Things I learned driving the 2020 Hyundai Sonata
Hyundai’s redesigned Sonata may well be the best family sedan you can buy
Igave Hyundai’s new Santa Fe a bit of a rough ride in my last road test.
Oh, it was no morceau du merde — there are precious few truly terrible cars around these days — but it had no outstanding qualities. Not a single one. The styling, the handling, even the interior décor were all hopelessly adequate; a sign, if nothing else, that as a product becomes mainstream — and SUVS are all the rage now — automakers stop swinging for the fences. Why risk a miffed homer if a bunt will easily score the winning run?
That’s certainly not the case with Hyundai’s new Sonata. Traditional family sedans are a hard sell these days, which means if you want a significant piece of a shrinking segment, you’d better stand out.
The all-new certainly Sonata does. In fact, it may lead what was threatening to become a moribund family sedan marketplace. And it does so irrespective of Hyundai’s traditional asset — a cost-cut price — instead excelling in areas where the Sonata — indeed most, if not all Hyundais — have not distinguished themselves. So, here the five attributes that may make the 2020 Sonata the best family sedan you can buy.
THE THING IS FREAKING GORGEOUS:
The new Sonata really is new and bold. Along with the derigeueur, sloped-back four-door coupe silhouette and some truly vibrant colouring, there’s an all-new chrome character line that extends all the way down both sides of the hood and into the headlights. I can’t recall any previous such shiny flourish extending forward. And the way that chrome accent ends right at the headlight, only for the headlamp’s LED daytime running lights to continue the line, is brilliant. It may not be for everyone but I think it marks a dramatic and much needed reversal in the monotony of the family sedan. And it works in pretty much all the colours that Hyundai is offering.
THE INTERIOR IS EVEN MORE STYLISH:
Too often in the corporate presentations that introduce new vehicles to the press, some arrogant stylist starts spouting off about some exterior styling flourish being carried on throughout the entire cabin as well. Except nobody can see any such continuation.
Not in the Sonata. As soon as you sit in mid-sized Hyundai you can see that same chromed character line in the front doors emulating the that exterior character line, the door handle, in fact, emulating the front DRL’S hooked continuation.
IT’S MERCEDES-LIKE INSIDE:
The entire interior design is stupendous, perhaps even more worthy of praise than the exterior. From excellent materials to the tasteful two-tone décor, this is one Hyundai interior that screams luxury.
The two-tone décor says luxury beyond its price. The 10.25-inch infotainment screen is built nicely into the dash. The touchscreen manages pretty much everything save for the climate control. Maybe the operating system is slightly different, or maybe it’s because the screen is so wide and accommodating — you can get more than one function working at a time — but I found it quite useful. Many of the cabin’s physical switches are chromed little horizontal toggles that are obvious and easy to use without distracting your eyes from the road. And, the interior is roomy and comfortable.
My one complaint is the radio’s tuning functions are way over to the right of the wide touchscreen, too far for the driver’s convenience. There’s also no radio tuning knob.
ONLY FOUR-BANGERS:
Only two engines are offered on the 2020 Sonata, and both utilize four pistons. The base engine is a good ol naturally aspirated inline-four, this one with 2.5 litres of displacement. The upmarket engine, as is the norm these days, is a turbo, but unusually it’s just a 1.6L, not the 2.0-litres typical for top-of-theline engines in this segment. As a result, they both sport about the same output — 191 horsepower for the 2.5, versus 180 for the 1.6.
Mated to the eight-speed automatic, it’s plenty peppy and pretty frugal, too: we averaged 6.7 L/100 kilometres at 125 km/h, travelling between Montreal and Toronto.
The one downside is there’s a little more NVH than usual. The 1.6L turbo-four uses direct injection; high-pressure fuel injection is more efficient than port injection but it’s noisier, so there’s a little more harshness when you rev the little boosted four above 3,000 rpm. And, although it is faint, there is also a little fuel injector clatter at idle that sounds vaguely diesel-like.
GEE-WHIZ TECH:
Indeed, in most other categories, the 2020 Sonata is the equal to the best in class. The ride, unlike the previous-gen Sonata, is firm but not rough. There is even a soupcon of feedback through the steering wheel. It’s no Ultimate Driving Machine, but it’s not all numbness.
The Sonata is also loaded with various safety gizmos, not the least of which is adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, forward-collision warning, rear cross-traffic collision avoidance and driver drowsiness detection. The neatest gimmick is the Blind-spot View Monitor — side cameras that watch overtaking cars in the lanes to your side. Flick the turn signals and you get a camera view of the side and back of your car in the gauge cluster display, all without cocking your head to the side. Be forewarned: it’s not as useful at night.
The killer app, though, is Remote Smart Parking Assist, which will move your Sonata 10 metres forward or back, into or out of a parking space or garage. Buttons on the key fob let you control the system, which uses no less than 13 sonar sensors to monitor the car’s surroundings. And even if you left the wheels cocked when you shut the Sonata down, the system will straighten the wheels before parking.
The distance the car will travel means that this is not complete self-parking, but it does allow you to park in tight spots where you might not have been able to exit the car.
The only downside is it’s only available on the top-of-the-line, $38,599 Ultimate trim. In fact, many of the goodies I’ve been lauding are only available on the Ultimate. It’s not cheap, but the additions do make it much more worthwhile than the $35,999 Luxury model that lacks those features.
None of which diminishes the new Sonata. This is arguably the best car in the family sedan segment and gets my vote for the prettiest, inside and out. It’s a booming home run with all the superlatives I found missing in the comparatively maudlin Santa Fe.