2011 HYUNDAI EQUUS: All things being Equus

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/12/2011 (5262 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Research on commuting suggests it will make you sad, anxious, lonely, fat, achy, sleepless and likely wreck your marriage. To this we ask: What have researchers been driving lately?

In the right car, the day’s drive can be fun time, quiet time, thinking time, entertainment time, relaxing time or catch-up time with spouses and friends.

There are certain necessities every good commute needs. Patience is one. The average speed during our daily commute to work barely breaks 40 kilometres an hour. Convenience is another — that is, a vehicle with intuitive ergonomics that makes for easy operation. And then there’s performance, which, in the context of commuting, dictates a ride suited to daily stop-and-go traffic on roads brutalized by winter, congested by summer maintenance and made hazardous by cyclists, scooters and wayward pedestrians.

With this in mind, we picked up a newcomer to the luxury car segment, Hyundai’s Equus Signature, and put it to our commuter test.

Introduced to the Canadian market almost a year ago, Hyundai designed its flagship sedan to compete head to head against the world’s best full-sized sedans. What will differentiate the Equus, according to Hyundai’s strategists, however, is the combination of luxury and what consumers have long associated with Hyundai — low cost. The automaker is betting some luxury consumers will look past the flying-H branding and focus on what the Equus delivers.

Those who do will discover the Equus is Hyundai’s gentle giant.

It’s long, wide, tall and elegant, mixing the styling of a Lexus LS 460 and Mercedes S550 without the extra $20,000-plus and $45,000-plus attached to the latter two’s respective price tags. This mix certainly attracts eyeballs — from security guards at the entrance to our office parking to other drivers who couldn’t figure out it was a Hyundai until they walked around to the back where the only Hyundai badge rests discreetly on the trunk lid.

Driving the Equus proved to be, in a word, relaxing.

Inside, the large cabin encouraged the stretching of one’s legs. The width guarded against duels between driver and passenger for the centre armrest. Individual climate controls meant there was no need to debate the temperature setting. The driver information system controls — fashioned after BMW’s iDrive with its large dial — were relatively easy to use, while the GPS proved unusually user-friendly. And the rear seats offered so much room that it’s not a stretch to suggest car-pooling in the Equus might foster a bidding war among the neighbours. Complimenting these amenities is the Equus’s 17-speaker Lexicon surround-sound system that pumped out 600-plus watts of musical power, making the XM satellite radio sing with a level of clarity and force typically associated with home theatre systems.

Finishings were good, with a blend of smooth and textured leather surfaces, wood accents and Alcantara head liner, all suggesting Hyundai’s ambitions for the luxury segment. Storage was a dream. An enormous trunk, along with storage in the door panels and under the centre armrest, provided ample opportunity to lose all those knick-knacks one can never find when needed. The material compares well with that of Cadillacs, although it doesn’t inspire the same luxury experience one finds in high-end Audis and Mercedes, which are decked out in very supple leathers. One quibble, however, is that the cup holders in the centre console could have been better located and wider.

The ride was the largest contributor to the sense of serenity that comes with cruising to work in this luxury liner. Pushed by the rear wheels, powered by an impressive V8 with 378 horsepower and 324 pound-feet of torque and held together with a smooth six-speed automatic transmission, the Equus moves its 2,022-kilogram body to 100 km/h in about 6.5 seconds, something we were not able to test in traffic jams. When the highway did open up, however, the hefty V8 left no doubt it had ample power to tap. When roads were slick, the traction control worked like a charm, as did the active seatbelts that held passengers in place when braking hard. We do wonder about the lane departure warning system, however. While Hyundai hails this as a safety feature, it raises doubts about the skill of a driver who would need it.

Completing the package is the continuous damping control system that automatically adjusts to road conditions, as well as the Equus’s electronically managed air suspension. In Sport setting, it brings the car closer to the tarmac while delivering better road feel. The regular suspension setting provides a softer ride, lifting the car higher off the ground in the process (to precisely the perfect height for accessing our local Tim’s drive-thru window). On the bumpy and broken roads traversed each day, the soft ride was our preferred choice.

A gentle as the Equus giant is, like all giants, it needs to be fed. City driving consumed nearly 14 litres of fuel for every 100 kilometres, while highway cruising managed to reduce its hunger to 11 L/100 km. This is by no means out of line with cars of similar size and ambition and, in light of a suggested retail price of $62,999, it’s a small price to pay for such a smooth, spacious and serene commute for the daily grind.

— Postmedia News

THE SPECS

Type of vehicle: Rear-wheel-drive luxury sedan

Engine: 4.6L DOHC V8

Power: 385 hp 6,500 rpm; 333 lb-ft of torque 3,500 rpm

Transmission: Six-speed manumatic

Brakes: Four-wheel disc with ABS

Tires: P245/45R19 front, P275/40R19 rear

Price: base/as tested: $62,999/same

Transport Canada fuel economy L/100 km: 13.4 city, 8.2 hwy.