Update 1 – Making an impact

  • Model: Genesis GV80
  • Price as tested: $130,000
  • This month: 1243km @ 11.7L/100km

I suppose it had to happen at some point. Despite having held a driving licence for 37 years, I had somehow escaped – and is there any delicate way of phrasing this? – being rear-ended in a car. Well that run of luck came to an end on Wellington Road in Melbourne last month, mere days after collecting my new Genesis GV80 long termer.

It all seems so banal, of course. The snatch of locked brakes on the wet road and then the impact from behind. I pulled to the side of the road and there was an old Mercedes-Benz C-Class looking distinctly the worse for wear. Expecting a corresponding amount of damage to the Genesis, I was pleasantly surprised to see just a bit of cracking of the plastics and trims on the lower valance, and that seemed about it. Insurance has done its thing and it has an appointment with a local repairer, which isn’t an ideal start to its tenure in the Wheels garage, but otherwise I think it got off rather lightly, all things considered.

10

Prior to being shunted rudely in the chuff, the GV80 had been making a very good impression. I might merely be projecting here, but you’re forgiven if you’re somewhat bamboozled by Genesis’s nomenclature. The GV80 is the range-topping SUV, a kind of BMW X5 rival. It’s now only available with one engine choice, a meaty 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6, and the sole option is a choice of six or seven seats. Otherwise it’s as if it’s had the entire options list shoehorned into it.

It retails for $130,000, which looks decent value against the BMW X5 40i M Sport, which carries a $138,900 sticker price, doesn’t come with anything like the kit list of the Genesis and is also some way down on outright grunt. To whit, the BMW’s 3.0-litre straight-six develops 250kW and 450Nm, where the Korean is good for 279kW and 530Nm. What’s more, the Genesis has been recently updated. The most obvious difference is the old dash binnacle has been replaced by a stunning widescreen 27-inch OLED that includes both the dash clocks and the infotainment system. That’s not all though.

Genesis has also added new colours, tweaked the styling, added a bunch of safety and convenience kit, and the car now features all of the gear that was in the previously optional Luxury pack. You sit on beautiful quilted Nappa leather seats with suede trim elsewhere. There really is a feel of ‘baby Bentayga’ about the cabin execution, with high-quality touch points, an 18-speaker Bang and Olufsen stereo and, in this car at least, a smoky green/earth brown two-tone cabin that works well with the olive ash wood dash and centre console finish.

10

We’ll get into the nuts and bolts of how it drives in a later report, but first impressions are promising. The engine certainly delivers in terms of acceleration, scoring a 0-100km/h time of 5.6 seconds, but I’m more than mindful of its fuel thirst.

The spec sheet reckons on 11.7L/100km, well up on the 9.2L/100km of that X5. I’m generally quite gentle with the loud pedal in normal driving, and over 1243km this month, I’ve averaged 11.72L/100km – bullseye on the WLTP fuel figure.

The cosmetic damage on the back of the car is going to be fixed next month. Shouldn’t be an issue, but I’ll let you know how that goes.

⬆️ Back to top

Update 2 – Land of confusion

  • This month: 958km @ 12.0L/100km
  • Overall: 2201km @ 11.8L/100km

Or how the Genesis GV80 still manages to knot the brows of the uninitiated.

“WHAT IS IT?” Despite having been on sale here in Australia since 2020, it’s fair to say that the Genesis GV80 still has the capacity to befuddle a good proportion of onlookers. Some have commented that Genesis is the luxury arm of Nissan, that it’s an Aston Martin, and one reckoned it was a Chinese brand. Clearly Genesis needs to work a little on its brand recognition.

We’re doing our bit. We featured the ‘old’ Genesis GV80 in the Wheels garage back in 2021, so when the opportunity came to do a bit of a compare and contrast with the previous model, I was all for it.

It didn’t quite do enough to merit a podium spot at that year’s COTY. Judge Byron Mathioudakis described it as dynamically confused, not rating its body control particularly highly. It also scored poorly on the efficiency criterion, as it lacked either an idle stop function or a hybrid version. It still lacks both, and the efficiency thing would be one of the key impediments to me putting my hand in my pocket for a GV80. The first month’s average of 11.7L/100km slipped a little to 12L/100km this month, largely due to a larger proportion of urban driving.

10

While the 2024MY update introduced a whole heap of comfort, convenience and safety improvements, there’s been nothing done to the oily bits underneath to materially change the way the GV80 goes up a road. It’s not at the top of the class in terms of chassis dynamics, but I don’t take great issue with the compromises that Genesis’ chassis engineers have had to accommodate.

Talking of accommodation, I’ve discovered that even with the seats fully folded and the front passenger seat slid forward on its rails, the wheel still needs to come off my mountain bike in order to fit into the back of the Genesis.

That didn’t prove an issue in my old Subaru Outback, despite their respective maximum luggage capacities being 2144 litres versus a mere 1783 litres. I’ll put that down to the GV80’s loading bay being shorter but taller.

