The ironic luxury of Hyundai
Carmaker’s full- fledged sedan is one of the last great defenders
The King’s English states for something to be ironic its “surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said must not be the same.”
Furthermore, says Henry Watson Fowler, the tome’s author, for the “irony of fate” to be truly effective, “protest or outrage is needed against its application.”
If Mr. Fowler, often regarded as the final arbiter of modern English, is correct, then I am pretty sure I have captured the ultimate irony — or at least the automotive version of it — when I opine that the mainstream automaker most likely to carry on the ages- old tradition of powering its luxury sedans with a naturally aspirated V- 8 is going to be? Hyundai.
Yes, it of the instantly rusting Pony, the company that parlayed the bargain basement Accent into a Korean onslaught that the American and Japanese giants could not forestall. Yes, that Hyundai. Imagine the derision you would have faced if, say 25 years ago, you had dared predict that the fate, nay, the very existence, of the once- quintessential luxury sedan powertrain was in the hands of a South Korean automaker whose very raison d’etre is serving the proletariat?
And yet, it may be so. MercedesBenz has gone all turbo. Ditto BMW and Audi. Jaguar has also dropped the non- supercharged version of its AJ- V- 8 in favour of a supercharged V- 6.
The reason is always the same, namely that the once- classic engine format is unable to meet the latest Natural Resources Canada fuel economy dictates while providing the performance luxury owners want.
Other than Hyundai, only Lexus and Porsche persist with normally aspirated V8s in their large luxury sedans. But then, no one has actually ever seen an LS 460 out of captivity, the new GS F is more sport sedan than luxury and the only Panamera with a non- turbo V- 8 is the rare GTS.
The traditional V- 8 is on its way out and it really is a little more than ironic that Hyundai is one of its final proponents.
Yet, for all that outrage Fowler considered so necessary to proffer an effective double entendre, the ultimate irony is that this classic engine layout is in surprisingly capable hands.
The 5.0- litre V- 8 powering in the latest all- wheel- driven version of Hyundai’s Genesis sedan is more than capable of representing.
This V- 8 — code- named Tau — boasts all the bells and whistles: double overhead cams, four valves feeding every piston, variable valve timing on both intake and exhaust camshafts and — as the latest party trick in Hyundai’s technological portfolio — direct gas injection.
It makes a buttery smooth 420 horsepower at 6,000 r. p. m. and some 383 pound- feet of torque at 5,000. That might not sound like much compared with the 560- and 577- h. p. ratings from Audi’s RS7 and Mercedes- Benz’s E 63 AMG, but compared with the more pedestrian iterations of those same turbo V- 8s — 450 h. p. in the S7 and 402 in Mercedes’ E 550 — the 5.0 L is plenty powerful, even if the car it has to motivate weighs in at a considerable 2,126 kilograms.
Indeed, Hyundai says the combination of five litres of powerful V- 8 and an eight- speed transmission is good enough to accelerate the AWD Genesis to 100 kilometres in 5.6 seconds, quick enough in anyone’s book.
More importantly, it feels the part. Recount all the stories you want about Ponys oxidizing or Accent transmissions whining, this is one Hyundai that feels just as sophisticated as any Mercedes or BMW. Power delivery is electric- motor smooth, vibration as close to non- existent as any reciprocating mass is likely to get and the transmission’s gearshifts all but imperceptible.
Better yet, the big V- 8 sounds the part. Where the new breed of turbocharged V- 8s always sound stifled — Audi’s RS7 being the exception — the Genesis’s normally aspirated V- 8 feels downright rowdy.
There’s a bit of a bark at throttle tip- in, a growl as you fly through the mid- range, and damned if it doesn’t sound a little NASCAR- like when you get close to its 7,000- r. p. m. redline. It’s a good one, Hyundai’s version of this once- classic engine layout. If this turns out to be the last double- cam, normally aspirated V- 8 to power a mainstream luxury sedan, it will be remembered well.
The big news for 2015 is the Genesis — V- 6 or V- 8 powered — now comes standard with HTRAC all- wheel drive, Hyundai having determined that, besides brand image, the biggest roadblock to success in the luxury sedan segment was the previous generation’s exclusive use of rear- wheel drive.
Hyundai says the Genesis’ HTRAC system is active, its sensors able to anticipate ( rather than react to) wheel slippage, and that its default setting is a 40/ 60- split rear- wheel torque bias, both of which place it in the mainstream of luxury segment AWD systems.
It can, says the company, send as much as 90 per cent of the V8’ s power to the front wheels and 100 per cent to the rear. What this means is there will be very few situations the new Genesis can’t extricate itself from and, just as importantly, still feel like a sporty rear- wheel- drive sedan while doing so.
Naturally, what differentiates the luxury sedan from the merely ordinary is the hedonism of its interior, and here the Genesis truly flatters.
More in keeping with the overt splendour of the American definition of luxury — rather than the more subdued, sometimes downright Spartan Teutonic version — the new Genesis checks off most of the accoutrements required for automotive grandeur. Double- stitched high- quality leather? Check. Six different densities of closed- cell foam so every square inch of your tush is cosseted? Ditto. Twelve different modes of front- seat adjustment, including thigh extension and the de rigueur side bolsters? Got ’ em. And that’s just the seats.
There are seemingly acres of brightly burnished wood, 900 watts of audio power and even a CO2 sensor Hyundai claims will detect when you’re drowsy and automatically pump in cool, fresh air to revive your sleepy self. Hyundai also says the interior volume of 3,485 litres trumps all the E- segment competitors — BMW 5 Series, Mercedes E- Class, Audi A6, etc. — for interior spaciousness.
The steering wheel is heated, the trunk power- operated, and there are three zones — individual fronts and a separate control for the rear passengers — to the air conditioning system. In other words, there’s nothing missing that you will find in its direct mid- sized luxury competitors — except their stratospheric price tags.
This “Ultimate” Hyundai is available for $ 62,000, undercutting most of the base versions of the cars it competes with, let alone their top- of- the- line models.
Now that the Genesis is fourwheel driven and upgraded in almost every measurable way, luxury intenders have an even more difficult choice on how to spend their luxury sedan dollars.
Will it be performance or pretension?
Hyundai makes a strong case for the former, with a $ 20,000 savings thrown in to further antagonize the latter.
Overview: A true luxury sedan from an unlikely source; long on ability, short on brand image
Pros: Interior decor, phenomenal sophisticated engine, all- wheel drive
Cons: Minimal cachet, hardly frugal fuel economy, somewhat somnolent
exterior styling
Value for money: Incredible if you consider its abilities; none at all if you’re worried what the neighbours will think
What I would change: Other than slapping on a Mercedes- Benz badge so the independently pretentious will consider it? Nothing.
How I would spec it: The Ultimate has pretty much everything Hyundai can toss at the Genesis; I might be tempted, however, by the V- 6 version with similar specifications