Today, I was invited from local Hyundai dealer to check out the new Genesis Coupe.

It was 3.8 V6 Auto Track model.  Overall I would give solid “B” for the car.

I was very satisfied with overall exterior.  It has very clean roof line, also I liked the rear of the car.

It certainly has very sporty profile. 

For interior, the quality has been improved and I see they have used high quality material.

BUT, some of the chrome accents were in totally random places. It looked very out of place.

For mechanical parts, I was very satisfied with engine and tranny.

This Hyundai V6 feels very reponsive which I never felt from other Hyundai V6.

The transmission was also very smart, it shifted just way I wanted.  The shift logic was EXCELLENT.

Two things that was very disappointing… The Korean made Brembo brake system and Suspension.

I know Hyundai shaved the side of the brake pads so significantly that the stock pads are only using 50% of pad area.

But the braking feel/power is FAR FAR behind the name of “Brembo”.

Full faced aftermarket pads hopefully solve this issue.

Stock suspension was stiff(which I like) but had TONS of small oscilations.

It is very bouncy, so bouncy that I felt like the car was riding cheap coilovers.

This is where the aftermarket has to improve the car.  I see many area it can be improved by aftermarket parts.

After good tweak, and fine tuning, this car can be very fun car.

I see there is very good potentials of this car, which will surprise many car enthusiast.

It is my belief that every place around world has both good and bad sides.

Cheap gas and cheap priced car are good things in US, while very strong police power at highway is one turn off in US.

There is nothing like driving highly tuned or race car on street at very high speed, which often practiced in Asia and Europe.

I use to set at my cruise control at 130-140mph on highway most of the time on my CLS, which is still very comfortable yet feels safe at most situation.

Most US road, you might be able to get away with short burst acceleration to high speed, but you will NEVER be able to run 60+ min straight of your car’s top speed.

Yes, I miss hitting 6^th gear redline in my S2000/Exige, Go beyond speedometer on CLS(250km)

This is why many of the high end aftermarket parts from Japan or European are “conservative & high quality”

It has to withstand much extreme environment which has to meet near OEM standard reliability.

I have saw IN PERSON, many of US tuner’s bolt-on turbo or SC kit failed horribly, just because different road situation described above.

Same philosophy goes into “tuning” a car too. 

I can tune a car more aggressively in US just because now I don’t see any customer doing hours of top speed run with their aftermarket turbo set up.

This is ANOTHER major reason why high-end engine oil market is comparably smaller in US. (I will get back to this later…)

Good thing that there are many good tracks all over the US(compared to other countries), but I always miss the flat out top speed run I use to enjoy back home…