Tiger Woods crash puts Genesis car brand in an unexpected spotlight

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Genesis Motor was eager to hitch itself to Tiger Woods — but probably not like this.

The golf legend’s Tuesday car crash has shone a spotlight on the fledgling luxury auto brand as it tries to raise its profile.

Genesis has rolled out five high-end models since parent company Hyundai launched it five years ago — including the GV80 SUV that Woods rolled over on an accident-prone road in suburban Los Angeles.

The unexpected attention could give the brand a much-needed boost at a time when it’s struggling with lagging sales, auto analysts tell The Post.

“I hate to use the [saying] ‘no such thing as bad publicity,’ but there’ll be that much more awareness of Genesis than there was a week ago,” said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at car-shopping website iSeeCars.com. “Any bad news can be devastating for 24 hours or 48 hours … but the increased awareness of Genesis will last a lot longer than that.”

Genesis was just a high-end model in Hyundai’s lineup before the South Korean car giant spun it out as a standalone brand in 2015.

The move was meant to help Hyundai compete with upscale labels from other Asian automakers, such as Toyota’s Lexus and Honda’s Acura, as well as luxury stalwarts like Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW, analysts said.

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