GENESIS GV70 Luxury Line

If you’ve not been paying attention, Genesis is the posh arm of Hyundai, like Lexus is to Toyota, and the GV70 is the smallest of the brand’s two luxury SUVs. I say small, it isn’t, but it’s smaller than its big brother, the GV80.

For the first few days with the GV70 we drove to town for a bit of shopping, drove to school for my other job and basically tootled around doing nothing particularly exciting. That said, it was practical, comfortable and considering it’s size it was simple to park and manoeuvre, and overall very easy to live with.

The latter part of the week, however, I managed to escape and enjoyed a few adventures.

On the motorway I selected cruise and we simply glided along with the tech doing a grand job of slowing me down, warning about other vehicles in my blind spots, and so on. I do like adaptive cruise control.

For the twisty B5105 from Ruthin to Cerrigydrudion in North Wales I selected Sport mode that tightened things up, including the side bolsters in the drivers seat. It isn’t as nimble as the Cupra Formentor, but it isn’t meant to be, the GV70 is more of a luxury SUV, but it’s more than capable of handling fast corners.

With 207bhp on tap it isn’t sluggish, far from it, it’ll get you from 0-60mph in just 7.6 seconds and 31-62mph in 6.3 seconds, which it does quietly and smoothly.

Despite riding on 21” wheels road noise is well subdued, even with the radio off it’s well muted, very calming.

Reversing isn’t something I usually mention in my reviews, however the GV70 has, of course, parking sensors all-round and a reversing camera are standard, but it also has a neat trick where the reversing lights illuminate lines on the ground behind the car, so it's easier to see kerbs in the side mirrors at night. On the subject of lights, LED headlights are fitted to all GV70s, and if you tick the Innovation pack it adds upgraded matrix lights that adjust the shape of their beams so they provide as much light as possible without dazzling oncoming drivers.

Fuel wise, over the week of mixed driving the computer told me that I had achieved 38mpg, which to be fair is pretty good going considering that for most of the time I was using the majority of its 207bhp. If I’d chosen to take it easy, official WLTP figures suggest I could have reached the dizzy heights of 54mpg, but that was never going to happen!

It isn’t an ‘off-roader’, that’s obvious, and the huge low profile 21” wheels certainly put me off venturing too far off the beaten track. On loose uphill climbs the GV70 performed better than expected, not surprising as it comes with an electronic limitedslip diff as standard, so it gave me plenty of confidence.

Select driving modes and you have a choice of Snow, Sand and Mud, with the latter giving exceptional braking downhill. Because it has half decent approach and departure angles, on the right tyres I reckon its 4x4 abilities will surprise a lot of owners, I’d love to get my hands on one nearer winter to give it proper test.

My favourite part of the car. It’s nice to see a manufacture making the effort to create an interesting interior, to me it’s really important.

After a naff day at work it’s nice to sit in something that’s not only funky and characterful, but comfortable, too, unlike Skoda and Audi that can be both a little bit dull and clinical.

Once you’ve made yourself comfortable you’re confronted with a 12.3” fully digital instrument cluster with a 3D visual effect that’s available as a part of the Innovation package, and to the left there’s a 14.5” display.

If I have one niggle it’s that the cool mood lighting on the dash is extended to the buttons in front of my right knee. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but it reflects badly in the driver's window, and when driving at night it’s always there in your peripheral vision.

The front seats are epic; comfortable, supportive and the driver has extendable thigh supports, fantastic if you have long legs. Also, perfect place to rest a packet of crisps on during long and tedious journeys (so I’m told).

Rear passengers have it good as the seats are not only comfortable, but can also be reclined, and there’s plenty of cubby areas.

In the boot you’re not lost for space, you have 542 ptrs of luggage space with the rear seats upright, and 1678 ltrs with them flat. And there’s no loading lip to heave heavy and bulky items over either.

Like a lot of SUVs these days there are useful handles just inside the boot so you don’t have to open the side doors to fold the 60/40 seatbacks down.

The GV70 comes with the option of either a petrol 2.5 litre with 300bhp and this, the 2.5 litre diesel. Both have the 8-speed automatic and AWD.

The GV70 is one of those rare press cars that I didn’t want to say goodbye to, I enjoyed pretty much everything about it, from its stylish interior to the way it handled every road surface, including dirt. That said, it isn’t cheap, but like most cars in the luxury SUV market, you get an awful lot of kit and safety features for your money.

The GV70 has plenty of competitors, from Audi and Mercedes to Volvo and BMW, and the question is, would you want to go with a known brand, or take a punt with a Genesis? Remember, Genesis isn’t exactly a new and standalone company, it has the backing of the Hyundai empire behind it which means that its models share many platforms, engines and tech with a wide range of those from its parent company, and Kia. If it was my money, I’d go for a Genesis.

Price £42,820 - model tested £50,620 more at » https://www.genesis.com/uk