I have to admit to a level of frustration with Hyundai's very spotty and poorly-managed introduction of the Genesis. (Partially amplified by my own enthusiasm for this car.) We heard/saw rumors that it was completed, but long before we saw flattering marketing photography from Korea, we saw 2 or 3 weeks of completely un-camouflaged cars here and there driving around Korea - taken on CELL PHONES. Then we got some marketing photos from Korea but no specifications whatsoever. Now it has been "officially introduced" in the U.S. at the Detroit auto show, but we still lack full specifications, final trim choices, or release timelines.

For instance, they have told us the horsepower of the Tau V8 as configured in the Genesis but not the tuned 3.3L or 3.8L V6 - and those are of considerable interest as well.

They haven't told us horsepower at what RPM?
They haven't given us any torque specifications.
They haven't told us curb weight.
They haven't told us 0-60 or 1/4 mile time.
Fuel economy.
Feature lists.
And worst of all, they still haven't said ANYTHING official about pricing.

The vehicle shown on their U.S. marketing mini-site says "pre-production model shown". Somehow, on the trip over the ocean, the car lost its great wood trim interior and gained a really cool grille, and showed up for its first day of work without any badges AT ALL. And now we have seen models stateside with TWO different grilles. Our expectations about the finished look & feel and specifications of this car are now deeply, thoroughly confused. I'm not sure how that could be at all helpful for Hyundai.


In customer service (I work in I.T. management) if you don't know the answer to a question or can't fix something right away, you acknowledge the problem and give your customer a definitive time that you'll follow up, hopefully with a resolution, but at minimum with a status update. They know you have acknowledged their problem and are taking it seriously, and you have let them know how much loner they'll need to bear with you.

I find Hyundai's approach here a bit baffling; they are withholding all information almost to the point of deceiving, misdirecting and confusing potential customers, not even telling us WHEN they'll get us "real" information about the car (even saying, late 2nd quarter, or July '08). What's the problem here? What are we waiting for? Is the car still vaporware? Even if they're still ironing out legal issues with import licenses and safety approvals and trying to bring the cool Bentley badge stateside, could they not go ahead and weigh the damned thing? What about the other V6s; aren't they DONE already? So why don't we know?

It leads me to believe that this car is much further out from general availability than we may believe at the moment. Either that, or its release in the U.S., as I said, is simply being grimly mismanaged.

What do you guys think? Did anyone else pick up any more detail from the various blogs, forums, announcements and marketing materials that have come through in the last week? Any sense of what's coming when?

This post has been edited by andyman32: Jan 21 2008, 06:29 AM

Nothing new here, Hyundai can't market properly anycar above the sonata range!
Look at the Azera, enough to cry on.

This post has been edited by Pelican: Jan 21 2008, 09:15 AM

http://www.hyundaigenesis.com/

Yeah, that's the U.S. mini-site I mentioned. Look at the specs and tell me where you see date of availability, an indication that the car pictured is the final production model, any torque or mass specs, 0-60 or 1/4 mile time, or prices...

That site is little more than glamour shots of a car that may as well still be a concept.

Andyman is correct on all counts. I have sent HyunaiUSA Corporate feedback on their poorly designed mini-site for the Genesis. You would think that for a car that is so important to Hyundai they would launch a more upscale and functional site with more details and higher quality resolutions images.

This only underscores how inept and perhaps unprepared they are to launch this vehicle. What concerns me is their seemingly lack of a strategic plan overall for Genesis here in the US.

"I find Hyundai's approach here a bit baffling; they are withholding all information almost to the point of deceiving, misdirecting and confusing potential customers, not even telling us WHEN they'll get us "real" information about the car"

This is typical Hyundai, proving once again that without a defined business plan and marketing department Genesis is doomed from the start as Azera was. If you think there is confusion in Korea / Fountain Valley now, the fun really begins when (and if) Genesis arrives at the US dealers.

The V-8 model, is said to hit 60 mph in less than 6 seconds.
The flagship 4.6-liter V-8 with 368 bhp and 324 lb.-ft. of torque....
The base V-6 car will weigh about 3730 lb., the V-8 version tipping the scales at 4005 lb.

....from Road and Track

http://www.hyundainews.com/Media_Kits/2009...ess_Release.asp

:grin:

This post has been edited by Brazzel: Jan 21 2008, 09:23 AM

That's a bit better, still no real performance numbers, fuel economy, or official dates... but there is curb weight, hp @ rpm and torque @ rpm. :thumbsup:

This says 375hp still - wonder what happened to 368?

This post has been edited by andyman32: Jan 21 2008, 12:59 PM

I agree it's pretty weak but being a longterm Azera owner I find it as no surprise.

In the second paragraph lies the answer:

"The Tau will produce an estimated 375 horsepower using premium fuel and 368 horsepower using regular unleaded leading all competitors in specific output with 79.5 to 81.0 horsepower per liter. "

I would go for the 3.8 personally, a premium fuel V8 would cost some coin to drive.

