z). The clutch slave cylinder is internal of the transmission bellhousing. It failed and leaked fluid all over the clutch. Transmission pull time was about 2.5 hours even though Hyundai suggests 4 hours. Both of those numbers are low for pulling a transmission. Otherwise that is it. Car is super solid as a car and working on it is a breeze.

My question for this is why didn’t these sell more? Why hasn’t Hyundai kept this line of car on the market? The direct competitors in price and lineup would be the 370Z, GT86, and the Ford Mustang. Base price for one of these is 23k USD. That is cheaper than most except for a base V6 Mustang. The Genesis tops out at 33k for all of the bells and whistles and the R-Spec was around 28-29k. Comparing that to the base 370Z you may have been down a few ponies compared to the Z but the car CAME WITH SO MUCH MORE. To add the GT86 in the mix I want to compare the 2013+ models. Prices and trim levels were eerily consistent with the 2009-2012 models. BUT in 2013 the 2.0T made 274 BHP and the V6 made 348 bhp blowing the Japanese competition out of the water. To add Hyundai also had there amazing warranty! WHY WOULD YOU PICK ANYTHING ELSE? I know why. You wanna know why? Nah you don’t want to know. You sure? Okay. I’ll tell you. It’s because the car says Hyundai on the front and back. No one thought Hyundai could pull out such a high caliber car for that price market. People were skeptical and others didn’t want to say they paid 33k for the top of the line Hooundai. Hyundai is good now, they aren’t cheap econoboxes they are genuinely good cars. Hyundai has started another brand called Genesis to help mitigate these thoughts. Hopefully the coupe makes it into there lineup. For now though, I wouldn’t hesitate to own a Genesis Coupe because of the badge.

Thanks for reading guys. Above is my video review of the Genesis Coupe. Please give it a watch and a like. Click on the video so you can enjoy the beautiful sound of the Lambda V6. If you guys liked this article and video please subscribe as well. Plenty more to come! Thanks for checking it out everyone!