Hyundai Genesis vs Lexus LX

What's the difference?

The Genesis is not quite a match for cars twice its price but it makes you think what's possible. It doesn't have the dynamic brilliance of a BMW or the self-assured faultless execution of a Mercedes. Lexus ought to be worried, though - why would you have an LS when you could have this? The only answer is 'badge'.

The Genesis is an epoch-making car for the Korean manufacturer. As the company has got better, there are fewer excuses for overlooking it. While the Genesis is pitched into a shrinking market, it's not really meant for the average i30 buyer to buy, but to see.

It's bristling with tech and is not only a halo car but a shot across the bows of both Lexus and the Germans. Attached to that shot is a note: "We're coming for you." In other words, Hyundai got it right.

Huge specification in terms of convenience and safety gear are matched by an equally huge range of abilities in this vehicle. As well as rock hopping with the best of them, this is also a phenomenal touring rig and a more-than-capable off-roader. Of course, whether you can see yourself clambering up the side of a muddy creek crossing in $202,000 worth of vehicle is a personal matter, but rest assured, the Lexus will do it if you ask it to.

In the case of the hybrid LX, however, the vehicle now has an extra dimension to cover off, and from what we can see, it does take the efficiency and running costs of the big wagon to a new, better place. Mind you, that may only be the case if diesel continues to cost a dollar-a-litre more than petrol at the bowser.

The shift to petrol power also brings with it a level of mechanical background noise that we’re not entirely sure fits the Lexus legend, while additions such as the camera-based rear-view mirror system seems to be a conversation starter rather than an actual improvement.

The Genesis is like no other Hyundai. For a start, it's gigantic - it looks easily as big as a BMW 7 Series (it isn't) with the road presence to match. There's a lot of BMW from most directions, but with a sharper approach to the creasing and character of the sheet metal.

Towards the rear it's more BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe and is all the better for it. The style is understated and technocratic.

Inside is also very Germanic, but with a bit more of a Lexus feel

The big wheels from the Ultimate pack help make it look lower and sleeker, too.

Inside is also very Germanic, but with a bit more of a Lexus feel. Our car had the lighter leather which meant that the wood and the metal materials didn't necessarily work well together.

The interior is expertly put together and feels like it will last forever.

The only jarring moment is the gear selector is shared with our long-term Hyundai i30 - it looked a bit cheap in what is otherwise a beautifully executed cabin - it needs more heft.

On Australian-delivered cars there is just one Hyundai badge, sitting proudly on the boot - you get the feeling this was debated long and hard and when the decision was made to go for it, a big one was chosen.

However, the winged Genesis branding takes pride of place everywhere else. When you approach the car at night and the puddle lamps come on, the Genesis logo is projected on to the ground, crisp and clear.

In a styling sense, that big, bold, deep grille at the front won’t be to everybody’s liking, but we reckon it’s pretty well matched with the otherwise taut skin of the LX’s body.

Inside, the plush look and feel is the dominant factor, but if you look really closely, there’s a fair bit of generic Lexus stuff on show. Is that a criticism? Hardly. The leather looks and feels luxe and only some hard plastics (such as on the door cappings) belie the car’s LandCruiser origins.

While the LX line-up incorporates off-road oriented versions dubbed Overtrail, that specification is not available in the hybrid variety LX700h. Instead, the LX hybridised line-up kicks off with the Sport Luxury grades in either five or seven-seat layouts and a list price of $196,000 and $199,800 respectively. The F Sport is the new LX flagship model with its $202,000 price-tag (all prices are plus on-road costs) and is only available in five-seat configuration.

As you might imagine for a flagship badge for a maker like Lexus, there’s really nothing missing from the specification. In the case of the hybrid variants, that includes 22-inch alloy wheels, power sunroof, full leather trim and a hands-free tailgate. Those feature are part of the Enhancement Pack on lesser versions, but have been added to all hybrid LXs.

