As I approach middle-age, I’m starting to wander from my typical daily driver fare of too-stiff hot hatches and sports cars. I recently bought a big SUV and unfortunately like it more than I expected to. I’ve had a few American luxobarges in my teen years, because they were cheap and easy, but as I inch closer to forty, is it time to get back into luxury sedans? Lately I’ve found myself drawn in by the siren song of big weird Korean lux. I’ve got Equus on the brain. It’s way funkier and more attractive than the cold stoicism of German lux, and quirkier than the sharp boredom of Japanese lux. Maybe it’s the sweet spot.
In a pre-Genesis-as-a-brand world, Hyundai was obsessed with moving upmarket, and introduced the delightful 5-liter V8-powered Equus as a bargain-priced competitor to the 7-series and S-class. When it was new a decade ago it was damn near $70,000 (around $92,000 in today’s money), undercutting the Bimmer by almost 10 grand and the S-class by over 20!
A decade later and these cars are trading hands for pennies. Here’s one I found on eBay today with 89,000 miles on the clock for a mere $13,990, though you could probably get it for a little less. The opening bid is $11,990, and nobody has bid yet. This seems like a ton of car for 12 to 14 grand.
The interior is the star of this car, with supple leathers, real wood, and plenty of features that would have been absurd a decade ago but are pretty common in a mid-sized sedan today. It’s a quiet car — like, vault-quiet. There are screens everywhere, which I’m sure are dated as hell today, but I can probably put up with that.
When Jalopnik reviewed this car back in 2014, it was met with mild praise. “The wood is real but it looks tacky, and the plastic buttons feel pretty cut-rate. Still, while it’s not the best out there, it’s convincingly premium.”
The 5-liter engine produced an impressive-for-2014 429 horsepower and 376 lb-ft of torque. It’s a big heavy car, so it needed that kind of power just to get up and go. It’s lackadaisical, you could say. I’ve had my fair share of Ford Panther-chassis cars, so I can get on with that just fine.
Once again, Patrick George reports:
“[T]here’s something to be said for getting in this car after a long day at work and just sort of gliding all the way home.”
This train of thought started because my wife mentioned she liked the idea of the Bentley-based Volkswagen Phaeton. I think the Equus delivers a lot of the same vibe without the threat of bankrupting me twenty minutes into ownership. What do you think, should I pick up an Equus and write about it?
Maybe you should buy it and save me the trouble.