2011 Hyundai Sonata: Weekend Warrior

Jul 15 2010 by Jennifer Newman

It had been nearly four months since I last drove the 2011 Hyundai Sonata for the $25,000 Family Sedan Shootout. This time around, I had my own family in the midsize sedan, and we were all impressed by it.

When my sons, ages 7 and 3, first saw the Sonata, with its bold grille and sculpted looks, they thought it was a racecar. While I wouldn’t call it a racecar, I would call it fun to drive with its four-cylinder engine. Hyundai is adding a turbo engine to the Sonata lineup, so that one might deserve my sons’ racecar moniker.

With leather seats, a moonroof and a gorgeous-looking center stack, the Sonata has a luxurious feel that made my weekend errands a lot more tolerable.  On this weekend, I had to pick up a swim noodle among other items at my local big-box store. I figured it wouldn’t fit in the Sonata’s trunk without bending it, but it did with ease. The Sonata’s trunk is gigantic at 16.4 cubic feet, which is among the largest in its segment, but what really impressed me was its ability to handle my run to Costco, which included a 40-pound bag of dog food. While I’m not buying jumbo-size boxes of diapers anymore, I have no doubt that the Sonata’s trunk could have easily held a couple of them, too.

My boys had plenty of legroom in the Sonata, and they were enamored with the backseat’s reading lights. The two lights turned on and off with a push of the finger, which they thought was cool. It was so cool that they couldn’t stop pushing the lights – even after repeated warnings to stop (and empty threats to never allow them in a test car again). They finally jammed one of the lights in the On position. After five minutes of pushing the light in various spots, I unjammed it. Hyundai needs to make a sturdier set of reading lights in the backseat that can stand up to kids’ poking. I can offer my children as testers if it’d help. 

Installing my youngest son’s forward-facing convertible seat was somewhat difficult in this midsize sedan. The lower Latch anchors are buried under stiff seat cushions, making it hard to install the car seat. My older son had problems with his booster seat sliding over the top of the seat belt receptor, but he was able to fix the problem without any help from me.

It’s easy to see why the Sonata won Cars.com’s $25,000 Family Sedan Shootout. This midsize sedan successfully mixes a sporty design with a roomy, luxurious interior.