Car audio - not a topic?

Are you specifically talking about that "Genesis" brand that Hyundai makes?

Oh Gosh, those vehicles are abysmal. Of course it sounded distant. They can’t design anything properly. It’s not your fault. They are a laughably bad manufacturer.

When I was travelling for work before I retired, they gave me one of those as a rental car when I went to pick it up. It was so bad that after 5 minutes I asked for a different car. 

They gave me a Mercedes S-Class, which is very much my style, respectable, but still not at the level of my Bentley.

If you want the best car audio, get a new Bentley or a Mercedes Maybach with Burmester system inside. Otherwise, it’s basic consumer grade sound that will never get better no matter how much you fiddle with the EQ. Oh, and play uncompressed/lossless music... no mp3s! If you really care about sound quality and not just bass, then I'm sure you will figure it out.

Thank you @frank009, I'll keep my eye out for the burmester. You needn't think twice about my staying away from the Genesis, at least I'm not.

And never mind EQ there either, in fact,  all that was available was a surround setting that could be increased. When I maxed that out, the salesman in the backseat thought his world had improved. My wife and I in the front row could not distinguish anything having changed anywhere. In the front (and apparently throughout), the music seemed to remain at the perimeter of the vehicle, never reaching us in the heart of the cabin. So strange! I have never experienced sound not filling a space, no matter the volume.

FYI:

I have a 2016 BMW 428ix coupe with H/K system (16 speakers + equalizer + class D amps).

Also have a brand new 2026 Mazda CX30 with Bose system (12 speakers + Bose spacial enhancements).

With everything set flat the H/K system wins by a huge margin.

Get custom DSP amplifier that you can adjust yourself. Makes huge difference.

My 2016 Lexus LS460L has Mark Levinson speakers and likely system. Sounds okay. Upgrading to Morel is 6k, not worth it because I believe the environment for high Sonics in a car interior will be lacking.

Going back to memory lane, I swapped out stock speakers and dashboard cassette radios to higher quality components. Pioneer was a common speaker or dash upgrades. Alpine and Blaupunkt were the best.