Greetings Web Rides faithful, Big_Blocker here to talk about something that I have been thinking about quite a lot in the last couple weeks, the Hyundai Genesis. I can’t quite figure out if I can shake the age old idea that Hyundai makes crappy cars that are somewhat reliable but lack the overall quality that allows them to be called anything other than a P.O.S. import. Hit the jump to read more about the move by Hyundai to revamp their reputation from crappy car maker to a legit contender in the luxury market.

Now in the past I have referred to anything made by Hyundai with little more than four letter words and a scoff of disdain. However after seeing countless commercials in which Hyundai brags that their new Genesis Sedan is sooooo much better than a BMW 550i or a Mercedes E550 at cornering, I thought I would look into this matter a little further. Now, there is no doubt many of you have seen the aggressive marketing campaign Hyundai is in the midst of promoting in which they have numerous commercials showing the new Genesis with claims that it is faster or better than certain established luxury and performance cars in some aspect of performance. I spent some time on the Genesis site watching their comparison videos and I found some pretty interesting stuff.

There are several videos on the Genesis site including: zero to 60 races, braking from 70 mph, cornering and slalom, each time with a Porsche, Mercedes or BMW losing. Now to anyone who doesn’t know much about cars, the fact that a Hyundai was faster than a BMW 750i in the zero to 60 mph would come as a surprise, but let us get a better comparison of these two cars first. The Genesis is powered by a 4.6 L V8 that makes 375 horsepower while the BMW is powered by a twin-turbo V8 that makes 400 horses (a 25 horsepower difference). In the zero to 60 race, the BMW was slower by .2 seconds, Hyundai claiming a legit win. However let us take a look at the weight of the cars. Genesis: 4,000 pounds BMW: 4,400 pounds. With only a 25 horsepower advantage and a 400 pound disadvantage, it is no wonder the boat-like BMW lost to the more nimble Genesis. That is like me pitting my 01 Ram in a drag race with a commercial delivery truck: OF COURSE I AM GOING TO WIN, I WEIGH A S*** TON LESS!.

After watching the next race I almost threw my hands skyward and pretended to pray to some magical form of car god asking how Hyundai could be so brainless. They pitted a 2008 Porsche Boxster against a Genesis for zero to 60 run to show how quick the Genesis was. First I would like to say that anyone who knows anything about Porsche knows that the Boxster is the base model Porsche that lacks real guts and is only produced so that people who have the money but not the driving skills for a Carrera can still own a sports car and elevate their low self esteem.

When it comes to comparing stats, it is no wonder that the Hyundai won the race by nearly a second. Although the Porsche is slimmer by nearly 1,000 pounds, it loses 130 horsepower to the Genesis due to a lackluster 2.7 L engine that only makes 200 pound feet of torque when compared to the 264 pound feet made by the Genesis. That doesn’t even mention the fact that they chose a 1/4 mile race to compare the two cars, with low end torque being one of the largest factors in winning on the quarter.

The last battery of comparisons actually demonstrated to me that Hyundai had made a pretty decent car. The braking, slalom and cornering tests all showed that The Genesis was marginally better than the BMW 550i and the Mercedes E550. And when I say marginally better, I mean marginal. The Genesis had a skidpad of .94 G’s to the BMW’s .90. The only real improvement over the two Euros came in the braking test in which it bested the two by an average of about 14 feet, not saying much for BMW or Mercedes braking. With this taken into consideration, something else should be said before coming up with a final verdict on the Hyundai. People who buy BMW and Mercedes products don’t necessarily care that their car is the best performer. Hell if I had the money for a BMW and simultaneously wanted performance I would get an M5. The Euros are status symbol cars that are not always about performance, but rather more about: “Look at me I have a lot of money and can afford such amenities as 18 zone climate control and seats that massage my fat ass in traffic”.

All in all, the Genesis is not a bad car for the money, however I do not feel that Hyundai will ever have the reputation of the BMW’s or Mercedes Benz’s of the world. Just my thoughts though, Big_Blocker out.