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2019 Genesis G70 3.3T Dynamic RWD: The World Needs More Sport Sedans Like This

2019 Automobile All-Stars contender.
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TheGenesis G70was among the 24 standout vehicles competing for a coveted 2019 Automobile All-Stars award.See the rest of the field here, andgo here to see the winners!

Hyundai Motor Group deserves plaudits for developing a new rear-drive platform that has so far spawned the Kia Stinger and the 2019 Genesis G70. The G70's arrival coincided with 2019 All-Stars testing—and recent, lamentable announcements by Detroit manufacturers about backing away from sedan production. Contributor Basem Wasef pinpointed the significance of the moment. "The SUV-ification of the automotive world casts the G70 in an especially unique light," he said. "Not only is the Korean sedan an outlier because of its configuration, but it also goes all out in its sport sedan-iness and can even be ordered with a manual."

An elite Genesis Division team of designers and engineers formed in South Korea to create the G70, and their prowess shows. The designers pushed every convention of their art to the limit. Flared and fluted surfaces disguise the aerodynamic discipline: One might never guess a car expressing such sensuality achieves a 0.28 coefficient of drag. In profile, the proportions are perfect, the roofline exquisite.

Slide into the pleasant cabin, press the engine-start button, and prepare to be thrilled. On track, the G70 holds its own without pretense of equaling a BMW M car. Output from the 365-hp 3.3-liter twin-turbo V-6 and the gracious eight-speed automatic of our test car earned general approval. When it came to chassis dynamics, the braking and electronic controls received broad praise. "Nicely programmed ESC, with near-imperceptible intervention," senior editor Erik Johnson observed. But the question of whether the steering is nicely weighted and accurate or slow and heavy produced an unusual dichotomy. Maybe our perceptions depended on whether we like to watch NASCAR or Formula 1. But contributing writer Marc Noordeloos concluded, "It's better on the road. The chassis has a nice tune and impressive fluidity." Executive editor Mac Morrison countered, "I wouldn't buy this car intending to do a lot of track days with it, but it's certainly amusing and predictable to throw around the circuit for a good laugh."

To his point, the G70's agility is another example of how Genesis has hit the sport sedan target square, thereby strengthening the marque's performance credibility. Our man Arthur St. Antoine termed it "a fine effort for Genesis' first true sport sedan. Definitely worth being on any sport-sedan shopper's list." We've also driven the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder and six-speed manual version of the G70, and we loved it. And with M Division alumni joining the Genesis chassis team, we expect even better things to come.

2019 Automobile All-StarsThe Winners|The Contenders|The Venues

Ronald Ahrens

When Automobile launched in 1986, my byline appeared on a sidebar to the cover story written by our founding editor David E. Davis, Jr. Yet it wasn’t inevitable that I’d write for the magazine, even though my childhood was heavily automobile-flavored: my father raced jalopies and late-model stock cars on the oval tracks around Omaha, Nebraska, where we lived, and my favorite uncle liked drag racing and hot rods.

After earning a B.A. in English from the University of Nebraska, I moved to Los Angeles to become a screenwriter. Instead, though, I ended up holding cue cards on TV shows, including the soap opera Days of Our Lives. My first magazine story, the inside scoop on how we prepared those cue cards, appeared with my own photos in Soap Opera Digest.

In my freelance career, I’ve written for Bon Appétit, the Wall Street Journal, and many others. I started corresponding for the Automobiles desk at the New York Times in 2010, which is proving to be a great relationship. As a change of pace, my historical column for DBusiness (“Detroit’s Premier Business Journal”) has run since 2006. But while a food-and-wine tour can get boring after a couple of days, nothing beats a call from Automobile. I’ve been behind the wheel of everything from a Ferrari 458 Italia (“Blood Red to Goodwood,” March 2011) to the Fiat 500 Abarth. On assignment for “Three Zero Heroes,” I co-drove the winning BMW X3 in the 2004 Alcan Winter Rally. Teaming again with the same navigator, we won the 2006 Carolina Trophy, bulldogging a 1951 Chrysler Saratoga to the finish for “Substance over Style.”

Other assignments have placed me not only in the driver’s seat of a Porsche 911 Targa for the 2002 Targa Newfoundland, a plummy nod that seemed to indicate my editors’ favor, but also in the co-driver’s seat of a Class 1 buggy for the 2003 Baja 1000, suggesting they wanted me dead.

As you might guess, there’s no regret about failing as a screenwriter. And now I’m beginning something new: teaching automotive journalism at Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena. My workshop, Creating Content for Automotive Media, launched in 2012 and will be offered twice a year. I look forward to helping students along on their way to incomparable automotive adventures and working with the best editors in the business.

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