You also get four-zone climate-control, heated, cooled and massaging front seats, keyless entry and start, steering wheel-mounted controls, paddle shifters, automatic headlights and wipers, heated mirrors, soft-close doors, 12.3-inch touchscreen, digital radio, embedded sat-nav, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, head-up display, premium audio system and pretty much everything else you’ve ever seen fitted to a car.

The F Sport variant we’ve tested here is the big daddy and adds four-way adjustable head rests in the front, a heated steering wheel, specific aluminium trim, aluminium pedals, F Sport-specific gear knob, ventilated and heated rear seats, and a digital rear-view mirror.

The Genesis is powered by Hyundai's own 3.8-litre V6 developing 232kW and 397Nm, mated to Hyundai's eight-speed automatic transmission.

Despite weighing just under two tonnes, the Genesis completes the dash to 100km/h in 6.5 seconds.

It has a claimed 11.2L/100km on the combined cycle. In what must be a first, we got below that, averaging 10.8L/100km over two weeks. And that's without stop-start fuel-saving to blunt the effect of lot of city driving.

The Genesis is not going to tempt you into a track day, even with rear wheel drive

We'd still like to try the V8 - only available in left-hand drive markets - though.

The hybrid driveline of the vehicle we’re looking at here marks a further expansion of buyer choice when it comes to how their Lexus LX is powered. The twin-turbocharged petrol and diesel variants will continue alongside the newcomer, although you can bet Lexus (and Toyota) will be watching the sales charts closely to see where consumer tastes fall.

The hybrid set-up here starts with the twin-turbocharged 3.4-litre petrol V6 (a lot of people - Toyota included - are calling it a 3.5, but at 3445cc, it’s not) from the Lexus LX600.

But instead of bolting directly to the 10-speed transmission, in this case, there’s a single electric motor and clutch unit sandwiched between the engine and transmission. That means the Lexus retains mechanical four-wheel drive, while the electric motor can provide extra urge for acceleration or towing as well as offering EV-only operation when it’s required (mainly in stop-start traffic).

Crucially, it also means the vehicle retains those traditional off-road qualities of low-range gearing and permanent four-wheel drive. The electric motor also contributes torque to the equation when the driver selects either Rock, Dirt or Deep Snow modes to maintain a steady flow of Newton metres.

The petrol V6 contributes a healthy 305kW and 650Nm to the picture, while the electric motor adds a further 36kW and 250Nm. When all that’s harnessed up, there’s a total of 341kW of power and 790Nm of torque on tap, allowing for a braked towing capacity of 3500kg. It also makes this variant the torquiest Lexus LX ever.

Interestingly, Lexus says the conventional 12-volt starting system and alternator for the petrol engine, means that unit could continue to operate if any part of the EV system failed.

One of the big questions over hybrid drivelines in off-road conditions is what happens if the vehicle suddenly finds itself partly under water. In this case, says Lexus, there are additional waterproofing measures which should prevent any problems mid-creek.

The F Sport grade gets a Torsen (torque-sensing) rear differential and firmer dampers for an overall sportier feel.

At 2780kg, the LX hybrid is heavy, and is at least 100kg more than the LX600 due to the batteries and other hybrid gear.

At five metres long, with a ride firmly pitched in the luxury camp, the Genesis is not going to tempt you into a track day, even with rear wheel drive.

Blindfold your passengers and swap them between a Lexus, a BMW and a Genesis and the overwhelming impression they'll get is one of incredible smoothness.

If you're wanting sudden movements, this isn't the car for you

Sitting in the back of the Genesis, it's easily as good as the German and luxury Japanese competition. The seats are hugely comfortable, there's ample head, leg and shoulder room and it feels lot nicer than anything within a bull's roar of its price.

No matter where you sit, it's an incredibly quiet car. The engine is a distant whoosh, the tyre noise muted and there's almost no wind or ambient noise. It's supremely comfortable and the excellent stereo will wash away what little noise does invade.

It certainly feels its weight from the driver's seat, with a competent, soft turn-in, but if you're wanting sudden movements, this isn't the car for you.

