Ron Olsen could have bought a Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus or another Cadillac. Instead, the Boeing retiree decided to part with $40,000 for the new kid in the luxury sedan market a Hyundai Genesis. Hyundai believes Genesis will show just how far it's come from those days — and will be the ideal luxury car for post-financial-meltdown America. Maximum features. Minimum snobbery. A value proposition vs. more expensive brand-name luxury.
The Genesis is the culmination for Hyundai of a painstaking effort to become a big-league U.S. brand. It's also fraught with risk. Genesis is betting that notoriously snooty luxury buyers can live without a Mercedes three-pointed star or other status emblem on their hood. Hyundai also is taking a calculated risk by not creating a costly separate division for its luxury product, such as Toyota did with Lexus. It is banking that shoppers will buy a luxury car from dealers not devoted solely to pampering luxury customers. Genesis may sit door-to-door in the showroom with (horrors!) an $11,745 entry-level Accent sedan.
"Price-wise, Genesis is $10,000 or $20,000 less than all the (luxury brand) competitors," says Kim Dong-Jin, until recently CEO of Hyundai Motor in South Korea and now head of its parts operation. "Therefore, we see the Genesis as a good product for the U.S. customers, particularly in the recessionary period."
In fact, they hope Genesis defines a new car segment: a premium machine for the rich and frugal who appreciate the finer things but don't like to show off. Genesis starts at $33,000, including shipping, for the six-cylinder. That's about the same as a Mercedes C-Class or Lexus ES, but the size and features are aimed closer to the MB E-Class ($54,075 with shipping to start) or Lexus GS 350
($45,675).
Genesis starts at $33,000, including shipping, for the six-cylinder. That's about the same as a Mercedes C-Class or Lexus ES, but the size and features are aimed closer to the MB E-Class($54,075with shipping to start) or Lexus GS 350 ($45,675).
Source:USA Today

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