IT IS said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but what is it when people constantly mistake your product for something else?
This is the challenge facing Hyundai’s luxury arm, Genesis, as it works to create its own identity in Australia.
Well known in its home market in South Korea, and equally well accepted in the United States, where it has been on sale for nearly 20 years, Genesis is still something of an unknown Down Under, as a week with the GV80 SUV proved recently.
As something of an old hand with the Genesis brand, having sampled a number of them in the last six years, I knew what I was in for when the time came to slip behind the wheel.
The problem is, someone forgot to tell the rest of the world...
Normally, when driving something a bit rare, the question is usually a variation on ‘What’s that you are driving?’, which opens the door for a long, learned explanation of the brand, the model, its lineage and heritage, and generally an opportunity to look good.
With the Genesis, it was quite different, with a number of unrelated people all asking ‘What’s the Aston Martin like?’, with the questioner taking on the role of expert, a somewhat deflating experience when you are used to being the font of all wisdom!
It then became a case of steering them around, gently - because no one like to be told they are wrong - to the fact it is not an Aston Martin, it is a Genesis, which is Hyundai’s luxury brand, and yes, it is quite a good thing.
The last part is generally the easiest, because it looks so good, it therefore must be good, which in this case is 100% true.
Genesis is Hyundai’s statement to the world that it is ready to compete on the global stage, with head held high, and be judged against the best the rest of the world has to offer.
So-called ‘purists’ might scoff at the idea that a Korean manufacturer, in business for a touch over 50 years, has the right to sit at the ‘big table’ with Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and others, but they would be missing the point.
All of this has happened in the last 15 years, since up and coming German designer Peter Schreyer joined first KIA and then Hyundai, with a free hand and a clean sheet of paper, and the not inconsiderable task of turning them from the purveyors of low-cost transport for the masses into a genuine world power.
Along the way he has turned the corporate culture from ‘near enough is good enough’ to ‘only the best will do’,
Stories are rife of Schreyer walking through the design area, and seeing posters of football teams, and other non-motoring hobbies, adorning workspace walls, and saying the first thing was to inspire the designers to be interested enough in their own products to hang car posters instead of sporting teams.
Whatever the pep talk was, it worked, and now, 15 years later, it is almost impossible to argue these are not world-class cars, and should be considered in the same thought bubble as Alfas, Mercedes-Benz and others.
So, enough of the long-winded, earnest dissertation on Genesis, and onto the exeperience - it was awesome!
Unlike the Hyundai take on SUVs, where it is all about fluid design and clever use of space, the Genesis takes a more ‘old world’ approach - you want a roomy interior, you build it how you like it, and then you design the exterior to wrap around it, and if that means you finish up with a car that is five metres long, or longer, then that is what happens.
So it was then, that the GV80 is a genuine seven-seat wagon, with room behind the third row for extra luggage.
Drivers of all sizes and shapes will feel right at home, with plenty of leg, head and shoulder space to luxuriate in, while the 12-way power adjustable seat, with heating and cooling, allows for infinite adjustment to create the perfect driving position.
The steering wheel is massive, without feeling excessive, with a single, slimline, oval-shaped centre arm stretching across the middle of the wheel, from side-to-side.
That descriptor really appplies to everything about the Genesis, it is plus-sized motoring at its finest.
Forget highly strung thoroughbreds wanting to scream away from the line, crackling, snarling and popping, this is a statement in luxury and refinement, with square metres of leather covering almost every surface, shared with a veneer of light-coloured, contrasting open pore timber.
The central display is a massive 14.5” touch screen, this is one of my few complaints, despite being 186cm with a decent arm span, it was a genuine stretch to reach buttons on the far side, and when you are driving on your own, that can be a real issue.
That is not to say the display isn’t impressive, it is, but when you are trying to hit a button over a metre away, without taking your eyes off the road, there needs to be a better way.
