Driving Sports

Like most parents of teens, I’m often called upon to pick up my daughter and one or more of her friends and deliver them all to their various homes. They have few preconceived notions about what constitutes a desirable car or a premium brand. So it was educational to spend a week driving the new 2009 Hyundai Sonata. The car delivered to me was the upscale Limited V6 edition.

Now, most folks wouldn’t put Hyundai and luxury in the same sentence. Hyundai was among the first wave of Korean automakers to enter the U.S. market in the 1980s with low-priced economy cars – undercutting the Japanese in the same way those manufacturers had undercut the Big 3 a decade before.

But as time goes on, all automakers tend to move up-market. Maybe this is because loyal customers buy economy cars when they’re young and then demand better cars from their favorite brand as their economic status rises. Maybe it’s because there’s more profit margin in a nicer car, or maybe it’s just because every automaker wants to make something really nice.

But the best of all possible worlds is to offer that really nice car at a bargain basement price. That’s the combination that produces loyal customers. And it’s what Hyundai has done with the 2009 Sonata. The car comes in a 4-cylinder version that starts at an attractive $18,795, and the base price on the high-end Limited V6 edition is an astonishing $25,670.

For this price, you get a genuinely nice and well-built four door 5-passenger sedan. The car’s looks are as nice as any comparable Japanese or domestic ride. For comparison, the new Chevy Malibu costs precisely the same as the Hyundai when both are equipped with an automatic transmission. The Toyota Camry costs $585 more than the Sonata when both are equipped with a manual transmission. Chevy doesn’t offer the Malibu with a manual, so advantage goes to Hyundai in that regard, too.

Inside, the Sonata has all modern conveniences, including leather, navigation, a nice stereo, satellite radio, Homelink, heated power seats, sunroof, and so on. The seats are comfortable, the ride is quiet, and the 3.3-liter V6 engine powers the Sonata as confidently as any sedan in its class.

Best of all, the V6 gets 19/29 MPG and delivers 249 horsepower in exchange. The 2.4-liter 4-cylinder Sonata gets 22/32 MPG out of its 175 horsepower plant. Either car is a good choice, but at the low price point of the Sonata I’ll take the V6 and still get just about 30 MPG.

Driving the Sonata is fun. You wouldn’t think a quintessential family and business sedan like this would be that much fun, but it is. You’re comfortable, the car’s got plenty of guts, it corners nicely, and all the features are easy to operate. In a week of driving, I didn't have any gripes with the Sonata. Score!

The bottom line on the new 2009 Hyundai Sonata Limited V6 is this – when I picked up my daughter and her friends, they bounded into the spacious back seat and exclaimed, “Oh cool, you brought the fancy car!” They never saw the sticker price and couldn’t have told you who made the Sonata – they just see the car for what it is.