2023 Kia Sportage Hybrid Review - New look, new powertrains

Some cars are meant for driving, but other cars, they're meant for being driven in. Now, no joke, the first car I ever drove for this job was actually a Rolls-Royce Ghost that cost $300,000. I split time in that car with a journalist friend of mine, and much to his annoyance, every time I wasn't behind the wheel, I sat in the back seat. I mean, it's where you're supposed to sit. It had inch-thick lambswool floor mats, dry clean only. This car, this is a much better value. It's the 2023 Genesis G90, and it offers a lot of the comfort of that Rolls-Royce, but for a fraction of the price. Specifically, one-third the price. Think of this as Best Buy's $5 DVD bin, but for the luxury car space. You know, it's not the original Fast and the Furious. It's Tokyo Drift. Tokyo Drift is still pretty good. If you're trying to make room in your garage, maybe for a G90, consider selling your current car with CarGurus. We can source the best offer from thousands of dealers, have your car picked up, and get you paid. And of course, if you are new to the CarGurus YouTube channel, please don't forget to subscribe. We are happy to have you here. We're actually going to spend as little time outside this G90 as possible, because the real star of the show is inside the car. The G90 has been fully redesigned for 2023, but it's still old-school, classic, flagship. It's low, it's sleek, and it's impossibly long. The headlamps are this split-LED design. They're so thin and delicate-looking. They're continued along the sides with these indicators and complemented at the rear by equally impressive taillights. A massive shield-style mesh grille, the little upturned decklid lip, a chrome strip down the door sills that lifts a little from front to back. It all gives the G90 such presence, as if it's floating down the road. And then there are the wheels. Wild. Absolutely wild, and very much in line with the over-the-top designs you'll see on other Genesis models. I don't know if I'm completely here for this approach to wheels, but I can't deny that they do grab attention. And now, as I grab the pop-out door handle on the Genesis G90, let's take a look at the real star of the show, the interior. Some cars show their best angles from the outside. Cars like the G90 and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7-Series, and to a lesser extent, the Audi A8 and Lexus LS, well, they're at their best on the inside. The list of features is long and lavish, and it is headlined, in my opinion, by these electronic door latches. How cool is that? All four doors are soft-close with electronic assists for opening, too. Once you're seated, you can push this button for the driver's door, this for the front passenger, or you can actually hit this button that's located on each one of the doors, and it'll close those doors automatically. Now that is undeniably cool, but we will get to the rest of the party tricks later. Trust me, that's just the tip of the iceberg. What jumps out to me right now is the incredible Bordeaux brown leather upholstery. It looks great when you're sitting in the driver's seat. Admittedly, it's a bit much when viewed from the back, but the seats themselves are wildly comfortable. I love the thick steering wheel, and I find this trim here and here just absolutely fascinating. If I have this right, it's some combination of black wood and recycled newspaper, but it looks almost like marble. I mean, this looks like something I would see in the bathroom of a fancy hotel, and I don't think I mean that as a criticism. Gotta buckle up. The previous generation G90 came with a twin-turbocharged 3.3-liter V6 engine, and the upgrade engine was a 5-liter V8. Both of those are gone for 2023. We now have a standard 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6, and the upgrade is the same engine, but Genesis has slapped on a 48-volt electric supercharger. Our test car's total output measures 409 horsepower and 405 pound-feet of torque. It really whisks you away from a stop, and the 8-speed automatic transmission is almost invisible. Add in the air suspension that comes standard on the e-Supercharged G90, and it really just smooths out all of the imperfections in the road. Big executive luxury sedans like this, they're designed to insulate their passengers from all the ruckus going on out there, all the ruckus from a Ford Explorer and whatnot. Let me tell you, G90 does a good job. All G90s come standard with all-wheel drive, and the e-Supercharger trim adds rear-wheel steering to the mix. I was also pleasantly surprised at how well this big boat maneuvered. When I was backing into a parking space the other day, I gave myself plenty of clearance, but then I found as I started the turn that I actually didn't need nearly the turning radius that I thought I did. I actually could have backed in to one space closer than the one I originally intended. The steering feel is decidedly numb, but it's also very light and surprisingly responsive. You don't feel the road through the wheel at all, but at the same time, there's not a lot of play when you steer off-center. Turn even the slightest bit, and the car starts heading in that direction. Fuel economy is pretty bad. In our test car, we should be getting 17 miles per gallon