Genesis GV80 2020 Review

Genesis is a brand facing an uphill battle in Australia. Few motorists in the market for a prestige vehicle recognise the name, there aren’t enough selling dealers in the country, the market itself is sliding backwards at a rate of knots anyway, and one of its obvious competitors has made the going tougher by leaving the market.

Fortunately, the Infiniti brand was probably no more recognisable than Genesis.

But Genesis does have one thing in its favour: new product, including its first SUV, the Genesis GV80, which is due for local release in the middle of this year.

We’ve driven it in its home market, South Korea, and the first impressions are strikingly favourable.

Believe it, the new inline six-cylinder diesel under the bonnet is a seriously refined engine. Like the twin-turbo V6 in Jaguar’s XF, it could be mistaken for a petrol six. The GV80’s engine just purrs quietly when you’re standing alongside the car, and it sounds good under load.

Without fuel consumption figures to make the comparison, we speculate that it may not match the BMW X5 in similar specification for economy, but on a series of freeways and arterial roads in and around Seoul the GV80 was achieving an average figure of around 7.5L/100km – which is not terrible for a vehicle of this size and nature.

That was no doubt achieved in part by the excellent idle-stop system, which kills the engine smoothly as you brake to a halt and then restarts with little fuss.

At 100km/h the engine is revving at 1400rpm, and there’s hardly a peep out of it. This is one diesel that delivers very low levels of vibration and harshness.

On the drive program it was difficult to find the opportunity to take it up to the redline in any gear, but it didn’t feel quite as lively as expected. Given that the test vehicle had travelled less than 300km before our drive, it was probably still pretty tight.

The engine is coupled to an eight-speed automatic transmission that has been designed in-house by Genesis parent company, Hyundai. It’s extremely smooth and feels like it has a cog for every occasion, especially in the context of a diesel six developing this sort of torque. There are shift paddles too, for manual changing.

With our driving confined to public roads, there was little chance to assess the GV80 for dynamics, but the steering was about the right weight and the electronically controlled suspension was quite composed over bumps and expansion joints.

A forward-facing camera ‘sees’ and recognises speed humps and the like before the GV80 arrives, to readjust the damping for better body control. It’s a system that Mercedes-Benz pioneered about seven or eight years ago, and Hyundai’s system is on par.

Prestige brands go out of their way to outgun the opposition with all the surprise-and-delight features known to man (and woman) when it comes to infotainment and on-board comfort.

Genesis is no exception, and if you’ve stepped out of an expensive German SUV the GV80 may come as a shock. It has many of the same features (and likely more, for whatever the price will be in Australia), but it’s also well finished.

Controls are within easy reach for the driver and the relationship to pedals and wheel is quite well sorted, although I felt the steering column could do with a touch more reach adjustment.

The seats are comfortable and automatically adjust bolstering when the GV80’s drive mode is set to sport. Some might find the cushioning of the seat base is too flat, but it’s not uncomfortable for touring over longer distances.

One innovative feature is a blind-spot monitoring system that displays vision from cameras in the instrument binnacle whenever the driver indicates to turn. The left indicator brings up the camera display in the speedo and the right indicator displays its counterpart in the tachometer.

No information is lost, with the speed displayed as text in the left dial and the engine speed shown in the right dial. It’s similar to Honda’s system, but the latter only displays the camera feed from the left side while indicating and the Genesis covers both sides. And the displays in the instrument cluster are ergonomically better for drivers than the Honda display in the infotainment screen in the centre fascia.

Underpinning the core comfort in the genesis GV80 is an extremely sophisticated advanced infotainment system and high-tech features including a front microphone to amplify conversation from the front seat for rear passengers.

In the centre console, there’s an unusual single-point controller in the centre console. It’s a wide-radius ring with a centre knob that can be pressed at different points of the compass to move one step left, right, up or down.

It takes a while to learn where all the functions are and how the controller operates, but that’s because there are a lot of functions packed into the GV80 and the controller achieves the same result, but operates in a different manner from a BMW iDrive system, for instance, or similar controllers from Audi and BMW.

That’s more an observation than a criticism, however. Spend some time in the Genesis GV80 and the ergonomics are no more frightening than in its German rivals.

It’s not just the Germans that have provided some precedent for the interior layout of the GV80, of course. At first glance, the climate control interface in the centre fascia looks very similar to that of the Range Rover Velar... and is equally practical.

The centre console ‘floats’, with a recess underneath to plug in your smartphone. It means the USB port is out of sight, but also a little hard to reach.

Rear-seat accommodation (in the second row) is acceptably good for adults of average height, and the seats slide forward for a combination of shorter passengers and larger loads.

Climbing into the third-row seat, when specified, is moderately difficult for an adult. There’s just not enough room between the second-row seat and the door frame/C-pillar to step through.

Once in the third-row seats, occupants will find headroom to be at a premium for adults and the side windows are quite small and mounted high for little kids.

Genesis has engineered the GV80 with the larger section of the split second-row seat behind the driver, hopefully aiding safe access from the footpath for right-hand drive models in Australia, provided they ‘mirror’ the Korean set-up.

Second-row seats come with their own climate zones and separate controls, plus two USB ports and a 240-volt power outlet in the rear of the centre console. The third-row seats get their own adjustable vents and cup-holders.

In the large boot, the Genesis GV80 features flip-forward buttons for the folding rear seat in the luggage compartment on the left side and additional buttons (where fitted) for raising and lowering the third-row seats.

Five-seat models offer an under-boot storage bin with its own waterproof liner. But there’s no spare tyre in either variant, which may be a deal breaker for some buyers.

On the whole, the Genesis GV80 delivers what the vast majority of buyers in this market sector really want. It combines core engineering qualities with the interior pizzazz.

In short, it should become the hero model in the Genesis range and deserves to sell accordingly – as long as the importer can raise brand awareness...

How much does the 2020 Genesis GV80 cost?
Price: TBC
Available: Mid-2020
Engine: 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 204kW/588Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 7.5L/100km (as tested)
CO2: TBC
Safety rating: TBC