2024 Genesis GV70

Crossovers have become like belly buttons in that it looks like everyone – just about – has one.

Probably because everyone sells one. And because so many of them look (and drive) so much alike

The Genesis G70 is less like them.

How so?

Well, for one thing, it’s available with a six cylinder engine. Ten years ago, that would have been as unremarkable as standard AC – because it was common to find six cylinder engines as standard equipment in crossovers – especially those with luxury badges and asking prices over $50,000.

It no longer is.

Which is one reason why the GV70 isn’t like most of the others.

What It Is

The GV70 is a compact-sized, two-row luxury-sport crossover sold by Genesis. Its shape belies the fact that it’s very much like the six cylinder luxury sport sedans you used to be able to get – and not just because it’s available with a six cylinder engine. It’s actually based on a rear-drive sport sedan.

The GV70 is closely related to the Genesis G70. The main difference being it has much more room behind its rear seats than the G70 has in its trunk. And that you can take a G70 down a dirt or washed-out gravel road without banging up the floorpans.

Prices start at $45,150 for the 2.5 T trim, which comes standard with a 2.0 liter, turbocharged four cylinder engine, 19 inch wheels, a nine speaker stereo and a 14.5 inch LCD display.

The $57,750 3.5 T trim comes standard with a 3.5 liter, twin-turbo V6, a 16 speaker Lexicon premium audio system, leather seats and trim, 21 inch wheels with low-profile (short sidewall) tires, a 12.3 inch digital main gauge cluster and a digital key that enables the use of a smartphone to unlock/lock the vehicle and start the engine remotely via an app on the phone.

Both versions of the GV70 come standard with all-wheel-drive.

What’s New For 2024

Some features that were previously optional are now standard, such as 19 inch (vs. 18 inch, last year) wheels for the base 2.5 T trim. The 2024s are also about $2,000 more expensive than the 2023s – which is mostly just inflation; blame Biden rather than Genesis for that.

What’s Good

Six cylinders are still available.

Sport sedan performance/crossover utility.

Twin-turbo V6 uses only a little more gas the the turbo four.

What’s Not So Good

It’s a nearly $13k bump to get the V6.

Center console’s storage compartment has room for a wallet and not much more.

“Driver assistance” features you may not want are standard in all trims, meaning you don’t have the option to skip them.

Under The Hood

The 2.5 T trim comes standard with a 2.5 liter turbocharged four cylinder engine that makes 300 horsepower at 5,800 RPM – output that’s comparable to that produced by the sixes that were once standard in luxury-sport vehicles at this price point. This engine is powerful enough to haul the 4,167 lb. 2.5 T to 60 in about 5.6 seconds and return 22 MPG in city driving and 28 MPG on the highway.

The 3.5 T comes standard with a much more powerful (375 horsepower) twin turbo V6, which is powerful enough to haul the 4,453 lb. 3.5 T to 60 about 1 second sooner. Interestingly, there is very little MPG difference between the 2.5 T and the 3.5 T – which claims 18 city, 24 highway.

The main difference is the $12,600 difference in price between the 2.5 T and the 3.5 T.

On the other hand, there is a big difference in price between this Genesis and some of the others in the class, such as the Mercedes-Benz GLC, one of the GV’s main targets.

For $47,450 all you get is a 2.0 liter four – and 255 horsepower. If you want to add AWD, the price of a GLC rises to $49,450. A heavily boosted version of the 2.0 four that makes 416 horsepower is available in the GLC 43 AMG for $64,950.

It’s a similar story vs. the BMW X3, which lists for $46,900 to start – for which you get a 2.0 liter four and 248 horsepower. If you want AWD to go with that, the X3’s price rises to $48,900. BMW does offer a six – in the $61,900 X3 M40i. But it only offers a little more power (382 horsepower) for all that additional money.

There’s nothing else in the class that offers the same power for the same money – and that no doubt helps account for the huge dent the GV70 has been making in sales of Mercedes and BMW crossovers.

Both the 2.5 T and the 3.5 T’s engines are paired with an eight speed automatic. Multiple driver-selectable modes are standard that alter such things as shift points (and firmness) to suit.

Regardless of engine, the GV70 is rated to tow a maximum of 3,500 lbs. – the same as the Mercedes GLC but well below the 4,400 lbs. BMW says the X3 is capable of pulling behind it.

On The Road

While the GV70’s standard turbo four has the power of a six, it’s the six that makes the GV70 something you’ll want to drive. Because it takes you down memory lane – to five years ago – when a six was what you got as a matter-of-course when you spent what the base GV70 (with the turbo four) costs today.

Power isn’t everything.

Put another way, intangibles are something.

When you start up the GV 3.5 T’s engine, it sounds like a six. This makes you feel good about what you spent to hear it. When you push down on the accelerator pedal, you hear the sound appropriate to what ought to be under the hood of a luxury-sport vehicle like this; what used to be a given in a vehicle like this – booming with authority through the twin oversized exhaust pipes. These are real – as in functional – as opposed to for-looks-only in four cylinder-powered rigs, which don’t generally have dual exhaust tips because four cylinder engines generally breath through single exhaust.

