This week, Genesis—the fairly-newly-minted luxury brand from Hyundai—announced it will start selling their wares in Europe starting this summer, and today their social media accounts teased the camouflaged derriere of a wagon version of the G70 sport sedan.
Naturally, we have no hope of getting this car in North America, because SUVs are where the money is. “We have lots of exciting new products coming to the US this year, including the GV70 SUV, new G70, and more,” said a Genesis representative, increasing our adrenaline flow before shattering our dreams with: “I can definitely confirm that the G70 shooting brake will not be coming to the US at this time.”
Not that we really have reason to be surprised or upset, because although thousands of MotorTrend readers and car enthusiasts love station wagons, the great unwashed car-buying masses don’t. Crossovers and SUVs are where the market and the money are. (Silly rabbit, wagons are for Europeans!)
Still, when you consider that the G70 is (or, at least until 2022, was) offered with a manual transmission… and Genesis is most likely offering not just a G70 wagon, but a stick-shift G70 wagon to foreigners across the Atlantic, well, it’s like lemon juice on an open scab. Heck, we only have to wait 25 years to import one of these long-roof G70s, right? 2046 isn’t that far away…
Regardless, we have to admire Genesis for making a G70 wagon, even if it is only for foreign shores: It shows an admirable commitment to giving the European market what it wants. (Parent company Hyundai already makes the I30 premium hatchback there, which is a pretty darn decent Golf clone.) Also, kudos to Genesis for marching into Europe so soon. It wasn’t until 2008 that Infiniti went to Europe, ten years after the brand’s inception, and after failing spectacularly, it pulled the plug last year. Let’s hope Genesis does better—maybe the wagon will help. And maybe, just maybe, it someday will make it to our shores.