My 3.8 sucks gas !! :grin: I'd go for the Accent SE the way things are going.

Either way, this just highlights the point that Hyundai is possibly fumbling the launch of Genesis by publishing a very weak mini site that looks like a cartoon rendition of this car. The weakest parts of the HyundaiUSA site are the graphics, images and limited spec information.

It's funny how that press kit is buried in another link on their site rather than included in the so-called joke of a mini site.

To tell the truth, after visiting their site and comparing the pics available on Auto Forums throughout the web it gives you pause to re-consider purchasing this vehicle.

HyundaiUSA needs to get their act together and stop acting like amateurs in a game made only for grown ups.

This post has been edited by acronis: Jan 22 2008, 04:32 AM

There, that was a point I just logged in to make myself: Even considering there are more relevant details available on that announcement, it's well hidden and NOT on the mini-site that you click through to from their home page.

So - if you have relevant information about your slam-dunk, home-run new car, information that's going to wow consumers and possibly even convince a few to take a look at it who wouldn't have otherwise - where do you put it?

On the resource that is splashed across the main page?

Or buried somewhere in the Hyundai corporate site?

I find it SO frustrating because it probably IS a great car, it probably will be incredible to drive and a pleasure to own. Their R&D guys and engineers did their part. It looks great, it's high-performance, it has the specs for success. But if *we* can tell that this is one giant, snowballing blunder of a roll-out... who's at Hyundai Corporate overseeing this entire process? Whose idea is this? Is there a sign hung on every executive's door, "Gone Fishin' till June"? There must be... it's the only explanation I have.

Engineering - GREAT! Now - marketing. Why can't they do THEIR part? Have them call me, give me the specs and a few high-res stock photos and *I* will make a better website for the Genesis than they have right now. This is elemental, elemental in the respect that you "put one foot first, follow with the other", elemental in terms of "baby steps", "Crawl before you walk, walk before you run" - there is a basic progression of things that you do to roll out a product of ANY kind, there are very rudimentary things you want to do for marketing ANY product at ANY stage in its life. Get the consumer the most relevant information, make it easy and accessible, make it quick and digestible, make it look good. And here we have what looks like a Hyundai USA outfit that is effectively running with one leg, crawling with the other, and dragging both its arms loosely on the ground. Their presentation to us (the interested consumers) is basically all the relevant information, put in a blender, with one or two spoonfuls splattered here or there.

I mean not to put too fine a point on it but, exactly who is steering this ship?

You can do far better than this without a huge budget. Small companies do far better than this every day. It just takes a little common sense and a little oversight from management. So... does ANYONE have their hand on the wheel there? Is there an executive who's sitting at his desk thinking, "Hmm, yes, this is exactly as we want it for the U.S. release of the Genesis! Perfect!"? There's some major disconnect here... some striking lack of common business sense.

I sure hope they hire someone, a consultant, an exec, ANYBODY, who possesses the common sense they apparently lack, and figures out one or two things FOR them, before they roll out Genesis in North America. Even just for the sake of the guys over in S. Korea who actually did a great job. And maybe for the sake of us enthusiasts who really want a Genesis but have a hard time justifying spending $40k on a car where the manufacturer can't even take its own product seriously enough to sink a little plain, old-fashioned common sense into its roll-out. If they can't do the basics NOW, how are they going to support it? How are they going to take care of this 4.6L DOHC CVVT V8 and 6-sp ZF transmission on into 8 and 10 years?

<steps down off soap box>

This post has been edited by andyman32: Jan 22 2008, 07:34 AM

My best bet is Hyundai was pushing to meet a deadline. That deadline was the North American International Auto Show (Detroit show). They were pushing to have a production version of the car ready and all the other things got side tracked. I am not making excuses for them, but trying to make sense of it. I also want full specs and test numbers. :beer: Hopefully we will soon see a first drive and test by R&T or Edmunds...

I can't wait to see how much they will fumble on the production genesis coupe.

Oh well I hope they are great products when I finally get to drive them.

Everything I've read as of late has said the release date for the US is scheduled for early June.

April is when the media gets to test drive this thing.

I hope their media ride and drive goes much better than the mini site that they launched for their U.S. Debut. I had previously visited their Korean corporate website, http://www.hyundai-motor.com/index.html, during their pre-launch of the Genesis website and it looked far more upscale than the horrific atrocity that they are currently featuring on their HyundaiUSA website.

HyundaiUSA has made a major blunder here. Or the much ballyhooed 'game changer' for them must not be as it seems. To underscore the point even further, there appears to be a stench of trepidation amongst their U.S. execs that sales of Genesis may not live up to their Korean bosses exalted expectations. Why else would they launch such an insipidly feeble and neutered looking site here in the U.S.?

Now this has me second guessing whether this vehicle can actually deliver on class leading driving dynamics.

That's funny. I don't the vehicle being able to deliver should be based on the look of a website.

I thought I had heard rumors of this ...



http://www.autospectator.com/cars/hyundai/...nearly-20-years