2015 Hyundai Genesis 5.0 (CNET On Cars, Episode 48)

Radio's off, we get this car cleared, and away we go. New Genesis 5 liter, credible, comfortable, and for its class, affordable. Dashcams, the eye that never sleeps. And a top five we couldn't even imagine a couple of years ago. Time to check the tech. We see cars differently. We love them on the road, and under the hood, but also check the tech, and are known for telling it like it is. Ugly is included at no extra cost. The good, the bad, the bottom line. This is CNET on cars. [MUSIC] Welcome. Welcome to CNet on Cars, the show all about high tech cars and modern driving. I'm Brian Cooley. You know, we're accustomed to looking at high end Japanese and German models for technology and engineering prowess, but recently a Korean car came through our roll up doors that has a real claim to being a pace setter in tech and engineering. Let's drive the 2015 second generation Hyundai Genesis 5-0 Sedan and check this substantial test. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Hyundai's Genesis. It was the first announcement that that company was gonna make luxury cars. Well, now that no one's laughing anymore, let's drive the second generation Genesis, as it comes along to finish the job. And well finished it is. Unless you eat a lot of carrots, you might never know this is a Hyundai. It barely says so anywhere. And where it does, in very small type. It communicates Genesis in these winged badges that could have been aped right from Bentley. Now look at the overall proportions. You've got a long hood, a short deck, and kind of a coupe-like, almost fastback roofline. All of this communicates more youth than we expect from so-called nice luxury cars. Another thing to look at here is the lack of gaudy jewelry. In the past the Korean car makers have been very given to going kind of over-larded when they want to communicate luxury. This one's got European restraint. Structurally, notice this, the car is almost the exact same length, nose to tail, as the outgoing. First gen car, but they pushed the wheels out three inches, the wheel base between the axels, that's a big stretch in automotive terms. It gives the car shorter rear and front overhangs that look sportier, it also should give it more directional stability and a nicer ride [MUSIC] Now, the first thing I notice inside this Genesis is how handsome it is. That restraint I talked about on the exterior carries over inside. It's got a lot of Kia DNA. Kia has always been more of your, your sort of Dwell magazine, Herman Miller, Knoll look, and Hyundai has always been a little fuddy-duddy, not anymore. The sole concession might be this clock, but even that's been modernized nicely. Directly in front of me is a bit of a surprise. Traditional gauges, with dials. A lot of cars in the premium category have gone to all video here. It doesn't bother me though, because I've got a very useful, very clear LCD helper panel in front. Now, the main LCD is, of course, this guy. This is an upgraded head unit, by the way. There are two levels of navigation head unit. This larger one is a 720p, high def, 9.2 inch LCD. It is a touch screen, but I almost hate to touch it. It does show fingerprints very readily. Instead, you've got the Hyundai controller that is along the lines of what many other car makers have. Navigation is a good system, we've seen this basically before in Hyundai's, I like the fact that it's well rendered, it's very clean, when you do hit one of these menus, things happen, fast touch response. Now, your media controls are all up here, a quick look basically everything you need is in there, AM and FM with HD radio. Satellite radio is well done. This is a full implementation of Satellite radio, which includes pause, and restart, so it'll buffer your. Show, if you need to pause it for a moment. Also, you can set up a favorites, sort of a hunt list. So if you wanna be alerted any time Rod Stewart is playing on any satellite radio channel, and tune to it. You can enter things like that. You can get your Genesis with built in Sound Hound. That app you may have used on your phone to figure out what song you're hearing. But oddly, it's only available on the bass head unit in this car. Not our upgraded one. Now, let's go to Blue Link. Blue Link used to be Hyundai's. Basically a version of OnStar. A lot of find your car, crash notification stuff, it's getting more interesting though. You now can search for destinations live on the air via Google. Do an internet search and then say take me there. That's a trick that pretty much the Germans had to themselves until recent. You've got send to car, of course, from your google navigation, and then the usual diagnostic and such. You've got Siri eyes free support in this car aswell, so if you wanna use this voice button to actually call up Siri on your IOS device, that will work. And finally I wanna show you the hood on this car. The head-up display is very ambitious, it'll