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Genesis cars win accolades, offer value — so why are sales so bad?

My high-school buddy Brent Cormier was so smitten with the Genesis G80 when he saw it at an event I hosted at SXSW in 2016 he bought a used 2013 Hyundai Genesis a short time later and fell in love with the car. "It surpasses my every expectation," said Cormier, a self-described "renaissance man" who owns and runs a real estate agency with his wife Laura, is a food service executive chef and part owner of Austin-based Thin the Herd Guitars. "I was locked into Mercedes and Audi for 10 years," he added. "And felt trapped in an endless pit of maintenance costs." After owning the Genesis over the past two years — including using it as an Uber and Lyft driver to earn extra cash — Cormier learned what some frugal luxury sedan buyers and a handful of car reviewers have discovered: Genesis offers great bang for the buck compared to other premium brands and can compete with the best in terms of performance, features and comfort. Hyundai's luxury brand also earned a prominent third-party endorsement last week when for the first time Genesis topped J.D. Power's 2018 APEAL study, surpassing German luxury-performance icon Porsche. The APEAL study (which stands for Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) "measures owners' emotional attachment and level of excitement across 77 attributes," ranging from performance to comfort, and asks nearly 68,000 owners of new 2018 models to score vehicles on a 1,000-point scale. In its second year ranked as a stand-alone brand, Genesis earned an APEAL score that bumped it up 15 points to 884 and helped push it past Porsche — and past BMW, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo, Cadillac, Land Rover and Lexus, in order of ranking. Last month, Genesis also topped J.D. Power's Initial Quality Survey (IQS) for the first time this year. And both its models were awarded Top Safety Pick Plus ratings by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, among 11 Plus ratings in all for Korean vehicles. Despite high J.D. Power rankings and great reviews, Genesis U.S. sales were off 50 percent for the first six months of 2018 compared to 2017, and in June Genesis sold only 796 vehicles — the first time U.S. numbers dropped below 1,000 in a month. Part of Genesis's APEAL and IQS success can be attributed to its small product lineup: just two models, the G80 and G90 sedans, with a third, the 2019 G70, launching later this year. And while those numbers may help in J.D.

Audi Prologue Concept [w/videos]

What you're looking at here is a preview of Audi's next-gen exterior and interior design. You can't tell, but in these photos, I'm wearing what can only be described as an ultra-white cloth spacesuit. Before opening the large driver's door of the Audi Prologue concept outside of the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, Audi requested that I don a super-attractive onesie so as to not let my flannel-covered human flesh touch the untreated leather surfaces of the Prologue's interior. I tied the spacesuit around me just above the waist, let my Converse poke out the footholes, and promised to hold in any sneezes. After all, I was being granted a serious privilege. I was about to drive the multi-million dollar, only-one-in-the-world Prologue that had just stunned crowds at the Los Angeles Auto Show days earlier. This isn't the first time Audi has bravely let the media sample its conceptual wares. In 2010, the German automaker granted us access to its incredibly enticing Quattro concept, probably hoping that the media would rave about the thing enough to convince the higher powers to actually green-light and build it. (We're still waiting on that one, of course.) You could argue that this same logic was applied when allowing me to drive the Prologue – it's no secret that Audi has been dreaming of a range-topping A9, though company officials told me that there is currently no decision on whether or not to produce such a car. But that's not really what the Prologue is about. As its name suggests, what you're looking at here is a preview of Audi's next-generation exterior and interior design, in a fully baked, fully functional package. Suit up, and behold the future. While the Prologue won't necessarily spawn its own production model, its elements will be incorporated on the next A6, A7 and A8. "Timeless but progressive." That's the key takeaway of the Prologue's aesthetic, according to exterior designer Parys Cybulski. The focus here is on beautiful, yet modern, simplicity. A design that looks both contemporary and forward-thinking at the same time, and something that will still look up-to-date in several years' time. After all, while the Prologue won't necessarily spawn its own production model, its elements will be incorporated on the next A6, A7 and A8. Up front, the most prominent feature is, of course, Audi's single-frame grille, seen here with a larger breadth than anything else in the brand's lineup, though its closest resemblance is seen on the new TT.

Ward's Automotive Ten Best Engines of 2014 dominated by diesels, turbos

With the Car and Driver Ten Best decided, the North American Car and Truck of the Year finalists announced and Cadillac, Ram and Subaru chalking up wins with Motor Trend, it's fair to say that the automotive awards season is in full swing. The next set of trophies to be handed out will be from Ward's Automotive, which has announced the winners of its 2014 10 Best Engines.
The latest contest was marked by the widespread emergence of diesel power and the continued success of turbocharged engines. There was even an electric motor on this year's list. In fact, only three of the ten winners were naturally aspirated and only two winners returned from last year.
"We weren't looking to throw the bums out, as they might say about an election. We were just really impressed with the flood of new powertrains," said Ward's Automotive Editor-in-Chief Drew Winter. Those new powertrains include the 83-kilowatt electric motor from the Fiat 500e, the 1.0-liter, EcoBoost three-cylinder from the Ford Fiesta and the 2.0-liter turbodiesel from the Chevrolet Cruze.