Genesis GV70 UK Review

The thing to know before anything else

You cannot order a petrol or diesel Genesis GV70 new in Britain. Auto Express reported on 28 January 2025, under Paul Barker's byline, that Genesis was scrapping pure petrol and diesel in the United Kingdom and would be electric-only by that summer; the GV70 and the GV80 were given supply through the summer, while the G70 saloon and Shooting Brake were described as almost sold out and the combustion G80 as down to minimal stock. Genesis Motor UK brand director Jonny Miller told Fleet World the brand was confident that "our transition to an electric range, joined by future hybrid models, is the right direction". Hybrids are not expected back until around 2027, and the GV70 is one of the two models most often named as a candidate.

Genesis's own site, read on 1 October 2026, matches that. The brand's "Build your Genesis" page offers configurators for four cars only — GV60, GV60 Magma, Electrified GV70 and Electrified G80 — all of them electric. The GV70's model page has no configurator link at all; its main button sends you to pre-owned stock. And the current UK finance-offers page lists deals on those same four EVs and nothing on the GV70.

What follows is therefore written for a used buyer. That is no bad thing: the combustion GV70 is a better second-hand proposition than it ever was a new one, and unlike most used reviews there is hard recall and running-cost data to work with.

The UK range: two engines, three trims, all-wheel drive throughout

Genesis Motor UK's GV70 price list — undated in its text, with no model-year label and PDF metadata recording 17 April 2025 — lists six combustion cars. Both engines drive all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic; there was never a rear-drive or front-drive UK GV70, and never a hybrid. The electric Electrified GV70 is a separate car that is still on sale new.

As on the G80 list, two prices appear against each variant, £1,650 apart. Here the higher figure can be checked: £44,105 is exactly what Genesis's live model page quotes as the GV70's starting price, so the higher number is the later one and is the one used below.

The petrol commands a flat £500 over the diesel at every trim level, which is small enough that the choice should be made on how the car will be used rather than on list price. Note too that the 2024 facelift renamed the trims: Auto Express's used buyer's guide records Premium, Luxury and Sport for the original cars and Pure, Dynamic and Luxury from the facelift onwards, so a listing's trim name is also a rough date stamp.

That same guide, written by Richard Dredge and published on 21 October 2025, adds a detail no price list will tell you: Sport is by far the most common trim on the used market, Luxury second, and the Premium is genuinely unusual. If you want the entry car you will wait for one.

Engines, economy and the figures that matter

The service interval is the line most people miss, and it is a big practical difference: the petrol needs attention every 9,000 miles or annually, the diesel every 20,000 miles or two years. Auto Express puts a post-warranty service at roughly £400. Over three years of ordinary mileage that gap, stacked on top of 25 mpg against 40 mpg, makes the £500 the petrol cost extra when new almost irrelevant.

What the petrol buys is pace and smoothness rather than outright torque — it actually makes slightly less of it than the diesel. Both engines come with Genesis's electronic limited-slip differential, Terrain Mode for the all-wheel-drive system on snow, sand or mud, Preview electronically controlled suspension that reads the road through the forward camera and the navigation map, and Eco, Comfort, Sport and Sport+ driving modes. The cabin runs a 14.5-inch screen with over-the-air updates, augmented-reality navigation, a head-up display, fingerprint authentication for driver profiles, Ergo Motion front seats with air cells and a massage function, and Nappa leather Genesis says is coloured with natural dyes.

Road tax: two band boundaries, and a question to ask Genesis

Both GV70 engines produce CO₂ figures that straddle a vehicle excise duty band boundary, so two otherwise identical cars can have been registered with meaningfully different first-year bills. GOV.UK's current table also charges diesel cars that do not meet the Real Driving Emissions 2 standard a full band more, and advises asking the manufacturer whether a given car complies.

The spread is wide — £2,270 to £4,850 for the same model, decided by a few grams and by an emissions standard Genesis does not state in the documents we read. On a used car none of that is yours to pay; it was settled at registration and, per the price list, built into the on-the-road price. What does transfer is the expensive-car supplement: every GV70 cost well over £40,000 new, so each one pays £440 a year on top of the £200 standard rate for five years from its second licence, making £640 a year until the car's sixth birthday. Auto Express's used guide makes the same point. A 2021 car is at or past that date; a 2023 car has two more years of it to run, which is £880 a buyer should price in. Our write-up of the April 2026 VED changes sets out how the bands shifted.

One caution: the GV70 price list states the supplement as £335 a year. GOV.UK gives £440 today. Price lists are a source for prices, not for tax rates.

Safety: the UK car itself was the one crashed

Euro NCAP gave the GV70 five stars in 2021, with 89 per cent for adult occupant protection, 87 per cent for child occupant protection, 64 per cent for vulnerable road users and 87 per cent for safety assist. Unusually, no interpretation is needed about which car the rating covers: the tested vehicle was a Genesis GV70 2.5 T-GDI Luxury Line in left-hand drive at 2,020 kg — the exact petrol engine sold in Britain — and the variants table extends the rating to the 2.2 CRDi all-wheel drive as well. Our guide to reading Euro NCAP ratings explains why that distinction usually matters more than the star count.

The result was published on 8 December 2021 and carried forward through annual reviews in 2022, 2023 and 2024, a variant addition in June 2023 and a facelift review on 16 April 2025. It is still recorded as a 2021 rating, and no expiry date is shown on the assessment page as read today.

Behind the stars, the full-width rigid barrier test rated chest protection marginal for both the driver and the rear passenger, on readings of chest compression; everything else in that test was good or adequate. Both side impacts produced maximum points. Euro NCAP describes the GV70 as a moderately aggressive crash partner to other vehicles. Pedestrian pelvis protection was poor across the width of the car despite an active bonnet, and the autonomous emergency braking response to pedestrians and cyclists was rated only adequate — the weakest part of an otherwise strong result and the reason the vulnerable-road-user score sits at 64 per cent. A centre airbag between the front seats performed well.

