As you likely saw on the homepage today, our test of our 2011 Sonata is done. (You can read the wrap-up article here.) So that got me thinking a little about our test car. I don't think I'll miss it in the way I would love to have back some other past cars in our fleet (like the M3 or R8, for instance). But that's not surprising given that the Sonata is a mainstream family sedan, not a sports car.
Where the 2011 Sonata will stand out for me, though, is the way it finally became the car that got the majority of Americans to really take notice of Hyundai.
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Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
The Venetian Red 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS has left our offices, and on its last night in our fleet, I mounted a camera in the car, hit "record" and set out on Interstate 10. What follows after the jump is sure to be among the most riveting 9 minutes and 59 seconds of your life. At the 6:17 mark, I gently pass a Tacoma PreRunner.
Or not. Actually, if you get carsick easily, don't watch it. I mounted the Kodak ZX3 camera on the rear passenger-side window, bracing it against the B-pillar to minimize shake. And indeed shake is minimized, but instead of a head-on view out the windshield, you're kind of looking at the driver askance as if you were in the passenger seat... while enjoying a view of the LA skyline at dusk.
You'll get a taste of the engine noise during merging and passing from the first 60 seconds of the video. It's hard to get a feel for road noise from a lo-fi video, but my ears tell me it's moderate in the Sonata, and I think that's more or less appparent in the video -- you can follow the play-by-play for Tuesday's Angels/Rays game on the radio.
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Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
We aim to drive 20,000 miles in our long-term test cars within their year of residence. Some cars get plenty of road time and have no problem making this mark. They are chosen for road trips and vacations.
Our Hyundai Sonata will be about 400 miles short of our goal when it leaves us in a day or two.
It's always sad to see a car leave the fleet. I wonder why we couldn't quite make the 20,000-mile mark on this car. It was a nice car. It's comfortable. It has an automatic transmission. It gets good gas mileage. Sometimes, it just doesn't happen. Any ideas?
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor @ 19,600 miles
Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
I'm not a fan of the two-tone camel colored interior in our Hyundai Sonata. I'm not a fan of tan interiors in general, but the camel color of our Sonata is too bright for my tastes. I prefer the black interior with the gray trim. However, if you want the car in Venetian Red, like our Sonata, the dark interior is not an option. If it were my money, I'd get the car in Phantom Black Metallic with the black interior.
Which interior do you prefer? There's a photo of the camel interior after the jump.
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Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
One year in the hands of our thirty something editors doesn't give any car much shade from the hard light of reality. While it might not uncover failures that can only happen after seven to ten years, 20,000 miles in our hands is nothing to scoff at. This weekend, I reached the conclusion that the 2011 Hyundai Sonata is nothing to scoff at either.
It's a solid car, and a solid choice.
We dropped nearly 900 miles on its head over the past three days - on only two tanks of gas mind you - and I was surprised at this car's all around competency. The strength of the Sonata on this trip was the smoothness and isolation of the drivetrain. It made me forget, not only my elevated speed, but that the Sonata is powered by a four cylinder engine. This is the same engine got us from Mill Valley (north of San Francisco) back to the South Bay (south of Los Angeles) without stopping for fuel. It never lacked for power or composure.
Here's the fuel economy for the trip. Note that each tank had one leg of the highway trip plus a few miles driving around town. We made no attempt to hyper-mile nor did we shy away from mashing the accelerator to floor to merge, or pass, traffic.
Tank one - 422.8 miles on 14.777 gallons for 28.61 mpg
Tank two - 452.0 miles on 14.801 gallons for 30.54 mpg
Kurt Niebuhr, Photo Editor @ 19,021 miles
Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
The other morning I was walking to where the Hyundai Sonata was parked on a side street. There was a small army of construction workers nearby, completing some residential road work.
As I approached the Sonata, I heard one of the guys whistle. Secretly, I was pleased.
Until he yelled, "Nice car!"
I'll miss the Sonata when it leaves our fleet. But maybe not the competition.
Kelly Toepke, News Editor
Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
Our long-term Sonata is approaching its one-year anniversary with us. Inevitably, that means I'm running out of things to say about it. Overall, I like it and wouldn't hesitate recommending it to car shoppers. But I've said that all before. It seems like everything about this car has been flushed out in the last 10 months, so rather than meekly posting some inane comment on the exhaust bearings or checking the horn fluid levels, I'm going to turn it over to you, our readers. What do you want to know about the Sonata? I'll be checking in regularly to answer your comments and I encourage my colleagues to chime in whenever they see fit, too. The floor is yours.
Mark Takahashi, Associate Editor
Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
I wish I had some revelation for you. Some insight you haven’t heard before. But I don’t.
I drove our long-term 2011 Hyundai Sonata 820.6 miles in two days and all I have for you is more praise. It was the perfect car for the trip; quiet, extremely comfortable and very fuel efficient. It had plenty of power when I needed it and it covered 517.6 miles on the first of its two tanks of regular. Unlike the Volt, which I also drove to San Fran and back last month, the Sonata didn’t need a gas stop until Salinas on the way back.
And its navigation system is fantastic. One of the easiest to use I’ve ever used. Sure the screen is a little small, but it’s accurate and extremely simple to program. I never had to RTFM. And not once did I get frustrated with its interface.
I drove Interstate 5 on the northbound leg, so I changed routes on the way home, taking 101 South to 46 East to 5 South.
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Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
On Monday I drove our long-term 2011 Hyundai Sonata from Los Angeles to San Francisco. On Wednesday I drove it back. It was an 820.6 mile road trip that includes a fair amount of grades, including the dreaded Grapevine (Google it.), during which the Sonata drank 25.8 gallons of regular.
