The Genesis G80 Is a Wonderful Luxury Car Deal If Tariffs Don’t Kill It

The automotive industry is cruising into uncertain times. President Trump’s new 25 percent tariff on imports has put many models at risk and could practically exclude American customers from entire vehicle classes.Among them is the midsize luxury sedan. Only three are still built in the U.S.: the Cadillac CT5, Acura TLX and Lexus ES. Seriously, that’s it, ES production is scheduled to move to Japan this year. The Tesla Model S and Lucid Air are technically large luxury sedans, but even if you add those electric models, it’s not a deep bench.One of the world’s best players is not on it. The Genesis G80, which was updated for 2025 and like most of the brand’s offerings, is an excellent value that also competes on its own merits. Soon, it may have to rely on the latter.The G80 is built in South Korea, which puts it in the tariff’s target, and a mere two percent of its content comes from the U.S. or Canada, according to the Kogod School of Business’ annual Made in America Auto Index, so it can’t even try to fake it.The G80’s $58,450 starting price would balloon to more than $73,000 if the tariff were simply applied, while the top-of-the-line 3.5T Sport Prestige trim I recently tested would see its price jump from $78,350 to around $100,000.The midsize sedan features a rear wheel steering system. Courtesy GenesisThat would certainly kill the mood. Even on a level playing field with the Japanese and European competition, it’d be a hard sell against a relatively affordable American-made luxury SUV, from which there are plenty to choose from.Genesis hasn’t announced any price hikes yet, in fact CEO José Muñoz said it’s freezing prices until at least June 2. There’s no telling how long that will last beyond that, so there would seem to be no time like the present for an iconoclast shopper, who still prefers a sleep luxury sedan to an SUV, to give the G80 a look.As its name suggests, the 3.5T Sport Prestige AWD comes equipped with a 3.5-liter turbocharged V6 engine that sends 375 hp through an eight-speed automatic transmission to all four of the wheels, which do some interesting things.The trim has standard rear-wheel steering, which turns them opposite the front wheels at low speeds to make the 16.5-foot-long car feel much smaller in parking lots. Combined with a 360-degree camera system and a full array of sensors, if you run into anything, it is very much your fault.That is unless you let the car park itself. It has a Remote Smart Park Assist that allows you to press a button on the keyfob while it powers and steers itself into or out of a perpendicular space. It works remarkably well and, while it’s often just a parlor trick, it does come in handy if someone has pulled too close to your vehicle while you were away.The heated, cooled and massaging front seats are upholstered in snazzy diamond-stiched leather while the entirety of the interior is finished in high-end materials including real metal and carbon fiber trim. The only blemish is the 27-inch wide OLED display on top of the dashboard, which encompasses the instrument cluster and infotainment system interface and looks as out of place as a TV on a Chippendale bureau. A head-up display hovers on the windscreen above it.The interior is trimmed in high-end materials. Courtesy GenesisThere is a lot of legroom for rear-seat passengers, except for the one in the middle, who has to contend with a very tall hump on the floor. Instead, you can fold the center seatback down to create a console with cupholders and a storage compartment. It also exposes a door to the trunk that can be opened to accommodate long items like skis and javelins. A full glass roof can bathe everything in light as the 18-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system does the same with crystal clear sound.This G80 is rated at 19 mpg combined and 24 mpg on the highway. That’s not terribly impressive, but is on par with the vehicle’s size and power. The V6 is smooth and never feels lacking. A sprint to 60 mph takes just more five seconds.The suspension is computer-controlled and very literally reads the road. It uses a camera to scan the pavement ahead for bumps and other imperfections and adjust the stiffness of the shock absorbers just in time to deal with them. The ride is as smooth as silk and irons out any wrinkles along the way.The G80s array of driver aids ranges from lane-centering adaptive cruise control to a speed control that can be set to automatically match the prevailing speed limit by up to plus or minus 10 mph, it’s up to you.Overall, the G80 feels more glamorous than the Cadillac or Acura and costs thousands less than a similarly equipped comparable European model. Depending on how the prices of all these vehicles fluctuate in the coming weeks, the G80 will either be the great deal it already is, an even better one, or out of the game completely.It’s a good thing for Genesis that it already builds one of those luxury SUVs, the GV70, in the U.S.A., so its bets are properly hedged.

The Genesis G80 Is a Wonderful Luxury Car Deal If Tariffs Don’t Kill It

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