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2019 Genesis G70: The Road & Track Test

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KOREA IS JUST ITCHING TO BUILD COMPELLING CARS. Seoul’s streets are a gray wasteland of forgettable, late-model sedans and crossovers, yet in the subterranean parking at Hyundai’s Motorstudio in Goyang, you might stumble upon a 5.0-liter Mustang parked next to a Hyundai Genesis coupe with a massive spoiler.

So, despite the fact that the world’s appetite for sport sedans is already sated by a buffet of German and Japanese options, and despite the fact that the Hyundai Motor Group got along just fine while staying out of the fray, here comes its second all-new contender in less than a year, the Genesis G70.

The first is the Kia Stinger, a good car that surprised everyone. We liked the Stinger’s styling, powertrain, and grip; our chief complaints were the way its weight and size blunt the performance and how overly soft chassis tuning spoils its handling at times. The G70 shares its bones with the Stinger but—on paper, at least—addresses those shortcomings.

The G70 3.3T weighs 199 pounds less than the V-6 Stinger we tested in February. It has a 2.8-inch shorter wheelbase and rides on a stiffer suspension. A four-cylinder, manual-transmission version is lighter still. Compared with the Kia, the G70 uses more aluminum throughout, from the hood to unsprung suspension components. A team led by Albert Biermann, former head of BMW’s M division, developed both the Stinger and the G70. The latter is meant to be the sharper of the two. It’s also intended to be more luxurious.

If the chassis has received a Bavarian massage, the styling attempts to chart its own course. While there’s plenty of Audi influence in the G70, design chief Luc Donckerwolke, who hails from Bentley, is evolving the look of Hyundai’s Genesis luxury brand into something stylish yet subdued. Even so, the G70 is saddled with that perennial sporty shorthand of luxury-car designers, the fake fender vent. The fanciful grille is also marred by a clear plastic rectangle required for adaptive cruise control. Adding a front license plate will compound the clutter.
The proportions are just right. The G70 looks low and squat on the road, and it is— lower and broader than a BMW 3-series by 1.2 and 1.5 inches, respectively. The five-spoke, 19-inch wheels, which come on Sport versions of both the four-and six-cylinder G70 models, are pushed to the corners. The car looks particularly aggressive from the rear, thanks to 255-section-width rubber out back.

Still, the G70 has its work cut out when posing curbside. Parked in front of a resort on Maine’s coast, the sharp-looking sport sedan intrigued but didn’t necessarily leave a lasting impression on two people passing by, carrying yoga mats.
“Those are pretty,” one said.
“But they’re really just Hyundais,” her friend instantly replied.

In an age when Volkswagen platforms underpin Bentley badges, brand perception in the luxury sphere is equally weighted with engineering prowess. Genesis, still struggling to make a name for itself, could face years of dogged uphill battle here, as did Lexus and Infiniti. For the immediate future, the G70 is going to be primarily a value choice, with a price ranging from about $35,000 for a 252-hp four-cylinder model to about $50,000 for one equipped with a 365-hp V-6, all-wheel drive, and the usual luxury trimmings. A V-6 rear-drive example like the one we tested starts around $40,000—some $9000 less than a base BMW 340i.

From the G70’s driver’s seat, it doesn’t feel like corners were cut to build a bargain. Quilting on the leather seats and doors makes the brand’s Bentley-like winged badge less imitation than inspiration. In back, the couple of inches sectioned out of the Genesis’s length and wheel-base compared with the Stinger makes for cramped quarters. Overall, the interior is well-made and convincingly executed. If Genesis can tempt the curious away from cynical yoga partners, they’ll be impressed.

While a mid-sized crossover (inevitably on the way) would be more likely to spur the kind of sustaining growth Genesis requires long-term, the G70’s purpose comes into focus when it is pitted against a track as new as the car. Club Motorsports in New Hampshire is a 2.5-mile course with pavement so fresh, they haven’t painted the curbs yet. Built into the side of a hill, it features 250 feet of elevation change and a few challenging corners. Pace comes from flowing lines, rather than brute force.

Genesis provided the 3.3T for track duty, equipped with a twin-turbocharged V-6 making 365 hp and 376 lb-ft of torque. All-wheel-drive and rear-wheel-drive versions were on hand, both wearing Michelin Pilot Sport 4 summer tires.
The twin-turbo V-6 is beyond capable but could do with a bit more character. It pulls strongly to 6000 rpm and has accessible, flexible low-end torque. It has almost no audible personality, but it delivers the power to make speed when asked. Likewise, the eight-speed automatic shifts quickly when called upon and is otherwise unfussy.