show me blind spot, lane departure, navigation. Speed, all kinds of information, but it doesn't do it all that well. I find it's often kind of crooked, the way it's mounted, there seems to be some kind of wobble in the laminate of the windshield, so as I move my head around, the whole think kind of shakes like jello, they're half way there. Oh, and by the way, this vehicle supports google glass. For some basic functions like being able to find your car. Send a POI from Glass to your car. Be able to handle things like status checks of whether it's locked or unlocked. The first car maker we know to do that on the market. All [UNKNOWN] if that's the right phrase, have a single transmission choice. Eight speed automatic through a very classic PRND gate. A shiftable side over here. Paddles on the wheel. There's one little buried button right here. When you press this, you can go between an eco mode, a sport mode, a normal mode. And you can also get into a snow mode with this vehicle. Rear cam is standard on this car, unlike some expensive German cars I could mention, and it has two views. You've got your standard view like so, with trajectory prediction, and a top view that lets you look straight down and really get that last inch figured out. It's good quality, not the best I've seen. [MUSIC] Now up in the engine bay, you can't laugh at Hyundai anymore. They're not the maker of a bunch of little im-balanced fours they way they were back in the 90s. This is a beautiful V8. It's their Tao series. It's a five liter, with direct injection, of course. Continuously variable valve timing, as any modern engine has today. Four valves per cylinder, dual overhead cam, all the basic tricks are here. But no turbo-chargers, no super-chargers. You don't need that when you've got this kind of displacement. Here's the proof. 420 horse, 383 pound feet of torque, that's pretty good, even though the car does weigh over 4,500 pounds. It's a pretty big vehicle, yet 60 comes up in around 5.2 seconds. The downside is you're only going to get 15/23 MPG and part of the issue there is Hyundai has yet to introduce anything like hybridization, auto start/stop, even brake force regeneration. This car basically lets its momentum go. Now the first thing you're gonna figure out about the Genesis sedan is that this ain't no BMW. Wheel. The handling is no slouch, but this is more tuned toward comfort, for isolation of engine sounds. When you want a lot of power, you more or less get it. In sport, of course, it's even more magnified. Turn on that Active Lane Keeping technology, and I dare you to overpower [LAUGH] it. It gets involved as soon as I start to drift toward that line. And it's really aggressive, as well as being very smart and nuanced. In addition to that active lane correction, it's also got some steering guidance, where it'll find the curve in the road, slight curves we're talking about, and guide you along, and keep you in the lane. You can also get this car to stop all the way down to zero, from up to 50 miles an hour. An hour. That's part of its pre-collision technology. Adaptive cruise control, of course. That's almost required on a car in this class. But it's standard in this car, not in all of its competitors. You've got cross-traffic alert. You've got blind spot technology. You don't have any parking assist on this car, though, which is interesting. Much as it leaves out things like start-stop and brake regeneration, it's got some odd holes in its technology lineup. In sum, if I were in the market for a largish, imported luxury sedan right now, this is absolutely on the short list, period. Okay, let's price our Genesis sedan $50,000, the V8, about $52,500 with destination. There was really only one box to tick off to take it fully CNET style, and that is to add the ultimate package, which costs $3250. That brings in adaptive suspension, the head up display that I'm eh about, premium navigation, which we have, 17 speaker Lexicon audio, and a power trunk opener and closer. Now here's where I'd like to price out the all wheel drive upgrade, but, like with that sound town integration, you've got to go down scale to get it. The V6 can have all wheel drive. The V8 cannot. Now here's the question I've got. You can do this car for a little under 56 thousand. But you have to also consider the V6. It has excellent power on paper, even though I've not driven it personally, 400 pounds less, most of that comes off the nose and that might make for the perfect balance. It's not unlike the early Lexus SEs where the smart money went for the six, not the eight. [MUSIC] Buy the four of you on that Hyundai Genesis 5-0, the new second generation car, on cars.cnet.com. but of course around here, we're all about the latest modern cars. But a lot of us have a soft spot for the older ones as well. My ?daily driver's an 88. But when you're driving a car, even as old as the early 90's, you're really not driving an. Peak in terms of safety. And that's