David’s Driven Media Radio Interviews Alan: Genesis G80

David Brown Radio Interviews: Alan Zurvas Genesis G80

[00:00:00] Genesis, is Hyundai’s answer to Lexus. They came and went in the Australian market, But they’re back and with more products. Our good friend Alan Zurvas from Gay Carboys has been testing the luxury large sedan, the G80. Alan, does it look the part?

More Genesis and Hyundai GayCarBoys Stories:

 

[00:00:20] It’s a peach. I think it looks really, really sexy. Genesis has done so much and I think it looks European. And if you took the badges off, I defy you to pick the difference between that and, say, an Audi. te overall shape of this big car looks balanced.

[00:00:39] Sometimes they look too long and gawky or they just don’t seem to get it right. And then the lights at the front and the back and making a firm statement. But they’re not over the top, are they?

[00:00:52] Just a little bit over the top. There’s a there’s a touch of the fairyland about them. There’s so many LEDs doing a different thing. The whole car is LED and you’ve got the quad lights or however many cells there are in the front and the side. You’ve got a couple of more banks, which makes the indicators look a bit like the events in a Mustang or an Aston Martin.

Above: This Week’s VIDEO Car Review -2021 Genesis G80 driverless parking

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ABOVE: 2021 Genesis G80

[00:01:16] And then the rear takes me back to the days of Aston Martin Lagonda. Do you remember that from the 70s?

[00:01:22] Each light at the back is has two bands. It’s almost like a licorice all-sort, only extend it out a bit. There’s a red and there’s a bit of black in the middle. And then there’s a red again and the front is the same. It’s got almost like these two bands of lights rather than the common trend of trying to copy a Jaguar, you know, with the sort of long lights that often you see there. But this one, yeah, I think it makes its statement inside. Do you feel like a king?

[00:01:51] Oh, gosh. Well, now, when you got in today, you looked at that wood and you looked at me and you said, “what do you think of that wood?” And I looked at you like you were from Mars. I thought it looked absolutely sensational. But I think you thought it looked a bit ordinary because it wasn’t highly polished, like nanna’s side table, this was open poor timber. And it looks expensive and it looks handmade, and the interior looks luxurious.

[00:02:21] I don’t like that highly polished stuff. I think it looks like plastic. I was interviewed one time on ABC and the guy said, I love the Jaguar, but I hated the plastic faux wood. And Jaguar rang up and said, No, it’s real, I’m with you.

[00:02:37] But I thought that would appeal to you because you’ve got plastic on your sofas.

[00:02:43] Thank you. I you know what I mean.

[00:02:45] Oh, plenty of room in the back. A bit of luxury at all. The controls in the back as well.

[00:02:52] Will you get a repeat set of the front controls on the centre armrest in the back, but also the passenger front seat can be operated from the passenger side in the back seat. So, if you get in and there’s not enough room, you can power that seat forward, stretch your feet out. And if you’ve just got your man driving in the front, you can stretch up there with a martini and under a day’s work schedule. And off you go to work.

[00:03:21] 2.5 Even for the smaller engine, it’s turbo charged. 224kw, that’s quite a lot. And 420Nm. You, of course, as befitting your status, had the larger 3 1/2L Twin Turbo, with 279 kilowatts.

[00:03:38] It’s pretty good now David. I don’t approve of that language. Oh sorry. Did you say by BI-Turbo. Okay, I’m with, I’m with you now. Yes. So, this bi-Turbo V six, it’s got V8 power.

[00:03:51] It pushes it along.

[00:03:53] It’s got a 0-100 of around five seconds, but it’s got 279kw,but 530Nm of torque 530! Now remember, some of the V8 even ten years ago didn’t have that kind of power.

[00:04:12] No, I had a little drive of it. It was effortless power too. It didn’t sound like it was really working hard, or even working at a high fever pitch that a racing engine might work. It just went woosh.

[00:04:26] You were a bit of a nanny. If I’m honest, you’re a bit of a Nana, And I was forced to activate your sports mode. You got an expression on your face. But it wasn’t quite like when we were in that Tesla that time and you got that instant facelift 3 ½ seconds later.

[00:04:44] The this one comes with all wheel drive and an eight speed automatic. All wheel drive, I like that idea.

[00:04:51] I think it does cost you a couple of extra litres per 100 kilometres here and there, but I like it for the advantage of the grip that you get, especially in the all weather terrain type situation. A little bit of rainy weather or some puddles or whatever, it really does give you grip, and you can feel it.

[00:05:13] It always feels composed, good suspension, and you can get an up-market adaptive one, don’tyou.

[00:05:21] Well, the 3.5 comes with that adaptive suspension, and there’s a little camera in front that keeps a lookout at the road in front of you. it sees things like a speed bump or whatever and it’ll adjust your suspension. You’re not meant to be aware that it’s doing it. It does it hundreds of times a second. And it’s meant to make your trip seamless. So, the eight speed transmission changes without you knowing it, and the suspension changes without you knowing it. It’s all meant to happen, seemlessly.

[00:05:53] Without you being aware, right? There’s a huge screen in the centre console. How big is it?

[00:05:59] It’s over 14 inches, but it has a 12 inch driver display too. So, all the driver instruments are digital. It’s just one big screen, and then there’s another 12 inch screen that projects up onto the windscreen. So, everything that you possibly need to know is within your easy eyesight, and that heads up was big.

[00:06:22] There was a lot of space. And they’re starting to pack a lot of information, including, where you can get navigation direction. But the one in front of you on the head- up-displays as traditional arrows pointing. But the one in the middle, they do that differently. It’s not on a map.

