Car 2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track

William Maley
Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com
August 21, 2013

Read any recent reviews of Hyundai vehicles? If you have, then I'm sure you have noticed a trend. A number of reviews (including mine) have included some variation of this line: 'Hyundai is a fast learner and the next or refreshed model will be great.'

Case in point, the Genesis Coupe. When the Genesis Coupe went on sale in 2009, eyebrows were raised. A year before, Hyundai unveiled the Genesis sedan and people were trying fathom the idea of a rear-drive Hyundai. Much like the sedan, the Genesis Coupe was mostly well-received aside from a few problems; the gearbox was a bit of a mess, the brakes needed some work, and the handling was a bit of a handful. Fast forward to 2012 and Hyundai gave the Genesis Coupe a massive refresh to address those problems.

I recently spent a week with a 2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track to see if the mantra of 'the next model will be better' works or not, and find out if it deserves to be on the list of sports cars.






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I have been so smitten by the Hyundai Genesis ever since it came out. I feel like I have to have one, however, I'm not feelin' the look of this coupe. It may be all business on the inside, as the writer says, but I also agree with him that "they" have made it ugly on the outside. I don't like it. I still want to get a Genesis (love them), just not this model.

 

I really don't like the look of them

 

You like this coupe pictured here?

I just love that Hyundai Genesis. They are such a smooth looking machine, ugh! I have to have one.

So you heard complaints about the weight in the earlier models? You must be saying that the complaint was that they weren't weighty enough? Is that right? If so, I can understand that.

 

Wait, I have to amend some things here. About the Hyundai Genesis, okay so I went online just now to google pictures of this coupe to see if perhaps there was a picture or two that might make me change my mind about how I feel about this vehicle. While online, I decided to Google the Genesis as well because, although I have seen a couple Genesises in person that I have loved, I have not really looked at pictures of them online.

Let me just say that some of the Genesises that are in google pics are not all that great. Some are, but some are not. That being said, I still like the Genesis, but it has to have a certain type of look to it for me to like it. As far as this coupe goes, ehh, it's okay I guess. Still not really feelin' it.

 

You don't think they look all that bad? Okay. We can agree to disagree. That big hole in the front of the car is kind of making me itch. They could smooth out that grill just a bit if you ask me.

 

Yes, the grill section. And true, it might be less open than some other cars, but I just don't like the way that grill looks, slanted on the top corners and just a gaping hole. Perhaps if it was longer east to west, and shorter north/south, a more rectangular shape, I could deal with it better. I have not seen this picture in days, and looking at it again, it is still bugging me.

This forum is teaching me that I am much more superficial about certain things than I ever thought possible. Wow. Terrible.

The other day my son and I were at McDonald's and I saw a beautiful Hyundai pull up, an Equus maybe, I don't know, maybe it was a Sonata, but whatever it was, it was so fabulous. Just lovely!

 

Well, not terrible if one is looking at it from caring about the looks of a car, but I am applying life lessons to this. For lack of a better term, I am having a significant ah-ha moment here at Gearhead Central
(I really don't like saying ah-ha moment, because people automatically bring up Oprah, and to be honest I am just really not that into Oprah, so I don't like saying ah-ha moment, although I am sure that she did not invent this saying).

See, I have (kind of) always been the type of person to feel like I am so... so... noble, so righteous, so deep because I rarely judge a person by their looks. I mean, to me the way a person looks means practically nothing.
Don't get me wrong, I like the looks of pretty women and love the looks of fine men, but that is just nature, most people like to look at pretty things. But do I care if someone is pretty or not??, no, not really.
I mean, granted, I like going to the mall with my pretty women friends because they make me look good (this is sounding worse and worse), like "Hey, look at how beautiful my friend is." But on the same token, I'll go to the mall with my not so pretty friends and have a great time with them too.

However, some of my friends are totally not like that. Let's just say that many of them are extra superficial.

See, I am a girly-girl on the inside, but not on the outside. I need to lose a lot of weight before I could "fit" into that "girly girl looks" category... Anyway, I have this thing about me: I am not a hater. I don't have a jealous spirit, that combined with the fact that I love being around pretty things, I usually end up being friends with the prettier girls that in many cases other girls hate, OR don't trust, OR are jealous of.

Many of these girls (my friends), can really be consumed with looks: looks of a man, looks of another woman, even the looks of children.
Some of my male friends are the same way, they only want a pretty woman. Even if her attitude totally sucks, if she's pretty, she gets a pass, and they want her. And I get it. I totally get it. However...
I am always the one telling both my female and male friends that they care too much about looks, that looks should not matter to them so much, that they are so superficial I can hardly stand it!!
And yet, here I am, at Gearhead Central, totally not feelin' a car, a brand new car, because I don't like the way it looks!
ME doing this!! Wow. I finally really get it.

 

Ahh, you got jokes.

Yes, I understand about wanting a car that appeals to the eye, but in all of my talking (ranting and raving) to my friends about how they need to go deeper and lean towards a person's inner man instead of the outer shell, I have found that I am not above doing the same thing, and doing if often, albeit it with a car, but still, same premise.
It is like I am fully understanding my friends for the first time.

 

So very true about not judging a book by it's cover. Many people do though. Even when talking real books, I tend to pick up books that grab my visual attention via the cover, so yes, you are totally right. People do it all the time in regards to other people.
My thing is though, that I have never been like that, I wasn't that type of girl, not that type of woman. I just wasn't born like that, and I do believe that it is a certain spirit that people have that makes them very judgmental towards other people.

As I grew into a woman, I encountered many people that did not act like they looked. I was around fine men, that acted horribly, and they became not so fine to me anymore (it's weird to me how that happens). And I have been around men that some would consider unattractive, but once I got to know their personality, they became attractive.
Case in point, JayZ. Now, if I would have met JayZ back in the day when he was on the streets in New York, I would not have looked at him like, "Oh, he is gorgeous." But to me, these days, Jay Z is okay. A lot of the time, a man's work ethic is what makes him. If a man grinds, and he's half way decent, he's leaps and bounds above the competition.

Same thing with a woman. For a woman, beauty is always going to be her first worldly power, but if she does not, or can not, back it up with a good work ethic, she is through.
Like a beautiful Mercedes Benz with no engine under the hood. Pretty to look at, but it is not going anywhere.

All that being said, I judge a person by what they do, not by how they look, or what they say. So, when I'm preaching to my friends about how they should not be so superficial, I believe myself through and through, yet here I am, really starting to understand how they feel about being with someone based on their looks. I really get it now.

As far as the "blind" test-driving, that is a good idea. It would prove that people many times like a brand and not really the performance of a car. Me myself, I feel that I could tell if I was driving my type of car though, that is to say a BMW. To me, they have a certain type of "feel" to them, and I think that I could tell that I was driving one even if it had no inner or outer markings, I think just the handling of the ride itself would clue me in.

 

There is no such thing as a blind test. You can take all the logos off the car and I can still tell you who makes it. I would say that all my colleagues in the industry are the same way.