Why did you pick G70 over others?

[chunk_split]

if $$ wasn't a factor, i would've probably went for a C43 or RS5/7 lease.

I actually came from an RS5! Talk about a change. I'll explain my rationale in the context of what I'm upgrading from. So, I ended up opting for Genesis as well because of:

• Comfort: I wanted something different. The RS5 was super exciting (I purposefully got the naturally aspirated V8, love the sound and the speed) but oh my god, it's intense. That's a great thing, but it's not great all... the... time... when you just want to go home and relax.
• Luxury: I felt like I got a ton more car (in terms of features). Heated + cooled seats (even heated in the rear), 360° top-down camera (helps with a larger car), including curb view for parallel parking or in tight situations, outstanding interior quality (I got two tone ivory/ebony Napa leather with copper stitching), the list goes on... I mean damn...
• Quality & Maintenance: These all go together for me with Price (below). I'm expecting better reliability in my case since I've owned several Japanese cars in the past (but not Hyundai, yet, which I know is Korean). Sure, it's got a lot of tech/electronics, so it's a given there will be some maintenance, but compared to a high performance German sports car, I'm sure it'll be way less expensive and hopefully more reliable. The maintenance costs for my last car were not great (but I expected this), so I'm glad I got an extended warranty. For example, I had to take my car in for a week 2-3 separate times (and I had it for 1.75yrs). My last regular maintenance (replacing spark plugs, etc) ran about $2k, however there were $1.8k in additional repairs performed on the engine due to some dead solenoids responsible for moving oil around at only 55k miles. <facepalm> Thankfully I only had to pay for $2.5k of that and my warranty paid the remaining $1.3k. A large part of the cost for me was the rarity of my car combined with it just being German, meaning the parts are harder to find and they (along with labor) are more expensive. Don't even get me started on the Brembo brakes which were due soon (minimum, you pay $3k for parts on eBay, which is a deal, then $850 labor) and you're talking nearly $4k just for that. That now leads me to...
• Value: On top of all that, I literally paid about $6k less for a nearly new car with 22k less miles (16k vs. 38k) but tons more features. That's partly why I opted for comfort > performance this time around, since performance really amplifies cost. Not to mention being a Korean car, you just get way more for what you pay and the Genesis brand still looks "sexy" to me. I'm no brand snob; I'm opting for value.

Even with the 3.3t being a little "sippy" on premium gasoline, imagine that same premium fuel with a 4.2L v8 with an 8.2k RPM redline just begging you to constantly drive it fast. With the Genesis, I'm finding that I still really enjoy my drive home still, but instead I'm just relaxed and listening to the radio/podcast/etc, so it's still really nice.

 

[Beefer]

I actually came from an RS5! Talk about a change. I'll explain my rationale in the context of what I'm upgrading from. So, I ended up opting for Genesis as well because of:

• Comfort: I wanted something different. The RS5 was super exciting (I purposefully got the naturally aspirated V8, love the sound and the speed) but oh my god, it's intense. That's a great thing, but it's not great all... the... time... when you just want to go home and relax.
• Luxury: I felt like I got a ton more car (in terms of features). Heated + cooled seats (even heated in the rear), 360° top-down camera (helps with a larger car), including curb view for parallel parking or in tight situations, outstanding interior quality (I got two tone ivory/ebony Napa leather with copper stitching), the list goes on... I mean damn...
• Quality & Maintenance: These all go together for me with Price (below). I'm expecting better reliability in my case since I've owned several Japanese cars in the past (but not Hyundai, yet, which I know is Korean). Sure, it's got a lot of tech/electronics, so it's a given there will be some maintenance, but compared to a high performance German sports car, I'm sure it'll be way less expensive and hopefully more reliable. The maintenance costs for my last car were not great (but I expected this), so I'm glad I got an extended warranty. For example, I had to take my car in for a week 2-3 separate times (and I had it for 1.75yrs). My last regular maintenance (replacing spark plugs, etc) ran about $2k, however there were $1.8k in additional repairs performed on the engine due to some dead solenoids responsible for moving oil around at only 55k miles. <facepalm> Thankfully I only had to pay for $2.5k of that and my warranty paid the remaining $1.3k. A large part of the cost for me was the rarity of my car combined with it just being German, meaning the parts are harder to find and they (along with labor) are more expensive). Don't even get me started on the Brembo brakes which were due soon (minimum, you pay $3k for parts on eBay, which is a deal, then $850 labor) and you're talking nearly $4k just for that. That now leads me to...
• Value: On top of all that, I literally paid about $6k less for a nearly new car with 22k less miles (16k vs. 38k) but tons more features. That's partly why I opted for comfort > performance this time around, since performance really amplifies cost. Not to mention being a Korean car, you just get way more for what you pay and the Genesis brand still looks "sexy" to me. I'm no brand snob; I'm opting for value.

