Hyundai Genesis Coupe Gets the Boot

In a move surprising no one, Hyundai has announced it will stop making its Genesis Coupe sports car after the 2016 model year.

Introduced for 2010, the Hyundai's first RWD sports car found itself in an interesting position; it could be seen both as a budget-priced competitor for upscale two-doors like the Infiniti G37 and BMW 3 Series, as well as less-expensive sports cars like the Ford Mustang and Nissan 370Z. Regardless of what buyers were cross-shopping the Hyundai against, it isn't refined enough to fit a re-imagined Genesis lineup, which is being spun off into a stand-alone luxury brand for 2017.

We saw this news coming when Hyundai trimmed the coupe's lineup for 2015, a common way for an automaker to begin winding down a model slated for the cutting room floor – in this case, the entry-level 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder was dropped in favour of the up-level 3.8L V6, a nod to a future focus on more upscale performance.

We never really thought the Genesis name fit the coupe; while it marked a definite step forward for Hyundai, the car's raw performance was far removed from the original Genesis sedan's calm-and-collected personality. While updated versions of Hyundai's two premium sedans (Genesis and Equus) carry on for 2017 as the Genesis G80 and G90, the company's new luxury division won't get a coupe until 2020 or 2021, according to Canadian PR boss Chad Heard, as part of a six-model lineup that will also include a pair of crossovers and the G70 compact sedan.

Whatever a future Genesis coupe looks like, we hope it holds on to some of the outgoing car's performance cred: the 2016 Genesis Coupe R-Spec gets Brembo brakes, 19-inch wheels and a limited-slip diff for less than $30,000 in Canada.