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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.

Mercedes picks Gensler to design new Atlanta HQ

Mercedes is planning to move of its US headquarters from Montvale, NJ, to Atlanta, GA – and with over a thousand employees to house, the project will surely be massive. In order to pull it off, the automaker is going to need the right architects. And Mercedes seems convinced that Gensler is the way to go. Never heard of Gensler? The San Francisco-based architectural giant (incorporated as M. Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates, Inc.) has done the headquarters for Facebook, Coca-Cola and General Electric. It designed the Shanghai Tower, the tallest building in China, and crafted the master plan for the Olympic Games set to take place in Rio de Janeiro next year. It's done hotels, sports arenas, military facilities, airport terminals... the works. It also redesigned Cadillac's showrooms and Hyundai's new US headquarters, and among the many offices it operates in 46 cities and 16 countries around the world, it has a branch in Atlanta. So of the dozen firms Mercedes considered for the task, Gensler got the nod. The 250,000-square-foot facility is earmarked for completion in 2018, occupying a 12-acre plot at the corner of Abernathy and Barfield roads in Sandy Springs, Georgia. In the meantime, MBUSA is preparing to move temporarily from its current offices (pictured here) in Jersey down to another facility in the Atlanta area, also being set up by Gensler, in nearby Dunwoody – just a couple of miles down the road from where the permanent site will be. Mercedes-Benz USA Selects Gensler As Architect For New Atlanta Headquarters Facility Award-winning global firm to design 250,000-sq-ft office building in Sandy Springs, GA April 30, 2015 - MONTVALE, N.J. Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) today announced it has selected Gensler as the architecture firm for its new headquarters facility in metro Atlanta. Gensler will design an approximately 250,000-square-foot office building that will house around 1,000 MBUSA employees upon its completion in 2018. "We talked to many, many firms and saw some amazing designs, but Gensler was the one that stood out for us," said MBUSA President and CEO Stephen Cannon. "They understood our brand and our culture, along with the ambitious goals we have for the next chapter of Mercedes-Benz in this market, and they were able bring that to life in their designs." MBUSA selected Gensler from a dozen global design firms for its creative building concept, which seamlessly integrates functionality and the beautiful surrounding landscape.

Our interview with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, plus SEMA! | Autoblog Podcast #491

This week, David Gluckman and Mike Austin talk SEMA madness, mis-aligned steering wheels, wireless charging, McLarens (they're sports cars!), and decals. We also have an excerpt from a recent interview with James May and Jeremy Clarkson of The Grand Tour and Top Gear fame. As always, we talk about a variety of cars we've been driving and then respond to some questions from listeners. And as a bonus, there's a trivia question mixed in. The rundown is below. Remember, if you have a car-related question you'd like us to answer or you want questionable buying advice of your very own, send a message or a voice memo to podcast at autoblog dot com. Oh, and please send trivia questions! You'll get the honor of stumping your fellow listeners, and we'll thank you too. Autoblog Podcast #491 The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics and stories we mention Stars Selling Cars The Ford Flex is dying SEMA! Dodge Durango Shaker concept New Mercedes inline-six engines Our interview with Jeremy Clarkson and James May Mercedes-Benz E-Class McLaren 570S Ad of the Week: Volvo ABCs of Death Spend My Money on used cars Rundown Intro - 00:00 The news - 02:15 Clarkson/May interview excerpt - 17:12 What we've been driving - 21:12 Ad of the Week - 39:02 Spend My Money/listener questions - 44:13 Total Duration: 57:05 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Feedback Email – Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Celebrities Podcasts SEMA Show Cadillac Dodge Ford McLaren Mercedes-Benz Volvo ford flex the grand tour mclaren 570s SEMA 2016