of interest to the smarter driver. There are many factors impacting your safety in a car. Speed. Intoxication. Weather conditions. And, last off. Been discussed, the age of your car. [MUSIC] You have less control over that, of course. It's a lot easier to slow down or not have that drink than to go buy a new car, but knowing the risks of an older vehicle is important. [MUSIC] Data from NHTSA's fatality analysis reporting system for the years 2005 to 2011 found that the older the car you're in during a crash, the more likely it is, you'll come out dead. Compared to a baseline new car, that is zero to three years old. You are 10% more likely to die in a car that is just four to seven years old, all the way up to a sobering 71% more likely in a car that is 18 years or older. My wagon's 25 years old. Better believe I pay attention on the road and slow the hell down. By the way, the research data also shows that this affects the likelihood of teens to be in fatal car accident because they tend to buy and use. Choose older, more affordable cars. Also know that being buckled up in a newer car, is more effective than being buckled up in an older car. In a newer car, you see seatbelts, airbags, structural improvements, and more, all work together as a system. Not a bunch of little islands. The list of innovations that make newer cars safer is long. But here's some of the greatest hits. Electronic stability control, required on cars since the 2012 model year. A rockstar technology, reducing fatal rollovers by 70% and all fatalities by 14% in cars, double that in SUVs. Intelligent air bags and lots of them. Only since 2006 have cars been required to use air bags that factor in size, weight and position of the occupant to blow better on impact with less collateral damage. And in the last ten years auto makers have been on a bit of an arms race to have more bags than the other guy. ABS, still not legally required on cars in the US. [NOISE] But I haven't seen a new car without it since about 2012. Improved rollover standards. Rollovers account for just 3% of all serious crashes, but about 30% of people killed in cars. The latest update to roof crush standards came in 2009 for full phase-in between 2012 and 2017. Then of course, there are the newer tech innovations like adaptive headlights, front collision, blind spot, and lane departure tech and night vision screens along with head up displays. So unless you're lucky enough to be buying a new car every three years. [MUSIC] It pays to double check the shortcoming of your aging ones. And drive safely, either way. [NOISE] [MUSIC] Coming up, technology ends the era of he said, she said on the road. [NOISE] CNet On Cars rolls on. [MUSIC] This is the Porsche 919 hybrid. It's a car that marks Porsche's return to endurance motor sports. It's powered by a turbo charged two liter v-4 motor. It's not a configuration known for being hugely. Reliable. We're gonna find out how it does later in the year. [MUSIC] Find more from the X Car team of CNet UK at cnet.com/xcar. Welcome back to CNet on Cars, coming to you from our home at the Marin Clubhouse of cars, de Whitiack, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Well a number of you have written to me asking for our take on DashCam. They're real popular in many parts of the world, for example, just about anytime something happens in the news in Russia, it seems like the footage came off of someone's DashCam. But here in the US they're almost unheard of. So it time now for a nice equalizing Car Tech 101. Let's get everybody on the same page on awareness of dash cams. [MUSIC] It's a wild world out there. [MUSIC] Having a recording of it can be handy. To show who's really at fault in a crash, provide evidence of a crime that you weren't involved in, saw. That **** who hit your car in the parking lot just drove off. dash cams have a hosted unique feature for capturing all that easily and better then just a standard digital camera or clipping your smartphone up here. They are constant recording that means they are always running and merely overriding the old clip once they fill up the card. Dual lenses are common, not always, but common. They all have at least one lens that looks out through the windshield but some cameras also have one that looks back in the cabin at you. Think of like the cameras you see in taxi cabs commonly, others have a remote second camera that can be put in the back to look at the person who's about to rear-end you. GPS data is typically recorded by these cameras to both know where the car was. When an impact happened, let's say, but also to monitor its speed, could be handy when you have one of these mounted up to your kid. They typically have impact sensors, that's used to save a clip and locket, so it doesn't get deleted if it was recorded during an impact. Cuz, it assumes you want that one. If you park in a sketchy place where your car is getting banged into all the time and it's making you nuts. Look