Even with the 3.3t being a little "sippy" on premium gasoline, imagine that same premium fuel with a 4.2L v8 with an 8.2k RPM redline just begging you to constantly drive it fast. With the Genesis, I'm finding that I still really enjoy my drive home still, but instead I'm just relaxed and listening to the radio/podcast/etc, so it's still really nice.

All makes sense. To add...if you find you’re getting an itch for performance again...get the JB4 piggyback. You’ll have a 4.5 second car

 

[Jmar]

Features, handling, luxury, price, service. I'm very obsessive about design and I think that Genesis hit the ball out of the park in the overall shape and proportions. Low, wide, long hood, very coupe-like roof line and short trunk lid. With a little window tint it look better than most coupes. I was looking at the s5 sportback and 440 gran coupe, even the panamera and I think the g70 has the best exterior proportions.

 

[Slides]

For the price, the G70 has no real competition as far as I can tell. Of course there are better cars in this class and I own one of them right now (Audi S5), but they aren't $15K better.

 

[Beefer]

For the price, the G70 has no real competition as far as I can tell. Of course there are better cars in this class and I own one of them right now (Audi S5), but they aren't $15K better.

Why is the S5 better? I completely disagree.

 

[Slides]

Why is the S5 better? I completely disagree.

• Virtual cockpit is better than the G70's current mostly analogue gauge cluster (I know that's around the corner most likely for the G70).
• The S5's interior is superior in many ways to the G70. I like the design better, but also some of the control buttons, carbon inlay and the center console area are better with both design and material. This is partly subjective and the G70 is not that far behind.
• The S5 has great indoor LED lighting. An easy fix for the future for the G70.
• The S5 has a superior AWD system in many ways, but especially with the sports rear differential which can do 100% torque left to right. it's a dream to drive. The LSD is not as sophisticated or proactive. The Audi's Sports Differential will actively assist your turns when it detects it through its sensor inputs. Your car feels like its on rails around a corner.

That's mostly it for me. Again, it's not $15K better. But even if you ignore the subjective design stuff and of course the badge, there are advantages to the Audi in terms of AWD handling.

 

[Beefer]

• Virtual cockpit is better than the G70's current mostly analogue gauge cluster (I know that's around the corner most likely for the G70).
• The S5's interior is superior in many ways to the G70. I like the design better, but also some of the control buttons, carbon inlay and the center console area are better with both design and material. This is partly subjective and the G70 is not that far behind.
• The S5 has great indoor LED lighting. An easy fix for the future for the G70.
• The S5 has a superior AWD system in many ways, but especially with the sports rear differential which can do 100% torque left to right. it's a dream to drive. The LSD is not as sophisticated or proactive. The Audi's Sports Differential will actively assist your turns when it detects it through its sensor inputs. Your car feels like its on rails around a corner.

That's mostly it for me. Again, it's not $15K better. But even if you ignore the subjective design stuff and of course the badge, there are advantages to the Audi in terms of AWD handling.

The interior is not superior. Some of the touch buttons are cooler. That’s it. Virtual cockpit is nice. Subjective.

The AWD is NOT superior. You need to do some research on the HTRAC and the electronic LSD on the Sport.

So Virtual Cockpit and some interior LED lighting. Hmmmm.

 

[Electrode]

Virtual cockpit with the maps in front is excellent. But for the pretty google earth overlay, you have to use Audi connect services @ $25/ month. Another subscription fee. Practically, I would just use Waze on my iPhone, anyway. You want a color other than black or white? $595 extra for metallic paint.
The S5 massaging sports seats are among the most comfortable I've experienced, but no ventilation! You have to degrade to the regular non-massaging sport seats to get that.
I have the sports differential option in my S4, but it's not a must have feature unless you regularly push the car very hard around curves. Then, it is an amazing drive.

 

[NLJ]

The interior is not superior. Some of the touch buttons are cooler. That’s it. Virtual cockpit is nice. Subjective.

The AWD is NOT superior. You need to do some research on the HTRAC and the electronic LSD on the Sport.

So Virtual Cockpit and some interior LED lighting. Hmmmm.

Not sure about the S but when I drove the A4 at night, the virtual cockpit was blinding. Even the minimum brightness was too bright especially in navigation mode!

 

[Beefer]

Not sure about the S but when I drove the A4 at night, the virtual cockpit was blinding. Even the minimum brightness was too bright especially in navigation mode!

