For a full-size luxury sedan, the V-8-powered 2015 Hyundai Genesis almost has no business being this fun to drive. It should find a place among executive fleet drivers.

When driving this premium sedan, you rarely feel the force of its full 4,541-pound curb weight, and it clearly has benefitted from suspension tuning by Lotus Engineering. The sedan behaves well during turning maneuvers and handles higher-speed freeway handling with an agile ease.

The Genesis equipped with the V-6 has been the bigger seller, and the V-8's benefit may be primarily to tap into more primal urges. It's a sedan that always seems ready to give you more power than you desire. The V-8 is paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission that includes a manual shifting mode.

The exterior styling, especially the headlights and grille, may provide a nudging reminder of a certain German automaker's vehicles. Yet, it's an easy sin to forgive, given how well this Genesis handles and the bevy of safety technology provided.

Hyundai has placed plenty of emphasis on safety, and the 2015 Genesis has achieved the Top Safety Pick+ when equipped with automatic emergency braking. This sedan also provides forward collision warning, blind spot detection with rear cross-traffic alerts, lane change assist and smart cruise control.

If you drift toward the edge of the lane without signaling, the Genesis will correct the vehicle's path by automatically turning the steering wheel slightly the other way. This feature can be disabled.

We tested the rear-wheel Genesis Ultimate with a medium-blue exterior color and off-white (ivory) interior. The Ultimate package adds a heads-up display, premium DIS (non-touch screen) navigation fed to a 9.2-inch screen, a 17-speaker audio system, continuous damping suspension, a power trunk lid, and dual-mode vent control with a carbon-dioxide sensor.

The EPA has rated the V-8 Genesis at 15 mpg city and 25 mpg highway.

The V-8 Genesis starts at $52,450; our model would retail for $54,750.