Golf wasn’t the only thing making headlines at Riviera.
- Genesis gets an all-new flagship this summer when the second-generation G90 rolls into U.S. showrooms.
- Power will not come from a V12, V8 or W anything, but from a twin-turbo, GDI V6.
- Pricing and full U.S. specs will come later this year, but check out the preliminary numbers.
Young golfer Joaquin Niemann led all four rounds at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles last weekend to take the 2022 Genesis Invitational in a near-record 19 under par, two strokes ahead of his closest competitors.
But that was only half the big news in Pacific Palisades last weekend. The venue was also the North American debut of the strikingly luxurious, all-new Genesis G90 sedan and, in the long run, the mighty G90 could have a bigger effect on the Genesis brand than all its sponsorship of golf.
Chilean golfer Joaquin Niemann won the 2022 Genesis Open in a near-record 19 under par.
Katharine LotzeGetty Images
Never mind that SUVs, CUVs and electric cars are taking over the world. There is still room for a gorgeous, long, substantial luxury sedan in the market and, like its lookalike the Mercedes S-Class and the coming Maybach sedan, the G90 will play the role of flagship for this relatively young brand.
Yes, Genesis is only six years old, 130 years younger than Mercedes-Benz. Yet it seems to be doing everything right. The brand started in 2015 with the first-generation of the G90, then added the more-affordable G80 and G70 sedans, and now has the GV70 and GV80 crossovers leading the sales charts.
But it’s the G90 sedan you see here that represents the heart and Seoul of the maker, begun as a spinoff of the much, much larger Hyundai corporate nameplate that covers everything from cars to ocean-going container ships to mighty construction projects. You could argue the G90 is the best-looking product of the whole half-century-long business.
The G90 at the Riviera Country Club. Note the real, PGA golfers in the background practicing their putts.
Mark Vaughn
The car you see here is not even the biggest version of this cruiser. A long-wheelbase G90 is coming to Korea, Russia and the Middle East, but not here. We got a look at the regular wheelbase G90 parked outside the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades the day before the big golf tournament got under way, and it looked as big as an S-Class, at least.
We saw two of them at the tourney—one outside the club entrance and another parked behind the luxury Genesis suite perched high above the 18thgreen, where young Niemann would soon solidify his status as an up-and-comer on the PGA tour.
The G90 is all-new from the ground up—nothing carries over from the old G90. There is something shared: It has a lot of the same architecture as the GV80 crossover (one of which I just drove from L.A. to Utah and back in the snow, by the way, and it did fine!).
“Overall, we’ve got that beautiful, long wheelbase,” said our G90 walkaround guide, the Genesis spokesguy Jarred Pellat.
Indeed, the G90’s wheelbase is two inches longer than that of the Audi A8L, but an inch and a half shorter than the S-Class and 8.5” shorter than the coming Maybach sedan. So it’s in good company. And it looks good from most any angle.
“You’ve got that great dash-to-axle ratio that really gives you these elegant proportions,” Pellat said. “You’ve got that long hood and that swept-back kind of pattern.”
The lines of the hood all emanate from the Genesis logo at the front of the hood, a shape replicated in the grille beneath it and exaggerated in the narrow LED headlight clusters and in the lines that sweep back up the hood itself. Yet it doesn’t come across as gimmicky.
“And what’s really nice is you can kind of see the lines—the integrated C-pillar that goes right out into the trunk lid. So it’s just a really clean design,” said Pellat.
It is. Maybe you’ll agree when you see one. It has an understated yet elegant presence.
Underneath that subtle yet distinctive hood is another departure from the norm, at least as far as luxury flagships go. Instead of a V8, V12 or a W-anything, the Genesis has a turbocharged, intercooled 3.5-liter direct-injected V6, though you wouldn’t know it to scroll through any Genesis press or marketing material.
In there it’s just a “3.5 turbo engine.” There’s no mention of cylinders. Full U.S. specs will be formally announced later. But are they trying to hide the fact that it’s “just” a V6? Granted, it makes 375 hp and 391 lb-ft of torque, so it should be adequate for the task, though curb weight is not listed, either, so we don’t know exactly what the task is yet. But a similar engine is already in use in the GV70 and G80.
Genesis has announced globally the new long-wheelbase and AWD G90 models will be available with an optional 48-Volt electrically driven supercharger. We’re waiting for more details about these powertrains and whether the optional supercharger will be paired with an otherwise naturally aspirated engine, perhaps to form a hybrid. It’s worth noting the first-generation G90 was available as a hybrid.
Turning the rear or all four wheels is an eight-speed automatic. There’s a gas mileage stat that we translated as 21.9 mpg, but no reference to what cycle that is or whether it’s city, highway or combined. This is all preliminary information so we’re just glad to get a few ballpark figures for this early on.
The new G90 rides on air springs with a feature called Preview-Electronic Control Suspension that uses a front camera to spot potholes and whoop-dee-doos and adjusts the ride accordingly. There’s also rear-wheel steering and active noise control to counter road noise.
Look at all that luxury.
Genesis
Inside, meanwhile, is pure luxury. I sat in the back while Pellat sat in the driver’s seat. “We’re using premium materials for absolutely everything,” said Pellat. “So if it looks like leather, it’s full grey nappa leather. If it looks like aluminum, it’s aluminum.”
The model I was in had the 26-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system. Twenty-six speakers! Through Genesis’ first use of Virtual Venues, you can set up that sound system to replicate the acoustics of any number of concert venues. We were in Boston Symphony Hall and it sounded pretty solid, with just a hint of echo. Turn the music off and you still get the echo, by the way, as if you were hanging out in an empty Boston Symphony Hall.
Another feature is the Mood Curator. Yes, there’s a Mood Curator.
“So, Mood Curator is supposed to really help you with your mood, your vitality,” Pellat said. “You can choose different moods based on how you want to feel. Maybe you’re driving, you’re stuck in traffic on the 405. And we all know what that’s like. And you’re just like, ‘Man, I’m falling asleep, I need to be energized.’ Or maybe it’s, ‘You know, I’m feeling down—I was just on a really tough phone call. And I need to be comforted.’ So okay, let’s go to comfort. You click on comfort and it provides a relaxing atmosphere with relaxing music, lighting and massage.”
We switched it on, and yay, I was comforted.
There are even scent cartridges available and a drawer in the rear armrest where you can drop your phone and get it sanitized by UV lights.
We have to wait until the middle of the year to find out exactly how the G90 will be configured for US customers when it goes on sale here this summer. Look for pricing a little before then, but the current model starts at $74,950, which is downright reasonable in the luxury space it occupies.
Keyword: Genesis G90 Will Make Hyundai’s Luxury Division a Major Player