DETROIT — The 2018 Genesis G90 still draws lots of attention. During my test drive I answered so many questions about the car that they kind of caught me off guard. Two guys even pulled up next to me and shouted, “what kind of car is that?”
That’s because the Genesis was a big stately full-size four-door sedan with the looks of a super luxury car but not the price. At $71,825 it is a bargain.
I had the 3.3T premium trim model. There was a dual turbocharged V6 engine under the hood that made 365 horsepower and 376 pound-feet of torque at 1,300 to 4,500 rpm. It was a mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission that was as smooth a gear box as I’ve come across. I never felt or heard the G90 shift into second gear.
Not that people who can afford this price point care about fuel economy all that much but the G90 3.3 got a respectable 17 mpg in the city, 24 mpg on the highway and 20 mpg combined.
The powertrain moved this car with ease. I never would have guessed that the Genesis G90 with a V6 weighed a hefty 4,784 lbs. That was with all-wheel-drive. And the optimum horsepower I noted comes with premium fuel.
The car had four drive modes: eco, smart, sport and individual. It would default to smart with every ignition. I put the G90 in sport once. Reaction to driver input got quicker, I was even tempted to use the paddle shifters. But to my chagrin, the next time I got in the car and started it the mode selector had defaulted back to smart. I surrendered and left it there.
Each drive mode altered transmission mapping, throttle responsiveness, suspension, steering (except Smart mode) and stability control, with specific modes adapted to function.
The G90 was big, fast, quiet and maneuverable. It had a solid but light feel on the road. Much of that was because of the adaptive control suspension. It had an electronic damping control that managed body motions throughout the range of dynamics. The nose of my test car stayed level during my aggressive driving through an entrance onto the Lodge Freeway.
The way the automaker put it was this adaptive control suspension offers additional stability through its Dynamic Stability Damping Control (DSDC) feature by providing independent damping control in both rebound and compression strokes of suspension travel for improved body and yaw control.
Genesis said the “G90 achieves an ultra-low 0.27 coefficient of drag with its aerodynamic design featuring underbody deflectors, a front active air flap and front wheel air curtains to reduce turbulence and wind noise, providing greater efficiency.”
Inside the G90 was what you’d expect in a large luxury sedan. There was a quiet ambience. The interior was awash in leather and wood. There was both a horizontal layout with a really wide infotainment screen and there was a bit of a vertical center-stack between the bottom of that screen and the center console.
Get this: the 2018 Genesis G90 had a 22-way driver seat and a 16-way power passenger seat. There was three zone climate controls. That would be the front driver seat and the front passenger seat as well as the rear passenger seats.
There was also a control module in the rear armrest from which the back seat passengers could control the climate, the media, the heated rear seats, the front passenger seat, and the power sunshades for the rear windows. In other words, the G90 can adapt and accommodate a chauffeur with the owner of the car in the rear seats.
The 2019 Genesis G90 3.3T was chock full of technology. It had Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Detection, Driver Attention Alert, Smart Blind Spot Detection with Rear Cross-traffic Alert and Lane Change Assist, Lane Keep Assist, Lane Departure Warning, Smart Cruise Control with Stop/Start, Full LED headlights with Dynamic Bending Light, High Beam Assist, Multiview Camera, Haptic Steering Wheel, Front and Rear Parking Sensors, Full-color heads up display, Multi-view Camera, Pre-Active Seatbelt and 9 Standard Airbags.
However, I think the electronics need to be improved a little. Fourteen buttons for the climate controls was a little bit much. Still, the Genesis G90 was a world class large luxury sedan.
Frank S. Washington is editor of AboutThatCar.com