Space, towing and the boot figure sources disagree on

The folded-boot figure is a genuine disagreement rather than a rounding difference. Auto Express gives the combustion GV70 542 and 1,610 litres and attributes 1,678 litres to the Electrified GV70, while Genesis UK's GV70 page quotes 542 rising to 1,678. We have not tried to resolve it. If the maximum load volume is the reason you are buying the car, measure the one in front of you.

The tyre provision is a small thing that catches people out and comes straight from Auto Express's used guide: petrol cars got a temporary spare wheel, diesel and electric ones a repair kit. The price list confirms the same split. It is worth knowing before a puncture rather than after one.

The four recalls, and what else to check

This is the most valuable thing a used GV70 buyer can read, and it comes from Auto Express's buyer's guide of 21 October 2025. Four recalls have been issued across the GV70 family:

Two of those apply to the electric car only, but the seatbelt and driveshaft campaigns cover a wide swathe of combustion GV70s — the driveshaft recall catches almost every car from the model's first year in Britain. Ask for written confirmation against the chassis number that both have been carried out. Auto Express also notes that American owners have reported differential replacements and 12-volt battery failures, while finding no evidence that either is a problem for UK cars; it is worth asking about, not worth walking away over.

Beyond the recalls, the guide's advice is to confirm which engine you are looking at, check the tyre provision, and scrutinise the service history — the last of these matters more than usual because the Genesis dealer network in Britain is small, which makes gaps harder to explain and harder to fill. Whether the car is sold as approved used or ordinary used is a real distinction here, and buying from a dealer rather than privately is the safer route when warranty transfer is part of the value.

Warranty, the Care Plan change and running costs

Genesis warrants the car for five years from first registration with unlimited mileage on passenger cars — not five years or sixty thousand miles, which is a North American structure that has found its way into a lot of British coverage. The cap of 130,000 miles or 200,000 km applies only to taxi, daily rental and hire use and to light commercial vehicles. Every original component except tyres and accessories is covered against manufacturing defects, work must go through the official Genesis network in Europe, and five years of roadside assistance comes with it. Because the clock starts at first registration, the balance transfers to a second owner: on a 2023 car that is a couple of years of unlimited-mileage cover included in the asking price.

Servicing is less settled. The price list says the on-the-road price includes a 5-Year Care Plan, and Auto Express records that plan as covering servicing to 50,000 miles. Genesis's Care Plan page now presents the Care Plan as something you buy — scheduled servicing with a courtesy car, quoted through a retailer — while confirming that customers who purchased before 1 June 2026 keep their original five-year plan, with vehicles produced before May 2026 possibly eligible. Both positions sit on genesis.com today and we have not reconciled them. Get the specific car's plan and remaining term in writing.

Insurance is the other running cost to budget honestly. The combustion GV70 sits in groups 40 to 44, which is high, and worth getting quotes on before rather than after you commit. Genesis also sells only across the UK mainland, excluding Northern Ireland.

What independent testers made of it

Alex Ingram reviewed the GV70 for Auto Express on 11 April 2024 and scored it 4.0 out of 5, calling it a highly appealing family SUV that adds something different to a congested market, with quality that matches the German competition and a longer standard-equipment list. His criticisms were high running costs, the fact that only the electric version is genuinely enjoyable to drive, and the absence of any hybrid — which he judged would hamper sales. That last point reads differently now that Genesis has removed the combustion cars and said hybrids will not return until about 2027.

On the used market the same conclusion arrives as a price. Auto Express lists GV70s from under £30,000 — around £27,495 to £28,050 for diesels and £27,995 for petrols — against list prices in the mid-forties. That is steep depreciation, and it is precisely what makes the car interesting second-hand.

Who it suits

A used GV70 suits someone who wants a well-built, heavily equipped mid-size premium SUV that does not look like everything else in the car park, who can live with a small dealer network, and who will take the diesel for its 37–39 mpg and two-year service intervals. It is a particularly good fit for anyone towing, given the 2,500 kg capability with the factory bar.

It suits less well a buyer who wants a hybrid, who does high urban mileage in the petrol, or who needs the reassurance of a dealer on every ring road. Shoppers comparing it will usually have a BMW X3, Audi Q5, Volvo XC60 or Porsche Macan on the same list, and all four have deeper service networks and stronger residuals — which is the trade the GV70 asks you to make in exchange for equipment and warranty.

Buyer checkpoints

Sources

All figures on this page were collected on 1 October 2026 from the following named sources. Where sources disagree, both positions are stated above rather than reconciled.

Change log

1 October 2026 — rebuilt, and the market framing corrected. This page previously carried a United States review of a 2020 GV70 under a UK heading. It listed a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 Genesis has never sold in Britain, described the car as rear-wheel drive with all-wheel drive optional when every UK GV70 is all-wheel drive, quoted outputs in horsepower, claimed an IIHS award in place of the Euro NCAP result that applies here, gave a five-year or sixty-thousand-mile warranty with a separate powertrain term that is a North American arrangement, and carried an offers heading with no link beneath it. It also presented the car as one a reader could order new: Genesis went electric-only in Britain in the summer of 2025, so the petrol and diesel GV70 are used purchases, and the page has been rewritten around that. Every specification, price and safety figure above was replaced with Genesis Motor UK, Euro NCAP, GOV.UK, Auto Express and Fleet World data collected on the date of this note, and recall, service-interval and insurance-group information was added.

Specifications, prices and equipment were current at publication and vary by model year, trim and market. Verify final details with a franchised dealer before ordering. Read how we review cars and our editorial policy.