2023 Genesis G90 Yearlong Review Verdict: Can We Keep It?

When Genesis unveiled the newest G90 full-size luxury sedan in 2022, we were stunned—where previous large Genesis models (including the original Hyundai Equus, the G90’s immediate predecessor) blended scale and Mercedes-like features in bland, forgettable wrappers, the 2023 G90 was the first to slather the whole budget-Benz project in gotta-have-it appeal.

Looking like a cross between some kind of Bentley and an older Jaguar XJ, the long, low, seductively curvaceous G90 perched on its big wheels with swagger, its LED headlights and mesh grille glinting like jewelry. The full-width, ultra-thin LED taillights look like nothing else on the road, their precision bolstering the G90’s up-market intentions.

If beholding the G90 weren’t enough to convince you it’s a big-dollar car, slide into one of its lounger-like leather seats, fire up the seat massager (there is one on every outboard seat in our range-topping e-Supercharged version), and allow the door you entered through to close itself, either by pressing a button on the door handle or the front or rear center consoles. If you’re the driver, simply press the brake, and the door silently whirrs shut. Once inside, you’re pampered by perfumed air wafting through the air vents (you can select between three air speeds and two scents, which determine the system’s aggression in achieving your set temperature), calming (or invigorating, you choose) “moods” via the Mood Curator, which alters the sunshades, perfume, ambient lighting, seat massage and temperature, and audio track to suit your preferences.

Twirl the transmission knob to drive, and the hybridized twin-turbocharged and electronically supercharged 3.5-liter V-6 sweeps the G90 forward with the smoothest takeoff performance this side of exotic stuff like a Rolls-Royce, the engine only clearing its throat and emitting a tightly wound growl when you really ask it for the beans. Never mind whatever bumps, potholes, or other road imperfections you just drove over—oh, wait, you didn’t realize you’d just driven over a broken arterial road suffering your locality’s maintenance apathy? That’s just the multi-chamber air suspension, adaptive dampers, and forward road scanner working together to ensure you didn’t feel a thing.

The entire car seems designed to beckon a satisfied sigh from its driver and occupants, a relieved “ahhhh,” as you cloak yourself from the chaotic world outside and whisk yourself off in narcissistic bliss. It’s me time (or you time, if you need to place yourself in this fantasy) and everyone and everything else can just stuff it. If spending a year with a deeply satisfying car like this sounds wonderful, it was.

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It'll Baby Better Than Many “Family Cars”

More satisfying still, the G90 performed well at tasks we figure few G90 owners will ask of it. Will it baby? Sure—the Genesis arrived in this author’s hands early in 2023, its transfer from MotorTrend’s Los Angeles headquarters delayed by the birth of my son. (Other MT staffers were lucky enough to toodle around in the G90 for a couple of weeks until then.) Parents today seem fixated on ever-larger SUVs as the go-to vehicle for their families and all their stuff. A four-door sedan, with a trunk? For many, suggesting one for their garage would be akin to declaring their kids’ red and yellow Little Tikes Cozy Coupe plastic ride-on toys “ready for daycare drop-off!”

The G90’s sheer scale helps, of course. That stylishly long shape delivers tangible benefits not only for the rich folk who might ride in the back, but for parents parking little ones back there. As anyone who’s wrestled car seats or kids or both into or out of any vehicle can attest, door length is a key factor in how one’s back feels the next day (or next several years until the kid’s out of that convertible car seat); ditto the seat’s height and the door opening’s height. The bigger the aperture and the closer to hip-height the seat cushion is, the better. The G90’s seat is close to ideal, the cushion perhaps a hair low for taller child-loaders. Hauling the same kid around in the family Jeep Grand Wagoneer (non-L) proved comparatively miserable; its rear door is barely long enough to slip a car seat through—requiring a back-breaking, arms-extended workout you must undertake whilst perched on the side steps a foot off the ground. Similar experiences await buyers of short-wheelbase Cadillac Escalades, Chevy Tahoes, and other full-size SUVs of that ilk.

As a bonus, the array of power-operable sunshades in the rear-seat area—along with the door-pillar-mounted air vents—help ensure kiddos are comfortable back there, and lowering those shades to give them a view on less sunny days is a snap. And you don’t even need to leave the driver’s seat. Speaking of, the rear-seat area is so huge, even the biggest car seats don’t come anywhere close to the backs of the front seats, so taller drivers and front-seat passengers needn’t adjust their positions at all.