At 3847 pounds, the G70 is lighter than the Stinger but still not particularly light. Sometimes, that can be a good thing. The car feels substantial at speed, not fidgety. On the second right-hander at the end of Club Motorsports’ long straight, the sedan could consistently be taken through a sudden dip and over curbing without upsetting the chassis. Further, the Brembo brakes are faithful and confidence-inspiring. Even the heavier all-wheel-drive cars experienced minimal fade.
The steering is electrically assisted, with the motor mounted on the rack rather than the column, something Genesis picked up when it had Lotus tune the handling on its flagship a few years ago. There’s not much flavor to the feedback, but the G70 reacts predictably and is easy to place in corners. The wheel is more talkative than a modern BMW’s, more direct than a Mercedes-AMG’s.

The all-wheel-drive G70 reacts well if driven like a big, Korean Subaru. Popping off the throttle gets the nose to bite, and power can be fed in early. With stability control fully defeated, power goes primarily to the rear wheels. There’s fun to be had here, but the all-wheel-drive version is not our first choice.

The rear-wheel-drive car, equipped with an electronic limited-slip differential, is nimbler, turning in more eagerly, despite considerable howl from the front tires. The G70 demands patience, but it also rewards a more aggressive approach with tail-out behavior. Underneath the crisp business suit of this 3-series fighter lurks a hooligan’s spirit.

The spirit is willing, but the sheetmetal shows weakness. The brakes stood up to repeated lapping, but body roll was pronounced through a 90-degree right-hander, and the tires never let up their aggrieved and irritating protests. For a few hot laps at a high-performance driving event, the G70 would be competent and predictable enough to allow instruction to soak in. Beyond that, it’d be overmatched.
Away from the track and on roller-coaster back roads through the Eastern seaboard, body roll was less pronounced, and the low-and mid-speed tractability of the twin-turbo V-6 resulted in serious pace.

The sweetheart in the real world is the manual-transmission, 252-hp 2.0T Sport model. The engine is even less engaging than the V-6, and the shifter action is not particularly crisp, yet fewer horses in the stable means more opportunity for flogging them. The 2.0T demands greater resolve than the more powerful G70s, but with a standard limited-slip differential and less weight over the nose, it delivers a bigger reward. The rear-drive 3.3T Sport has that same sweet balance cooked into its chassis, just with a heavier hand on the hot sauce. Regardless of powertrain, the Sport models ride firmer than you’d expect from a luxury car, especially over rough pavement. That speaks volumes about the engineering choices. Suppleness was compromised for poise.

Don’t be underwhelmed by our instrumented tests recorded in hundred-degree California heat: The V-6 Genesis certainly is quick enough to surprise and perhaps embarrass many German sedans short of full-fledged AMG and M cars. More important, you’ll have a great time. This Genesis is more fun than the Mercedes-AMG C43 and as good as BMW’s 3-series.
Yes, we said it. As good as a 3-series. There are caveats, of course. BMW’s effort is more polished, capable of providing both an impeccable ride and unflappable back-road speed. The G70 feels simpler, grainier, built by a company which, despite bringing in a European dream team to help, doesn’t have the depth of experience to match the long-established German marques. Compared with Japan’s latest luxury sedans, which are more likely to be cross-shopped than the Germans, the G70 has power the Lexus IS 350 lacks, and the feedback absent from the Infiniti Q50’s optional steer-by-wire system.

It is precisely the Genesis brand’s shortage of inertia that makes the G70 a great road car. Experience might have dictated following market demands more closely, launching a crossover first, and not siphoning R&D dollars toward a rapidly shrinking sport-sedan market. It’s why Porsche added the Macan to its lineup before redesigning the Panamera. It’s why the 3-series no longer feels particularly special unless you get the options exactly right.

It is tempting to reward Hyundai for rapid progress relative to BMW and Mercedes, which were banging fenders in DTM racing at the time Korea was taking its first steps with a live-rear-axle-equipped economy car, or to measure the G70’s poise against well-equipped but wallowy Genesis products of less than a decade ago, when they were still under the Hyundai marque. But drivers don’t want to own the sport sedan that wins a most-improved award, they want the machine that wins, period.
By any measure, the G70 could be a winner. Playful, very quick, and ready to drift for days on strong throttle input, Genesis’s new sport sedan manages to replicate some of the best characteristics of the German competition without feeling derivative.

Instead of convention, Korea has a hunger. The desire to stand among top car-making nations as an equal—a need to create its own genuine car culture, basically from scratch. We didn’t ask for the G70, but we’re glad Genesis built it anyway.
 

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