Gadgetory

well here it is the German car killer the Germans don't lose a ton of sleep over the Hyundai Equus Equus or necklace or how the hell do you pronounce that it's part of the problem let's try this new 2014 with a tech of your cabin and a nicer ride and check the tech spotting a 14 over a 13 really hard to do is a little difference in the headlight LEDs down here I think perfectly nice looking vehicle but wow you would easily lose it in a crowd the changes happened in something that's about as good as you ever gonna feel in a car under a hundred grand it's a very nice quiet cabin as we'll see on the road in a few moments the past decklist had just a little bit of a Hyundai stink about the plastic that is really gone now this screen is standard this is not standard we have the ultimate trim car so that 12 inch LCD instrument panel comes on this trim level not on the base car here is everything you've got on the system navigation your radio sources including HD radio and satellite your optical disc player is here jukebox is a 30 gigabyte hard drive I could not care less USB plug in or in this case my iPods using the USB it comes up on a separate location streaming audio of course and you've got telephony and blue link telematics the navigation system looks perfectly good there's nothing about it that really grates me and as is Hyundai tradition you have basically very simple views not this 3d flyover and buildings and bird's-eye and I'm ok with that to be honest one thing I like about the way it handles all audio sources is a really good usage of the meta tag information clean that is if I go to streaming audio you'll see a similar representation lexicon branded 7.1 surround system 17 speakers as I recall 598 watts of power none of that matters how good it sounds does and we liked it unless they want to comment here is on Blu link this is a telematics system not a connected driving system the difference is this is more like a GM OnStar if you will it's got kind of basic information send to car for destinations but there's no Google search in here there's no search to nav the things that really are the class this guy doesn't have Hyundai's control interface is it's not like really anybody else's you got a home button and a knob and click and turn here that's pretty common you've got a home button over here but notice what they do they use bottom left and right corner logic so these are shortcut buttons that take you to whatever the shortcut menus are in these corners of the screen this is not a touchscreen by the way which is kind of unusual typically it's got to be a German car before it doesn't work on the touch this one doesn't either though you got to use buttons here at all times thank you for a nice big back button every car should have that look out there you're gonna see a head-up display that is exceptionally good this is one of the best in the business in fact aside from BMW this is the best in the business and that's pretty impressive for this car this car has more cameras than the bnh store in New York I can move around from in a round view alongside my back view I can then select this and I can get back for you only I can go over here and get back and left rear quarter here's back in right rear quarter I mean there's nothing you can't see on this car except maybe up through the roof oh you can do that - you got a sunroof aside from infinity no one does as many views as this guy now the back seat in this car is quite a nice place as well first of all it has great legroom I don't like big cars that don't have back seat space what's the point this little rocker here let's you control lumbar support and of course heating and cooling back here three zones two in the front one joint back here now this may be the best integrated set of rear seat entertainment screens gonna say any car shy of a quarter million but I don't think any car does a better job than this you turn these guys on here independently with buttons for a left and right passenger they kind of tilt an angle notice like in a nice airline seat I can watch what's on the map sit here and fight with the driver tell him or her she's an idiot for the route she's taking all that fun stuff I can jump to the homescreen the same one we saw up in the front row those blue link telematics services are back here so I can help out looking at stuff the DVD in the front will play in the rear but obviously not distract the driver in the front now up here on the prowl we've got relatively conventional but modern engine technology let me explain that v8 of course five liter gasoline direct injection beyond that we've got the usual very complex variable valve timing technology but it is a longitudinally mounted front engine rear wheel drive car there's no all-wheel drive variant of this vehicle this is modern but relatively basic 429 horsepower 376 foot-pounds of torque 0 to 60 is around five point six five point seven seconds for a car that weighs 4,600 plus pounds not bad one choice on the gearbox an 8-speed automatic and the mpg is 15 City 23 highway averages about eighteen Oh Mitchell average a little bit less than that actually they've really gone after Lexus LS it does not feel like a German car it feels like a nice taut ly strong Lexus the power on this car is ample in fact you light up the rear end a little bit not trying to not even wanting to but because it's just got a whole bunch under tap even though the torque number is not terribly high so if you're buying a big sedan that's also a great little possible car if you could even say that on the weekend this is probably not it and this head-up display is great it shows you miles per hour of your speedometer it also will show you navigation it'll bring up some other driving prompts as you're going it's not quite as sharp big or bright as BMW but it's the closest of any car maker yet to all three of those things from BMW so it's a close number two in the industry right now okay pricing in Equus is really easy it's 61 920 delivered for the basic car which is of course a very nice car but to go see that style you got to add a $7000 ultimate upgrade that's gonna get you that LCD instrument panel to get you have a cameras that are just about everywhere the rear seat entertainment system and they get you the head-up display I like so much so now you're at 68 920 and that's about all you can do on this car you