If you are looking to buy a D-segment sedan, your choice is fairly simple, but not because there are few cars to choose from. It's more a case of are you thinking with your wallet or your ego,
because if ego is the one in charge, then the usual suspects will be on your list: Audi's A4, the BMW 3 Series or the Mercedes-Benz C-Class. If however you can see past brand snobbery and you are looking for value for money, the "pretenders" are where you should be looking – cars like the Honda Accord, Mazda6 or even the new VW Passat. The Hyundai Sonata is one of the latest cars to join that party as a strong contender and it quite simply astounded me...Perceived quality of the crooked "H" badge has been woeful since as far back as I can remember. So if you had asked me to buy the old Sonata over the Honda Accord for example, I would have laughed at you. Now however, the Hyundai brand has found a new lease on life and has made incredible strides of late, bringing it right up to the front, joining the leaders of the motoring world and redfining what luxury means. This new Sonata is a striking example of how Hyundai has changed and you really have to take a step back and wonder why you wouldn't buy one.
This car is beautiful. I mean that – take a look at how the front has an aggressive-yet-svelte look to it. How the headlights have intricate swoops behind their glass. How the grille gives birth to sculpted creases on the bonnet and the way the side profile looks like that of a coupe. And the cheeky tail lights add to the visual muscularity and give the car that final dose of adrenaline with their stunning LED designs. The standard 18-inch wheels complete the look brilliantly, too. Some may say there is too much going on but I think it's just enough – to keep you interested! You almost never stop discovering new design elements as your eyes scan each little area of the car in detail.
On the inside the sculpting has continued, with a well-proportioned dashboard enveloping the car and a cockpit any driver should find pleasing. The leather seats are very comfortable, though the leather used is weirdly "sticky" and the expected slide-in when getting into the car is just not there. The steering wheel, which is adjustable for rake and reach, is nicely designed and reminiscent of that of a Lexus. In fact, at various points during my test period, I could easily have simply swapped the Hyundai badges for Lexus logos – such is the quality and feel of the Sonata. I didn't like the steering wheel's finish though. It's half-leather, and the non-leathery bits feel cheap and badly finished.
Cruise control and audio buttons adorn the wheel and they are of good quality and reasonably easy to get used to. The centre console, which is finished in a high-gloss black plastic material, is nicely laid-out but I didn't like the glossy finish. As usual (when will manufacturers get over this finish?) it scratches easily and if not kept clean, looks tatty thanks to fingerprints. That said though, everything was easy to find and reach and the buttons were solid. Perhaps my least favourite aspect of the interior was the blue back-lighting used on displays and buttons, which is difficult to focus on at night. I liked the gear lever, which is small and out of the way, freeing up the lower centre console for storage bins and cup holders. The centre armrest cubby hole was nice and deep, and in general there was always place for whatever I needed to store in the car. The parking brake is foot operated (again, like a Lexus) and never got in the way as similar systems tend to do.
Rear seat passengers are also treated to great comfort levels and their own air conditioning outlet, with a folding centre seat providing an arm rest and cup holders. The boot is capacious, measuring a healthy 463 litres and featuring remote opening via a button on the driver's door. To top it all off, Sonata features a full-length glass sunroof, which allows light to bathe the interior, and a lovely breeze enters the cabin when the front half is opened. That said though, opening the sunroof to its tilted setting revealed a horribly annoying whistle which emanated from one of the front air vents, so for me it was either fully-open or closed.
Powered by a 2.4-litre 4-cylinder petrol engine, the new Sonata is pleasant to drive. 131kW and 228Nm are sent to the front wheels via a silky-smooth 6-speed automatic gearbox and, with fairly responsive manual-shift paddles, the option to have fun is there. The gearbox really did impress me and makes the one fitted to smaller-engined C-Class models look like a joke. The ride is comfy though a bit floaty at speed, which reduces confidence during cornering. Fuel consumption is claimed at 8.2-litres per 100km but I returned a 10.9 average. That came down from the 12.0 and 13.0 mark and I had to try very hard to keep it there, which lead me to beg the question of why there is no diesel model available in the Sonata range. Carbon emissions are claimed at 195g/km and I must say this car will perform a lot better with a diesel or V6 petrol engine. Hyundai, take notes!
I mentioned that the Sonata is loaded with features and I really mean that. Taking a look at the standard specification of this car makes all the quirky problems I had with it seem insignificant, because almost all of them are options on its German rivals. Amongst others, standard features include xenon headlights, an auto-dimming interior mirror, heated and electric side mirrors, auto-locking doors, full electric front seats and electric steering wheel adjustment (both with memory), a radio/CD front-loader with MP3, aux, USB and iPod compatibility (and the 6-speaker sound system is actually really good), dual-zone automatic climate control, folding rear seats, rear parking sensors and full keyless operation. Add on to that the safety items including ABS, EBD, BAS (anti-lock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution and brake assist), yaw control, ESP stability control and six airbags and you have a winner on your hands.
There is no arguing that the A4, 3 Series and C-Class are excellent cars and the added badge appeal they carry with them is a huge drawing card in South Africa. But they are being increasingly out-witted by the so-called pretenders, making the Sonata a major player in the game. The Honda Accord 2.4 Executive automatic, which has just undergone a facelift and now sports a higher price to boot, is an incredibly good car, but costs roughly R60 000 more than the Sonata (although it comes with an even more impressive list of standard options). The Mazda6 2.5 Individual Activematic, while priced between Sonata and Accord, has very little appeal in my eyes and will be replaced fairly soon.
The Mercedes C-Class is about to be facelifted and, while I have spent many hours behind the wheel of the entry-level models and they are very good examples of a great car, the current models lack refinement in areas you just wouldn't expect from such a brand (like the gearbox as I mentioned). BMW's new 3 Series is on its way soon and the outgoing models present a good car without a doubt, as does the now commonplace Audi A4. And then of course VW's new Passat has just been launched, which appears to be very good too. But the options lists on these cars are long and expensive and, with the tightly-zipped money bags that today's executives tend to carry, you have to ask yourself why you would ever buy one of them when cars like the Accord and Sonata are staring you in the face.
For R299 900 including a 5-year/100 000km service plan and a 5-year/150 000km warranty, the Hyundai Sonata 2.4 Executive automatic is quite simply a bargain. Sure, I would much rather buy the Accord, but price-wise, you don't get better for your money and with value-for-money like this, the Sonata's few quirks are easily forgiven. Christo agrees with me on most points I have made on this car and he summed it up rather nicely too: "You would be stupid not to consider it".
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