Hyundai Sonata Turbo 2015 Review

When it was launched in January 2015, Hyundai's seventh-gen Sonata celebrated 26 years since its introduction to the Australian market. That's some history. When it first arrived the mid-size sedan was Australia's second offering from the fledgling Korean car-maker, following the Excel five-door in 1986.

The scepticism that surrounded the brand's introduction has all but been forgotten – especially with the company's recent tilt at the luxury car market with the Genesis large sedan. The rest of the range is equally impressive, earning respect from the motoring press and new-car buyers alike.

And that includes the new Sonata. Relaunched after a five-year hiatus – when the similarly-sized i40 took its place – the latest Sonata exemplifies the Hyundai of today.

The petrol-only Sonata range is now sold alongside the diesel-only i40 line-up, and is an appealingly styled, unapologetic contender in the mid-size segment. It is in lock-step with its rivals in all ways – and doesn't blanch at the idea of price-matching with European and Japanese rivals. It's not the most expensive in the segment, but it's not the cheapest either.

Checking the spec the Premium-badged flagship of the latest Sonata range, as tested here, is right in line with the likes of Ford's latest Mondeo Titanium and the Mazda Mazda6 Atenza – but is quite a bit more expensive than Toyota's premium non-hybrid Camry, the Atara SL [Ed: thanks to a recent price cut].

At the heart of the Premium-spec Sonata is an athletic, direct-injected 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo powerplant. It makes 180kW backed up by a meaty 350Nm, and winds out more punch than almost all of its nearest competitors (only the 177kW/345Nm Mondeo comes close).

It's a turbo through and through with a rowdy growl on start-up, and husky note at work. Step-off acceleration tends to be a little abrupt, and on the run is not as smooth overall as some of its peers (i.e. Mazda6).

The upside is that the Sonata Turbo is very quick on the open road. It's never bothered about overtaking and, although the traction control steps in before everything goes haywire, is often quicker off the mark than intended.

The downside is that all that power comes at the cost of fuel economy. The Sonata Turbo quotes a less favourable consumption figure than Mondeo (8.5), Mazda6 (6.6) and Camry (7.8). It's quoted at 9.2L/100km on the ADR Combined cycle, though our week of predominantly highway driving managed a Mondeo matching 8.5.

As a bonus, the Sonata Turbo runs on regular unleaded fuel (91 RON) and its 70-litre fuel tank is larger than the Toyota, Mazda or Ford. A shame, then, its tailpipe emissions fall so far behind (60g/km more than the Mazda6 at 213g/km).

Intensive Australian input to suspension tuning has brought dividends in terms of ride, handling and road grip. Prior to signing-off, the Sonata did some big kilometres in the Australian outback where various suspension combinations were tried. One car covered more than 100,000km in a process that resulted not just in many and varied spring and damper tunings but also modifications to the underbody, engine air intake and body sensors.

This shows up in a Sonata that is a decent drive. It has a nicely controlled body, confident turn-in via the well-weighted and relatively quick electrically assisted steering and good road grip on 235/45-series tyres (on 18-inch alloys).

There's little shortage of gear in any Sonata variant, either. A reversing camera, auto bi-xenon headlights, rear parking sensors, keyless entry, and LED dash display are all standard. It also scores touch-screen sat-nav, dual-zone climate-control, heated and powered leather seats, electrochromatic rear-view mirrors (yes, all three), sunroof, rain-sensing wipers and pull-up sunshades on the rear windows.

The quality and attention to detail is evident throughout the cabin, even if the layout is a little conservative. It lacks the ambience of the Mazda6 and Mondeo, and I also think the seats border on 'firm and flat' (the tendency is to sit on, rather than in them). Some compensation for this is the excellent passenger space throughout, and the generous 510-litre boot – complete with full-size spare.

However, it's very important to consider that at this stage Sonata lacks the safety systems that are becoming regular fare in many medium models. Blind-spot monitoring, autonomous emergency braking (AEB), radar cruise control and lane-departure warning are absent from Sonata, as is idle-stop fuel saving technology.

The Sonata does get all the usual safety electronics though – stability and traction control, anti-lock brakes and automatic-flashing for the stoplights when the brakes are applied hard – and an airbag count of six (no driver's knee bag though) to help qualify for a full five-star ANCAP rating.

Add all this up, and the mid-size Hyundai is a worthy mid-size contender. It has the packaging, performance and on-road dynamics to challenge anything thrown at it by its competitors and is well put together besides.

Welcome back, Sonata.