Video: 2019 Genesis G70: First Drive — Cars.com

The G70 holds up on the driving front, but, like with the G80 and G90, the real magic comes beyond that. So let's start with those driving aspects. The G70 comes with a four-cylinder or a V6 engine, both turbocharged. There's automatic transmissions across the board, but with the four-cylinder, you can get an optional six-speed manual, there's rear-wheel drive, there's all-wheel drive. We drove a whole bunch of those combinations in the hills of Southern Maine, as well as at Club Motorsports. That's a racetrack, two and a half miles, 15 turns, 250 feet of elevation change in central New Hampshire. We also drove several versions of the G70 at an autocross course next to the race track. So lots of experience in the car. And I gotta say, it's not the most fun to drive car in the class, but certainly holds its own. A little bit lazier steering, turning, a little more body roll than maybe some competitors like the Jaguar XE, the Alfa Romeo Giulia, but certainly still within the realm of fun to drive. Fairly neutral chassis dynamics, you get into corners, big sweeping corners, a little bit of under-steer coming in, but then it kind of maneuvers. You can sneak the tail around a little bit, if you want. It's fairly predictable. Very good brakes. There's optional Brembo brakes on the G70s that we drove at the track. I took them through 10 laps. Still held up even on the 10th lap, not too much brake fade. And the car is very, very composed, bombing down the straightaways at a hundred miles an hour. Doesn't feel skiddish, doesn't feel like the tail's gonna kinda wanna move around on you. You've been coming in braking in a straight line. All very, very good stuff. Shows a lot of care went into chassis engineering for this vehicle. Now, you get on public roads. There's three suspension setups. There's two fixed suspensions, fixed rate shock absorbers. There's adaptive shock absorbers that are optional. The base suspension is comfort tuned, sort of. And then there's a sport tune version. Now we've driven two of those three, kind of the base two versions, not the adaptive setup yet. And the G70 is firm certainly, but comfortably so. It's again, fairly controlled, doesn't really beat you up, doesn't feel too choppy even over broken pavement. Now about those drive trains. The two-liter turbo four-cylinder has decent power, good building kind of sensations as you get past 3000 RPM all the way up to red line. Really, I don't see why anyone would need the bigger engine, but some of you are gonna want it. And it's got just explosive power, regardless of RPM. Genesis says it hits 60 miles an hour in just four and a half seconds. That's competitive with cars like the Audi S4, the BMW 340i, the Mercedes C43, the AMG version, and just lots and lots of power. We were going uphill with two adults aboard and gearing back at like 1700-1800 RPM. Now, the V6 comes with an eight-speed automatic standard that's available on the four-cylinder, and you can also get a manual. The automatic is a really, really good transmission, and I don't say that about a lot of eight-speed automatics. Up shifts very seamlessly, smoothly. You often don't even know that it's up shifting, but then when you need more power, dig into the gas just a little bit, it kicks down one, two gears really, really quick. It doesn't delay. A very, very nice decisive transmission, probably better of a choice than the manual. Now, I like the fact that they're offering a manual transmission on the G70. That's nice to have in a sports sedan because a lot of sports sedans are just doing away with manuals altogether, but the six-speed manual is just not the most well-executed transmission, kind of loose, clunky shifter here, a big long gauge, just doesn't feel all that engaging. It is nice though that throttle response is very good. That's really important for rev matching if you wanna drive a manual properly But like I said before, the G70's real appeal comes beyond the driving aspects. Now, interior quality, pretty competitive for the segment, I gotta say. Nice detailing on things like the center console, where sections that face the driver have this sort of low gloss wrapping on them. A very good level of attention to detail, a lot like we see from Audi. Along the center portion of the dash there is a vinyl wrapping with stitching, that's standard, that's not optional. You don't have to pay extra to get some kind of interior upgrades package to get it. That's nice to see. Also standard, lots and lots of practicality here. There's an eight-inch touchscreen. There's no stuff you have to do here with a knob or a touch pad to use it. You just reach up and do your thing. It has standard Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, HD Radio, there's physical volume and tuning knobs on the shortcut keys here. Big knobs here for your climate controls. Very, very easy to use, lots of storage space too. There's this generous cubby here ahead of the gear shift, underneath the center armrest here in automatic transmission cars there's enough space even for a 16-ounce water bottle. Overhead we've got a sunglass holder. I mean, any non-luxury car owner is gonna think, well, what's the big deal? You get into a lot of luxury cars and they just drop the ball on stuff like this in the name of luxury for some reason. I really like that the G70 didn't overthink it. Now, in terms of back seat space, a little bit on the tight side there, if you're looking for that, cars like the Audi A4 have a lot more of it than the G70 do. And I'm six feet tall. I do wish there was a little bit more width here to kind of spread out my knees, but lots and lots of adjustment range for the driver's seat. Where I sit to drive, I'm about four inches ahead of all the way back. Now when the G70 goes on sale at the end of the current season, that's summer of 2018, it'll start around $35,000, pretty decent value when you consider that that big multimedia system and a full suite of safety features are all standard. It'll top out around $50,000, we're told again, a decent value when you consider that many of the G70's German competitors go well north of that mark, once you add the bells and whistles. Now, I know what a lot of you were thinking, Genesis, an untested luxury brand. Maybe you'd rather stick with Lexus or Mercedes-Benz or BMW, especially since a lot of these G70s at least initially, are basically gonna be sold out of the back of Hyundai dealerships with maybe some differentiation showroom type stuff going on, but can't hide the fact that it's still at a big Hyundai store. I gotta say though, you gotta get over that. Because the G70 is a very well-rounded entry in a very competitive class, definitely worth adding to your list.