Six years in, is Genesis there yet as a luxury car brand?

Maybe it’s because Genesis means something different in Canberra (Owusu, anyone?), but Hyundai’s luxury arm didn’t do so well here last year.

According to the sales figures, we bought a total of 16 Genesis models in 2024, which is down on the 23 we bought in 2023.

Nationally, the situation wasn’t much better.

Drive.com.au dubbed Genesis among the sales “losers” of the year, with just 1400 new registrations to its name. They then pointed out this meant there were more Fiat Ducatos added to the road than whatever the plural of Genesis is – and I had to Google what a Fiat Ducato was.

The brand has said it’s not particularly worried about this, preferring to focus on “customer satisfaction”.

And they’re not really bad innings, considering Genesis started fresh in Australia in 2019 – going up against Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus with a “posh Hyundai” reputation to beat.

For 2026, the plot will thicken further, when Genesis launches its new ”Magma” models, taking the fight to Mercedes-AMG, BMW M and Audi RS. A posh and hot Hyundai, the cruel would say.

But in the meantime – to find out how the company can do better in 2025 – I borrowed Genesis’ best-seller, the mid-sized GV70 SUV, for a week.

Where all the Germans seem to be entering puberty again, with off proportions and spotty faces, there’s no doubt the brand’s styling is a breath of minty fresh air. The GV70 looks terrific, with its bulging creases and split lights and front grille that could have come off a Bentley.

Apparently, mine is a new colour named ”Ceres Blue”, but in a very particular type of light, you’ll almost see shades of purple coming through.

This also goes perfectly with the Jaffa balls that have tastefully exploded inside to bring you white quilted leather seats with vibrant orange seatbelts and stitching. I don’t remember much from art class, except that blue and orange are contrasting colours.

There’s no doubt you feel special inside the GV70.

There are even different ”mood curators” available from within the touchscreen that will wash you over with music and a massage and scent from the small bottles of perfume tucked away in the air-conditioning system. I recommend ”Delight”, which places you inside a jazz lounge.

There’s even the option to have your phone or wallet disinfected while your drive, courtesy of UV lights in the centre console box that fire away 99.9 per cent of the germs on anything placed inside it.

I also discovered on the highway between Sydney and Canberra, you need only flick the indicator and the GV70 will change lanes by itself.

Perhaps best of all, however, finally you can drive a Hyundai product largely in peace. The infuriating salvo of beeps that would sound whenever the speed limit changed or you exceeded said limit by 2 km/h – and half the time it would get it wrong – can now be shut up by holding down the mute button on the steering wheel for two seconds.

However, you’ll still look out the side window for a fraction too long at an intersection and the driver-monitoring system will beep at you. So if luxury is defined by subtlety, there’s still a bit more work to be done here.

I first drove the GV70 a couple of years ago, pre-update, and with the 2.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine. But the drivetrain always seemed so unprepared for whatever you wanted to do, the other motoring journo I was with at the time pondered whether the car was actually broken.

Not so in this one. Mind you, it’s a 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6 with all-wheel drive, so you’d expect it to be pretty handy. The figures are 279 kW and 0-100 km/h in 5.2 seconds (using launch control), but less nice is the average 11.3 litres per 100 km of 95 fuel it drinks.

The Genesis shelters and pampers you the way a luxury SUV should, helped by the fact it generates “anti-phase sound waves” to cancel out road noise, and the camera on the windscreen reads the road ahead for bumps and potholes so it can prime the suspension to deal with them. Even the 21-inch wheels feature a “sound-absorbing hollow structure”.

But I spent most of the week in Sport mode, when the V6 makes a noise like it’s hoovering up the last drops of a milkshake. Unless that was just the “emotive acceleration tone” piped through the speakers I heard.

But either way, once whatever it was had finished setting my endorphins ablaze, there wasn’t much else inspiring left. In Sport, the engine was certainly more eager, the steering heavier and the suspension more jiggly, but it’s like when you put bread in the toaster – it just gets stiffer. The GV70 still felt a bit cumbersome.

So a Porsche it isn’t. But would I have one over an Audi Q5 or a Mercedes GLC? Honestly, yes.

2025 Genesis GV70 3.5T-GDi AWD Signature Sport

• $100,000 (plus on-road costs)
• 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6, 279 kW / 530 Nm
• 8-speed automatic, all-wheel drive (AWD)
• 0-100 km/h in 5.2 seconds, 250 km/h
• 11.3 litres per 100 km combined fuel consumption, 66-litre fuel tank
• 2088 kg

Thanks to Hyundai Australia for providing this car for testing. Region has no commercial arrangement with Hyundai Australia.

Original Article published by James Coleman on Riotact.