At first sight, my “victim” of the week was a sterling example of an innocuous sedan. An entry-level, mid-size number designed for mass distribution like so many others. In fact, its crude plastic hubcaps did a poor job of camouflaging the black steel wheels confirming its low-end status. There I was, dismayed at the thought of a week spent driving a colourless, flavourless vehicle, inside and out. Ho hum, indeed.
Oh, but I would soon be eating my words.
The sedan standing before me, with the flowing lines of the trendy faux 4-door coupe style reinvented by Mercedes-Benz and its CLS, was an automatic Hyundai Sonata GL. A car for the masses, certainly, but a car that sucker-punched me too.
My memories of Hyundai products go far back. I’m one of the first ones who test drove the Pony, obsolete the moment it was introduced. A lovely young Korean woman in traditional garb had presented it to us.
I also drove the Stellar, a model the South Korean automaker should never have sold in Canada. I even attended the inauguration of the Canadian plant where first generation Sonatas were assembled, in Bromont, Quebec.
Nobody’s perfect.
But all it took was a few minutes behind the wheel of what I’d thought of as the “crude” sedan of a sales rep to forget the mountain of bias against Hyundai products I had amassed over the years.
Stylish
I, too, was seduced by the elegance of the Sonata’s body. Hyundai describes the design language as “fluidic sculpture.” To me, it’s simply a mass of plunging lines that you keep staring at in hopes of discovering where they end. My neighbour isn’t totally convinced though. He finds the Sonata tiring to look at. True, he drives a geriatric Camry…
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| Like the Mercedes-Benz CLS, the new Hyundai Sonata boasts a trompe-l’oeil style that some mistakenly describe as a four-door coupe. In any case, it’s beautiful. (Photo: Luc Gagné/Auto123.com) |
Oh, but I would soon be eating my words.
The sedan standing before me, with the flowing lines of the trendy faux 4-door coupe style reinvented by Mercedes-Benz and its CLS, was an automatic Hyundai Sonata GL. A car for the masses, certainly, but a car that sucker-punched me too.
My memories of Hyundai products go far back. I’m one of the first ones who test drove the Pony, obsolete the moment it was introduced. A lovely young Korean woman in traditional garb had presented it to us.
I also drove the Stellar, a model the South Korean automaker should never have sold in Canada. I even attended the inauguration of the Canadian plant where first generation Sonatas were assembled, in Bromont, Quebec.
Nobody’s perfect.
But all it took was a few minutes behind the wheel of what I’d thought of as the “crude” sedan of a sales rep to forget the mountain of bias against Hyundai products I had amassed over the years.
Stylish
I, too, was seduced by the elegance of the Sonata’s body. Hyundai describes the design language as “fluidic sculpture.” To me, it’s simply a mass of plunging lines that you keep staring at in hopes of discovering where they end. My neighbour isn’t totally convinced though. He finds the Sonata tiring to look at. True, he drives a geriatric Camry…
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| The contemporary dash literally envelops the two front occupants. (Photo: Luc Gagné/Auto123.com) |