DIGITAL EDITOR ANDREW STOY: If you want an example of how quickly the Koreans are evolving their luxury-car strategy, the Equus is a perfect example. This car became the flagship just a few years ago, yet the next Genesis -- a model one step down from Equus in the lineup -- is clearly superior in just about every way. If the next Genesis is that good, what will the next Equus be like? Will there even be a next Equus?
As Hyundai should remember, building a brand in the United States is a daunting prospect. That's essentially what the company is trying to do with Equus. The going has been slow: Hyundai sold only 352 Equus sedans in December 2013 and a total of around 3,500 for the entire year.
From behind the wheel, the car has potential: Hyundai has a great V8 engine. The interior is solid, silent and adorned with all sorts of leather and wood. Every techno trinket is present and accounted for. There's even a badge -- a sort of eagle/phoenix thing that evokes just a touch of the Spirit of Ecstasy if you squint and look at it indirectly. Back seats have fantastic long-wheelbase levels of legroom and a center console replete with a near-complete set of redundant center-stack controls so rear passengers can adjust the surroundings to suit their needs. Kids can also adjust their surroundings -- and the stereo, climate control, navigation system and seats -- using the controls, so if you frequently chauffeur passengers under the age of 10, consider keeping the rear console hidden.
On the road, the Tau V8 delivers a solid kick to this big sedan, and it does so with a delightful, muted muscle-car exhaust note. It's damped, to be sure, but present for those who appreciate such soundtracks. The Equus also has a three-mode drive selector permitting normal, sport and snow driving modes. Thus this rear-drive bruiser should be fine in the snowbelt too, right?
No.
Whatever merits the Equus has elsewhere, the car falls flat on its face in the snow, at least with stock rubber. It's quite possibly the worst snow driver I've ever experienced, and I'm including pre-ESP cars like my '72 Buick Skylark. After a 3-inch snowfall, the Genesis insisted on sliding the back-end out at even the tiniest throttle application, which then invoked traction control, which then cut throttle, leaving you motionless in the middle of the street. Leaving the car in snow mode but switching off traction control helped -- a very light touch on the throttle was essential, but at least the car didn't give up, and the lack of ESP permitted me to continue applying throttle to counter a spin. Eventually I just left it in normal and turned off the electronic aids, but the car stayed in the driveway far more than normal due to its lack of traction.
Of course, if you don't live in the snowbelt, none of this matters. And if you don't care about having a fancy German-car badge, the Hyundai roots don't matter. And if you don't care about having a flashy car, the generic “big sedan” blandness doesn't matter, either.
Makes you wonder what does matter when considering a $70,000 purchase, though. Guess we'll have to find one of those 352 buyers from December and ask them.
Lincoln would do well to emulate what Hyundai has done with the 2014 Hyundai Equus Ultimate.
It drives heavy enough. I didn't leave the traction control on very long when driving the snow-covered surface streets that I encounter on my commute. This thing loves to get sideways, and although Andy is right about it needing winter tires, it certainly is fun to oversteer around every corner, though the too-heavy steering made me feel a little less confident.
Of the Asian luxury cars, it's the best by a long shot. Lincoln would do well to emulate what Hyundai has done with this car.
The interior of the 2014 Hyundai Equus Ultimate is as good as that of a Mercedes-Benz.
For this question, I can say yes, this is easily 70 percent of an S-class, maybe even 85 percent. It offers nearly all of what the Mercedes does, including cushy leather, heated and cooled seats, front and rear, one-knob navigation, traffic and radio access, three-zone climate and 429 horsepower from a big V8. It's only 26 hp down from the S550.
The interior is up to snuff. It's quiet, comfortable, and not a bad way to spend an evening out on the town. I took three friends to see a comedy show, and they were impressed with the rear space and screens in the seatbacks, though we couldn't figure out how to look at anything but the navigation screen.
I don't find the sheetmetal bland. In fact, I was always impressed by its visual weight as I walked up to it in parking lots. Sure, the front looks cribbed from Mercedes and the back end looks like it, too. Other than that it's an original design! Seriously, there's no shame in stealing from the best -- that's how everyone does it.
As far as snow driving goes, Andy is right. The Equus kills power too early and for too long. I turned the traction control off, which kept me going.
I'm not sure if there are any comparisons to make, at least at this price range. The Americans are less expensive and not as large, the Germans eclipse this price at a size lower. I haven't personally driven the Kia K900 yet, but I'm interested in what that will feel like.
The 2014 Hyundai Equus Ultimate is a wonderful car for the money.
Not a bad driver, either, but I wouldn't confuse it for German. There's good, even, smooth power from the V8. It even sounds a little hot-rod-like above 3,500 rpm. The ride is soft -- especially noticeable on the freeway -- but one would expect such. Thus it's nice in a straight line, soaking up road nasties like a sponge, but the steering feels light, unconnected and a bit floppy in corners. Owners won't care, though. I joked with someone that this would be just an awesome Buick flagship.
The car does look like quality, the interior has what appear to be nice materials that are well screwed together and Hyundai's version of iDrive works well and is fairly intuitive.
The seats feel a bit flat and there's not a lot of bottom support. But they're heated and cooled! There's a bunch of other stuff on the car, including a rockin' stereo, leather everywhere, power window shade... Like I said, this is good value for the money.
Overall, the car resembles a Lexus LS more than a Mercedes-Benz S-class or an Audi A8. I'm not sure the car is cutting into the Germans' pie. I can sure see it making Toyota/Lexus nervous, though, and maybe Infiniti, too, and maybe Cadillac, especially with that level of service. Here's something I'll wager: Hyundai gets the Equus right eventually, and will end up neck-and-neck with the Germans one day.