Equally impressive is the HUD (head-up display), these were all the rage in the post-Top Gun era, but fell from favour after difficulties in making them easily readable in all weather conditions.
Fast forward to the modern era, and the display looks as though it is just hanging over the bonnet, just out of reach, but in perfect focus for the driver.
Not surprisingly for a car that retails into the $100,000 and above bracket, the safety list is enormous, and includes 10 Airbags - including front centre side airbag, Blind-Spot Collision Avoidance-Assist - Rear/Side, Blind-Spot View Monitor, Driver Attention Warning, including Leading Vehicle Departure Alert, Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist, with Car/Pedestrian/Cyclist detection, Junction Turning/Junction Crossing function, Lane-Change Oncoming/Lane-Change Side function, Evasive Steering Assist, High Beam Assist, Lane Keeping Assist - Line/Road-Edge, Lane Following Assist, Multi Collision Brake, front seat Pre-active Seat Belt, Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Avoidance-Assist, Rear Occupant Alert, Safe Exit Assist, Smart Cruise Control, including; Stop & Go, Surround View Monitor with 3D surround view function.
This is a car designed to keep its occupants safe and cosseted, while out in front the 3-litre in-line six cylinder turbo diesel put 204kW and 588Nm to the bitumen via the eight-speed auto.
While it takes a bit to get the 2000+kg of car moving, once it is rolling, nothing is beyond it, and the GV80 sweeps imperiously down the road, making short work of overtaking, as it leaps to 100km/h and beyond, leaving slower traffic in its wake.
As with all plus-sized cars, there is no hiding its bulk, all that weight has a mind of its own, and the classic physics equation of Energy = Mass times Velocity, squared, comes to mind as you approach a tightening corner...
In other words, this is a car that needs to be 'encouraged' around corners, and the sharper the corner, the more encouragement it requires.
Thankfully, Genesis designers were paying attention at school that day, and they have developed a progressive, well-weighted and damped electric power steering system that translates the driver's urgings at the steering wheel into galvanic action at the front wheels, and the GV80 turns as requested.
While there is also the safety net of the stability controls systems, it pays to remember that while the laws of physics can be stretched, they do have a breaking point, usually closely related to the car's braking point, and when things go awry, they will go wrong in a fairly dramatic way.
This is the point when the dynamic safety systems get to strut their stuff, but having crossed that line in a very expensive, and equally rapid, AMG sedan, trust me, you really don't want to find, let alone exceed, their trigger points.
Suffice to say, I regained the track, it was a private hire of the Mount Panorama circuit, somewhat chastened, but massively awed at the speed and capability of how these systems react to keep you safe.
The Genesis is equipped, as previously mentioned, with a lengthy list of active and passive safety systems, but ultimately, while they will do what they can to minimise the 'ouch' factor, if things go really bad, there will be pain, either fiscal or physical.
This is the one area that the modern world's fascination with SUVs has a genuine downside, unlike lower-riding sedans and wagons, with their lower centres of gravity, they are inherently more stable, whereas the higher riding SUV is more likely to fall over than a similarly weighted sedan.
Don't get me wrong, this is a car that welcomes and cossets driver and passengers alike, and is a genuine pleasure to drive, or even just to ride in.
More specifically, this is a car designed to travel long distances in supreme comfort, with suspension tuning that makes light work of all but the biggest pot holes, that lets you arrive at your destination 500 kilometres away, feeling as though you have just travelled 50 kilometres.
Everything about the car is effortless, which is exactly what you expect from a car in this category.
Some might say it is an ostentatious show of wealth, but for others it is the reward for the long, hard hours, the sacrifices and the sweat, where you get to relax and say ‘I have earned this’.
Perhaps I am taking the capitalist, bourgeois view, but this is the car that justifies its existence by saying ‘Why not?’, when others demand to know ‘Why?’.
The Genesis GV80 has a manufacturer’s retail list price of $103,600, plus on-road-costs.
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