From the driver's position, you'll see a litany of metal (yay!) buttons to your right. While some automakers have significantly cut back on physical buttons in favor of touchscreen menu options, Genesis is sticking to what works. And we love it. The heated and cooled front seats have physical buttons to toggle three levels of each; there's a dedicated button that gets you back to your nav screen; there's a dedicated media button; etc.
When we're driving, we aren't exactly well-positioned to think about a menu tree within a touchscreen, and you can't help but love the attention to detail in the buttons themselves. The fonts that sit atop them exude a premium feel, and even the sculpting changes subtly from the top row to the bottom row based on the anticipated approach angle of your fingers.
We also adored the suede liner that fully wrapped the A pillars and continued up into the headliner. Hyundai's Miles Johnson noted that it's remarkably tough to find cars that have fully wrapped A pillars. A significant amount of vibration ends up passing through said pillars, and if you aren't sure of your wrapping quality, it can begin to sag and deform over time.
Nitpicks
We've chosen the above word for a reason: you really have to search for things to criticize on the Genesis G90. Each buyer is going to part with a sizable chunk of change to own one, and the folks at Genesis Motors know it. In talking with Raphael, he explained that he agreed to take on the responsibility of the Genesis brand once he met the folks who would be building it alongside of him.
"We're a family here," he said. "We have colleagues to certify the tools that are used to install the parts that, slowly but surely, create a finished car. Even if the tool has come back with the proper integrity a hundred times, that colleague does it again. Even from a granular level, we all understand that every single person working on this car has a responsibility to be mindful of the eventual owner."
In our time with the Genesis G90, that tale rang true. The fit and finish was infallible, really. Our only interior gripes were cosmetic - we would've preferred a less lacquered finish over the wood inserts, and omitting CarPlay / Android Auto felt particularly strange given Hyundai's early support of both platforms. On the exterior, we prefer the tail lamp design on the G80 over that on the G90, and the sensor array on the upper half of the front grill could stand to be a bit less noticeable.
Lasting impressions
Executives for Genesis Motors told us to expect six total vehicles under its label by 2021, including a couple of SUVs that we're eager to see come to fruition. From a technology standpoint, however, we can't help but be excited by the presumed trickle-down effect. The laundry list of driving enhancements - effectively doing everything but motoring you in autopilot - aren't readily found on vehicles under $60k.
Genesis Motors, however, will no doubt put pricing pressures on the Lexus' and Mercedes-Benz's of the world, and it's only a matter of time before the life-saving features that wowed us on the G90 show up in vehicles that are decidedly more mass market.
We're told not to expect an autonomous or plug-in Genesis G90 in the near future, but part of us isn't really concerned about that. What gets us most excited is the though of bringing tech like the G90's spectacular active lane keep assist and radically effective adaptive cruise control to more drivers. Kudos to Genesis for putting its foot down and making this kit standard, and here's hoping it triggers a chain reaction of copycats.