for a camera that has motion detection. It'll basically sleep until it sees something moving and then roll video on the shenanigans. And it can be pretty affordable, let's face it, most of us don't want to dedicate something to just this one purpose that costs a ton of money so these are definitely available in the $100 to $150 range. They can go higher, but not often. And just buying a dash cam isn't the entire answer. You need to know how to use it so here are some tips. First of all, know where you can mount it. Wouldn't it be ironic to try and be Johnny Law-abider by having it. One of these, and then break the law by putting it basically where I have it. Most states require you stick it over in one of the far, low corners of your windshield, not here in the middle where everyone tends to put it. Be ready for a lousy, frustrating interface. When I got our cameras in for testing, I finally found out where all those people who used to engineer television interfaces in the '90s went. To get a job. Power cords. Just about every dash cam out there requires a constant source of power from a nearby 12 volt outlet which isn't that nearby cause it's in the windshield. So you have to deal with dressing this, putting it away somewhere, so it's not hanging here. These do not have long life batteries, that's not in their design. And finally, know about eavesdropping laws. Recording video is one thing, recording people's audio is actually a much touchier area. 12 US states are what are called 2-party states. You can't record a conversation unless everybody involved has given permission. That's something to be aware of, most of these cameras have the ability to turn off their microphones for that reason. And in many countries like Spain, Austria, Switzerland, even recording video of the public road, without being given permission, is banned. Now, you might ask, what kind of insurance discounts do I get for. Do exist. Well, in the U.S., as far as we can tell, none. There is one insurer in the U.K. that is offering a supposed 10% discount for having a dash cam, but you're kind of ahead of the curve with one of these. Also note that these are not primary fatality or injury reduction devices, they're secondary litigation devices. So these don't keep you from getting hurt, as a result the insurance companies aren't that enthralled by them yet. [MUSIC] Now, it's beyond our scope or expertise fo advise you on the law of obtaining this video. Can the police take it? Can the other guy's attorneys take it? Is it totally your property? That's something to check out in your area, before you start to use one of these. 'Cuz, once you get into a wreck, someone's gonna see you have one. And then it's gonna be a ball in play. And finally, realize that if you don't wanna go this route, you can get some really good dash cam apps for your smartphone. It requires tying up your phone for that use, of course. You have to follow all the other rules I have mentioned but its an easy or free way to at least try out this behavior. In a moment the other cost of diesel cars and engines that are missing something when CNet on cars returns. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] This car was designed to make you feel good. And that is precisely what it does. [MUSIC] The Leon itself is brilliant, we got one as a crew car, and every drive in it is an utter, utter joy. [MUSIC] Find more from the XCar Team of cnet.uk at cnet.com/xcar. Welcome back to CNET on Cars. I'm Brian Cooley. Time for some of your email. This one comes in from Chris T. who asks about diesel cars. He said, I recently watched your review and real cost calculations on the BMW 328D Diesel wagon. He says, my understanding. This is that BMW covers the AdBlue solution it requires for four years, or 50,000 miles. What about Mercedes, can the EPA start putting the cost of AdBlue on the sticker, because to him, it's just part of the cost of fueling up the car. These are good points Chris. Now, let's get everybody up to speed on AdBlue. First of all, AdBlue is a urea liquid solution. That you add to modern diesel cars that is used to catalyze the exhaust and scrub out some of the nitrous oxide emissions. It goes into a separate tank and it's injected by the car down in the exhaust system. The thing is with AdBlue, if you're out of it, your car is not supposed to. Start. That per EPA regulation that you can't drive around in an out of compliance diesel. So if you're looking to buy one of these modern diesel cars and I recommend many of them heartily, here are four things to bear in mind to have the whole cost in your head. First, does the car require this AdBlue solution. Second, how many miles will you get between AdBlue fill ups? It could be 6 to 15,000. How much AdBlue does the car hold? And fourth, does factory maintenance cover replenishing the AdBlue in your car? And if so, is that only during a scheduled maintenance appointment. To the dealer or can you just roll up and