2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 GT Review

[ahmed_7erzon]

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.

A toy for big boys
After waking up its 306 horses with the touch of a button, drivers put them to work via a beefy shifter and heavy clutch. Use of one's bicep and thigh muscles are required to drive and shift this car, but it pulls them into the experience and rewards them for their efforts. Genesis Coupe remains entertaining regardless of its fairly hefty size and weight, and it offers up flat cornering, a sharp and heavy steering feel and a slippery but predictable rear end if drivers push too hard. The tester was fitted with snow-tires on my mid-March test-drive, though it managed a locked-down and stable feel in fast corners.

Upon exiting said corners, drivers can exploit a meaty powercurve that starts just off idle, and stays on strong until near the 6,500 RPM redline. A loud, infectious and semi-exotic howl is available at any prod of the throttle, and it's accompanied by a notable ramp-up in forward momentum-- and in the roaring yelp from the factory short-ram air intake.

In all, Hyundai's got this engine dialed in beautifully. Drivers will love blasting its sound off of nearby buildings and tunnel walls, and there's no need to install an aftermarket exhaust or intake, because it's already that loud. Heck, there isn't even a plastic engine cover to muffle escaping sound effects.

The traction control system is set up nicely, too. It's extremely sensitive and effective when left on, dials itself back in the snow, and can be dismissed fully with a simple button press for on-demand wheelspin. If that's your thing, you can make your buddies in front-drive coupes jealous that your car can drift, like in those youtube videos.

There's one complaint regarding the traction control, though. Even an imperceptibly small amount of wheelspin kills the throttle for a second or two-- which may pose a safety concern when, say, passing an 18-wheeler.

The bang-for-the-buck benchmark?
Pricing came in at $36,495 for the six-speed, six-cylinder 'GT' tester with navigation, Infinity audio, leather seating, Bluetooth and a sunroof. This puts the highest performance and most heavily-equipped version of the Genesis Coupe into the same pricing ballpark a base-model, V8-powered competitor.

And, unlike cheaper six-cylinder powered versions of machines like the Camaro or Mustang, the Genesis 3.8 doesn't mean settling for second-best with the smaller engine, either. It's also nearly $10,000 cheaper than a comparably-equipped Nissan 370Z.

For thirty-six-five with all the toys, you'll have trouble doing this well for the money elsewhere. End of the day, where bang for the buck is concerned, the Genesis Coupe 3.8GT is like a three-dollar bag of dynamite.

[*mErO*]

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