Meanwhile, on the subject of the accident repair to the Genesis, largely due to me being overseas for a fair bit this past month, the process has dragged a bit. I dropped the vehicle off for repair, only to be told that this would be an initial damage assessment. When the bill arrived, it totalled a surprisingly modest $1877 for the parts less labour, which was then passed on to the insurer of the chap who kindly saw fit to rearrange the back of the GV80. The downside? The bits are on backorder and will take 4-6 weeks to arrive.

Reassuringly, the GV80 is proving a popular part of the family. It’s always a bit awkward when you get a long termer that you adore but your partner abhors – hello Subaru BRZ – but I’ve had difficulty prising the Genesis key fob from my partner’s grasp. She’ll love it even more when the car’s rear trims are all back in one piece.

10

⬆️ Back to top

Update 3 – What’s wrong with this picture?

  • This month: 801km @ 11.5L/100km
  • Overall: 3002km @ 11.7L/100km

Enright is in a set of temporary wheels after suffering from screen burn.

10

Even to the untrained eye, the Genesis GV80 in this image looks suspiciously like a Hyundai Tucson and there are reasons for that. Firstly, it is a Hyundai Tucson. Secondly, the Berwick Hyundai courtesy car decals will clue you in to the fact that not all is happy in the book of Genesis.

A few weeks ago, the car had what I can only describe as an electrical brainfart. It started projecting images of the instrument cluster’s dials over the Android Auto information in the centre screen. I figured that this was something that would clear down once I keyed the car off and ‘rebooted’ it, and so it proved. But it was clear that not all was 100 percent with the GV80’s software.

A week or so later, as I left the vehicle, a message flashed up on the screen, suggesting that the car was updating its navigation system. This was a bit of a head scratcher for me, as I hadn’t subscribed to Genesis Connected Services. By the time I’d registered the message, the installation had failed. It was to prove fatal for the infotainment system.

The next time I turned the car on, the first screen encountered – the User Agreement Screen – had both of its options greyed out. There was no way to enter a choice. Normally, this screen times out if no response is entered and the infotainment home screen appears. This time round, the whole system blinked out, rebooted itself, and continued in this endless loop of failure.

10

That meant no navigation, no Android Auto, no podcasts, no music and no phone calls but, equally annoyingly, there was no way to switch off the speed limit warnings, the first thing I always did when getting into the GV80. So rather than listening to something entertaining when driving, the GV80 exits servos bonging furiously at me as it retains the forecourt’s 10km/h speed limit until its beady eye latches onto another speed limit sign which, as I discovered on the South Gippsland highway, can be quite a long time.

I dropped it into the dealership to see if they could fix it. Their first attempt drew a complete blank, so it seems to be quite the technical challenge to overcome. The techs then tried to reflash the software, only for the same problem to instantly recur.

I was then told it would require a whole new infotainment system and there was zero stock on hand. On the return drive home, the system stopped rebooting itself and instead set the head-up display speedometer to zero km/h instead. Troubleshooting was like trying to hit a moving target.

While this all sounds a bit of a screed of woe for a man who has been given a free $130,000 car, it’s something to consider if you’re buying a very new vehicle of any type. As it stands, the plastics for the GV80’s rear end damaged by a dozy man at the wheel of his C-Class are still on back order and this box-fresh ccIC27 navigation system is bricked.

10

I want my ‘old’ Genesis GV80 back. I really liked that car. As it stands, I’m getting to know a Hyundai Tucson instead. Hardly up there in the realm of first-world problems, and I’ve been assured by Genesis that were I a paying customer that the vehicle would be returned and replaced. I was loaned a GV80 Coupe and, lo and behold, it did exactly the same thing within minutes, with a bad batch of head units blamed.

So, at present, I’m waiting for a head unit to be pulled out of another vehicle and fitted to ‘my’ original GV80. I’d be interested in hearing if any other Genesis owners have experienced similar issues.

⬆️ Back to top

Update 4 – It’s back and it’s better!

  • This month: 1458km @ 11.8L/100km
  • Overall: 4460km @ 11.8L/100km

A new head unit and a key software update have transformed the GV80.

Last month, I was moaning about schlepping about in a Hyundai Tucson because ‘my’ Genesis GV80 had a terminal problem with its head unit. Thankfully, Genesis has sourced another head unit, installed it into NDA-09D and, crucially, installed the latest software update which transforms the Genesis’s utility.

I’d entirely understand if you think that’s a bit of a reach, but bear with me here. Not only do you now get wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto where you had to faff about plugging a cable into your phone before, but an uncabled phone now sits nicely in the wireless charger. It’s all a whole lot neater, and the phone boots faultlessly to your chosen smartphone mirroring provider each and every time.

The other key update brought by this software revision is that you can now hold down a wheel-mounted metallic dial for a few seconds and it instantly mutes the speed limit warnings. It’ll show speed limit information in the main dial pack, but no longer will the car chime at you when it thinks (often incorrectly) you’re exceeding a posted speed limit. That is a game changer, saving you wading through on-screen menus. I’ve had a think about why this is such a significant improvement, and I think it just comes down to it boosting the GV80’s inherent likeability. If your car feels onside and some thought has clearly gone into not annoying you, that’s a major boost to its appeal.