say, I need some more AdBlue. BMW will keep the AdBlue fluid maintained free of charge during scheduled visits which they cover for 4 years of 50,000 miles. Mercedes will also keep the AdBlue topped up during scheduled maintenance visits, but those are paid for by the customer. All of this is part of the total cost of ownership of a modern diesel. And Chris makes a good point. You need to budget that along with the cost of fuel. Now, know this. You can put Ad Blue in your diesel yourself. You have to get the right little filler funnel to go into this special filler cap that is usually next to the diesel filler, but it might be under a separate door. Ad Blue solution is. About $15 a gallon. You can buy it on Amazon. You just have to get the technique down and watch the indicator on the dash that tells you when to put more in. So bear this all in mind if you're looking at one of these new modern diesels, which we tend to find are very interesting cars, but you gotta have the whole cost in mind. [NOISE] Now, recently did a top five about the brawniest new four cylinder engines that have so much power, like you wouldn't have imagined. 10 of 15 years ago. But of course, that immediately got all of you to throw down the gauntlet, and say hey Cooley, what about powerful three cylinder engines. So, here you go, here's my top five list of some powerful peg-legs. [NOISE] Yes, threes are back, thanks to their lightweight, fewer parts. Zippy MPG numbers and now really good power. Your friends will never need to know you're missing a cylinder, as long as you keep the hood down. Here we go. Number five is the 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage. Yeah, they're still around. Sixty-two horsepower per liter. It's a 1.2 liter and does 74 horsepower. 40 MPG average with a stick is quite good. But beyond that, nothing about it tries to be anything other than stingy. So it's fittingly at the bottom of our list. Number four, the 2014 Smart ForTwo. 70 horsepower per liter. Now Smart must love this. They're not at the bottom of a list for once. That 70 horse out of it's one liter engine, sadly gets worse MPG, however, than the Mistu. gets out of a larger engine. Smart does 36 average. This, by the way, is perhaps the oldest three cylinder on the market. Four twos have had an inline three since launch, back in 1998. Now, there is a Brabus edition of the smart, that eeks out another handful of horsepower, but not enough to move it to number three, which is, the 2014 Mini Cooper, 91 Horse per liter. Here we have the veritable big boy of our group. A relatively portly one and half liter engine, but just three cylinders. 136 horsepower, thanks to a turbo, and direct injection. With a stick, your average MPG is 34. Incidentally, this is the same basic engine found in the very different BMW i8. But in that car, it's been hotted up to 228 horsepower, but ut's part of a hybrid system. So that's another [UNKNOWN]. [NOISE] [MUSIC] Number two is the 2014 Opel Adam. 115 horse per liter. Now, our U.S. viewers won't know what I'm talking about. But this is, in a nutshell, a hot looking alternative to a Fiat 500 made by the Opel division of General Motors. It's one liter three uses high compression, direct injection and a turbo to break the three digit mark at 115 horse per liter. On demand oil and water pump are some of its other tricks, to make sure that it sips fuel and doesn't squander its three cylinder miserliness. Before I get to the number one, the king of the three cylinders is actually Nissan's DIG-TR. The one and a half liter that does 400 horsepower. That's a specific output of 266 horse per little tiny liter. You're not gonna find one of these in your Versa any time soon. It's purpose-built for the Delta Wing Zeod RC hybrid race car. The engine is small enough to qualify as a carry-on at the airport. Though at 88 pounds it would do a number on your rotator cuff as you wrestle it into the overhead. Though I've seen some of you put heavier things up there. [NOISE] Our number one might three cylinder engine is found in the 2014 Ford Fiesta SFE. It does 123 horsepower per liter. This little turbo direct-injection powerhouse is only found in this special lean edition of the Fiesta. And only with a manual transmission. Which is fine by me, since Ford's power shift dual clutch gear box doesn't exactly inspire love letters. And in this combination, you'll get 36 miles per gallon average. [MUSIC] Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks a lot for watching. You know, I get a lot of email from our viewers saying, hey, I just bought a new car based on what I learned about a certain model on either this show or watching our CNet Car Tech reviews. If you bought a new ride lately, share it with us. Send us a photo and share it on Facebook or Twitter or Google Plus. All the information's right there. I'll look forward to seeing what you bought. I'll see you next time we check the tag. [MUSIC] Okay, that's the beat.