Hyundai Genesis Coupe: A Genuine Muscle Car?
The Genesis coupe — shown in a Hyundai Super Bowl spot hot-dogging around Georgia’s Road Atlanta racetrack — arrives at dealerships late this month. It’s a rear-wheel-drive two-door, but can it compete with genuine muscle cars — specifically the Nissan 370Z and Detroit’s latest Mustang/Camaro/Challenger set? Hyundai thinks it can, but it also says that isn’t the car’s main goal.
At the Chicago auto show, product manager Derek Joyce said the Genesis coupe instead “has its own space.”
“Will it compete with Detroit muscle?” he asked. “Maybe. Will it compete against front-drivers like the [Honda] Civic Si? Sure.”
The key, Joyce said, is for Hyundai to completely separate itself from the front-wheel-drive competition – a key step for the automaker to prove its performance potential. Right now, the market segment the Genesis coupe will occupy is relatively vacant.
Hyundai USA chief executive John Krafcik explained: The base Genesis coupe carries a 210-hp, turbo four-cylinder that will be very tuner-friendly. With it, the carmaker targets a group that has “incredible reverence for the old Nissan 240SX.” Nissan’s erstwhile coupe, which left the U.S. market after the 1998 model year, had rear-wheel drive but modest power. Still, it found its following in the aftermarket tuner crowd.
Those performance enthusiasts rank among “the most credible influencers in the industry,” Krafcik said. “If you’re off their radar screen, you lose that credibility.”
With the available 306-hp, 3.8-liter V-6, Hyundai has said the production Genesis coupe will hit 60 mph in under 6 seconds. That’s quick, but the car will need to fall well under that mark to match the 370Z and Detroit’s V-8 contenders. Consider: On a drive of an early prototype last summer, Motor Trend reported that GM was working to get the Camaro to hit 60 mph in just under 6 seconds — with the V-6. The new Z, which we’ve driven, is much quicker still.
Then again, Hyundai doesn’t seem too interested in winning any stoplight wars. It’s hunting down performance enthusiasts, and aftermarket tuners in particular. Mind-blowing acceleration from a stock engine may not rank as high as bulletproof durability and a low starting price. Just ask Honda, whose Civic has found legions of aftermarket diehards.
The economy certainly weighs into the equation, too — car enthusiast or not, job instability puts big-ticket purchases on hold. Krafcik noted as much: “Coupes can be tricky,” he said. “Often they’re a discretionary purchase. We’re being very cautious in the first-year [sales projections].”
Still, if the Genesis coupe can be a true catalyst for building the Korean brand’s performance reputation, the 3.8-liter model may not take the lead. Hyundai hinted as much, dubbing the V-6 a Grand Touring car — that’s code for more country two-laner, less racetrack hairpins. Rather, look for the $22,000 turbo model to be ground zero for tuner action. It may not compete directly with traditional muscle cars, but if Hyundai can catch fire with a different sort of performance enthusiast, the Genesis coupe will have served its mission.