in the city, 24 on the highway, 20 combined, and you do a little better if you don't get the e-Supercharged G90. Then you would see 18 city, 26 highway, 21 combined. Anyway you dice it, though, this is not a frugal car. Now Genesis has said that by 2025, all of their models will be electrified, and by 2030, they'll all be full battery electric vehicles. So maybe let us know in the comments section below what you think about that, because electric vehicles are smooth and they're quiet, so a big luxury sedan could be the perfect application for that technology. Now the thing about the powertrain in a car like this is that if you're doing it right, you're not doing the driving. No, no, no, you're not sitting here, you're sitting right there. Now many of you probably don't realize this, but when I'm not hosting YouTube car review videos, I'm actually a high-powered executive in charge of many, many Fortune 500 companies. So when I'm out and about, naturally I have my driver chauffeur me around town, and I have to say in the Genesis G90, I feel quite at home. This car has a fragrance diffuser. It sprays perfumes through the cabin from the climate control vents. It has massaging seats back here and up there, because you don't want your driver complaining of a sore back or tired muscles. He also has a wireless phone charger, and I have one back here as well. And then this cubby actually has a sanitizing function where it uses UV light to make sure that my phone is germ-free, because we all know the 1% got there by being very germ conscious. And these pillows, oh they're as comfy as you'd think. Comfier, actually. How committed to the chauffeur life is the G90? It actually has a chauffeur drive mode that keeps the G90 feeling ultra-composed from the back seat. From a tech standpoint, it is over the top. Everything is controlled via a rotary knob and some hard buttons and a few dials up there, and then it's displayed on the 12.3-inch driver information display and the HD touchscreen, also 12.3 inches. But rear seat passengers have their own controls and display too. Now there are a few things missing. First, the driver information display just isn't that customizable, which is a shame when you consider all the things that you can do in a Mercedes. There's also no Wi-Fi hotspot, although that's not a massive omission in my book. The G90 doesn't have the facial recognition feature that you get in the new GV60, and that does feel like an oversight given that this is the top-of-the-range model. Most critically, though, is that there's no wireless connection for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and at this price point that's something that I would consider just a bare basic necessity. Now all that said, what the G90 gets right, it really gets right. The G90 comes equipped with various moods. Vitality, delight, care, and comfort. I'm trying to be a bit more delightful, so let's go with that one. Elliot, delight please. Coming right up. Oh, well that is delightful. These sunshades and the rear sunroof can be further controlled back here, and the Bang & Olufsen stereo has 26 speakers and something called Virtual Venue 3D. So you want to listen to delight at Boston Symphony Hall? We can do that. Now unfortunately, that's pretty much the only party trick associated with the stereo, and it's a pretty good one, but it'd be cool if there were additional venues. You know, something more than just Boston Symphony Hall, as much as I love it. And well, it does sound pretty good. The 2023 Genesis G90 starts at $89,495, and this e-supercharged version, this starts at $98,700. Add a $1,095 destination charge to both those prices, but you're still looking at a G90 for under $100k, and in this segment, that makes this a bargain. Now granted, our as-tested price is actually $100,370, because although all those bells and whistles come standard, we actually had to pay $575 for the white paint. It's a little ironic. All the bells and whistles are standard. White is extra. Granted, a $90,000 starting price does represent a huge step up from the previous-gen G90, which in the 2022 model year opened at $76,045 plus destination. But still, this car is like buying store-brand cereal instead of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It's just a much better deal. I mean, I went on the Mercedes-Benz Builder, and I configured an S580 up over $150,000 without too much trouble. The fact that Genesis doesn't nickel-and-dime you, or Benjamin Franklin you, for all of its extra content, it just makes it an even better value. The G90 is a true luxury flagship sedan in the same way that a Mercedes-Benz S-Class is, or frankly, some of those upper-echelon vehicles that we naturally think of when we hear someone say, I have a driver. Now, it's not quite as lavish as that Rolls-Royce Ghost that I drove so many years ago, but it also is one-third the cost. And between you and me, I can't really see where Genesis cut corners or pinched pennies compared with the folks at Rolls. Thanks for watching. Hop on down into the comments section and tell us if you think the G90 is a true competitor to the S-Class, or if there's something special about Mercedes that I'm completely glossing over. As always, remember to subscribe to the CarGurus YouTube channel, and we'll see you next time.