Personally, I think Hyundai did a much better job with the Genesis than the Equus. The Genesis is a bite off of a few class leaders, but the overall execution is still tasteful IMHO. The Equus is tacky and does a poor job of copying the LS. Even the badging, VS460, is an unapologetic stab.

The ride will no doubt be luxurious and the vehicle well built. I give Hyundai a lot of credit. But at this level it's not even worthy of consideration.

The interior, although plush, is a hodge podge. The steering wheel is horrendous. The dials and gauges are very low budget hyundai plastic, but surrounded by lush wood. It's really odd.

I smell a failure here akin to the Kia Amanti... Do you remember that one?



I respect Hyundai's strategy thus far, but I'm clearly not pleased with this latest effort. Now one could easily play the bias card as I am an LS owner. It's really not that... This particular play erodes the category and sullies things. If I felt the offering was really worthy, I'd be all for the addition!

The only thing that comes to mind (as I channel my two young daughters here) is ewwwwww.

 

Hyundai is coming about, but slower than Lexus did back in the early 90s. Its just the stereotype of Hyundai being the cheaper car all this time, is whats taking them so long to be an influence like Lexus and Infiniti did in the 90s.

Hyundai was trying to be the cheaper in the market, and finally the past few yrs trying to get into the luxury market to compete w/ Lexus, MB, and BMW

The Equus looks a copy of the LS and some of the interior copy the Bmw.. Nice car, but I'll stick w/ my LS.

 

Some member stated that they may have been WISER to make a brand like Acura and Lexus like Toyota-Lexus and Honda-Acura, you know, a Luxury division. A name difference wont assure sales by all means but, could give them a chance to create a new name and a segment of luxury cars that build there own name!

I dont think of Nissan at all now when I think of Infiniti! Nor do I when I think of Acura! Takes a while but, sooner than later the new name supplies a different identity! Lexus,though BMW and Benz/Audi owners along with Jag, still say the Toyota jab because Lexus did well, not because Lexus flopped. Lexus is like a great actor who from day one is doubted but, still blows the other actors away with consistency! Where Lexus is falling is innovation to me.

The body style of the LS460 and other Ls's(Lexus' in general) havent been perfect! When Lexus finally shocks Benz/BMW/Audi/Jag Lovers with an exciting body style of the LS, then they will be seen as a player with the Traditional Luxury German auto makers. All my friends who like the German makes all say they dont like any of Lexus' exteriors, aside form the previous GS!!! Lexus has the reliability down but, needs to innovate and make a signature body style that stuns the world. We must admit the German/Euro makes all have clever looks! Maybe they arent as reliable but, they look good! I cant lie, I must tell the truth!!! HHAHAHAHAHA!!! L.G.N.M

 

The VW Phaeton is quite a remarkable car, but never took off in the U.S. because it was badged as a VW, therefore no prestige. However, it still sells in Europe.

It was smart for Toyota, Honda, and Nissan to launch separate lines for their luxury divisions. No matter how good the LS may be, people in the U.S. would balk at paying 70K+ for a Toyota badged sedan. I do find it interesting that in Japan, the LS sold as the Toyota Celsior until the 460 came along.

Hyundai would be wise to launch a luxury line in the U.S. to avoid the Genesis and Equus becoming their versions of the Phaeton.

 

The luxury car buyer (with some exceptions) wants more than just a fine automobile. They want an upscale buying experience as well. Things we take for granted (free car washes, wi-fi, loaners etc) are not typical at Hyundai. Then there's the matter of training staff to deal with the luxury brand buyer...
Time will tell if they made the right choice.

 

I don't own a Hyundai, and I probably won't for a while (if ever). The only Hyundais I have driven, a Genesis Coupe 2.0T and 3.8(?) manuals were very impressive, but did not match the experience of other sports cars I have driven.

I am merely a person who is objective enough to realize what huge strides Hyundai has made in the last 10 years. Heck, the new Sonata has finally matched the perennial winners Honda Accord and Toyota Camry in the mid-size sedan category. It would not surprise me if Hyundai could come very close to the LS460.

The way you guys talk, Lexus has had nearly a hundred years of heritage when, in fact, it has almost none. To many non-Lexus owners, Lexus continues to be a very good imitation of the real thing. I guess that would make the Equus a very good imitation of an imitation.

 

You are right on target. That has been the biggest complaint I've read with the Hyundai buying and service experience. That was also the case with the VW Phaeton. When people pay a premium price for a car, they expect premium service as well. In my experience, that is where Lexus has excelled.

 

I wonder how Lexus dealerships were in 1989. Did they even have dedicated Lexus dealerships in 1989?

 

Yes.

From Wikipedia...

The LS 400 debuted in January 1989 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.[9] The following September, Lexus vehicles officially went on sale at a network of 81 new Lexus dealerships across the U.S.[23] The LS 400 was sold along with a smaller sibling, the Toyota Camry-based ES 250.[22] The launch of Lexus was heralded by a multimillion dollar advertising campaign in both television and print media.

 

I remember early 90s' while my father was shopping between LS400 and BMW 535(V8)....the ls400's refinement and luxury was clearly a step ahead,(at least to our taste) and dealership experience was very good as well. in short, there weren't many LS400 type of products available. Their es 250 was a flop initially because it wasn't nearly as good.
In short, Lexus started with a extremely strong product and priced it low; sold thru a well trained dealership network; they had the tailwind of bunch of baby-boomer who had "good" memory of their little old reliable Toyotas and extremely good overall economic/financial profile, ie, generally improving and increasing stock/housing market and increased leverage of consumers and consumerism in the past 20yrs.
I am not sure Hyundai can enjoy all those tailwinds....dealership experience can be extremely important to certain luxury car buyers; their product is good but not exceptional; economic backdrop and possible long term effects of deleveraging; and owners who owned a Hyundai 15 yrs ago probably wouldn't had had a great memory as a toyota owner had in 1990s'. So i think the odds are stack against them at the moment.....but maybe in another 10 years.

 

My own personal opinion is that Hyundai is making a marketing mistake by trying to use that brand name to be all things to all people. To me, the key to selling high end cars is to somehow separate them from the rest of the market segments - particularly your own mid/lower end vehicles. To do that successfully I think you have to follow the Lexus strategy and have a different badge name and separate dealerships. I don't think it works long term without both. Do you think that many of the people who bought the original Lexus LS 400 would have purchased it if it were a Toyota LS 400 sold and serviced through Toyota dealerships?

I had an Audi A6 4.2 a number of years ago (terrible car - but that's another story) that had all sorts of mechanical/other problems. The dealership sold and serviced both VW and Audi and were using VW technicians to work on the car. They had a VW service mentality and the service experience was not up to the level I expected when I bought the car. When you buy a higher end car you expect that if there are issues with it (as there are with any car) that the service experience will be high end as well.

Hyundai has come a long way from where they were when they introduced their cars into the U.S. market and it is a remarkable re-molding of a company from a product quality point of view (I don't know anything about their service). I think they could have built on that with the introduction of a high end line with a different badge and separate dealerships. The Genesis and Equus would have been good vehicles to start that process. As someone esle said, time will tell if they made the right decision or not.