I rented a Hyundai Sonata today for a work trip. I did about 300 miles return and these were my impressions:
1. When I received the car I checked the oil level. It was 12 oz low and I added Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30 to bring it up to level. TYpical for a rental unfortunately.
2. The car only had about 5500 miles on it. Has never been serviced since delivery. I suspect that it would have a 15,000km / 9600 mile service interval.
3. Tyre pressures were all over the place between 31 and 34 (Recommended 33 psi all tyres on the door jamb label).
4. The economy was reasonably good. The average mileage on the trip was 33 MPG / 7.1 L per 100km. This is pretty good for a 2.4L engine. It has the GDI engine. the mileage went as high as 37 MPG (6.4 L per 100km) on the average reading for the first 100 miles until I went up a 3000 ft rise over about 10 miles.
5. THe interior is very chintzy and glossy black plastics. Really not my style. Also, this glossy surfaces reflect a lot of things that fly past the car, and it distracted me quite often. Not a good idea!
6. I could not get a comfortable seating position. I didn't know what to do with my legs - I had to keep my inner thigh muscle stressed because if i leatn it against the door as I do in my camry, the sonata has a very hard surface there that bites into the side of my knee (i'm 6'2").
7. The seat back was either too upright or too flat - there was no middle setting I would have found ideal.
8. One good thing is that this car is the only one i've come across that actually has the headrest come out to the correct height so that tall people also have whiplash protection.
9. The rear seat is really sculpted to 2 people only with 1/2 a middle seat. For families this could be a problem.
10. Visibility was really poor at the A pillar - it blocks out entire stretches of road. Also could not get to see my blind spot over the hsoulder - due to wide B pillar.
11. Boot is of a reasonable size but the opening is quite small from bottom to top.
12. The cruise control worked really nicely.
So although most of my points here are negative ones, it wasn't a terrible experience, but I would not spend my own money on this car. I am really dreading having to ever buy a new car. Even the current model camry has some similar issues - I fear the new direction car design has gone into.
1. When I received the car I checked the oil level. It was 12 oz low and I added Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30 to bring it up to level. TYpical for a rental unfortunately.
2. The car only had about 5500 miles on it. Has never been serviced since delivery. I suspect that it would have a 15,000km / 9600 mile service interval.
3. Tyre pressures were all over the place between 31 and 34 (Recommended 33 psi all tyres on the door jamb label).
4. The economy was reasonably good. The average mileage on the trip was 33 MPG / 7.1 L per 100km. This is pretty good for a 2.4L engine. It has the GDI engine. the mileage went as high as 37 MPG (6.4 L per 100km) on the average reading for the first 100 miles until I went up a 3000 ft rise over about 10 miles.
5. THe interior is very chintzy and glossy black plastics. Really not my style. Also, this glossy surfaces reflect a lot of things that fly past the car, and it distracted me quite often. Not a good idea!
6. I could not get a comfortable seating position. I didn't know what to do with my legs - I had to keep my inner thigh muscle stressed because if i leatn it against the door as I do in my camry, the sonata has a very hard surface there that bites into the side of my knee (i'm 6'2").
7. The seat back was either too upright or too flat - there was no middle setting I would have found ideal.
8. One good thing is that this car is the only one i've come across that actually has the headrest come out to the correct height so that tall people also have whiplash protection.
9. The rear seat is really sculpted to 2 people only with 1/2 a middle seat. For families this could be a problem.
10. Visibility was really poor at the A pillar - it blocks out entire stretches of road. Also could not get to see my blind spot over the hsoulder - due to wide B pillar.
11. Boot is of a reasonable size but the opening is quite small from bottom to top.
12. The cruise control worked really nicely.
So although most of my points here are negative ones, it wasn't a terrible experience, but I would not spend my own money on this car. I am really dreading having to ever buy a new car. Even the current model camry has some similar issues - I fear the new direction car design has gone into.
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