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| Hyundai Unveils Upscale 'Genesis Prestige' |
| A look at the bigger sibling of the North American Car of the Year |
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Jean K. Min (jean)  |
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Published 2009-02-17 15:06 (KST) |
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 | |  2009 Hyundai Equus -- Gensis Prestige is coming to America? | | | ©2009 Hyundai Motors | | Hyundai unveiled Equus, its flagship luxury sedan to over 80 journalists Tuesday. Korean car mania though will have to be content with a Hyundai's single news photo release that shows only the right half of it. Earlier, Hyundai had released a couple of artistic renderings of Equus this January, which sported voluptuous sculpted lines flowing from a large front grill to elegant rear lamps as well as oversize wheel and tire.
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| Codenamed VI, Equus replaces its earlier model introduced exclusively to Korean market more than 10 years ago. Equus has since remained as the Korea's Lincoln Town Car, sold either as a chauffeur-driven prestige sedan or a stretched limo.
But this time Equus will be launched in US market, potentially branded as Genesis Prestige, Hyundai teased, capitalizing on a series of favorable reviews Genesis has garnered recently. Genesis, Hyundai's mid-size luxury sibling of Equus was launched last year in North America and was voted North American Car of the Year and Canadian Car of the Year respectively.
Equus is Hyundai's first serious foray into the large size luxury sedan segment crowded with such industry stalwarts as Mercedes Benz S class, Lexus LS sedans and BMW 7 series. To prove how serious it is in gaining a foothold in the upscale market, Hyundai allowed automobile writers in the preview event to test-drive Equus and compare it side-by-side with Mercedes Benz S350L and Lexus LS460L.
Equus comes in 3.8 liter V-6 or 4.6 liter V-8 engine and is paired up with 6-speed automatic transmission. V-8 version maxes out at 366 horsepower according to the Hyundai's internal test data, which is on a par with LS460L or slightly lesser than Mercedes S500L.
 |  | | | | | | ©2009 Hyundai Motors | Size wise, Equus is 5,160mm long, about 60mm shorter than S500L but a tad longer than LS460L.
Hyundai promises top-notch amenities and safety features commensurate with its lofty ambition to break into large luxury sedan segment -- a lane departure warning system, pre-safe seatbelt and VSM2, which oversees data communication between individual electronic components located at different parts of chassis.
Prospective Equus buyers will be able to see the largest and most expensive Korean luxury sedan ever at Hyundai's Korean dealership beginning March 3.
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©2009 OhmyNews
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