Both of the GV’s available engines produce abundant torque – being turbocharged. But the take-home point as regards the V6 is that it doesn’t need the turbos affixed to it. They provide an excess of torque (391 ft.-lbs. vs 311 for the 2.5 engine) which is what a larger engine always delivers. And isn’t getting more than is necessary a necessary element of luxury?

The fact that you can get it for so much less than it costs in a Mercedes or a BMW is kind of like an unexpected sale on two-inch-thick ribeyes at the meat counter.

Also appealing – though this is admittedly subjective – is the more straightforward layout of the GV’s drivetrains. Both of them. Because – unlike the Benz, BMW (and Audi) competition, the GV is not a “mild hybrid” with an engine that’s regularly turning itself off and on to “save gas.” In air fingers quotes because not much gas is being saved.

The Benz GLC – with its 2.0/mind-hybrid drivetrain – offers 25 city, 32 highway, a 3 miles-per-gallon “advantage” over the GV 2.5 T that costs you several thousand extra in MSRP.

The BMW X3 with its optional 3.0 in-line six/mild-hybrid drivetrain gets 21 city, 26 highway, or less than 3-miles-per-gallon better, also for several thousand extra.

And these mild hybrid setups are necessarily more complicated, with more parts – and so more things to eventually require attention and cost money.

Of course, it’s not really about “saving gas.” It is about not emitting the dread gas C02, which hysterics insist (and useful idiots believe) is causing the “climate” to “change.” The mild-hybrid system does reduce these “emissions.”

So also does selling fewer V6-powered GV70s – and that probably accounts for the nearly $13k price bump to go from the four to the six. This results in fewer GV70s with the six being sold, which helps keep Genesis in good stead with the regulatory apparat – while the fact that the six is at least still available keeps Genesis in good stead with buyers, some of whom can still afford the six.

While the rest can hope that one day they’ll be able to, too. Maybe.

What else?

Well, it’s not just the six that sells this rig. It’s also the athletic response of the rest of the rig. Though it’s a crossover, it drives like the sports sedan it’s based on. And although it does come standard with the oddly ubiquitous bundle of “driver assistance technologies” – because almost no one seems to want these “technologies” – they are not nearly as parenting as the systems in other vehicles. Some of those belligerently try to “correct” your steering when you cross a painted line (as to pass) without signaling or get “too close” to a vehicle that’s still 30 yards ahead and slam on the brakes while badgering you with alarm claxons and Danger Close! flashing lights.

The GV70’s “safety” systems are very much in the background – rather than the backseat (as in driver). This vehicle does haves ASS – automated stop-start “technology” – but it’s easily turned off by pushing a button to the left of the steering column.

At The Curb

Compact-sized sport sedans are great fun to drive; the problem is they’re not very practical cars to own. Chiefly because they don’t have much room in their trunks.

The G70 – the compact-sized sport sedan upon which the GV70 is based – has just 10.5 cubic feet of storage space available in its trunk. The GV70 – which has essentially the same overall footprint (it’s 185.6 inches long vs. 184.4 for the G70) has about five times as much total space for cargo – 56.9 cubic feet with its second row folded forward. And even with the second row up, it has almost three times as much space for cargo (28.9 cubic feet) and that accounts for the waxing popularity of sport-crossovers vs. sport sedans.

There is also the cost of either.

In the past, it was more feasible to own a sport sedan and something more practical because both were more affordable. But today – when either one costs more than $40k to start, it’s generally necessary to pick just one.

The GV also addresses the main deficit of crossovers – their stylistic sameness. This is the Catch-22 of crossovers in that in order to be practical, they almost have to be shaped the same general way. There is less latitude for rakish lines.

Nevertheless, the GV70 manages to look less the same as the rest. And less belligerent. Its face is not the usual angry catfish or gaping bullfrog. It looks like a Bentley, which is probably deliberate and not by any means a bad thing.

Some of the best-looking vehicles of all time took inspiration from the lines and themes of other cars that almost everyone agreed looked great. One of the best examples being the way the drop-dead good-looks of the 1934 Cord 810 were emulated (and reinterpreted) by the designers of the first Oldsmobile Toronado, in 1966.

The inside’s nice, too. Very comfortable (plush but still firm) seats that hold you without tiring you or putting you to sleep. There is a big (14.5 inch) LCD touchscreen – these are unavoidable in new vehicles – but it’s an easy-to-use interface, without any of the cloying we-know-better controls you’ll find embedded in some other manufacturer’s touchscreens. You can just scroll through all the SiriusXM stations to find the station you want – as opposed to being herded into pre-selected categories with selections you don’t want.

There are also manual controls for the volume and so on that make it easy to operate the GV’s controls while you’re driving it.

The Rest

Almost all new vehicles have fobs that transmit a signal identifying the vehicle’s owner to the vehicle, which helpfully unlocks itself as the owner approaches. Most also have a button the owner pushes to start the engine.

The GV comes with that – and something else. You can use your fingerprint to unlock the car and start the engine. There’s what looks like a little peephole that’s actually where you put your finger; if it’s you, the car unlocks – and starts.

It works a lot like the smartphone app that unlocks your phone by touch as opposed to typing in a password.

The Bottom Line

There’s a reason why the GV70 is outselling the luxury-sport crossovers that used to be the go-to’s in this segment.

If you take a look – and take it for a drive – you’ll understand why.

. . .

If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.