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REVIEW: Sonata goes down smooth

You know who makes a decent cup of coffee? McDonald's. I know, I know, it's no match for that artisanal, hand-roasted, high-falutin' stuff, but as a decent cup of joe, McDonald's has really stepped up their game of late.

You know who makes a decent cup of coffee? McDonald's.

I know, I know, it's no match for that artisanal, hand-roasted, high-falutin' stuff, but as a decent cup of joe, McDonald's has really stepped up their game of late.

You can even get espresso-style drinks at the golden arches, which brings me around to the car we've got here in front of us. It's early on a weekday morning, I've got a small coffee in my hand, and I'm looking at Hyundai's wellpriced, economical-to-run family sedan. The two are not dissimilar.

This Limited trim model comes with all sorts of stuff you'd expect to find only in a higher echelon of automobile. Adaptive cruise control? Heated rear seats?

A nine-speaker, 400-watt stereo? Geez, that's a lot of stuff.

And yet, it's a Hyundai, a brand that's based on value. I take a swig of coffee, plonk the cup in the Sonata's (huge) cupholders, hit the push-button starter, and slot the transmission into drive. McDonald's knows a thing or two about pleasing the masses. Let's see if Hyundai does too.

Design

The previous Sonata was quite the looker, and by that I of course mean that it was styled six ways from Sunday. There were all kinds of sharp creases and flowing surfaces going on, but the key feature was a large, open, Audi-style grille up front. The hybrid model in particular looked a bit like a wheeled basking shark.

This new car is much more reserved, although it has a few interesting touches like that strip of chrome that runs right out along the hood to the headlights. The multispoke wheels are attractive enough, and seem to have been borrowed from the Genesis lineup.

You still get a sharply creased styling line, a double-swoosh of LED lighting up front, and a strip of chrome down either

flank, but the Sonata plays a far more cohesive tune than before. It's perhaps a little less exciting, but everything seems to flow together a little more evenly. Practice makes perfect.

Environment

Inside, it's much the same story. The interior seems simplified, bringing the controls together into a thin row of buttons with the air-conditioning controls below and a touchscreen above.

There are quite a lot of buttons, and they do interesting things: one changes the car between sport, normal, and eco modes, and another activates a heated steering wheel. Neat!

But despite all the gee-whiz gizmos, Hyundai's managed to put together an interior that's uncluttered. If we're bringing it back to the coffee analogy again, there's an evenness to the flavour, without too many highs and low. The epithet for this is to call it bland, but the Sonata's straightforward simplicity works.

I'm less of a fan of the seats themselves, which are very firm, front and rear. There is, however, plenty of space to be found, with rear legroom slightly up year-over-year. A huge panoramic sunroof contributes to the feeling of airiness. The trunk is the size of BC Place.

With wood trimmings and little bolstering to the seats, you immediately know that this isn't the sporty one (you might need the turbo model to scratch that particular itch). Perhaps then a better test would be to hit the Trans-Canada at 8:30 a.m. Hello gridlock.

Performance

Fewer horsies underhood means that the Sonata now gallops a little more leisurely down an onramp. The 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine makes 185 horsepower at 6,000 r.p.m., five fewer than last year's model. Torque has been increased at the lower end of the rev range, and now sits at a peak of 178 foot-pounds at 4,000 r.p.m. The turbocharged 2.0-litre kicks things up to 245 h.p. and 260 foot-pounds.

In the volume-selling normally aspirated model, performance is punchy enough in normal and sport modes. Leave it in eco, however, and the six-speed automatic and soft pedal responses aren't much fun.

The suspension is very smooth, as is the shifting of the transmission. The direct-injection engine is really quite noisy when cold - the high-pressure injectors in most cars like this always sound like a sticky valve - but gets smoother when it reaches operating temperature. Once traffic gets moving, wind noise is almost completely absent.

Steering errs on the side of ease-of-effort over feel, but placing the car in sport mode actually firms things up to a pleasing degree. There's also some surprisingly good lateral grip, meaning that a zip up the Sea-to-Sky would be a scoot rather than a wallow.

Just like its interior and exterior appearances, the Sonata's drive is polished - polished to the point that there's not a lot of excitement to be found. It has to be said that the adaptive cruise control is not as refined as other marques either.

However, as a smooth and easy-to-drive car with an impressive suite of safety features and a stereo that doesn't distort a note even when cranked right to the pegs, the Sonata does its job well. Call it a smooth blend.

Features

Limited trim on the Sonata includes a list of items that is literally too long to fit on a single computer screen. Of particular note are the aforementioned heated seats at all four corners, rear air vents, eight-inch touchscreen navigation, and nicely tucked away USB connections. Parents will also appreciate the rear sunshades.

The navigation is easy to use and very high in resolution. Touchscreen functions work well, for the various menus, and the voice commands work just fine as well.

Fuel economy is rated under the new 2015 five-cycle method at 9.8 litres/100 kilometres in the city and 6.7 l/100 km on the highway. Real world fuel consumption split the difference at 8.9 l/100 km, not far off the stated mixed-mileage figure. The base Sonata GL starts at $24,000.

Green light

Reserved, broadly appealing styling; sensible interior; long features list.

Stop sign

A few polarizing elements; very firm seats; unpainted rear backup sensors look unfinished.

Checkered flag

Premium-style features for the cost of a coffee.

Competitor

Honda Accord ($24,050): Priced not far off the Sonata's blend of value and content is the Honda Accord. Call it the Tim Horton's of cars.

Actually, the Accord is pretty fun to drive, even in its most basic models. There's a CVT as the automatic option, which does a fine job of ironing out the drive, but you also get paddle-shifters and/or a proper manual transmission if you're willing to order one.

Where the Honda sits back a little is that its feature list is shorter than the Hyundai's, and the Korean car has a more sensible, less cluttered interface. In the battle of the H badges, it's a tough call.

mcaleer.nsnews@gmail.com