GENESIS GV80 & GV70

If you haven’t already heard of Genesis, let me introduce you. Much like Lexus is the luxury arm of Toyota, and Infiniti was to Nissan, Genesis is the premium car brand from Hyundai.

Of course, Hyundai isn’t just ‘another’ Korean car manufacturer, no, Hyundai Motor Group is a mighty force to be reckoned with, and if you didn’t know, they also own the majority share of Kia. Not only that, but their all-electric offerings have led the field for quite a while, not to mention their hydrogen tech.

The whole Genesis experience is done online, or via Genesis ‘Studios’ and not through traditional dealerships. You’re allocated your own Genesis personal assistant who will take you through the process from test drive to delivery, and on to after-care, too. And if you’re struggling to understand your car after your Genesis personal assistant’s initial handover, you can book another, they’ll come to you.

The question is, can brand known for its reasonably priced, well equipped and reliable cars compete with the likes of JLR, BMW, Audi, and Mercedes? On a wet and miserable December day up in North Yorkshire, I was about to find out....

GV80

On arrival at Middleton Lodge, in front of me sat the Genesis fleet that comprises of five vehicles; G70 and G80 saloons, the G70 Shooting Brake, and their SUVs; GV70 and GV80.

My first pick was the company’s largest offering, the GV80. It’s imposing to say the least, almost the size of BMW’s X5 with the option of either a 2.5 litre petrol and a straight-six 3.0 diesel, both with an 8-speed auto and four-wheel-drive as standard.

I was given the keys to the petrol version that churns out 300bhp, and is therefore quite sprightly. It isn’t a sports car, obviously, but it feels nippy, despite it’s size.

I didn’t take on the motorway, that would’ve been quite boring, instead I focussed my hour or so exploring the A and B roads surrounding Scotch Corner.

Rather than sitting on air suspension like a lot of its rivals, the GV80 uses multi-link axles with steel coils at both ends which gives it a lovely soft ride. Don’t worry about it wallowing around corners as it comes with adaptive damping as standard which allows you to firm up body control a bit whilst in Sport mode, which is obviously my default mode.

I was actually quite surprised that it handled as well as it did. Yes, for such a large car there is some body roll, but it acquitted itself well on the narrow and twisting roads not far from Croft Motoring Circuit. After my rather spirited drive, upon returning to the Lodge the GV80 had achieved 37.5mpg, which I thought was pretty amazing, considering.

With just two trim levels; Premium and Luxury, it doesn’t matter which you choose as both are very plush with plenty of soft-touch surfaces. I personally appreciated that a lot of the controls aren’t reliant on the touchscreen as some rivals do. I’m an old fashioned knobs and dials kinda guy!

As for tech, well, what doesn’t it have. Genesis uses a version of Hyundai’s system which by popular opinion is already one of the best on the market. There’s a rotary controller that doubles as a touchpad for writing addresses, and the display is a 14.5” touchscreen.

GV70

Returning to Middleton Lodge, next on my list was the GV70, a shorter version of the GV80, but with a much nicer interior, in my opinion. Okay, the Saville Red may not be to everyone’s taste, but I liked it.

Like the GV80, the GV70 comes with a choice of two engines: a 300bhp 2.5 litre petrol and a 207bhp 2.2 litre diesel, again, both with four-wheel drive for extra smiles.

For some reason I missed taking out the diesel and spent more time than I probably should have in the 2.5 litre petrol, and within less than a mile it was already my favourite car of the day, even before I’d driven the saloons.

Along the same twisty and muddy back roads, the 8-speed auto ‘box seamlessly shuffled its way through the gears, and huge wheels and wide tyres found traction out of the corners where they really shouldn’t have.

I’m going to describe the interior as luxuriously funky, it’s the nicest and coolest I’ve seen for a long time. Of course you have all the tech you need, adaptive cruise, and so on. I did glance at the Terrain mode switch and wondered if I should explore the odd lane, but it was wet and the lanes would have been totally sodden, so I figured I’d wait till I have one on proper test.

Both the GV70 and GV80 exude quality, as they should at their price points (from £39,450 and £56,715 respectively). Do I think that Genesis will make a dint in the UK luxury car market? They should do, but are Mercedes and Audi drivers brave enough to jump ship, that’s the question.

And on that note I’ll finish here, yes, there’s plenty more to talk about, but I’ll wait until I have them both on a proper week long test, which hopefully should be within the next month or so.