The 2014 Hyundai Equus Ultimate comes in at a base price of $61,920 with our tester topping off at $68,920.
Other than the consistently cited lack of suitableness for driving over any significant snow accumulation, I enjoyed every drive I took in the Equus. Unfortunately, those drives were all short and slow after another reasonable snow storm affected the area. I never felt as though the car was going to leave me stranded roadside, but it's odd traction-control calibration even when set to snow mode is useless, and more than once did leave me effectively “stranded” when the system killed power entirely in the middle of a turn onto a snow-covered road. As did everyone else, I simply killed TC altogether and managed everything myself -- which is what I prefer, anyway. But it's a shortcoming in need of addressing, though winter tires would be the simplest and most obvious solution to these 19-inch, all-season Continental ContiProContacts.
Otherwise, it's hard to complain much about this Hyundai. Excellent interior trimmings, comfort and features, if sluggish steering and handling. I know a lot of people who would drive this Equus and never issue a peep about what an enthusiast would describe as a somewhat mundane driving experience. A close friend, whenever I've driven her in a Hyundai -- and pointed out its merits, value and quality, even in the top-notch Genesis -- always nods, and I know she objectively sees what I'm demonstrating to her … and then says, “But it's a Hyundai.” Every. Time. It's a sobering real-life illustration of just how difficult it is for product makers to overcome the legacy cost of historic perception. Had it not been zero degrees and snowing hard, I was going to mask tape over all the badges inside and out, and tell her it was a new Mercedes we had agreed to drive on the condition its official identity not be exposed on the car proper. I'm certain she would have been rather impressed with the Equus had I followed through with this plan. It's hard not to admire many of the materials, the controls' logical and clean layout, and the nap-inducing ride quality.
Personal anecdote: At one point I changed lanes from right to left, crossing a couple-inch-high berm of snow at 40 mph. This hooked the rear-end out to the left, lazily, at a relatively shallow, approximately 70-degree angle. One hundred yards ahead in the center turn lane immediately to my left was another car, stopped and waiting to turn. My initial slightly sideways sliding trajectory was such that, without correcting the Equus' path in time, I would have bounced its passenger-side rear door or rear quarter panel off of the stopped car's right-rear bumper as I slid slightly into the center lane.
Well, it never occurred to me that I wasn't going to sort this lazy little slide out in plenty of time, it wasn't a big deal whatsoever -- the combination of the already mentioned in-snow performance and slow steering admittedly meant it took a bit longer to do so than I would have preferred -- but then the Equus apparently decided that I was most likely going to crash. So it took the proactive measure of tightening the seatbelt forcibly against my torso and lap in anticipation of a collision. While this type of active safety system is certainly a good thing on the one hand, I was surprised by how much it distracted and disconcerted me in real time.
I'm travelling at 40 mph or so, I'm sliding in a 4,600-pound sedan with poor traction on snow, I'm concentrating and getting it under control, looking where I want the car to go as opposed to where it is going … and unexpectedly, in the middle of this little array of hand/foot car-control inputs, the seatbelt squeezes me hard. Not being prepared for this or expecting it at all, I guarantee this caused me to freeze for at least a few tenths of a second as my brain worked out what was happening. Once I understood that, the next step was for my brain to compute, well darn, I thought I was easily OK here but apparently the car disagrees -- why is that? Am I not going to straighten this out in time? Should I give up and brake here to reduce the inevitable impact?
To make this final decision -- which I had not even pondered until the seatbelt activated -- my natural reaction was to stop looking 100 percent where I wanted the Equus to go -- an elementary principle of Car Control 101, whether you're on the road or a racetrack -- and shifting part of my gaze back to the car stopped in the center lane. It was still probably 40 or 50 yards away, and I reverted entirely in that instant to what I had been doing, got the rear end back in line and never came close to hitting anything. But then I experienced the increase in adrenaline, heart rate and tense feeling that overcomes you when fear strikes.
Before the seatbelt cinched, I felt no fear at all and was focused fully on correcting this little slide. But as soon as it tightened, my brain A.) instinctively devoted a portion of its capacity to processing what I was feeling against my body; B.) then had to process why the car was doing this; and C.) had to calculate if it knew something I didn't.
All of this occurred in probably a second or less. But at 40 mph, you're traveling 58.6 feet per second. That's a good chunk of real estate when you must correct a sliding car within a finite distance, in this case about 300 feet from the stopped car when the entire event began. It could easily be the distance, and difference, between not hitting something or crashing into it.
A bit ironic, then, that an automotive safety feature distracted me, drew brain power and caused me to freeze, however so briefly, at the worst possible time: when I was in the middle of a slide and doing all the appropriate things to correct it. In the end there was no problem, but it gave me serious pause.
This isn't something unique to the Equus, it just happened to be the first car I've been in to experience this exact scenario. And it really made me stop and think about what had happened, why … and how the human being behind the wheel is still the most important safety feature, regardless how much techno trickery carmakers slather onto their creations.
2014 Hyundai Equus Ultimate
Base Price: $61,920As-Tested Price: $68,920
Drivetrain: 5.0-liter V8; RWD, eight-speed automatic
Output: 429 hp @ 6,400 rpm, 376 lb-ft @ 5,000 rpm
Curb Weight: 4,616 lb
Fuel Economy (EPA City/Highway/Combined): 15/23/18 mpg
AW Observed Fuel Economy: 13.8 mpg
Options: Ultimate package including full 12.3-inch LCD instrument cluster display, heads-up display, multiview camera system, forward-view cornering camera, rear seat entertainment system w/ dual 9.2-inch monitor, 4-way power lumbar rear outboard seats, cooled rear seats, rear seat power up/down head restraints with manual tilt, power trunk lid, power rear side-window, power door closure, steering wheel dial control ($7,000).
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