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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.

BMW M4 Concept leaked ahead of Monterey debut

Last month, we heard that BMW might be bringing a concept previewing its next M4 sports coupe to this year's Monterey festivities. Well, thanks to the folks at USA Today, we have absolute confirmation of this by way of some leaked images. And goodness, she's certainly a looker.
While a few of us still find some of the 4 Series' design to be a bit awkward, it's hard to not immediately warm up to the aggressive bits of this hotter M4 concept. It certainly looks the business of a proper sports car, and a worthy successor to the M3 coupe. Of course, a lot of this will likely be toned down for the production version, which we'll likely be seeing at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show in January, along with its four-door M3 kin.
The official M4 Concept details will be revealed later tonight, but for now, have a look at a few shots of the golden show car in our gallery of leaked shots, above.

BMW 8 Series coming in 2020

As good as the BMW 7 Series may be – and trust us when we say it is very good indeed – it just can't compete with the marketplace juggernaut that is the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, at least not where global sales are concerned. And with sales come profits, especially at the six-digit price point many of these high-end luxury cars sell for. Put simply, Mercedes is cashing in on the S-Class, and BMW wants a bigger piece of that pie. It comes as little surprise, then, that Autocar reports BMW is currently considering two proposals for a new 8 Series that would slot just above its current 7 Series. One option is the currently-en-vogue four-door coupe. The other option is a more traditional two-door coupe, likely with a cabriolet option. The last time we heard such rumors, BMW was dismissing them back in 2013. Whichever way BMW decides to take its 8 Series plans, Autocar suggests that a concept vehicle ought to hit the show circuit in sometime in 2018, with a production model following in 2020. The car would be based on the underpinnings of the latest 7 Series, with a price considerably less than the Rolls-Royce Ghost (which also falls under the BMW umbrella). Considering BMW's penchant for multiple model variants, we won't be surprised if all three options get the green light, with a Gran Coupe version standing as the flagship. With the 6 Series Gran Coupe currently priced just below the 7 Series (and at a hefty premium to a comparable 5 Series four-door), an 8 Series would likely brush up against $100,000 for a base price. That might not take much out of S-Class sales, but it would make some tidy profits for BMW. Related Video: