The Genesis G70 is hugely important for its maker, a sports sedan shouldering outsize expectations that it can stake a place for the nascent Korean luxury brand as a contender against the established players. But even Genesis itself admits that the world doesn’t need more luxury cars—“The world is fine without Genesis,” brand chief Manfred Fitzgerald told us—and therefore the company says it needs to be daring and to make its products special and desirable. While the larger G80 and G90 already on sale are good, they don’t break any new ground, and their genealogies include Hyundai-badged antecedents; the G70 line starts under Genesis, and that fact, along with its broader target audience, codifies its significance.

Its ambitions for Genesis drove parent company Hyundai to poach leading figures from across the industry for its executive roster, including Fitzgerald, who previously served as the director of the Lamborghini brand; former Bentley and Lamborghini design chief Luc Donckerwolke; ex-GM and fifth-gen Chevrolet Camaro designer Sangyup Lee; and chassis guru and former BMW M head Albert Biermann. Their mission: Make cars that are achingly beautiful and drive even better, a goalpost often raised by automakers but rarely cleared.

As you’d expect, Genesis aims directly at the German triumvirate of Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, and the G70 targets those companies’ A4, 3-series, and C-class. Its 184.4-inch overall length and 111.6-inch wheelbase put it right in the wheelhouse. The current F30 3-series was the dynamic bogey—we’re not sure we’d have made the same selection—while the A4 and the C set the bars for refinement and luxury. We recently flew to Seoul to pore over the G70 and drive preproduction models at Hyundai’s Namyang proving ground.

The Genesis of Genesis Style

These photos show the Korea-spec G70 in production form. In person, the G70 looks cleanly designed with few fussy details. We’d hardly call the car audacious, apart from that whole Korean-rear-drive-sports-sedan-aiming-to-punch-Germany-in-the-mouth thing. But this is merely the first vehicle in a line that increasingly will push the stylistic envelope. For example, we’re told the GV80 SUV coming in 2019 will be even more daring than the fairly bold concept shown earlier this year.

That concept’s headlights point to the direction the brand is taking, with the parallel tubelike running lamps of the G70 serving as an iterative step leading to the thin LED-specked strips of the GV80. Donckerwolke says all Genesis lamps eventually will be as thin and as bright as possible, and he’s keen to abandon traditional lighting clusters, which he derides as “aquariums filled with shit.” Eventually, things will get more adventurous, as Genesis vehicles develop radical light signatures that streak from the headlights, across the fenders, and toward the leading edges of the doors.

The relative lack of overt boldness in the G70 in no way makes it unattractive; it’s a flowing, athletic-looking thing, more in the mold of Alfa Romeo’s Giulia or Infiniti’s Q50 than the restrained BMW 3-series or Audi A4, its three-quarter views defined by complex contours. It also isn’t really the work of Donckerwolke, Lee, and the Genesis design team as constituted today. Those two came on board only about 18 months ago, well after the G70’s final design had been frozen, and they were able only to tweak the fascias and push the roofline a little lower (adjustments that Fitzgerald says were a big help). Biermann, having joined the company earlier, likely had more effect on the dynamic tuning. The next Genesis product, and the first to be more fully molded by this group, will be the next-gen G80, which is due in 2019.

Like the lights, the G70’s grille is an intermediate step toward a brasher look; in the previews we saw, the future grille both echoed the central crest of the Genesis logo and resembled the face shield of a knight’s helm. The shape is similar to that used by Cadillac and Mazda, but Lee told us the grille eventually will extend lower and be larger overall than those brands’. A slat in the lower intake actually traces the bottom of the future grille’s shape.

Where the People Go

Inside the G70 is a driver-oriented cockpit with a sensible layout. There’s a central control knob behind the shift lever to control the chassis modes, and a symmetrical center stack is topped by a de rigueur, bezel-less tablet-style touchscreen. A row of toggles below the display houses redundant controls for various infotainment functions, and a nicely sculpted steering wheel sits in front of analog gauges split by a high-res screen. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard.

Genesis promises lots of wrapped surfaces with a minimum of exposed plastics even on base models. Many interior color and stitching options will be available, including the quilted and perforated hides seen in a static car we examined, but don’t look for wood trim on the options list: It was deemed to be insufficiently sporty for this sports sedan. Aluminum is on the list, however, and real stuff is applied throughout. We judged forward visibility to be about average, with a dashboard that falls slightly toward the cabin and a low cowl over the instrument panel. With the caveat that we saw it only in boring, all-beige and all-black color schemes, the cabin didn’t strike us as distinctive, but its aesthetics are refined, and the quality of materials is high.

