Page 78 - Motor Trend (April 2020)

MT GARAGE
Testing director Kim Reynolds:
“Lots of fun hanging the tail
out, but it would probably
2019 Genesis G70 scare most people.”

Service life:
5 mo/5,506 mi • Avg Fuel Econ: 19.9 mpg

“The G70 is proving a better sport
sedan than its direct competitors
and just a shade off those costing
much more.” Mark Rechtin back in the seat. Upshifts are
quick and smooth.”
Avg CO2 0.97 lb/mi Energy cons 169 kW-hr/100 mi
The G70’s best 60–0 braking
Unresolved problems None Maintenance cost $0 distance of 109 feet is Subaru
Normal-wear cost $0 Base price $44,745 As tested $46,495
EPA City/Hwy/Comb Fuel Econ 17/26/21 mpg WRX STI turf. Walton described
the G70 as having “aggressive
pedal jump-in, crisp bite, minor
aving returned from the in 13 flat at 108.5 mph. That dive, some ABS noise, but little
H dealership to solve some puts it in a bit of in-between. vibration, and always straight.”
baffling transmission While markedly quicker than Roaring around the figure
issues, our long-term Genesis the comparably priced Lexus eight took 24.9 seconds at 0.77 My daily commute up Pacific
G70 now appears ready to IS 350 F Sport RWD, the G70 is g (avg). That’s on par with the Coast Highway through the
romp around Los Angeles, its a shade slower than the BMW aforementioned AMG C 43 South Bay beach cities involves
snarling 3.3-liter twin-turbo V-6 M340i and Mercedes-AMG 4Matic, as well as the Jaguar lots of threshold-braking panic
full of energy and excitement. C 43, which cost $10,000 to XE 35t R-Sport, which we stops as impatient drivers
As such, we were ready to $15,000 more. lauded for its handling. dart and weave to get that
take our Genesis to Fontana for “It’s one of those stealthy- And for all you brand snobs extra car-length advantage
instrumented testing. quick cars people won’t out there, all the above G70 between stoplights. In this
At Fontana, we nailed suspect, and you can shock times and distances are just a instance, brake control is just
down some pretty impressive them with the acceleration,” hair better than those of the as important as stopping
numbers relative to the G70’s road test editor Chris Walton G70’s longer, platform-sharing distance, and the G70 is calm
substantially more expensive said. “Launch control works cousin, the Kia Stinger GT. and precise, never panicky.
European rivals. rather well. Revving to 2,250 Wailing around the skidpad What we’ve found:
Acceleration to 60 mph rpm and immediately releasing is one thing. But do these Performance per dollar, the
clocked in at 4.5 seconds. The the brake almost produces tendencies replicate on city Genesis G70 3.3T is one of the
quarter-mile run came through some wheelspin and shoves you streets? Yep. best values on the market.

High-tech features can be buggy,
2019 Ram 1500 but the low-tech one works well.

computer doesn’t think you’re
going to stop in time. I have a
steep driveway that I typically
drive into nose first. When I go to
back out, the long rear overhang
puts the bumper fairly close to
the street before the nose comes
down off the hill and levels out
the truck. As a result, the parking
sensors always think I’m about to reverse into the road surface.
Service life: With the rear parking assist feature, the truck would slam on the
4 mo/8,147 mi • Avg Fuel Econ: 15.6 mpg brakes every time I backed out of my driveway. I had to dig into the
settings to disable the stop function. Alternatively, I could manu-
“Technological advances provide many ally disable the rear parking sensors every time I left my house and
useful features, but they also provide reactivate them down the road. Neither option is appealing.
more things to go wrong.” Scott Evans Rear Camera Display The Uconnect infotainment system on the
12.0-inch screen lets you split the display horizontally, giving you
Avg CO2 1.24 lb/mi Energy cons 211 kW-hr/100 mi two stacked screens. When in reverse, the rear camera takes over
Unresolved problems None Maintenance cost $0 the upper half of the screen. The issue is it doesn’t always go away.
Normal-wear cost $0 Base price $46,140 As tested $62,020 Multiple times now the rear camera has stayed on after I shifted to
EPA City/Hwy/Comb Fuel Econ 17/22/19 mpg
drive. Closing the rear camera view with the X in the corner makes
it go away, but selecting the function you want again brings back
M odern cars are rolling Best Buys, stuffed with computers the rear camera instead. Changing to a full-screen display for nav
performing all sorts of tasks. Each does something to
or media then back to split-screen usually fixes it.
make your life easier or safer, but not always in the exact
Uconnect 4C Nav with 12-Inch Display When media is selected
way you’d want them to. Our long-term 2019 Ram 1500 Laramie as one of the two displayed func-
truck has a few features we’d like to reprogram. tions, the touchscreen has trouble
Rear Park Assist with Stop Included with the front and rear recognizing some inputs. The radio
parking sensors, this handy feature just doesn’t work for my presets have the biggest issue, with
situation. In theory, it’s a good safety net that prevents you from the system beeping to acknowledge
backing into things by automatically applying the brake if the a touch but nothing else happening.

78 MOTORTREND.COM APRIL 2020