While sports car might stir the emotions, reliable practical transportation is what gets buyers to open their checkbooks, and Hyundai’s mid-sized Sonata sedan has been very successful at attracting people who needed reliable, economical transportation.
Hyundai’s 2015 Sonata has lively styling to excite the heart as well as all the practicality which made the old model so popular.
Hyundai revealed the latest iteration of this popular model at the 2014 New York International Auto Show Wednesday, and the new 2015 version has grown into a serious rival to the class-leading Toyota Camry.
The new Sonata has a cleaner, more refined look—simpler yet still sporty lines, less clutter, no gimmicks. The car looks like an upscale import, not an economy car.
Underneath the attractive new body is a stiffer chassis and an inline-four-cylinder engine, either a 185-horsepower 2.4-liter or a 245-horsepower turbocharged 2-liter, both mated to a six-speed automatic transmission. Hyundai is maintaining its all-four-cylinder philosophy, believing the smaller, lighter motors offer plenty of power while allowing designers to expand interior space in an overall more efficient package.
That interior offers not just more room than the old model but improved ergonomics and increased comfort.
The new Sonata also offers safety features one might not expect on a car at this price point, including blind spot monitoring, radar-guided adaptive cruise control, lane change notifications, advanced collision mitigation technology, and seven airbags.
