^ Except that you’d buy three of these for the price of a phaeton.
That's not really the point. It's a luxury car without a luxury car badge.
I think this is a great car and I don’t get this badge snobbery thing in NA. The corvette shares the badge with some mighty POS’s too, but I never once heard someone say $70k is too much for a chevy.
You can't compare expensive sports cars to expensive luxury cars. Sports car buyer look at performance, and a car can perform quite well regardless of the badge. Luxury car buyers look at luxury, and in the market today, one significant part of "luxury" is prestige. A Hyundai or Toyota or Volkswagen badge doesn't carry prestige like a Lexus or Audi badge does.
I dunno, Mitlov. I think expensive sports car buyers certainly do go for the brand image too. Think of Ferrari from the late 80s or early 90s. They were no better at their performance than most sports cars at a fraction of their cost. Look at the Boxster now -- $80k will buy a lot of faster, more powerful cars with nowhere near the badge snobbery, yet the Porsches keep on selling because of the status they represent (for many).
The Phaeton was a whole other kettle of fish. A $100,000 luxury sedan is truly an elaborate luxury. But for the Genesis, starting at below $40,000, it's attainable to many, many more people and can certainly be considered a remarkable value. A full-size Benz or Lexus could also be had for the cost of a Phaeton -- not so with anything comparable to the Genesis.
It's no secret that I"m a big Hyundai fan -- I like cheering for the underdog, I guess. I appreciate that Hyundai has done in 20 years, what took Toyota 30 to achieve (go from "Walmart-brand garbage" to top-of-the-list quality).
Looking at Hyundai as a Walmart-class brand now is as foolish and narrow-minded as looking at Toyota in the same light. The company has a large pile of marketers and agencies working for them -- the lack of brand cache can't be lost on them. It'll be interesting to see how this all rolls out.
