Genesis is the luxury arm of Hyundai & now with a group of retailers across the UK, the brand is starting to make inroads into the premium car sector. There’s a range of electrified options which are perfect for company car drivers, but this time around we were testing the 2.5T RWD G80, a luxury petrol saloon to compete with the Germans.
Model choice
Two petrols both are 2.5T petrol units with 8-speed auto gear boxes, a RWD & an AWD, with 304PS & 422Nm’s.
Specs & prices
Three; Premium, Luxury or Sport with prices starting at £43,100. Premium models include 19”alloys, dual front LED headlights, 12-way power adjustable front seats, smart entry & start, rearview camera, 8” dashboard instrument cluster, 14.5” infotainment screen with SatNav, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, voice recognition, DAB & smart cruise control. Our test model Luxury adds 20” alloys, a power tailgate, leather seat covers & a heated steering wheel. Sport comes with a carbon interior garnish, 3-zone climate control & Genesis brake calibers.
Safety 
Looks
On the outside, you get a diamond-patterned grille with two levelled front lights, a sweeping roofline, that leads to the rear indented boot lid with sharp triple light clusters & the large Genesis logo across the centre. It’s an eye catching car.
Inside
Practicality
In the cabin you do get twin centre cup holders , large door pockets, a good sized glove box, a split armrest with storage beneath, a USB. Two rear USB’s, a wireless phone charger & a rear fold down armrest with heating controls & media switches for our test cars built in twin rear TV screens. Rear seats also feature pull out airline style storage spaces.
The 424-litre boot is not that competitive size wise & comes with no underfloor storage, a deep entry lip & fixed rear seats.Fuel economy & emissions
Not great. The G80 returns just 25.5mpg on a combined WLTP cycle, however on our longer motorway journey we did get above 30mpg. On our test car, emissions were 210g/km.
Performance
Acceleration from 0-62mph take 6 seconds with a top speed of 155 mph.
Driving
On the motorway, the G80 is very composed & highly comfortable. The seats are like comfy armchairs & with both wind & road noise kept out, it’s a quiet cabin too. The adaptive cruise control is utilised via the steering wheel switches & this works well. Driving modes, Eco, Normal & Sport do what they say on the box.
When accelerating if you do change down, the auto box does whine a bit & the noise levels do increase, but it only adds to the enjoyment. The suspension does a good job of hiding any road imperfections & on any sweeping country roads it hugs the road well giving all but the BMW 5 Series a serious run for its money.
All versions get adaptive suspension with a road scanning system to which helps the ride. Comfort is the order of the day rather than out & out fun. Our RWD car handled well even on wet roads & never felt like it would lose any grip.
Wet spent a good few hours driving the G80 & found it a really lovely cabin to be in. Our only criticism is that the infotainment wheel & gear dial which are a similar size & shaped, caused us to mix these up on occasion as they sit one in front of the other. Cue going into Neutral not once but twice.
Cons
Verdict