Hyundai has made great strides in the last few years. Cars like the Azera, Elantra, Sonata, and Santa Fe consistently exhibit all-around competence. (Follow links for ratings and road tests.) Even in the very competitive upscale sedan segment, the Genesis luxury sedan manages to impress; it scores very highly in our tests.

But there is one nut that Hyundai hasn’t cracked yet: building a car that is fun to drive. Previously tested Hyundais lack the steering feel and agility that makes a car truly entertaining.

Enter the Genesis Coupe. Based loosely on the Genesis sedan’s architecture, the Coupe aims at a wide range of sports car competitors – everything from pony cars like the Mustang/Camaro/Challenger (See muscle car showdown video) to upscale luxury sports coupes such as the Infiniti G37. We bought a Grand Touring V6 with the six-speed manual transmission; well-equipped, our car listed at $28,375.

First impressions: the 3.8-liter V6 revs freely, pulls strong, and sounds great. The steering is better-weighted than the light Hyundai norm and gives good feedback. Visibility is relatively generous for a sports coupe. But complaints are universal among the staff about the high-effort bulky clutch and awkward shifter that together makes the car hard to drive and shift smoothly. (Some wrote that the automatic would be less frustrating--a big concession for a traditional sports coupe.) The stiff ride makes us happy we didn’t buy the even-more-tightly-suspended Track version.

We’ll see how the Genesis coupe stacks up against its competition in our upcoming tests.

—Tom Mutchler, photo by Mike Leung