Genesis G70 Shooting Brake

Given that, historically, subsequent failure seems far more likely than success, I’m not quite sure what it is that still encourages manufacturers of the fundamentally hum-drum to suddenly play the premium card.

To date, from memory, only Toyota -with Lexus- has made a decent fist of it. And that’s for two reasons: firstly, Mr Toyoda asked his company to build him the very best machine they could -which, for a cool one billion US dollar investment, they promptly did; and secondly, the upshot, the LS 400, sold up a storm in America before crossing the pond.

Then again, as Nissan’s stab-at-posh Infiniti has recently proved, selling well in the States is absolutely no guarantee against rising without trace in Europe; the ace up Lexus’ sleeve being that, unlike anything from Infiniti, the LS 400 was a somewhat wonderful, entirely fresh from the ground up, piece of engineering.

Indeed, so strong a prestige image has Lexus created for itself since then that it has even survived the production of that woeful Prius with a swank interior, the CT 200h, almost unscathed…

We should, I suppose, mention DS – Citroen’s take on prestige motoring. But every iteration of same I’ve sampled to date has not only smacked too strongly of the parent company but also been, much like the band Oasis, a triumph of style over content, with some pretty dubious dashes of whimsy masquerading as style at that. I recall a DS representative saying that it takes 10 years to create a premium brand; and were already seven years in…

More interesting, perhaps, was megalomaniac VW supremo Ferdinand Piech’s creation of a luxo-barge, the Phaeton, under the People’s Car banner. Apart from grey switchgear somewhat lacking in visual punch, it was, and still is if you can find one, an absolutely wonderful machine in pretty much every department. The only mistake Piech made was to insist it set sail with the wrong badge on the bonnet…

Genesis -Hyundai’s premium brand putsch- has been pedalling its take on the posh everywhere but Europe since 2015 (though, confusingly, Hyundai did put a ‘prestige’ model called Genesis on sale in the UK at the same time). Thus far it’s sold some 500,000 cars globally, and though 380,000 of those never left South Korea, nearly 100,000 of them reaped the US greenback. Nonetheless, however, it owes somewhat more to Infiniti than to Lexus.

Because, far from being painstaking engineered from scratch, this G70 Shooting Brake (though bespoke for Europe) is effectively a rebodied Kia Stinger, without, I hasten to add, the 3.3 litre V6 that makes the latter an essentially Good Thing. Instead we’re offered a choice of three four-pots: 194 bhp and 241 bhp variants of a 2.0 litre petrol turbocharged unit, or this 197 bhp 2.2 litre turbodiesel. Which we’ll come to…

Acutely colour- and light-sensitive, the G70 SB tends to leave you admiring it one minute and wondering why you did so the next. It’s not quite as fraught and overwrought in the couture department as much from the Far East these days, which immediately gives it the benefit of the doubt in this writer’s book.

On board, the design and layout of the dashboard gives away the fact that the G70 has been around long enough to earn a mid-life facelift, even if it’s new to we Britons. In truth, until the recent appearance of their all-electric offerings, both Hyundai and Kia have lagged gently behind the interior design curve, with proper knobs and knockers resolutely holding sway over the dash-swamping surge of the dread touch-screen.

Interestingly, with the undercurrent of a respectable anti-touch backlash now building nicely, Genesis may inadvertently find itself rather nicely positioned to benefit…

There is, of course, a 10.25-inch central touchscreen, which works well enough, but having to use a cable connection for your phone whilst resting it in a wireless recharging tray feels rather more annoying than idiosyncratic in a car of this cost. The digital driver’s instrument panel boasts a funky, optional 3D display which I enjoyed almost as much as I would proper analogue dials. And a useful blind-spot camera system enhances your rear view down the flanks of the car when you use the indicators.

The car’s exterior isn’t the only colour-sensitive area of the G70 SB, and the cabin definitely benefits from the lift of Bentley-reminiscent, red quilted leather upholstery adding a certain charm to the threat of an old-fashioned label, and helpfully distracting one’s gaze from less seemly plastic finishes elsewhere.

No gripes about the driving position, though, there’s just about enough room for the larger rear passenger, and behind that just about enough luggage capacity, somewhat bitten into by a steeply raked tailgate.

On the road, the mixed-message discrepancy between the car’s somewhat sporty exterior presentation and its lounge lizard interior artfully yet unfortunately epitomises the G70 SB’s driving characteristics.

On the one hand, an eight speed automatic allied to a Comfort drive mode setting should provide a relaxing waft appropriate to all that quilting. And, up to a point, it does. But with less than 200 bhp available to push this 1800 kg machine around, things become somewhat raw and raucous in the engine room if you push it hard enough to try and take advantage of the tightened damping afforded by Sport and (why oh why?) a traction control-cancelling Sport+.

In truth, however, the G70 SB is not a whole heap of fun to throw around, and cannot match the driving dynamics of its cited rivals from Mercedes, Audi or BMW in terms of precision, feel or engagement. And that’s fine, or at least it would be had Genesis not sacrificed a little too much cruising comfort in the interests of trying to make the car handle well enough to justify the marriage of a four cylinder diesel estate car to a Sport+ mode…

All in all, then, perhaps the Genesis stand out feature has nothing to do with the car itself but, rather, the manner in which you acquire, and live with, it. There are no dealerships, just outlets in shopping centres where you can have a bit of a snoop; the process thereafter being a mixture of on-line configuration, phone conversations with your ‘Genesis Personal Assistant’, and, one assumes, a test drive at some point. Your machine will be collected when a service is due, and replaced with a courtesy car. And I wouldn’t be surprised if you were also to receive both birthday and Christmas cards to boot…. You get the picture.

Question has to be, then: To what extent can outstanding customer service compensate for a product which may otherwise be deemed to be slightly behind the curve? We’re not talking Daewoo here, who tried being equally ‘no, don’t get up’ licky to customers with products that were simply woeful bags of bolts. But it does make you wonder precisely what sort of customer Genesis is targeting with this approach. Parker Knoll Recliner in the lounge, perchance…?