The G90 can also carry quite a bit of stuff, though not in the ways you might expect. Scooch the rear seats as far back as they can go, fold up the center armrest, and you can slide some big-time items into that rear-seat area. We put one of the G90’s huge tires in there (another fit in the trunk), as well as a bike, a large painting, and other odd items (though not all at the same time). The trunk itself is big, though not as large as you’d expect given how big the G90 is overall; the opening is somewhat narrow, too, and although the trunk’s depth was fine, its height felt pinched—just enough clearance for medium-sized pieces of luggage to slide in.

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Surely All that Fancy Stuff Broke, Right?

When the G90 joined our fleet last year, we made a point to keep an eye on its myriad luxury features, from its power-closing doors to its massaging seats to its special-order matte paint. Would the doors go on the fritz? Might the digital key leave us locked out and stranded? Would the matte paint succumb to our sociopathic street parking and everything nature could throw at it? Surprisingly, no.

The power operating doors—well, just one of them—went briefly AWOL at one point, but that was before we realized the conditions that might make it so (disconnecting the battery is one, and that happened during the G90’s accident repair), and that there’s an extremely easy reset sequence one can deploy to set it right.

We eventually stopped using the G90’s key fob entirely, except when we needed it for dropping the car off for service or at a valet, because the digital key, which turns your phone into a de-facto key for unlocking and locking and starting the G90, worked so well and was simply more convenient than dragging the largish fob around. The Genesis owner’s app helped—this is separate from the digital key, which is stored in your iPhone’s digital wallet and works through near-field communication (NFC). The app was our go-to for remotely starting the car, setting the cabin temperature, and checking on the vehicle’s whereabouts. We could even command the G90 to send us pictures of its surroundings, and although we often wished for a live video feed (technically feasible, of course), the stills were the next best thing to a sort of Tesla-style Sentry mode, albeit unmonitored.

Even the matte paint held up to our abuse, though it made for an interesting repair for a minor fender-bender early in its tenure. During its year in Texas, the G90 was never garage parked, and truth be told (partially due to Genesis’ suggested restrictions around traditional automated car washes and their matte-finish-buffing brushes and such), we only washed the car a handful of times. A good, hard rain was often enough to blast dust, pollen, and road spray off the G90’s finish and bring it back to its brilliant, satiny self. We noticed no obvious scarring from baked-on, acidic bird scat, or sap, or anything else. There was one rubbed-shiny spot on the trunk, the origin of which we’re unsure of; it served as a constant reminder that a powerful spray is better than rubbing for removing stuck-on gunk. Like, say, rain. For more persnickety—or responsible—owners, Genesis offers a Dr. Beasley’s “matte paint prescription” detailing kit that includes a wash solution, matte paint cleaner, matte final finish solution, and a matte paint coating (a protectant for application every few months).

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Service Costs Were Nice

For owners, Genesis includes free maintenance for the first three years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first. That means we paid zero bucks for oil changes, tire rotations, filters, etc., during the trio of service visits the G90 called for during our ownership. Technically, it cost us a few bucks, due to an internal issue with Genesis’s dealer system (earlier in our possession of the G90, it thought the car was still an internal company car, prompting some service charges we aren’t listing here). But this compares favorably to the 2021 Mercedes-Benz E-Class we put similar miles on, which cost us $216.13 to service during its 15,000-some-mile stay in our hands, and even the $10.60 we spent maintaining our 2022 Lucid Air Grand Touring, an all-electric large luxury sedan that, in theory, shouldn’t require any typical maintenance.

We paid $1,190.16 for a pair of new front tires after replacing a single, blown front tire with a non-OE-spec but correctly sized donut during a trip to Detroit, which cost us a further $450 (again, that being an emergency, and the local Detroit dealer’s willingness to order us the two fronts, albeit with a wait, means we’re not counting the third tire in our service tally). We opted for two new Michelins since the remaining stock tire had nearly 18,000 miles on it, and we wanted evenly worn fronts because the G90 is classy like that.

Insurance covered our $4,490.50 repair for a dent and scrape on the rear quarter panel from a careless fellow motorist who, well, just hit the G90 while it was stopped. The location of the hit proved just right for maximum repair cost, sweeping over the rear quarter and rear bumper, and due to the matte paint’s unusual qualities, the entire passenger-side body stamping (not including the front fender or doors) needed a respray, along with the rear bumper.

