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2025 Genesis GV80 3.5T Prestige: Leaning into Luxury
A decade ago, in 2015, Hyundai formally announced the arrival of its standalone luxury brand. This was a grand ambition for an automaker still reeking of budget economy and quality problems. Genesis, named after the Hyundai luxury sedan of the same name and on sale since the 2009 model year, is now a full-fledged upscale marque. Though the brand launched with sedans—first the Hyundai-Genesis-turned-G80 and flagship G90, followed by the sporty G70—the workhorse of its showrooms has unmistakably been the mid-size GV80.
With good reason, too. We were impressed with the 2021 GV80 when it hit the streets back in the fall of 2020. Between the baby-Bentley looks, high-quality materials, sophisticated driving dynamics, and hushed cabin, we saw in the SUV “a new-world interpretation of old-world luxury.” Instead of goofy AI assistants or corny ambient lighting, the focus was on effortless comfort. Is that not what luxury used to mean? Why doesn’t everyone make luxury cars like this?
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Genesis made some noticeable changes to the GV80 for 2025, and thankfully, it’s far more a refresh than a rethink. Before we dig into the updates, a reminder: Genesis remains a small fish in the luxury brand ocean. Total brand sales crested 75,000 in 2024, which is still small potatoes compared with BMW’s 371,000 and Mercedes-Benz’s 325,400, or even Volvo’s 125,000. As of last year, there were 56 standalone dealerships in the U.S. (250+, if including those sharing space with Hyundai), the brand has sponsored the PGA’s Genesis Invitational gold tournament since 2017, and the Genesis Magma Racing team launched last year with its sights set on Le Mans.
All this is to say that Genesis is still clawing for a foothold. Enter the 2025 GV80, which builds on a winning formula with mild exterior tweaks and a more comprehensive interior overhaul. The changes are mostly for the better. Let’s check them out.
Specs: 2025 Genesis GV80 3.5T Prestige
- Price: $81,300
- Powertrain: 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-6
- Output: 375 hp; 391 lb-ft (premium fuel)
- Layout: Front-engine, four-door, five-passenger, all-wheel-drive SUV
- Weight: 5148 pounds
- 0-60: 5.8 seconds (est.)
- EPA Fuel Economy: 16/22/19 mpg (city/highway/combined)
- Competitors: Mercedes-Benz GLE, Volvo XC90, Audi Q7, BMW X5, Acura MDX
Our test car was a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 model in fully loaded Prestige guise. Wearing divine green metallic paint and a camel-colored interior, MSRP rang in at $81,300. (The Storr Green finish, car’s sole option at $650, really is lovely, appearing deep and smoky in the dark but glittering and jade-like in the sun.) The Prestige trim includes more or less every available option: Nappa leather interior with a 16-way power driver’s seat with memory and 12-way passenger seat, massaging with heating and ventilation for the front row, a microfiber suede headliner, heated steering wheel, four-zone climate control, head-up display, surround-view monitor with parking sensors, adaptive cruise control, and a full suite of safety tech.
Luc Donckerwolke, the former Bentley chief of design, is responsible for the GV80, which is aging nicely. It’s stately, comprehensible, impressive—not overwrought or trying too hard. Up front, we have a reimagined grille with a “double” mesh design. Genesis softened and smoothed over the edges of the prominent shield shape, and the result blends more seamlessly into the headlight array. Below the front lighting are larger air intakes, as well as a larger lower grille opening. Chrome garnish integrated into the front valance draws attention to a “skidplate” that is unlikely to ever encounter a trail obstacle, let alone survive one. Redesigned wheels sit at all four corners, still measuring a heady 22 inches. Gone are the shield-shaped exhaust ports previously integrated into the rear bumper; instead, both muffler tips are hidden behind the rear valance. It’s a wise decision for a car making no claims to high performance or particular sportiness.
One issue we experienced: After a heavy rain, we lifted the rear hatch to retrieve some stuff from the cargo area. Once it was fully raised, all of the collected water on the sheet metal ran straight off the trunklid and onto our head.
Cold plunge aside, like any good luxury conveyance, the most important bits are on the interior. The most noticeable upgrade is a new 27-inch-wide OLED screen. The display dominates the experience from the driver’s seat, comprising both the instrument display and central command center. It’s a lot of pixels for traditionalists, but we have to admit that it is highly configurable and is better-integrated than the prior setup, which had a traditional binnacle and a screen perched up on the dash like The Elf on a Shelf. Genesis retained a rotary controller as a backup for the touchscreen, and this time around it’s more of a traditional knob than the outgoing clickable control “ring.” Genesis slightly altered the rotary gear selector as well, in an effort to make it more ergonomic.
