Hold the phone!: Get a load of THIS Genesis

Mark Glover’s AutoGlo car reviews also can be seen on the Business page of The Sacramento Bee’s website – www.sacbee.com/news/business/article4005306.html

Sacramento, California – Hold the phone!  Last week’s posted review of the 2015 Hyundai Genesis 3.8 was really cool and everything.

But if you can get the 2015 Hyundai Genesis 5.0 rear-driver sedan instead, you should do just that.

Why?  Here’s a hint:  VROOOM!!!!

The 5-liter V-8 engine making a max 420 horsepower with the 5.0 is a major boost.  I can’t overstate it.

I can demonstrate it, however.

During my recent week with the Genesis 5.0, I encountered one of those freeway situations that makes the hair stand straight up.  I’m in the extreme left lane when the driver of the car five lengths ahead of me slams the brakes.  I glance up in the rearview mirror to see that I have maybe two feet of clearance between my rear bumper and the grille of a car one lane over moving at about 65 miles per hour.

Instinctively, I hit the gas and dart for the tiny opening one lane to my right. An eye-blink into the maneuver, the Genesis just bolts like a runaway comet.  Even as I’m escaping disaster, I’m thinking: “Can you believe this car?  It’s killing this move.  Jeff Gordon would be wide-eyed if he was my passenger.

And so it went.  Several more times during my week in the car, I asked it to dig in and create a Star Wars-like, warp speed burst that would blur the surrounding lights and the stars overhead.  Every time, the car responded like a champ.

Ordinarily, I don’t get all that excited over a 109-horsepower difference in models – the 2015 Genesis 3.8’s V-6 power plant makes 311-horsepower – but the 5.0’s performance was so much more profound that it made my head spin.

Yes, you will pay a price at the pump for the extra power.  The Genesis 5.0 is rated at 15 miles per gallon in the city and 23 mpg on the open road, as opposed to 18/29 in the 3.8.  So you have to do the economic math and determine whether a periodic heart rate rush is worth the extra cash.

Starting price on the tested 5.0 was a hefty $51,500, and a luxo package of extras pushed the bottom line to $55,700.  So, yeah, that high-level math definitely goes into the mix when you’re pondering the Genesis.

Dollar signs aside, this Genesis gave me a satisfying week of muscular performance.  Think of it as a Genesis 3.8, only way faster.