Report 4

When it comes to early starts, how early is too early? By my reckoning, 3am should be renamed ‘silly o’clock’, but it’s perfect for when you’re faced with a 300-mile journey and you want to reach your destination without the inevitable delays that grace our motorway network. This was the first proper test for the Genesis: a 600-mile round trip, in freezing conditions, two teenage lads in the back, a pair of Labrador cross canine companions in the boot. The destination: Southport, to view a Land Rover Discovery II my eldest son had all but agreed to buy. Best laid plans and all that…

More on that in a moment, but in the meantime, it’s worth saying that the GV70 feels very much at home on a long motorway schlep. I’ve complained about the ride quality in town and on B-roads, but show it a three-lane motorway and it’ll waft along with the best of them. Infinite electric adjustment for the steering wheel and front seats means it’s not hard to find the perfect driving position, while the seats themselves are extremely comfortable. ‘My’ car also features a so-called ‘Ergo-Motion’ function, which massages your pelvis, lower back, or whole body at set intervals. Unlike massaging systems in some other cars, it’s genuinely effective, so I was a little disappointed when it stopped working on the journey to Southport. It’s working fine on the passenger seat, but the driver must live without the virtual hands. It also means that I’m missing out on the ‘Smart Posture Assist’, which automatically turns on after an hour of driving. The message appears on the infotainment screen, but nothing happens to the seat. Oddly, the massage function started functioning again a week later, only to stop again the next time I drove it.

At least the Smart Cruise Control – Genesis speak for adaptive cruise control – is working as it should. Combine this with Highway Driving Assist (HDA) II, which is as close as I’d like to get to a fully autonomous car, and you’ve got the ingredients for an excellent long-distance companion. The 14.5-inch infotainment display is simple to operate on the move, with the BMW iDrive-style rotary controller making it easy to switch between functions. I also like the physical buttons below the screen, which are handy for quick access to the navigation, map, radio, and media. Up front, there are few causes for complaint, even if I’m missing the virtual hands.

Things are less rosy in the back, where my teenage sons reckon the legroom is limited for a car of this size. My eldest son is 6’ 3” and he’s unable to sit in the back without the front seat shifted forward. The dogs can’t talk, but if they could, they’d mutter something about the sloping roofline eating into the available headroom. Next time, they’d appreciate being left at home.

The plan was for them to return home in the more cavernous Discovery, but, alas, the car wasn’t as good as we’d hoped, so we returned home without it. A week later, a trip to Henley-on-Thames to look at another Discovery proved more successful, although a layer of salt has left the GV70’s paintwork looking more ‘grime’ than green. The odometer clicking over the 11,000-mile mark has also coincided with a request for AdBlue, so that will need topping up before the next update.