While I’ve been given to musing on the GV80, there are some bigger picture things to cover. I’m not particularly enamoured of the GV80’s fuel economy. It’s mainly been driven quite gently, but the twin-turbo V6 still sups fuel at or near 12 litres per 100km which, I feel, is excessive. There’s little about this vehicle that couldn’t be improved by an equally powerful but far more economical hybrid four. I find profligacy to be an unappealing trait in production cars and, for me, this would be the biggest impediment to a potential purchase.

10

I’m also vexed by certain practical elements of the GV80. There’s no space in any of the door pockets or cupholders for a 600ml bottle, and the centre console storage is a shallow tray rather than a deep bin. The boot offers few clever storage tricks and because of the comfort-access front seats sliding back, there’s rarely even space to jam a bag in the rear footwells, so shopping often ends up flopping around, bags disgorging their contents about the cabin. It’s also worth bearing in mind that if you put fragile and expensive items (like cameras and lenses) into bags in the rear footwell, that the comfort-access front seats can then motor back and squash them.

Fortunately, the Genesis GV80 has many qualities that impress. A friend, who owns a BMW X5 40i, was forced to grudgingly admit that the Korean car’s interior was a far more special place to sit than the German’s. When asked why, he listed the quality of the leather upholstery, the functionality of the main screen, the quality of the stereo system and the general fi nish. After driving the Genesis, he preferred the agility, crisper acceleration and better fuel economy of the BMW and made his case – as a driving enthusiast – that he’d bought the better premium SUV.

His arguments have some merits, but then I’m not interested in driving this GV80 hard. I prefer to laze around on its 530Nm of torque, and take my time. Driven this way, it’s a lovely, if thirsty, thing.

It’s been on a few journeys this month, including to the snow at Mount Donna Buang, where I made the somewhat predictable discovery that all-wheel drive is great, but if you have performance-car Michelin Pilot Sport 4 rubber between you and the snow/slush, it only gets you so far up the hill.

I’m just glad to have the GV80 back. The fact that it’s better than it’s ever been is the icing on that particular cake.

⬆️ Back to top

Update 5 – Tapestry of life

  • This month: 4205km @ 13.5L/100km
  • Overall: 8665km @ 12.5L/100km

Still not completely healed, but the GV80’s goodness transcends life’s mishaps.

Five months after arriving at the Wheels office, it’s time to bid farewell to the Genesis GV80. It’s been eventful, not always for the right reasons. Almost as soon as it arrived, it was shunted in the rear while in stationary traffic and, ever since that occurred, it’s been waiting for the parts to repair the rear valance, parts which have, as yet, failed to appear.

It’s also required an entirely new head unit after a software update bricked the original, so life with the Genesis has included a fair few trips back and forth to both dealers and crash repairers, a spell in two different temporary replacement vehicles and lots of wondering what might have been.

It’s that last point that gnaws at me, because aside from these two issues, the Genesis has been a wonderful vehicle to live with. Thirsty, yes, and its appetite for 95RON comes despite the car being used fairly gently, but some will argue that this comes with the territory when spending over $130K on a luxury SUV with a 3.5-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 beneath the bonnet.

10

We’re assured that the head unit issue only applied to the very first batch of facelifted cars to make it to Australia and is not a common ailment. The delay in body parts availability was only highlighted by the fact that this is the first long termer where someone’s driven into it, so I don’t have any representative sample size of comparable vehicles with which to measure the GV80’s parts availability hiatus.

On that basis, let’s assume you’re one of the vast majority of prospective GV80 owners who have neither a faulty head unit or a galoot in a Mercedes ramming them in the chuff. It’s hard to see how you’d be disappointed with this SUV. It’s striking looking, the cabin is beautifully finished, it’s packed with genuinely thoughtful touches, it drives well and it’s far from the default, boring option in its class.

I’ve mentioned the fuel thirst, and the other financial issue that’s worth considering is depreciation. Three-year-old, pre-facelift GV80s are currently changing hands at around $85K, down from the $108,600 they used to cost in 2021, which represents a three-year retained value of 78 percent. By any normal measure that’d be excellent, but the world isn’t quite normal, and when we look at a BMW X5 40i, these are trading at $100K against a $124,900 sticker in 2021, which shakes out at… 78 percent. So, same same. But now that the GV80 is within $4K of the BMW’s current $138,900 cost, I wouldn’t be quite as confident in the Genesis retaining that sort of residual parity with the BMW.

In other words, go into GV80 ownership with your eyes open. Yes, you will have to take a realistic view of running costs or, by extension, leasing rates, but you’ll be rewarded with a hugely enjoyable and luxurious big SUV that never fails to feel special. Hard-hearted journos rarely give a look over the shoulder as we offload test vehicles, but this is one that I’m certainly going to miss.

⬆️ Back to top

MORE All Genesis GV80 News & Reviews
MORE Everything Genesis