The 2014 Hyundai Sonata, in two words

"Just wear your damn mask..." (jimal)
12/06/2013 at 21:57 • Filed to: Test Drive, Hyundai

It's shit.

I had been working on my review of the 2013 Toyota Camry rental car we had in October, but when life (and a large deer) conspired to send our Passat back into the body shop after two short weeks, we were back into a rental. When the rep from Enterprise presented me with a 2014 Hyundai Sonata with 1,500 miles on it, my first thought was, "well, this is an interesting alternative to the boring Camry."

Boy was I wrong about that.

The only way you can say anything positive about this vehicle is if you qualify your statement with the phrase "for a Hyundai". Keeping in mind this is a base model pulling rental car duty, here are some of the "highlights" of the Sonata.

- The car is equipped with standard XM satellite radio. However, if you hit a bump any bigger than the transition between a driveway and a street, the radio changes stations on its own. I know it is changing on its own because the steering wheel mounted buttons are difficult to use when you want to, let alone by accident.

- The steering wheel has a button that allows you to select one of three steering modes; "comfort", "normal" or "sport". While each option makes the steering effort progressively heavier, none of them provide a nano of feedback. Seriously, a pizza circle nailed to a wall and spun has more steering feel than the Hyundai Sonata.

But this is just the second most annoying thing about the steering in the Sonata, the first being the exaggerated on-center feel of the steering. The steering feels like it is centered by a detent; a detent you must fight against while trying to make minor corrections as you travel down the road. At least the rim on the plastic molded base model is thin with molding flash right where your fingers wrap around the outside. In case you're wondering, that last sentence was in fact sarcastic.

- The engine idles rough enough to be felt through the brake pedal, which is something because - like the steering - you get no other feedback.

- The decklid feels like it was stamped out of a single sheet of aluminum foil, and is held up by springs taken out of a Bic clic pen.

- It has all the quirks of a Japanese luxury car from the 1980's - the bell key chime, one-touch power window only for the driver's side front, and the wiper stalk that operates backward to what I'm used to - but none of the charms or the feeling of solidity one had from a Japanese luxury car of that era.

What is strange is that this isn't my first Sonata rental, and I was looking forward to driving it because I didn't remember it being the God-awful piece of shit that it is. It reminds me of the cheap knock-off cassette players that flooded bargain basement department stores shortly after the Sony Walkman came out in the 80's. Yes, they played cassettes like the Walkman... until they invariably died because they were made in some place like North Korea and had names like Recoton or Soundesign on them. Which was fine because the grey foam they used for the headphones would have given you cancer if you wore them long enough to wear out a set of AA's anyway.

I mean, I can't even care enough about this car to look into its technical specs to see how it stacks up against the other cars in the midsize class. It just that awful and forgettable. Makes me long for the Camry, which I will review as soon as I flush this thing out of my system.

DISCUSSION (6)

jariten1781 > Just wear your damn mask...
12/06/2013 at 22:01

Yeah, these cars are total crap shoots. I've gotten nice tight well sorted ones as well as ones assembled with zip-ties and bubble gum. I had better luck with the previous generation. Luckily the Avis at SFO seems to put me in Optimas most of the time now which are quite pleasant.

benchslap > Just wear your damn mask...
12/06/2013 at 22:06

You're absolutely nuts. The current Sonata blows the Camry out of the water. The Camry is a terrible punishment of an excuse for a vehicle. The Sonata is a really quite nice family sedan.

I'm exclusively a German car owner. My last several cars have been 5 series BMWs. I was pleasantly surprised by the Sonata. And disgusted with the Camry.

VTECHonda1029 > Just wear your damn mask...
12/06/2013 at 22:23

I didnt like the Sonata the one time I was in one. Im 5' 8" for fucks sake my head shouldnt be touching the rear window glass.

syaieya > Just wear your damn mask...
12/06/2013 at 22:44

I drove the Turbo Kia Optima, a 2013 model last week. The seat was comfy and it had some toys but it just didn't feel fast. It always wanted to kick into higher gears and save fuel even when not in eco and I couldn't see any of the corners of the vehicle.

I got so fed up with it killing power that I kept the traction off and the shifter in manual mode. It just, didn't cooperate. I can't see how anyone would want a car that deliberately does what you don't want it to do.

Just wear your damn mask... > benchslap
12/07/2013 at 06:48

Name one way that the Sonata "blows the Camry out of the water". I'm sorry, but your Camry feelings aside, for you to be "pleasantly surprised" about the Sonata after owning several 5 Series BMWs says as much about how far BMW has fallen as anything positive about the Hyundai.

Kickplate > Just wear your damn mask...
12/07/2013 at 14:36

There seems to be a lot of confusion around the Hyundai brand. A ton of people say "Hyundais are actually really good cars." But what they mean is "Hyundais are actually really good cars compared to the utter trash they used to sell."

As much as some people will argue otherwise, the reality is they still aren't really very good. But they're fine basic transportation that lasts a couple years before problems start to emerge.