It came as a big surprise to me in the early 1990s when I finally realized the Germans (and the Japanese) were making cars that spat all over my favorite domestic automaker's products. I grew up in Lincolns and Cadillacs - and naively believed they were the best in the world. Can you blame me? I'm American and have pride in America. I always have. But it's hard to deny we weren't making good cars back then.The Germans seemed to have a pretty big lead as far as technology was concerned - but they were making some pretty big mistakes too, leaving a gaping hole for somebody to come fill-in. I mean - look at thecenter armrest in the late 80s BMW 5-Series...So the Germans left a huge, gaping hole of comfort and luxury for the Japanese to come in and woo everyone on Earth with. And the Japanese did just that.- Acura Legend- Lexus LS 400- Infiniti Q45First Acura, then Lexus, then Infiniti. We all know Infiniti can't figure out it's ass from it's elbow - and Acura thinks the world wants a full-size premium luxury sedan the same size as a Honda Accord. So they're not going anywhere fast. That leaves Lexus to carry the baton. But, even they've been caught chasing the Germans. Why? Why make the same mistake Cadillac made and almost DIED for? Why not just build the best luxury car you can build? Like you used to?Anyway. It seems Hyundai had to come in and take the baton right out of Lexus' hands...Sir James Dyson, of vacuum cleaner (and, potentially, electric car) fame, coined a phrase in his early advertisements: “I just think things should work properly.” The brilliance of Dyson’s marketing campaign was that it forced buyers to ask themselves why century-old technology, in this case the vacuum cleaner, seemed to be getting more, rather than less, trouble-prone.There’s a parallel in cars, luxury cars specifically, not in reliability but rather in ease of use. In the race to add technology and perceived luxury, the modern Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Lexus LS 460 and BMW 7-Series have grown fiendishly complex, with layers of menus and multifunction knobs. Auto stop/start settings and drive modes need to be customized to suit the driver. Throttle response and transmission tuning is right for a lot of situations but gets laggy or hypersensitive in others. The cars invariably work properly, but only once you know how to use them.Enter the Genesis G90. After a year in the fleet, it’s proved to be the most turn-key luxury car we’ve had at Autoweek in years. It has buttons and knobs where you expect them. The suspension is smooth and forgiving when the road is rough yet taut when twisty asphalt calls for spirited driving. There’s gobs of lag-free torque and a seamless transmission that picks gears perfectly. The G90 just works, right out of the box. Yes, there are menus and settings to customize whatever you want, but the point is that you don’t need to. Just get in and drive. It’s an uncannily easy car to live with on a daily basis.These traits are welcome in any car, but they’re critical for a “new” brand. Genesis no doubt saw its mission as that of Lexus in the late 1980s: a segment-busting wave of luxury sedans designed—and priced—to shake up the class leaders. To accomplish that, it had to get the car as close to perfect as possible.That has been accomplished, so why hasn’t Genesis clobbered its luxury-car competitors the way Lexus dominated in the 1990s? Some key differences have kept Hyundai from making the same splash: The competition isn’t asleep at the wheel, oblivious to its vulnerability as it was in the 1980s—the current S-Class, 7-Series and LS are all formidable rivals in a state of constant refinement. Another is the decline of sedan sales in the face of total SUV domination, meaning Genesis launched luxury sedans into a contracting market. Finally, spotty advertising and a lackluster marketing campaign have kept many would-be buyers in the dark.Read more: Genesis G90 long-term wrapup