i drove a car

Vehicle: Hyundai Genesis

Trim: 3.5T Sport Prestige (lol)

Miles: 3,500

MSRP: $75,000

Color: Light Gray

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What a strange vehicle. What a strange, strange vehicle.

It’s sort of a luxury/performance vehicle. I mean, that’s how it’s marketed

Unless you have the—yes this is actually what they call it—”sport prestige” trim, this thing feels pretty sluggish and heavy.

I drove this for about 1.5 hrs on the freeway down to Eugene, so I think I got decent feel for it. I have more questions than I do answers.

UI

I give it points for not being entirely touch-screen-based (I’m look at you, Audi). There are physical buttons. Some of them are even nice! Made out of real metal.

But now we have to talk about the primary UI dial in the mid-console. Look at the picture. Take it in.

That’s the primary UI control dial adorned with some Swarovski-esque glass bling. Hauntingly ugly. Great way to collect fingerprints, too.

That aside, I do appreciate a company that makes physical UI buttons out of genuine elemental metal from Earth; so few exist.

The Beans

It’s an inline 4 turbo that feels decently spicy around town. But nothing to write home about. For a car this expensive, I expected more; I expected verve! But, no. This is a luxury car that goes kind of fast when you give it the beans.

The Bling

I think this car is aimed directly at the Korean domestic market. I hope this doesn’t come off as super racist, but I think the over-the-top styling and goofy-ass UI is inherently Korean and, shall we say, “aspirational.” And I don’t think it’s an accident that the design cues obviously reference Bentley.

That’s my review. Thanks for reading.