The center stack, too, is new. We appreciate the temperature-control knobs, but much of the primary climate controls are now operated via haptic touch rather than classic buttons. It’s a loss. We do like the volume and tuning knob, though the latter is small and awkwardly out of reach if you, like your author, are of shorter stature and have correspondingly short arms. The steering wheel is also new, switching to a three-spoke rather than two-spoke design. This version has more buttons than before and includes a little haptic controller for your right thumb. Operating it is fairly simple as these things go, but the real upgrade is the beautiful stitched airbag cover, which replaces the simple vinyl one on the outgoing car.
Also worth noting is the switch from a 21-speaker, 1050-watt Lexicon audio system to an 18-speaker, 1400-watt Bang & Olufsen system. The wattage here is more important than the number of speakers, and the new setup is plenty powerful. We still think Acura’s ELS, Volvo’s Bowers & Wilkins, and Lexus’s Mark Levinson systems have the edge in terms of audio richness, but the B&O system sounds great. And you can enjoy tunes in an otherwise quiet environment thanks to fantastic isolation from tire and wind noise.
Details matter, and in the GV80, few are overlooked. The cushioned leather extends far down the door panels, and even the plastic near the sill doesn’t feel cheap. The back seats are as luxurious as those up front. The center tunnel and dash inlay have a beautiful herringbone-like pattern. Every switch feels substantial. We particularly appreciate the thoughtful convenience features sprinkled throughout—the best being the power seat controls on the inner side of the passenger seat, which the driver can easily engage while also looking into the back seat. (If you’ve ever needed to move up the front seat while your spouse installs the car seat in the second row, you’ll realize how brilliant this idea is.)
Genesis, however, overlooked one detail for its cold-weather customers: the seat heaters don’t heat up very quickly. And while the GV80 is supposed to have wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the system demanded we use a cable regardless of what device we tried.
Mechanically, the GV80 is identical to the pre-facelift model. The base engine remains a 2.5-liter turbo making 300 hp and 311 lb-ft of torque, and the V-6 still offers 375 hp and 391 lb-ft. The sole transmission is an eight-speed auto. The V-6 costs $8200 more than the best-equipped 2.5-liter model, and the range-topping Prestige comes standard with an electronic limited-slip differential and electronically controlled suspension dampers. We asked Genesis if there were any tuning changes to the existing engine, transmission, differential, braking, or suspension hardware, but representatives declined to answer. Which is perhaps their way of sheepishly saying that they didn’t touch anything.
This isn’t a big deal, though. You might even call it a wise use of resources. As it did before, the GV80 has excellent body control, tracks like a bullet train down the highway, and has more than enough braking power. The ride is smooth, even on bad Michigan pavement, though a touch firmer than, say, the cumulonimbus softness found in the Lexus RX. No doubt the BMW X5’s inline-six is more polished at the top end and offers more immediate torque, but as a confident cruiser, the Genesis’ V-6 gets the job done fine. More than anything, the whole experience comes across as effortless, which is a valuable luxury-experience ingredient. If there’s one weakness, it’s the steering, which lacks any sort of feedback and suffers from unnatural weighting.
As is Hyundai’s practice, the GV80 seems most compelling when it comes to the details on the window sticker. There are a lot of lease deals in this segment, but purchasers can benefit from Genesis’ 5-year/50,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty. A comparable BMW X5 costs about $87,000, and a comparable Mercedes-Benz GLE more than $100,000; the 2025.5 Volvo XC90 and Acura MDX Type S are price-competitive at under $80,000. But none compete with the GV80’s warranty.
Genesis is still figuring out how it wants to grow. New for 2025 is a GV80 Coupe, which gets an electric supercharger along with its twin-turbo V-6 that brings power up to 409 hp. Meanwhile, it introduced a slew of Magma concepts along a hot version of the G80 sedan, signaling the arrival of an “alter ego” high-performance brand. For our money, this is all a distraction from what Genesis does well—big, cushy, generously appointed luxury sleds at a competitive price. When the brand leans into that, it’s at its best.
2025 Genesis GV80 3.5T Prestige
Highs: Lovely interior design, impeccable materials. Composed handling and comfortable ride. Smooth powertrain. Competitive price.
Lows: Lack of steering feel. Engine is a bit down on oomph, if that matters to you. Poor design for drainage from the rear hatch.
Takeaway: The 2025 Genesis GV80 gets freshened with modern tech, but not at the expense of its core strength: tangible luxury that punches way above its weight, both in material quality and price.
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The long screen doesn’t look great to me. The graphics for the “gauges” are terrible. This probably makes better sense as a 2-3 year old used/CPO purchase at a very nice discount. The GV70 is more my size or the Kia Stinger GT.