New car: Genesis GV70

I thought I'd be spending at least 5 years with my 2021 Toyota Mirai, but that relationship was cut short when I was rear-ended, leading to the car being totaled.

Making lemonade from a lemon situation, I went shopping for another car.

Yes, interest rate is high so this isn't a good time to buy a car, but I needed something. Sharing my wife's car would save us a bunch of money, but at the cost of great  inconvenience. That and I realized this would be the 2nd or 3rd to last car I buy so, let's enjoy it.

Competition & other considerations

Part of me wanted a fun weekend car so I thought about the Toyota Supra and Nissan Z, but they're too small and rough. As such I looked towards SUV land (my wife approves). Specifically, I was cross-shopping Lexus NX350, Audi Q3, Q5, Toyota Venza, and Tesla Y & X (incredible deal on one of my dream cars). The Venza is no longer available while Lexus has next to no discount. Audi Q5 looks decent but interior is dated. The Q3 has a modern interior but its available engines are too weak. After some considerations, I decided to not deal with charging hassles so I eliminated all EVs (Audi Q4, GV60, GV70e are great EVs if you go that route).

To broaden the horizon, my wife and I visited the LA Car show. There, the only manufacturers that peaked our interest were Lexus and Genesis (and a certain Honda Prelude concept 😱).

Availability and lack of deals kept us away from Lexus, but the Genesis showcase wowed us. Everything from the G70 sedan to GV80 SUV held our attention. The design, tech, fit and finish were top-notch. I quickly zeroed in on the GV70 due to its design and affordable price point. A few days and a bunch more research later, I was set on a 2023 2.5t GV70 Advanced. It had most of the features I wanted without the low profile (rougher ride) 21" wheels and cheap-feeling mesh seats. It's also the sweetspot as it has several features that are moved to the top of the line Sports Prestige package in 2024.

The car

Over the years I've purchased and owned a fair bit of cars, some with many nice features and amenities so I'm no stranger to "luxury features" like HD surround cameras, cooled & heated seats, auto highbeam, panoramic roof, etc. Still, the Genesis GV70 wowed me, even after owning the lovely '21 Toyota Mirai.

Here's my beautiful 2024 2.5t Saville Silver (no metallic/pearlescent white on GV70). She makes 300hp and 311 lb/ft of torque (for quick acceleration).

Looks nice with the Genesis 2-line design language. Those 19" wheels are nice and soft. Silver brake calipers front and back too.

Detailed interior with ambient lighting. I wanted the tan interior but they don't make them for 2024. Doh!

Blue ambient lighting shown on the door handle. This is their wave line backlit trim.

Day time view

Glass crystal & aluminum shift by wire knob + touch pad MMI controller for infotainment. Yes, it has ambient lighting and the shifter changes with the rest of the lights.

Analog gauge on left + digital. The glowing light saber tach means you're in Sports mode.

Beautiful rear with bright LEDs. The LED brake lights are awesome too, but I didn't get a chance to catch them in picture.

Puddle and handle lights are even better than in the Mirai

Other features I love

• Sports mode is amazing. It feels like driving a sports sedan vs comfort mode. It's faster than a GR86 because it's the same engine as the awesome G70/Stinger.
• Blindspot cameras show up on the instrument cluster as you signal. I've never seen this in other cars.
• Power lift-gate with auto detection so you don't have to touch any button. Just stand behind the car for 4 seconds with your key and it auto opens, hands free.
• Double-sided glass for all windows plus many other techs insulate the cabin for a luxurious, cushioned experience.
• Ambient lighting is so cool in this car.
• Interior design (inspired by air plane's wings) is unique to this car.
• Huge 14.5" infotainment display with crystal MMI controller.
• Included sounds of nature + OTA software updates.
• Life time connect services (for cool things like remote lock, remote start, location tracking, etc.) You can start and stop your car anywhere in the world!
• Heated steering wheel (got it back since my Mirai didn't have it).
• Panoramic sunroof (missing on the '21 Mirai).

Leg work

It's the end of the year, dealers need space to bring in new models so they have more room to negotiate on 2023 models.

I also saw 2023 models have $1k incentive + $1.5k competitive owner incentive + 3.5% APR promo financing. 

Armed with this information, I went shopping.

Using dealer's websites, I searched GV70 inventory all over Socal and found a dealer 40 miles away that has the model I wanted along with a few others (for backup).

Long story short, the model I wanted was in transit and already spoken for, and a 2023 SP model I test-drove was also sold earlier in the day (doh!). To make it up, the dealer made me a good offer on a 2024 Advanced in the color of my choice. After some more research (tried to find the 2023 advanced across the US to no avail) and negotiations, I took the deal.

The deal & my process

MSRP was a bit over 53k (including some dealer add-ons like cargo net and such).

I did my research and knew leasing with Genesis is a no go, so I went the finance path. But first, I focused on getting that MSRP down. This is the most important thing when buying a car. Monthly payment means nothing, and dealers often use that to hide the real price.

Genesis incentives most should qualify for:

1) 1k customer cash for month of November & December. 

2) 1k for owner of competitor cars (Toyota, Mazda, etc.)

From there, I pushed. Bring on other competitor cars' offers (check leasehackr.com for pre-negotiated deals to get a benchmark of what deals look like off MSRP). I used this method and focused on an Audi Q3. Apparently Audi weren't moving much inventory so they offered 13% off msrp in a lease deal where they can make roughly $2.5k extra. Using this as my base "deal" price, I set a target of 10% off MSRP. 

What I didn't know was the GV70 were selling like hot cakes and most dealers won't budge off MSRP. My target of 10% was pie in the sky. Still, I found a dealership saddled with a ton of inventory and needed space, so I pushed hard.

Let's just say I got close to 10% off msrp with the incentives. 😁

This is with a dealer in a unique situation so it will be hard to replicate. In fact, I spoke to a few other dealers who wouldn't budge even 1k on top of the 2 incentives above.

One thing to note: dealers know high interest is hurting sales. They also know going into next year, economy won't be strong, so car buying is going to be tough. A glut of EV's are already on the market and other models are over produced (low demand, excess supply). If they can get a decent deal this year, they would take them, so car buyers have that going for us.

This was my recent car buying experience. Good luck with yours.