CANBERRA: The all-new 7th generation Sonata offers a more refined look through a new Fluidic Sculpture 2.0 design language, stiffer body structure, better ride quality, reduced noise, vibration and harshness and advanced safety and convenience features. Sonata truly democratizes the premium design and convenient technology of the Genesis sedan for the mid-size class. The new 2015 Hyundai Sonata will be built at the Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama plant in Montgomery, Ala. and go on sale early this summer.
Honestly, the list of cars that could stand some of this Hyundai-style tweaking is long. I’m now thinking about the Mini, Honda Accord, BMW 3 Series, and the … well, it’s time to stop before we run out of CarsGuide.
The Sonata drives as well as anything I’ve had this year, short of the Rolls-Royce Ghost, thanks to suspension that copes with the worst roads I can find. Nothing upsets it, not even mid-corner stutter bumps or speed humps as tall as a unit block.
It’s all been done in Australia, even if the lead engineer is British and living in France, after Kia set the bar high with the work done by former Toyota hero Graeme Gambold.
But great suspension alone does not make a great car.
The Sonata is good, and much more contemporary in its styling, but it’s still cheap-oid in the cabin and it’s missing things it should have, including engine stop-start and headlights that rise above dismal. The Sonata has been around since the 1990s, when it followed the original Excel into the Hyundai line-up, but has never been a standout.
The first examples were just plain awful — and back in the day, I drove one as a company car.
Hyundai has improved its flagship sedan through the decades but it’s always been done with a home-country focus. So it’s been big and cushy but not remotely worldly.
This latest model is vastly improved and has so much cabin space that it’s now classified as a large car — which means Commodore and Falcon — in Australia. The boot is also gigantic and it’s good to find a full-size alloy spare in the back end.
Five people can actually lounge in the Sonata and I can see it taking over as the car of choice for Camry buyers once the Toyota ends its production run at Victoria’s Altona factory.
Hyundai will also be smart to get a Sonata hybrid up as a taxi in Australia because there are a lot of cabbies who now love the petrol-electric Camry.
My time with the Sonata is perfectly acceptable and I like the cabin space and that brilliant suspension. But the performance is only adequate despite the promise of 138kW and I miss having paddle-shifters to excite an engine that sometimes falls well off the boil.
The six-speed auto is inoffensive and the fuel economy is fine, but not great.
The plastics in the cabin are well off the pace in 2015 and the multimedia screen needs to be bigger