The Genesis of Sportiness

The U.S.-market G70 will offer a pair of engines: a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four rated for 252 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque and a twin-turbocharged 3.3-liter V-6 good for a stout 365 horsepower and 376 lb-ft. (Outputs are approximate; exact U.S.-market specs won’t be finalized until early next year, ahead of a March or April on-sale date as a 2019 model.) Both will be available with rear- or all-wheel drive, and all models also get a limited-slip rear differential as standard. The same Hyundai-designed eight-speed automatic from the G80 is standard across the board (albeit with specific programming), although the U.S. may also get a special treat in a first-year-only 2.0T with a manual transmission. (If that happens, credit Genesis’s U.S. arm, which we’re told requested the combo.) When paired with the 3.3T and put into Sport mode, the all-wheel-drive system is said to be more reluctant to shift torque from the rear in the interest of driving fun. Says Biermann of this behavior: “It probably wouldn’t be in the car without me.”

Because one, two, or three aren’t enough anymore, the G70 will have five chassis modes: Smart (auto), Normal, Custom, Eco, and Sport. These affect steering weight and response, throttle calibration, engine note, and automatic shift points on all cars; all-wheel-drive behavior on those models; and damper firmness on 3.3Ts, which have an adjustable suspension. (These dampers might be optional on the 2.0T.)

All G70s feature launch control and brake-based torque vectoring, where an inside wheel is braked to encourage rotation. The AWD system, which adds roughly 130 pounds regardless of engine, sends 100 percent of available torque to the rear by default, shifting grunt forward as needed. We don’t have curb weights yet, but approximate front/rear weight distributions are claimed to be 52/48 percent for the rear-drive 2.0T, 53/47 for the 2.0T AWD, and “55/45-ish” for the 3.3T. The G70 rides on a shorter version of the same architecture employed by the Kia Stinger; in comparison with that car, the Genesis is 5.8 inches shorter overall, 0.8 inch narrower, and the same height, while riding on a wheelbase pared by 2.8 inches.

We drove the Korea-spec 2.0T with both rear- and all-wheel drive, which differed from what we’ll see here mainly in steering tuning, which wasn’t yet finalized, as well as ride compliance and tire fitment. Both of these wore 225/45R-18 Bridgestone RE050As but will come on Michelin MXM4 all-season tires in the United States in the interest of highway comfort, as the Michelins better absorb harsh impacts and generate less noise.

The four-cylinder groans a bit and lacks character, and, although the transmission changed gears smoothly and was well programmed in this application, it needed final polish to resolve some occasionally hesitant shifts. Rapid directional changes prompted quickly gathered body roll but nothing in the way of lolling or back-and-forth bobbing. The 2.0Ts exhibited more brake dive and acceleration squat than we prefer; a firmer suspension calibration expected for the U.S. should fix those. Regarding the work-in-progress electrically assisted steering, the rear-driver’s rack was numb and efforts excessively light; surprisingly, the all-wheel-drive car had more feel and better weight with more predictable buildup. American G70s, Biermann promises, will have more steering heft and more on-center feel.

The V-6 car we drove had rear-wheel drive and was a U.S.-focused Dynamic Edition wearing 225/40ZR-19 (front) and 255/35ZR-19 (rear) Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. It was here that the G70 really came alive. As it does in the G80 and the G90, this engine sounds pleasingly aggressive and effortlessly delivers its power in a predictable wave. It doesn’t feel overworked in the slightest here, the smaller G70 leaping forward enthusiastically whenever you dip deep into the accelerator. One issue: The car would briefly continue to surge forward when releasing the throttle while in Sport mode, a calibration issue that we expect will be ironed out before G70s reach customers.

The 3.3T’s steering was excellent, with the highest fidelity, quick but not overly eager turn-in responses, and the best weight characteristics. We were able to test all versions for a few laps of a short, tight handling course and got comfortable quickly enough to put the car into easily controllable four-wheel slides. The Dynamic Edition was especially eager to play, a constant stream of feedback coming from the Michelins through the driver’s seat and steering wheel.

The standard brakes have two-piston front calipers and single-piston rears; optional Brembos upgrade the fronts to four pistons and the rears to two (these are standard on 3.3T models). Pedal feel on the 3.3T with the Brembos was outstanding, being much firmer underfoot and easier to finely modulate; the standard brakes felt like papier-mâché in comparison.

Just the Beginning?

One of the Genesis brand’s largest challenges is its lack of heritage, although that doesn’t matter much to Koreans, who prefer new things to be completely fresh in every aspect—including vehicle styling not only across generations, but also within a current lineup. This won’t be an issue for this first ever G70, but moving forward, Genesis executives have given themselves—and by extension the marque—the task of shifting the Korean mind-set to more of a global view, where brand identity and bloodline is every bit as important as contemporary product excellence. While forthcoming crossover SUV models will decide Genesis’s financial future, its reputational hopes are firmly pinned on this car. Based on this early exposure, consider that reputation bolstered.

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