Genesis GV70 & GV80 review: Nice Korea move

Back-to-back tests of the big wagons from Genesis provided plenty of quality time in two luxury offerings the Europeans had better watch out for

Damien Tomlinson

3 min read

February 20, 2025 - 8:35PM

Genesis GV80 Coupe takes aim at high-end European SUVs

Motoring

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If you’re in the market for a luxury SUV and you’re spending six figures, chances are you have a pretty good idea of what you like or you’ve lusted after a particular brand or vehicle for a while.

Well, after spending some quality time in two new big wagons made by Genesis, I’d urge you to shop around a little as I reckon the big brands are in for a rude shock.

Launched as Hyundai’s luxury arm, Genesis is challenging the big European luxury brands much like Lexus did for Toyota back in the 1990s, offering a refined blend of creature comforts, cutting-edge technology and an exceptional driver experience to entice buyers traditionally loyal to brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

The GV70 Signature Sport is more aggressively styled than the GV80, with blacked out features contrasting with the bigger car’s flashy chrome.

I recall famously that Lexus offered few options in the early days – the cars came “fully loaded” with options that usually added thousands to the driveaway prices of other cars.

Genesis is adopting the same thinking, offering a simple range of model and engine variants and stacking the premium models with every conceivable extra, so much so that you’ll be stumbling over features months after you buy one.

We were able to try these cars out back to back, which gave us a good idea of the step-change from the medium GV70 up to the flagship GV80, both of which were upgraded and relaunched last year for 2025.

Both have the same 3.5-litre V6 with eight-speed transmission, lovely white leather interiors (these can be dark colours too, but I’m happy to report the white survived a couple of weeks of abuse by the Tomlinson tots), an outrageous 27-inch OLED widescreen dash/driver’s display screen rocking the clever Genesis “connected services” software, heads-up displays and more.

The cockpit of the 2025 Genesis GV70 Signature Sport.

They also were equipped with remote smart parking assistance, which will not only identify a space and maneuvre into it for you, but actually also lets you get out and watch as the vehicle negotiates getting into the space.

The family got a kick out of being left in the car and watching the steering wheel spin as the car went forward, back and turned its way into a tight space. Brilliant.

They even look pretty similar, sharing many of the major Genesis design cues, especially at the front.

Basically, the cars were fairly similar, except in size.

The GV70 is packaged as a comfortable five-seater and styled aggressively, with 21-inch wheels, fat, low-profile rubber and curvy haunches with swoopy accent lines.

I reckon it’s the more attractive styling package of the two.

The 2025 Genesis GV80 is taller, wider and longer than the GV70 and has three rows of electrically operated seats.

The GV80 is much bigger at nearly 5m long and close to 2m wide, and sits up higher on the road.

That squared-off rear end will take some getting used to, jarring a bit with the swoopiness of the rest of the car but offering decent room in the electric folding third-row seats.

It’s probably why it is offered in a coupe variant as well!

There’s no denying the class of the GV80’s exterior though. It rocks 22-inch wheels and feels wide, bringing a lot of road presence.

It’s half a second slower than the smaller GV70 to 100km/h (5.7sec vs 5.1sec) but it’s still bloody quick.

Not that you will really notice from inside your leather cocoon. With sound insulating glass and noise-cancelling tech pumping dead noise into the cabin, Genesis has added a engine noise synthesiser to the infotainment system to increase the amount of engine noise you hear in the cockpit.

The bigger car – which we took for a weekend away to the Sunny Coast – also gets the “passenger talk” feature, allowing the driver to beam their voice through the mics back to the third row.

It’s worth noting the third row doesn’t have child seat anchors, so it’s emergency seating for bigger kids or smallish adults only back there.

Little things go a long way when you’re talking about luxury and giving drivers a premium experience is what these cars were all about.

From logging in via fingerprint to see the wheel, seat, mirrors, digital radio and even climate settings reset to my preferences, to the car showing on the screen what seat control my finger was touching – lovely attention to detail was everywhere.

Choosing one of these is a simple question of space and price. If you want the room, the GV80 is good value against its competion. If you like the smaller package, the GV70 gives away very little in luxury to its brother, and arguably looks better.

The aggressive rear styling of the 2025 Genesis GV70 Signature Sport

GENESIS GV70 SIGNATURE SPORT

Price: About $112,500 drive away

Warranty/Servicing: 5-year, unlimited kilometres, free scheduled servicing for first 5 years/50,000km, 5 years roadside assistance and concierge/courtesy vehicle service

Engine: 3.5-litre turbo V6, 279kW, 530Nm, 8-speed automatic

Features: Road noise-cancelling stereo; switchable drive modes; 27-inch OLED driver/dash display; heated, cooled and massaging seats; adaptive cruise control, autonomous lane changing; remote smart parking

Thirst: 11.3 litres/100km (combined)

Verdict: 4 stars