Genesis G70 Customers Don’t Go For The Manual – And That’s OK

Despite manual transmissions now often being relegated to affordable hatchbacks and driver-focused sports cars, Genesis buyers in the United States can actually pick up a G70 sedan with a stick shift.

The Genesis G70 is sold with a 3.3-liter twin-turbocharged V6 and a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with 252 hp and 260 lb-ft (352 Nm) of torque. The latter can be specified with a manual alongside a limited-slip differential, summer tires, and Brembo brakes but, unsurprisingly, the take rate on this configuration isn’t very high.

While recently speaking with CarBuzz, Genesis senior group manager Kevin Smith said that year-to-date sales of the G70 account for just 4 per cent of four-cylinder G70 sales.

Also Read: Hyundai N Boss Says No To A Genesis G70 N

“Looking at just the portion of manual sales across our G70 2.0T variants, because the manual is not available on our 3.3T variants, the 2019 year-to-date manual sales percentage is 4%,” he said.

However, the South Korean car manufacturer doesn’t appear to be too concerned with this.

When contacted by Jalopnik, a Genesis representative said that manual G70 sales are right where the automaker thought they’d be.

“We knew the take rate for the manuals, even with the other performance upgrades that come in the 2.0T Sport (manual) package, wouldn’t be that great, but we wanted to be able to offer it to show how much we appreciate the enthusiasts in the market that prefer manuals. In fact, … we stated throughout the launch that we expected the manual take rate to be less than 5 percent,” the spokesperson said.