That's an average of 31.8 mpg.
So, are you impressed, disappointed or just not interested?
Scott Oldham, Editor in Chief @ 17,854 miles
Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
Last week we asked you which long-term car I should take on a road trip to San Fran and back. You overwhelmingly voted for the Infiniti M56, which is a great choice. But I've decided to take our Hyundai Sonata instead. Whoa, don't hate. I have two very good reasons for taking the Sonata.
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Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
Our data team recently put together a list of the cars with the lowest maintenance and repair costs (more on that to come on Straightline), and the Sonata finished in second place. Our wonks estimate maintenance and repair expenses for the Sonata to total $2,495 over the car's first five years of ownership.
Under maintenance costs, the data team considered both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. Under repair costs, they considered repairs not covered by the vehicles' manufacturer warranties, assuming 15,000 miles are driven each year.
Are you surprised at the Sonata's strong showing?
Warren Clarke, Automotive Content Editor
Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
I took our 2011 Hyundai Sonata on a quick weekend get away, and I was both impressed and disappointing at the same time. Like Chris Walton, I was impressed with the range of the Sonata. I was able to drive 464.8 miles on a single tank, not a record for our Sonata but not bad either.
The disappointment came when I calculated the mpg for that tank of gas. It came out to be 29.6 mpg, which is a little short of the estimated 35 mpg highway the Sonata claims to get. I know that driving style and conditions can play a big part in fuel consumption but this trip happened to be about as perfect driving condition as one is going to get in the real world. The trip was virtually 100% highway driving, little to no wind, mostly straight, and the cruise control on at 70 mph the entire time.
Don't get me wrong 29.6 mpg is still quite good, it's just a little disappointing when the estimate is 35 mpg.
Seth Compton, Field Producer @ 16,716 miles
Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
So the Sonata had another good month in April, with sales up 17 percent year-over-year. Still, that wasn't enough to make it Hyundai's biggest hit last month -- that honor went to the Elantra, which sold 22,100 units to the Sonata's 21,738. According to Hyundai, the Elantra "is outselling all other 40-mpg compacts by a margin of six to one."
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Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
"Why don't you call us more often?" my mom would always ask me. Argh. The fact is I'm not much of a phone person anyway so she really shouldn't take it personally. I rather use text messaging and emails for casual communication. That way I don't interrupt the recipient of said messages in the middle of their day and they can get back to me whenever. Plus, I'm not big on chitchat. In any case, I realized that thanks to cars like our 2011 Hyundai Sonata with its Bluetooth hands-free ability, I do call my mom a lot more now.
I know this isn't something that's special only to the Sonata but I came to the above realization when I was driving the Hyundai the other day. It was an especially heinous rush hour and with nothing to do but stop and go, I decided to call her up again, even though I had just spoken with her the day before when I was in the Kia Optima. Needless to say, she was delighted.
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Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
A few people here have noted that the beige seats in our long-term 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS are quite stain-resistant.
Now I know why. The seats in our Sonata feature Yes Essentials fabric, which they claim are spill-, odor-, bacterial-resistant, etc.
But they didn't mention anything about dog hair, so I guess if that happens again we'll have to bust out the super tape.
Albert Austria, Senior VE Engineer @ 16,200 miles
Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
I noticed Donna's post about the poor design of the Optima's shifter and iPod cable. So I took a look at our Sonata to see if Hyundai did it any better. Sure enough, the Sonata's setup is ever so slightly improved, at least in my eyes.
For one, the shifter itself is slimmer, taller and has the button on the backside so it doesn't look so clunky. Also note that because our Sonata lacks the seat heater/cooler switches on the console, there's an extra slot to hold an iPhone after plugging it in. I don't remember the exact action of the lever in the Optima, but the shifter in the Sonata is light yet precise. In other words, a solid setup. Funny how two cars that are so alike can feel so different.
Ed Hellwig, Editor, Inside Line
Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
For the long weekend I had our 2011 Hyundai Sonata, a fact that made me nervous because of dog + beige seats = disaster. I had to drive my dog down to Long Beach for a play date and was really concerned about how to transport her without harming the near-pristine state of the Sonata's beige seats. After all, editor Warren had blogged about how good a job they were doing resisting our editors' grime. I didn't want to be the one person to dirty them up.
So not only did I put down a blanket for the dog in the backseat, but I also made her wear a doggy diaper to be extra safe. Yes, there is such a thing; it has a cut-out for the dog's tail. And no, I didn't want to post a picture of her wearing said diapers because no one should be shamed in public like that. In any case, we made the trip without incident.
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Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
You could get a brain aneurysm trying to pick a car in the midsize-sedan segment. There's just so much talent there. The Fusion really engages on the road but I like the Kizashi's refinement. And you can't ignore the lively Mazda 6.
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Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
I'd like to know who is responsible for inputing racetrack data in the Hyundai Sonata's navigation system and buy him/her an adult beverage of his/her choice.
Chief Road Test Editor, Chris Walton
Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
I filled up the Hyundai Sonata GLS this morning, thinking that I was being brave by waiting until the trip meter read, "416.8 mi." So I flipped through the fuel log to see how many other fills were done with 400 or more miles on the clock. It turns out, at least a third of us have driven this far on a tank and one of us went 522.1 miles on a tank. That's some serious range, like L.A. to San Francisco without stopping sort of range. Wow. I'm not so brave, nor so efficient after all.
Chief Road Test Editor, Chris Walton @ 15,937 miles
Categories: 2011 Hyundai Sonata GLS