The Genesis is an epoch-making car for the Korean manufacturer

On fast flowing roads you can have some fun, but things will get floaty and that will quickly kill that fun. The ride and isolation from the rest of the world is completely worth it.

At low speeds, threading your way through traffic or parking, the LX feels like it needs a lot of real estate. Which makes sense given the 5.1-metre overall length that puts it on par with a lot of dual-cab utes. The width of almost two metres plays into things, too, and reversing down the average driveway will often have the sensors chirping at you constantly.

What’s interesting, though, is the way the Lexus seems to shrink once you’re up and running in a more open setting. Even a winding road reveals a car that is easy to place in corners and seems to feed back lots of the right sort of information in terms of what the wheels are doing and where they’re placed. The result is that you can actually hustle the LX along quite smartly if you need to.

The ride remains composed yet there’s a level of control that helps keep the big, high LX relatively flat through corners and responding sharply to the helm. Even those huge wheels and tyres and their corresponding unsprung mass don’t intrude. It’s a great trick.

Less easy to appreciate, however, is the driveline, specifically the twin-turbo petrol V6. Frankly, it’s just not as refined as we were expecting. I wouldn’t mind betting Lexus has tuned the exhaust system to make the LX sound like there’s a petrol V8 under that heavily sculpted bonnet. And at low revs, it kind of works with a rhythmic, muted, yet guttural sort of bass coming through.

But rev it harder and the engine soon reveals itself to be a V6 with all the secondary vibration and resonance that implies. Simply, this vehicle is neither as smooth nor as quiet as the Lexus brand would suggest and the harder you rev it, the more it descends into NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) territory. The issue is made worse by the fact that the rest of the package is so darn quiet.

Even the stop-start - a technology that is now well understood - doesn’t seem quite as slick as it should be. Taking off from a green light with the petrol engine stopped, the Lexus often produces a small `sonic bump’ from the driveline as the V6 fires into life. It’s felt more than heard. But it’s still puzzling in the context of this make and model.

The transmission, meantime, is as silky as you’d imagine with upshifts and even downshifts that are barely perceptible. It would be nice, though, if the transmission obeyed the paddles a bit more faithfully. As it is, the chosen gear is only held for a few seconds unless you also pull the shift lever into manual mode.

I’ll also take issue with the rear-view mirror that includes a camera view as well as a conventional mirror option. I can see the point of having a camera-view mirror (when the cargo area is piled high, for instance) but I’ve never yet met one that works properly. The problem is that the camera view that pops up on the mirror’s screen is never as faithful as it should be. Also, if you wear glasses to read, you’ll also need them to focus on the image properly. While a conventional mirror has the same depth of field as looking through the windscreen, the camera-generated view does not. Also, when used through a wet rear window in low light, the camera view is borderline useless. This tech clearly has a ways to go.

It will come as no surprise to learn that the expensive LX range is well equipped safety wise, nor that the flagship version of that range features every driver aid ever dreamed up by engineers.

That includes autonomous emergency braking that incorporates pedestrian and cyclist recognition, intersection turn assist, lane-keeping assistance, lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, road-sign recognition, hill-start assist, front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera with 360-degree views, rear cross-traffic alert and braking and tyre-pressure monitoring.

On top of that, the LX gains the safety additions revealed at the 2025 facelift of the LX line-up, including emergency driving stop, safe-exit monitoring and a forward-facing camera.

There are no less than 10 airbags in the LX, including rear-seat cushion airbags and side-curtain airbags for every outboard seating position.

What’s perhaps even more impressive is that the driver aids are beautifully calibrated to the point where other carmakers should pay close attention when calibrating their own. Where some cars physically fight the driver for control of the wheel in the name of lane-keeping assistance, the Lexus instead offers a polite suggestion of a better course than the one the driver is currently on.

The Lexus LX series hasn’t been crash tested by ANCAP, but the 300-Series LandCruiser on which it’s based scored the full five safety stars when it was tested in 2022.