Hyundai Sonata DE-SEXIFYING IN THE NAME OF SALES.

THE STYLISH, SWOOPY LAST-GEN SONATA was a raging success, with sales limited only by
Now Hyundai wants to chase the customers it didn’t get last time, rebooting the brand for those who favor value-oriented bread and a blander brand of butter.

Take a second to parse that idea out: A modern car company is  dialing down the youthful mojo to attract more Accord- and Camr y- cross-shoppi ng Nor-mals? Well, that’s a . . . plan.

The most popular versions will have the old Sonata’s 2.4-liter and turbo 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines, now with less power but more usable torque. The 245-hp 2.0T is stout on paper, but in concert with its lazy six-speed automatic, it delivers its ponies with little enthusiasm.

Hyundai Sonata

The new Eco trim proves to be the most engaging. It introduces an eager Turbocharged 1.6-liter  four  to  the  Sonata’s  engine  bay,  and it adds the company’s first seven-speed dry-dual-clutch transmission, tuned for efficiency.

The 177-hp Eco is up to 346 pounds lighter than the top-spec model, which helps it out-shine the 2.0T in driver engage-ment, and its column-mounted electric power steering isn’t appre-ciably worse than Hyundai’s rack-mounted unit. It’s expected to get 28 mpg city, 38 mpg highway, or  2 mpg combined better than a four-cylinder Accord and 3 mpg over the base 2.4 Sonata.

Hyundai says the Eco model is an experi-ment to gauge interest in this kind of package.

We think the whole Sonata is an interesting experiment, and the reversion to sober styling will prove whether the last example’s appeal was merely skin-deep.
Hyundai’s lagging production capacity.

PRICE  $21,960
POWERTRAIN
2.4-liter I-4, 185 hp,
178 lb-ft; FWD,
6-speed automatic
WEIGHT 3252 lb
EPA CITY/HWY
25/37 mpg
ON SALE Now