Fuel costs proved low-ish, partially thanks to the G90’s stay in Texas, where even in downtown Dallas the price of premium gas is lower than any octane available near MotorTrend’s Los Angeles headquarters. We spent $0.23 per mile on the G90 and averaged just under 20 mpg—spot-on for the Genesis’ EPA combined rating, comparing roughly to our smaller 2021 Mercedes E450 sedan’s 23 mpg and $3,654 total fuel cost over 15,913 miles. Other than a number of long-distance hauls (Los Angeles to Dallas, Dallas to Detroit and back, and several round trips from Dallas to Austin), a lot of the G90’s miles were spent at city speeds, making its efficiency all the more impressive.

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Like other huge sedans, the Genesis excels at long-distance travel, so much so that there were times we’d leave it at the airport before a trip only to wonder at why we didn’t just stay behind the wheel and point the sedan’s curvy nose toward our destination—even when that destination was several states away.

We’d have taken even more trips in the G90 were it not for the only major hiccup of its yearlong stay, a bizarre and frustrating dealership visit that lasted far longer than it should have. Instigated by a persistent vibration and noise issue, which turned out to be a binding front axle, the diagnosis—and misdiagnosis—and fruitless initial repair ate up over six weeks; the eventual fix brought the G90’s total time out of our hands to 60 days. Hence, this verdict is late by about two months (you’ll notice we introduced the G90 to our readers in March 2023).

Again, we stress (as we did in our breakdown of what happened with the whole fiasco) that the snafu’s time suck had almost nothing to do with the G90 and everything to do with one dealership’s service department. It’s tough to draw any conclusions from the axle problem, too, given this specific car was sourced from Genesis’ press fleet before we took possession, meaning it had a few thousand (hard) miles under its 21-inch wheels and therefore wasn’t exactly a brand-new, unsullied vehicle. In light of that, the G90’s otherwise spotless reliability and lack of creaks, squeaks, or rattles (even after having its doors removed for the earlier accident repair, and the rear seats removed twice—once for a recall fix, another time for a fix of that fix, at the fault of the not-great dealer—and its front axle replaced) betrays a luxury sedan that’s as well built as anything from Germany or Japan.

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So, Would We Buy One?

Absolutely. In fact, in a fleeting moment of mania as the G90 was sent off back to Genesis, this author went rooting around for the used-car value of our test car in the hopes its value had tanked enough for me to even think about affording it. It had not; it seems to have depreciated about 30 percent, to around $70,000, from its list price of $101,295. That’s still pipe-dream money for this guy, but it suggests a lightly used G90 would be a compelling alternative to, say, a new Mercedes-Benz E-Class or BMW 5 Series, if your budget allows. 

With the three years of maintenance included, plus a generous 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty and 5-year/60,000-mile limited warranty, the G90 certainly offers greater peace of mind than, say, a Mercedes S-Class or Audi A8. (Our meandering axle repair cost us nothing, for example.) Given the nagging, back-of-the-brain worry over reliability and repair costs that often accompanies the consideration of pricey, complex vehicles, Genesis’ warranty and maintenance offerings stand out.

The G90 spoiled us for a year, delivering an exclusive-feeling experience and pampering us on every drive. These are seemingly rare cars—we only spotted one other 2023–2024 Genesis G90 out in the real world in Texas, not on a dealer lot, the entire time we had it. Curious onlookers often asked if it’s electric (it’s not), possibly because the style is so unique, people just associate “different” with “EVs.” That it costs tens of thousands less than an entry-level Mercedes-Benz S-Class is staggering, because Genesis has finally broken into that league. The last-gen G90 was close, while the original Hyundai Equus both descended from was too affordable. This version costs enough to convey its seriousness but still represents an incredible value relative to the traditional large luxury sedan players, even though value isn’t its only calling card. It is just one of many facets of the G90 that bolsters its overall excellence. The G90 is our 2023 Car of the Year, and we wish it were our forever Car of the Driveway.

More On Our Long-Term 2023 Genesis G90:

• Damn You People, Go Back to Your Shanties!
• Highway Driving Assist II: Not Driving Is a Luxury
• Candles That Smell Like the Car? Really?
• Tiny Fender Bender, Big Buck Repair
• Our G90 Perfumes Its Cabin (Yep!)
• The Key to Enjoying Our G90? No Key at All
• How Are Those Power-Closing Doors Holding Up?
• Does the Onboard Sterilizer Clean a Phone?
• Burn After Repairing? Our G90’s Diagnosis Saga
• A Love Letter to the G90’s Cushy Ride