New Hyundai Sonata ? More Quality
By Frank S. Washington
SUPERIOR TOWNSHIP, MI ? I came here to test drive the new version of Hyundai?s bread and butter car, the 2011 Sonata sedan. The Korean automaker sells more Sonatas than any other model.
I found a couple of things of note about the new Sonata which has been on sale for several months. First, 
there has been an increase in horsepower. The 2011 Sonata?s 2.4-liter four cylinder engine generates 198 horsepower (it notches up to 200 horsepower for the SE dual exhaust model) and 184 pound-feet of torque.
There was also a fuel saving six-speed automatic transmission and a six-speed manual gear box. The automatic is rated at 22 mpg/city and 35 mpg/HWY while the manual get 24 mpg/city and 35 mpg/HWY.
I didn?t get a chance to drive the manual transmission. But I found the 2011 Sonata with the automatic to be smooth and pretty quiet. However, I do think that Hyundai?s engineers should work on bringing the RPM range for torque maximum lower.
Once, I needed to really accelerate and the Sonata could have been a little quicker. Still, I did get where I needed to go without a mishap. That?s my powertrain peeve.
Anyway, rather than produce a V6, Hyundai will produce a 2.0-liter turbocharged four cylinder engine that will join the lineup later this summer. That represents a continuation of the automaker?s effort to have the most fuel efficient lineup in this market.
Although the 2011 Sonata is rated as a midsize sedan based on its exterior dimensions, the interior was very spacious. My driving partner pointed out that width creates comfort in passenger cabins, not length.
We managed to get in all three models with an automatic transmission and really didn?t find anything to gripe about. We found ourselves in cars with two-tone interiors ? one we liked, one we didn?t and the third one we were sort of so-so about.
The point is that tastes are subjective and Hyundai provides a decent number of colors to choose from: there are 10 exterior colors and four interior color schemes. There was something else I noted about the 2011 Hyundai Sonata. It is pursuing a trend that was talked about a while ago when gasoline prices were on the rise.
What?s happening is the advent in the U. S. of small well equipped cars like in Europe. In the case of the Hyundai Sonata, it can be equipped with satellite radio, Bluetooth and Bluetooth streaming audio, a sunroof, push button start/stop, a navigation system, rearview camera, IPod and USB jacks, CD/MP3 players, a seat warmers and of course a premium audio system.
Some of this equipment is standard and some of it is optional. No matter, this is the sort of equipment that was unheard of in a vehicle that cost less than $30,000 a few years ago. And in the case of the 2011 Sonata, it can be had for a lot less. There are three models: the SE, the GLS and the Limited.
Base prices start at $19,915 for a GLS with a manual transmission and base prices top out at $28,115 for a Limited model with a navigation package.
The 2011 Sonata looked like it had been sculpted from a solid piece of metal, it had the silhouette of a coupe and the interior layout focused on the center stack that was prominent but did not dominate the interior of the car.
The raked roofline prompted me to get in the back seat to check out headroom. It was snug but at least I could sit up straight and my head did not brush up against the headliner. There was also a fair amount of hip and leg room.
I?d like to get a 2011 Hyundai Sonata for a week long test drive on some real streets versus the winding two-lane rural roads that we were driving on here. But my initial impression is that Hyundai has come up with yet another quality product at a very reasonable price.
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