This is a friend’s car. The engine blew. He got a new engine. The hood cable was never reconnected. Welcome schmucks, to a Genesis Coupé.

The Hyundai Genesis Coupe is a weird car. Start with the name: it’s a Hyundai, called a Genesis, specified to be a coupe. Only for Genesis to be spun off into its own brand soon after. I’m not sure what they where smoking but it probably wasn’t the good shit over at the product development and marketing office. Then the car itself is weird. I can’t tell if it wants to be a Nissan Z competitor or a Mustang/Camaro rival. It’s a large-ish 2 door RWD coupe, with rear seats, a manual, and a comfy enough ride and interior. But its also got an an 3.8L v6 that revs faster than it has any right to, and pulls hard enough to make using the gas pedal exciting.

This is the face lifted version, which sharpens the styling a good bit but also makes it looks like a fish. Like a happy trout or something. It’s very much it’s own design, for better and worse.

The weirdness doesn’t stop at the name or the styling. This car is fun, make no mistake there. It moves nicely and handles well. But the car doesn’t seem to know what it is. Like it was born into a family yelling at it to be both a fast revving sports car and and muscle gt car.

The Ultimate edition loads the car up with both creature comforts and performance. So the comfy heated seats, full infotainment system, rear spoiler, 4 pot Brembos, lsd, etc.

You slide on into the car, and are greeted with a smell of premium Hyundai. Smells like a car salesman’s cologne. The leathers inside feel fine, although most of what you’ll touch is still from the same plastic extrusion cesspool as an Elantra. The infotainment system looks incredibly dated, and reminds me of an early 2010’s cell phone. A lot of blue. The cabin is still a nice place to be, front seats are comfy, heated, and while cheap in some aspects, there is an attempt to make it feel nice. Plus the plastics I mention still looked better than whatever GM shit out at the time. The shifter is its own mess that I’ll get to later, but for now I’ll leave you with this: why is it square?

The engine to me was the biggest surprise. The naturally aspirated 3.8L v6 revs faster than it has any right to, which makes rev matching quite fun. The car accelerates with decent urgency, and the torque can still be felt nicely from the drivers seat. The passenger is hit well into the seat back when you get on the gas. Honestly, the engine is fun to play with and rev out. The exhaust note is a bit subdued, but doesn’t sound overly trumpety. The car burbles on downshifts, but it kinda sounds like kicking a can down the road.

The transmission, specifically the shifter, is an odd letdown. The throws are too long, and feels like you’re playing with your dick when you move it. And the knob isn’t a sphere, or some odd round shape that somehow works (…BMW…) but it’s this plastic rectangular assembly stuck to the top do the lever. There’s no visible way to take it off (though I’m sure there is), and it just feels like crap. It just barely fits my hand comfortably (from an ergonomic perspective), and there’s absolutely no weight in the plastic knob. The throw also doesn’t get much better. The actual engagement has a good feeling, but the throw is long and way to light, vague even.

If it wasn’t for the off putting shifter design, I’d probably have a lot nicer to say about it. Pairing this shifter with that engine is like graduating from engineering school and designing brackets for five years. Maybe you have potential, but please go optimize this L-bracket to mount a bottle in an f15.

Shifter aside, the rest of the car is fairly well sorted. The car has little body roll, and is relatively composed up to its limit. It has decent grip around the “high speed corners” we have near Daytona, and corner out is decent though you need to be mindful with the gas and roll. Lower speed, you’ll feel the rear step out, and while you can control it, you feel the car move around a fair bit. The car loves to spin its tires, wet or dry, and isn’t too bad to control. Traction control will keep you in check, and do so with swift and harsh justice.

The brakes used to be good, being brembo 4 pots front and rear. They aren’t anymore in this car.

Steering is quick but a little light. And the rear seats will not be the most comfy place.

So, WTF is a Genesis Coupe? I still don’t know. A WRX inspires more corner confidence, but at the cost of a worse interior, and a v8 Mustang or Camaro beat this car with looks, noise, and grunt, but obviously they do. When new, a 2016 SS started at around 4-5k higher than a Genesis Coupe Ultimate Edition. A v6 muscle car will still have the looks factor, while the coupe will offer you a better experience for more money. A 370Z lives in the same ballpark while having the legacy of the Z car to rest on. And that’s not even getting to the owners of these cars. My friend is an aerospace engineering student, design missiles, and tracks a triumph Daytona. The prior owner was a grandma. Then you have people like this:

Granted, I can’t say much, the z3 community is a mix of ultra-purists who question why you’d want to upgrade the OEM brakes (I wouldn’t trust them to track but whatever) and the Z3 Filth Facebook community (fun times). and don’t get me started on Subarus…

I guess it’s was prelude of things to come from Hyundai. People didn’t think much of the car then, and even now people still don’t. Modern Hyundai N cars have better body control and are nicer places to sit in, though don’t offer the dumb RWD fun the coupe still can. The Genesis is an odd thing. A very fun, if not confusing car.