by Anthony Fongaro - Photos via Genesis- 11/11/2021
Just look at that exterior. Compared to others in the segment, the G70 really stands out. This design started with the G80 and has trickled down to the G70. Genesis has given all its vehicles these beautiful two-slit headlights and taillights. Two of my favorite parts include the giant grill and lines on the hood. The design is very cohesive, especially with the $500 Himalayan Gray and 19” wheels. Faults? The oval exhaust pipes. While they look good, I don’t think they’re functional.
You need to remember that this isn’t a “redesign”, but instead a refresh. While the exterior is redesigned, the interior looks almost the same as the pre-refresh. This isn’t a bad thing, since the interior is quite luxurious. The Sport Advanced isn’t the top-of-the-line package, but it comes with a plethora of features. Steering wheel controls are your standard safety and media buttons while there are some partial digital dials. Although the seats don’t have Nappa leather, the seats were comfortable with heated and ventilated seats and a heated steering wheel.
Genesis did something odd under the hood. Most of their cars received new engines, including a 3.5-liter. Oddly enough, the G70 still uses its 3.3-liter V6. Thankfully, this is a great engine. It makes 365-horsepower and 376 lb-ft. With all-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic, the G70 3.3T gets from 0-60 MPH in around 4.5 seconds. You can also find around 20 MPG. What’s funny is, like a BMW 3-series, you can get the tail wagging quite easily. The drive select modes include a sports mode that really revs up the G70 and makes it feel like a rear-wheel-drive car, which it technically is.
Speaking of feeling like rear-wheel drive, the G70 is fantastic to drive. The automatic is smooth in a comfort type mode but quite vicious in sport. No matter the drive mode, the steering feel and chassis go hand-in-hand. The 3.3T pulls strongly and the G70 did a little wiggle when I did a slightly sharp turn. When you just want to drive around, the G70 has all of the safety features that you’d want including adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, and blind-spot monitoring.
Since Genesis is Korean, you would think that pricing would be reasonable? Without the Sport Advanced Package, the G70 is $44,200. The Sport Advanced Package includes park distance warning, those 19” wheels, ventilated seats, upgraded Lexicon 15-Speaker Premium Audio System, and a few more items. This is a $4,300 option and with the paint being $500, that leads us to a price of $50,045. Like I said, you got a lot of standard and optional features for the G70. Compare it with something like a BMW M340i, and like-for-like, the BMW is almost $10,000 more.
At the end of the day, I came out of this incredibly impressed. I’ve driven a G70 before, but the styling just wasn’t there. I liked the old interior, but the infotainment system was small and didn’t look right. Genesis changed all of that with this G70. Do I recommend it? Of course. This is the trim to get, and you won’t be disappointed by both the looks and the performance.
The numbers
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