Agree.

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[chunk_split]

<rant> Coming from the RS5 and wanting another Audi but something more comfortable (e.g. A6, A8, etc) I was actually frustrated with their newer interiors. I really really hate it when manufacturers place frequently used components in a touch screen. To me (and this is probably just a personal preference), that's not more luxurious, it's less so because I have to distract my attention from the road in order to simply change the volume, cabin temperature or heated/cooled seats. Some newer A5's still at least retain knobs/buttons for these frequently used items.

Sure, the menus are beautiful, but that only makes sense if I'm interested in sitting down and staring and playing with them. This is a car and my attention needs to be focused on the roads </rant>

if you find you’re getting an itch for performance again

Well, the G80 3.3t is surprisingly fast already, despite the weight. Also, since it's so damned smooth and quiet, I find myself accidentally going faster without quite realizing it since I'm so used to being attuned to the sound/feel of the car.

The Audi's Sports Differential will actively assist your turns when it detects it through its sensor inputs. Your car feels like its on rails around a corner.

Can confirm; I had an SH-AWD Acura TL prior to my quattro RS5. The handling really is great around corners (great for the mountains in Cali) but it's just a really different car. I can't speak to the G70, but they simply didn't have any AWD (HTRAC) 3.3t G70's within 2k miles from California (if they even exist) but if/when they do come up, I'll be certain to look at that as my next car if I want to switch things up again!

 

[chunk_split]

p.s. Audi's interiors are pretty nice. I like that they usually decide (or did with my old car) to go with the orange red ambient lighting, since it's more calming (considering blue light is associated with keeping you awake at night). The design is nice, and etc and yeah -- here be the dragons of subjectivity.

p.s.s. The virtual cockpit stuff sounds pretty cool, but honestly (and for practicality) I think just a really good integration with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto on a nice big touch screen is all you need. I say this because the technological implementation "just makes sense".

Why? Because: You're not bound to a proprietary vendor's implementation or data plan. You just plug in your cell phone, it uses your phone's processing power to render the image on screen (why they call it "phone projection"). Also, because it's a phone projection, it also is using your phone's data plan. You automatically get your voice assistant (Siri or Google) and access to your contacts... etc. That's why the Virtual Cockpit thing was nice looking, but doesn't quite have the advantages of modern navigation integrations like Carplay/Auto.

 

[Beefer]

^^ so...I’m with you. LOVE the MMI...even the BMW’s interface is solid. I wish the G70 had it.

But guess what? To my dismay...Audi and the others are foregoing those interfaces!!!

All the newest Audi’s are all touchscreen. Virtual cockpit plus 2 touch screens in the center stack. Blows my mind. Everything is touchscreen!!!

So I guess the G70 is on par with the future...as much as I hate it.

New e-Trons, A6, A8, etc...all touchscreen

 

[Beefer]

To add though...the voice recognition is getting amazing...so they’re banking on voice control and automated driving. Fme...soon we cannot even enjoy driving!!! Have a cocktail and pass out...LOL.

The HTRAC has advanced as well. The G70 has Dynamic HTRAC. Good stuff.

 

[Cowtown]

There is definitely something to be said with the way the G70 buttons and dials are. It feels retro while doing retro really well. The GTI has similar bits but the buttons and dials aren't as intuitive as the G70. My wife for instance couldn't find the rear defrost in the GTI last week. Oddly it's in the same spot as the G70 but not as clear.

I think there is a bad habit to automatically equate more tech with luxury and that certainly isn't the case for everything.

 

[Beefer]

There is definitely something to be said with the way the G70 buttons and dials are. It feels retro while doing retro really well. The GTI has similar bits but the buttons and dials aren't as intuitive as the G70. My wife for instance couldn't find the rear defrost in the GTI last week. Oddly it's in the same spot as the G70 but not as clear.

I think there is a bad habit to automatically equate more tech with luxury and that certainly isn't the case for everything.

I agree. Stop with all the f’ing tech...have a nice interface like Audi...and leave physical knobs like the G70 perfected.

 

[NLJ]

I like the BMW i-Drive compared to MMI. I like having a system with lots of options since I love tinkering. The Gwnesis/Hyundai/Kia system is too simplistic but effective.
I wish we had more options like custom screensavers, daytime and nighttime themes, and so on.

 

[Beefer]

I think the point is...all touch interface vs physical/hamptic stuff.

 

[NLJ]

I think the point is...all touch interface vs physical/hamptic stuff.

You'd hate Volvo then!

 

[Beefer]

You'd hate Volvo then!

And Tesla.