The way Hyundai tells it, the last Sonata was fine but kinda dull. This is, they say, because they were chasing best-in-class interior space at the expense of design.
Believe that if you want, but now Hyundai product planners say leading the specifications charts is not enough. SUVs of equal footprint have more space by nature, so sedans need something else to pull you in. The new strategy embraces the idea that a car purchase is more often​ an emotional one than a coldly logical one. It plays to your heart. Ideally, a car will hook your right brain with sleek, standout design and a comfortable, easy driving experience, then reel in your left brain with a laundry list of standard and optional features at an aggressive price point.
Solid strategy by the sound of it, but does the Sonata deliver? You bet it does.
Design is purely subjective, but love it or not, it’s hard to deny the Sonata looks more conventionally attractive than the Accord, Camry, or Altima. Even if it’s not your flavor, you have to respect it for pulling no punches. This car stands out, and that alone is attractive.
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BEST OF TIMES, WORST OF TIMES
THAT CRAZY YEAR IN WHICH A SMALLER FIELD MADE THINGS HARDER
AGAINST ALL ODDS
FILMING TOP GEAR AMERICA AT THE HEIGHT OF A PANDEMIC
The Italian Job: I've owned one car almost 30 years. And hardly driven it.
Our story begins more than four decades ago when I decided I had to buy a sports car.
MT GARAGE
Updates on our long-term fleet
4 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4
I could be blindfolded and tell you I was driving a Porsche
Intake 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E
My first Ford Mustang tri-bar taillights, roofline, and a had a 4.6-liter V-8, dash-to-axle ratio reminiscent five-speed manual, of the rear-wheel-drive—but that’s and rear-wheel drive. My next might have two electric motors, single-speed automatic gearboxes, and all-wheel drive.
7 Porsche Cayenne Turbo Coupe
Forget physics, Porsche’s uber-SUV is right at home at Best Driver’s Car
5 Chevrolet Corvette Z51
The new mid-engine layout places Chevy in exotic car territory
2021 Ford F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid
Quick as a Raptor and can power your house
THREE - PEAT
THE RAM BRAND DOES IT AGAIN WITH ITS STELLAR PICKUP PLATFORM RUN RIOT
STATE POLICE DROPS PHONE APP THAT MAKES TEXTS DISAPPEAR
The Michigan State Police told officers to remove a phone app that keeps no record of outgoing text messages, a newspaper reported this week.
THE IN-BETWEENER
This Budget-Built Nova Turned Into a Pro Touring Terror.
LATE SALES REBOUND HELPS US AUTOMAKERS AVOID 2020 DISASTER
Sales of new vehicles in the U.S. fell 14.6% last year, but a second-half rebound from a coronavirus-related plunge in the spring kindled optimism for a recovery later this year.
Shifting Gears
Detroit pivots to next-generation mobility and other new industries.
What Is Cylinder Head Swirl and Tumble, and Why Is It Important?
We think of electronic engine management systems and multiport electronic fuel injection (EFI) as primarily responsible for the improved air/fuel distribution and performance as Detroit clawed its way back in the mid 1980s, but—good as they were for that day—initially the new electronics were just Band-Aids grafted onto carryover engine designs. The big change started in the 1990s, when the OEs started tinkering with cylinder head design to induce swirl and tumble in internal combustion engines.
DETROIT RESIDENTS CONCERNED ABOUT TRAFFIC CAMERA EXPANSION
Detroit officials’ plan to install 200 more traffic light-mounted cameras at city intersections is facing community resistance amid privacy and racial discrimination concerns.
THE BAD AIR ABOVE MEETS THE VIRUS BELOW
Have decades of industrial buildup around a patch of Southwest Detroit left residents especially vulnerable to Covid-19?
CLEANSING THE WORLD OF EVIL
Theresa Flores Survived the Horrors of Human Trafficking to Tell Her Story and Found The SOAP Project. Now She Leads the Fight to Heal, Educate, and Eradicate This Silent Epidemic
The HiHi System
New York’s foremost regional-food geeks revive the criminally underrepresented slider.
MARIO MOORE
Several Lifetimes in Portraits for Princeton