[00:06:43] No, it’s very strange. It’s actually looking like it’s on a proper road. But of course, it can get a little bit annoying when a driver gets into the car, activates the navigation and you can’t turn it off. Do you know what I mean? I’m not pointing I’m not pointing any fingers.

[00:07:03] We tried to set it up, but when you say it shows it’s not a map, it’s actually the camera. It’s the picture of the road out in front of you. And it’s superimposing arrows of where to turn, which took a little bit of getting used to. But I quite like because when you see a map, sometimes you’re just not quite sure whether if there’s two streets close together, whether you meant to turn the first or the second.

[00:07:28] Well, I think chances are you and I weren’t using it correctly. However, what it looks like you’re meant to do is use the heads up display to get the Ye-olde-worldy directions, and then the centre console stack with the big fourteen inch display that’s displaying where you are on the road. And so, as you go to turn, it’ll have a group of arrows saying, okay, turn now, turn now, don’t go in the next street go on this one.

[00:07:56] Yeah. What’s it worth.

[00:07:58] $100,000actually, $99,900. But the car we drove today has $13,000 worth of extras with the luxury pack. It is a cornucopia. There’s so much stuff. So, 12.3” Drivers instruments, that’s part of that luxury pack. We were talking about that earlier, the smart parking assist pack, which we haven’t talked about, the remote smart parking assistant, which we also haven’t talked about, the 18 way driver seats, and two way bolster adjuster. That nice little catspaw massaging that the driver gets, plus a whole lot of other safety stuff.

[00:08:44] Now, this is the one where it we know that cars can some cars can automatically park, but this one can do it in a way where you don’t actually have to be in the vehicle.

[00:08:55] Well, David, I think cars are getting a little bit like that. You almost don’t have to be there. You can just tell it, “you’re going to Melbourne, why don’t you meet me in Melbourne?” You fly so it takes less time than when you just drive there. But what this car did, and I showed you the video today, is that you can park it. Automated parking or semi automated parking, it’s not unusual. A lot of cars do it. But what this one will do is that you can do it, in the car or out of the car. Select the spot that you want to park in, and then it asks you. Do you want to be in the car or out of the car? So, you say, “I’d like to be out of the car, thank you very much.” You press the button, put it in park, then exit. The car starts beeping, and by pressing the button on the FOB, and it will just run away and park itself in the parking spot, whether it’s a parallel park or a 90 degree park.

[00:09:47] So in a shopping centre, it’s for parking so that you don’t have to struggle to get out of the door in a narrow space.

[00:09:56] Yes, though there is a I’ve spotted a chink in their cunning armour, and that is apparently you have to be in the car for it to exit the space to exit. So we’ll get you in. So then you’d have to worry about doors banging on sides and things. But in order for the car to get out of that space, you’ve got to be in it.

[00:10:16] So they want you to go to the gym and park the car, but be thinner when you come out so you can get into the car, possibly leave the sunroof open and slither in like a snake.

[00:10:28] I’m not going to be doing that. I think my gut would get caught on the roof.

[00:10:34] They’ve  created something special and something different. Because some of the earlier conflict with I had with it was whether they sold it right next to a Hyundai Elantra, or whether it’s very much a stand alone. Can it stand alone. Is it good enough for that?

[00:10:54] Look, I think it is, as Toyota did with Lexus, Nissan did with Infiniti. And of course, Infinity failed twice. I think the difference with Genesis is that it’s got a company standing behind it that believes in it, no matter what. And they’ve poured so much money into this. If you were to buy, for argument’s sake, the equivalent Audi, and this is slightly Audi. It is a little bit, dare I say, five door Audi hardtop. If you were to buy the equivalent Audi with four-wheel drive, fancy seats, and a heads up display, this kind of a AEB, and this kind of performance, you’re going to be paying more than one hundred and thirteen thousand dollars. You’d be paying at least another fifty thousand to sixty thousand dollars. So, do I think it can hold up? Not only do I think it can hold up, but I think it could easily, if the Europeans aren’t careful, usurp their position.

[00:12:01] Alan, I felt pretty good in the car, although I found the steering just a little bit artificial. But then again, I just got out of an F type Jaguar. You’ve got to be careful how you compare. Then again, it’s not it’s made to be gently tearing down the expressway.

[00:12:17] Well, David, this is a gentlemen’s tourer. This can easily cross the continent in a single bound. And with the massaging seats, you get up feeling like you’d had a shiatsu experience the entire way across the Nullarbor.

[00:12:31] But more importantly, it’s got the power. It’s got the style.

[00:12:36] And what did the William Lyons say about Jaguar? Space, Grace and Pace? I reckon this has it in spades.

[00:12:44] It is value for money, but that’s an expression you don’t want to use with a luxury car yet. It’s good to sit in something so good at such a competitive price.

[00:12:55] Well, I think the Europeans would ignore this car, would ignore Genesis and indeed high end Kia, at their peril. Now, you were talking about the steering before. You’ve got to remember that most new cars have electric power steering, and there is now no such thing as road feel. Everything that you think you feel is simulated. It’s how well it’s calibrated. And in this case, it’s calibrated for luxury, not for sporty handling, whereas the Jaguar type is completely focused on performance. Each to their own.

[00:13:31] And I understand now, and I enjoyed the ride. I enjoyed the drive and I enjoyed the car, of course. And I thank you very much for your time.

[00:13:41] Well, David, that is not the first time I’ve heard those accolades. And thank you very much.

[00:13:45] And that was Alan Zurvas from Gay Carboys. And we were talking about the Genesis. It’s a product of the Hyundai Corporation, but it’s a stand-alone luxury vehicle.