Hyundai’s fancy-pants Genesis sub-brand continues to grow its presence. With strong summer sales thanks to a number of new dealers finally gaining approval. That’s seen a considerable increase in month-over-month compared to last year.
Choosing to stick the path, the 2020 Genesis G70 gets a mild refresh instead of a full facelift. There’s a new set of 18-inch wheels and a brown leather interior and that’s about it. What’s more important is what’s getting carried over. And that’s the optional manual transmission.
Available only with rear-drive from the 2.0T, the stickshift isn’t really much to write home about. But, with a take-rate of only about 4%, kudos to the Genesis team for continuing to offer a stick when few others still do. That extends to its cousin, the larger Kia Stinger.
The 2.0T carries over unchanged, worth 252 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque. More power is available from a 3.3T six-banger, increasing output to a health 365 hp and 372 lb-ft. An 8-speed automatic is standard and the only option for the V6. Full-time active all-wheel-drive is available as an option on all but the manual setup.
The 2020 Genesis G70 Offers Drivers Something the Kia Stinger Doesn’t
It’s interesting that the offering from the luxury-focused Genesis offers a stick with RWD, whereas the aforementioned Kia Stinger doesn’t. While an auto-equipped car with AWD offers greater performance with a much smaller learning curve, it would seem more in line with the Stinger’s raison d’etre to include a more driver-focused option.
That it’s the higher-end 2020 Genesis G70 that offers this experience should be appreciated, nonetheless. Especially since it’s in an all-around better package. A smaller one, too (that Stinger is too large by a good 10%.)
Anyway, the G70 comes in six trim levels in total and with a bunch of safety stuff. But, honestly, we’re just here to be stickshift snobs.