HYUNDAI/Emergency Sonata refresh

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CharBaby

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I've just recently heard(I can't remember where) that HYUNDAI is doing an emergency refresh on the SONATA as sales have plummeted since its redesign. Currently, the KIA K5(formerly the OPTIMA) is outselling the SONATA. The reason given for the SONATA's emergency refresh is its style, mainly the grill work(front end) and not because the K5 is outselling it. I like the SONATA redesign except the front end.

But, I also think(IMO) that HYUNDAI will also rearrange some to the SONATA's features and maybe add AWD to the option list as the KIA K5 is available with AWD. And I also think that the ELANTRA may be next for an emergency refresh as it too has a similar look, unless of course, its sales numbers don't reflect that. But the ELANTRA was not mentioned in the segment.

I loved the 2015-17 Sonata redesign as it had a really grown up look to it and seemed as though it would age well(until they refreshed it in 2018). The 2018 refresh was still OK IMO but I liked the '15-'17 that little bit better.
 
Yeah, the 2020/21 sonata front grill is way to aggressive. 2015-17 is the best sonata IMO.
Most new sonata I saw use the 1.6t option. Small DI turbo pulling a mid-size sedan...... Let's hope smartstream series is reliable enough.
Sonata's sale took a nose dive for a long time tho. Back to 2012 they sold 230k sonata, in 2020 the number is only 76k.
 
kinda off topic:
As a kia/hyundai owner myself, owning 5 of them total, -12 Sonata, 13 sonata,13 Kia Optima SLX, 15 Sonata Limited, and currently have the 09 Elantra, plus 13 Sonata (4 totaled because of deer!!!!) watch out they total out extremely easy, and the cost to repair is astronomical most times..

Im kinda afraid of purchasing a new one just because of how easy they total out. All of these hyundais drove after these deer incidence, but Insurance totaled all of them out.

The 15 limited was loaded to the gills, but insurance said the "sensors" for the auto braking, LDW, BSD, and everything else had to be replaced, and it drove the price through the roof.

The 21 Sonata has even more of these sensors, and computers, plus some.
 
Not really bad looking… looks like they wanted to give a sedan a coupe appearance rear end similar to the Mercedes cls and vw cc. But I’m open to a redesign, I’ll be car shopping in a few months.
 
Good, because that front end is terrible. The rest of the car looks fresh and modern.

Catfish.jpg
 
I had a '21 Sonata rental last week. All in all, not too bad looking, but I agree the front end was probably the weak spot. Also, the 2.5 NA engine that was in it seemed just barely adequate - you had to rev it hard to get it to actually go. OK for put-putting around, I suppose.
 
I'm not a fan of the huge grill look that has permeated the car industry in the last few years. I'm glad to finally see some pushback from buyers.
 
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09 GLS said:
kinda off topic:
As a kia/hyundai owner myself, owning 5 of them total, -12 Sonata, 13 sonata,13 Kia Optima SLX, 15 Sonata Limited, and currently have the 09 Elantra, plus 13 Sonata (4 totaled because of deer!!!!) watch out they total out extremely easy, and the cost to repair is astronomical most times..

Im kinda afraid of purchasing a new one just because of how easy they total out. All of these hyundais drove after these deer incidence, but Insurance totaled all of them out.

The 15 limited was loaded to the gills, but insurance said the "sensors" for the auto braking, LDW, BSD, and everything else had to be replaced, and it drove the price through the roof.

The 21 Sonata has even more of these sensors, and computers, plus some.
Click to expand...
Why would you want it back after an accident?

As far as I can tell no one is capable of performing an acceptable collision repair.
 
Yeah that front end is horrible. I could not own another one with it looking like that. I thought my 15’ was a pretty good looking car.

The interior is really nice on them though.
 
I don't mind the new design. I think it's better than some of them out there. A see an "N Line" in my driveway once the current one croaks, which is going to be awhile.
 
We looked at the Sonata and the K5 when we were car shopping six months ago. I couldn't get used to that big grill (same with the Camry) and the ride seemed so much better with the K5. The big one for us was that the K5 comes standard with AWD. We chose the K5.
 
Not a fan of the grills that look like a whale straining seawater for plankton either. I doubt the looks had a lot to do with it though, I'd wager the decline in sedan sales in the US is largely to blame. And perhaps as significantly, the Sonata was the Hyundai model most often associated with their engine failure debacle and recalls.
 
I agree with pretty much everyone else here. The ‘15-‘19 sonata had a much more agreeable look. The ‘20-‘22 Sonata I have no idea what the designers were thinking. The side looks good, rear is acceptable, front end is just inexcusable.

Funny how they messed up the Elantra too. The ‘17-‘18 arguably had the best proportions of any Elantra model to date, then they screwed it up with the triangular and trapezoidal shapes, that even continue on the latest redesign.

The Kia counterparts look much more agreeable, the current generation Forte will age well with its VW Jetta-like styling.


SMH
 
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