3-Series Killer? Hyundai Ponders Luxury Sibling For Equus And Genesis

Given how well the Genesis and Equus are executed, I cannot wait. I will be seeing the K900 soon and look forward to that as well. Hyundai-Kia needs to put its premium cars under the Genesis brand once and for all. Their premium models need to stand apart as Lexus does from Toyota.

While I am not a fan of Hyundai, I can appreciate their role which is similar to Lexus, Infiniti, and Acura.

They all force the German marques to stay competitive when it comes to standard features offered and reliability.

I meant to upvote this comment. Ugh. This commenting interface is so antiquated. Why the hell is the downvote placed before the upvote button and it's irreversible? Totally the opposite of Disqus.

You've clearly NOT driven a Genesis R Spec or a Genesis coupe or a...

Auto Spies loves to throw the "killer" word around quite a bit. Being that the Genesis and Equus haven't proven to "kill" any of their direct or supposed competitors, I'm more than a bit skeptical it can build a 3 Series "killer".

And agree with @aaronmmt. Hyundais (and Kias) get so much press, yet they typically only deliver average results.

Could not agree with you more.

I agree with all the above. I knew John Krafcik and know Dave Z and the Genesis and Equus have "names" vs stupid alpha numeric titles because they want folks saying I have a Genesis, or I have an Equus getting away from what was the stigma of driving a Hyundai. Remember when Hyundai was a joke? Anyhow since these cars are vastly different than the regular Hyundai fare, a new premium label might be best to further distinguish the regular line up, with their higher end vehicles.

How much do the Koreans pay this website?

My buddy is in the market for a new vehicle so we went up to Canarctica this weekend and checked out their autoshow. I was more interested to see these counterfeit cars in person.

We were the only 3 people who looked at the new Genesis and K900. It was like these things were invisible, crowds everywhere and then suddenly nothing.
Anyway, my friend who's shopping was impressed that the Koreans could copy a car so well and that fact Genesis was a Hyundai (they joked they'd have to google this new car maker Genesis), his main complaint was the leather felt plasticky, he currently drives an A4 3.0.
They did such a good job that they removed the H from the wheels and steering wheel, the H on the trunk lid will probably be removed during mid-cycle refresh.
My other friend was impressed with the Genesis but he isn't exactly rich. 45K in Canadian money doesn't sound that cheap to me. They didn't even bother to look at the KIA.

He decided on a Mercedes ML320 Bluetec. So as hyped up as Hyundai marketing can make their cars, people with money and dignity will still ignore them.

I wouldn't say people with dignity and money ignore them. Wealthy South Koreans (families where the patriarch is a doctor, etc.) take to them quite keenly, although they drive them alongside the Germans. They're generally priced a rung cheaper than their conventional equivalents (3-series money for a 5-series size car), so that's part of their appeal, as long as one isn't too concerned with the rear badge, which you can always replace after market, as is done from the factory on the Korean domestic models. I personally don't care much for talk of social status (which I find to be arbitrary and always changing) so much as the driving dynamics at hand, which has yet to match the Bavarian peers to the dot in prototype evaluations, although it is said that Lotus helped with the chassis engineering for this new model. Apparently this is the first Hyundai they tested on the Nürburgring, for whatever that's worth.

What would the sales target be for a Baby Bentley from Hyundai? 200 a month so when they sell 500 they can claim they demand is epic and they blew the sales target out of the water?

They can barely sell 350 Equus and 1500 Genesis cars a month.

The Japs at Toyota shipped out 4500 Avalons and over 600 LS sedans in January.

It'd be interesting to see, not sure how the pricing structure would work. The Genesis already undercuts the Germans by a substantial margin. If they made a 3-series sized car it'd have to be similarly less expensive, which would mean butting up right on top of the prices of cars they already make -- the Optima and Sonata. Those are good cars as is, and solid sellers.

Yes, but the difference would be a RWD car vs. a FWD car (assuming a 3-Series "killer" would be RWD). Lexus is basically doing that today with the FWD ES and the RWD IS, so it's feasible and product differentiation does not seem to be an issue.

The more competition in the segment the better. Cadillac got in the game with fantastic results.

I'm old enough to remember when the Japanese makers were a joke and look at them now in terms of world annual sales. Hyundai is following in their footsteps in my opinion and will be more and more competitive as time goes on. Along with the competitively priced luxury of the Genesis maybe they need a serious sports car to elevate the brand and showroom traffic.

Problem is the Japs didn't have a little brother who were riding their coat tails and copying everything in sight. The Koreans have to worry about the Chinese copying their cars adn selling for even less.

Japan has been modern for well over 100 years, the Koreans just got electricity in the 80s and just like Samsung is seeing its sales slow down because of cheaper Chinese products, Hyundai/KIA will see their success short lived.
They've thrown everything they can think of at the Japs and still can't keep up so what chance do they have against another country that uses the same tactic but has about 100x more money.

Cheap Americans can reap the benefits if they check the dignity at the door, but those with money and self respect will buy the original.

@HughJass: 'the Koreans just got electricity in the 80s'

Have you been to Seoul? Seoul is not a city that you would suspect to have just gotten electricity in the 80s. It is extremely technologically advanced. South Korean internet speeds and 4G coverage/reception are unrivalled by other civilised peers. You can even get reception in the subway, which is literally impossible in London. You talk of Korean brands as if all they do is copy others---they do not. They're now the industry standard in many regards---Apple memory is STILL manufactured by Samsung (despite their tiff); the highly accoladed Nexus 5 is an LG manufactured phone; many big rig's and other business-to-business hardware are Hyundai produced. You seem to have an ill conception of what a South Korean product is. It is by no means comparable with a Chinese product, not today. Anybody who knows anything about electronics and technology knows that. "People with dignity" often secretly put a second mortgage to buy their overpriced BMW or lease them just for show. American household credit is notoriously poor for this reason. Real drivers with dignity, and money, don't give a shit about the badge so much as how the car performs and how reliable/safe it is on the road.