LUXE IN FLUX

IF GENESIS IS TO FULFIL ITS AMBITIONS OF BEING A TRUE PREMIUM CHALLENGER, THEN THE GV80 SUV NEEDS TO HAVE THE MEASURE OF THE CLASS HEAVYWEIGHT: AUDI’S UPDATED Q7

- CURT DUPRIEZ

IF BYSTANDER attention and commentary were Wheels ratings criteria, the Genesis GV80 would hose this comparison. Easily. It remains as relentless now as when the family hauling newcomer first lobbed just under a year ago, but with one crucial difference. There’s little ‘what is it?’, nor, ‘Is that a Bentley?’ aimed my way. Onlookers, by and large, now ask how it goes and if it’s any good.

The fledgling Korean luxury marque now looks to have one leg over one painful initial hurdle in Australia: brand recognition. It’s been a rocky introduction to this new Genesis renaissance, one stymied by a lack of metal on the ground to let local prospective buyers decide what they think of the GV80’s distinctive pitch. Getting any traction demands public reaction, be it fair or foul.

The Audi Q7? Not a peep from onlookers. Even though, as a return to petrol power and the first time in the seven-seater range’s second generation, the 55 TFSI fills an important hole as Aussie tastes continue to steer gently away from oiler passenger vehicles. Familiar, friendly and downright innocuous, nobody confuses the big Audi with a Bentayga, no matter how much incidental irony there is in the shared technical DNA.

Bentayga, Porsche Cayenne, Volkswagen Touareg: what cannot be underestimated is the benefit the Ingolstadt machine enjoys from the combined front of big-family evolution, and luxury focused at that. It’s such company the Genesis’s fledgling competitor wants to almost desperately keep, but the question, seemingly on everyone’s lips, is how the GV80 really measures up.