Road Test

One of the best excuses any "me-too" automotive offering can make in its defense is a killer price. Let's face it, we're all bargain hunters at heart. Sure, it's great to drive the recognized leader in room, quality, handling, ride, safety, and reliability. But for many buyers, the alluring stickers and attractive incentives on many of the lesser luminaries often prove just too good to resist. Until recently, that sweet value trap was Hyundai's main sales strategy. But things have changed with the arrival of the all-new midsize '99 Sonata.

During a recent drive through the rolling terrain and bright foliage North of Quebec City, Canada, the Sonata GLS V-6 sedan made an extremely strong case for itself, totally without regard to its still-enticing price of $17,000 fully loaded. This new Korean-built offering displayed a plethora of positive character traits one would normally associate with the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry--and possessed a healthy dollop of styling personality that's noticeably absent from those highly praised segment leaders.

In particular, the polished, but unapologetically bland, Camry appeared to be the vehicle the Koreans zeroed in on as their engineering and interior design exemplar. From a hardware standpoint, the new Sonata boasts a highly rigid, substantial-feeling body structure, a soft-stepping, sophisticated double-wishbone front suspension, and a multilink independent rear ride and handling management system. This suspension hardware in particular impressed us since most makers in the segment rely on less expensive, and generally less capable, MacPherson struts in front and Chapman struts in the rear. One important exception being the Honda Accord, which uses a double-wishbone system in front and back.

Underhood, the new Sonata offers a choice of a quiet, efficient, and zesty 2.4-liter/149-horsepower DOHC four-cylinder or a 2.5-liter/170-horse SOHC V-6 engine. Base transmission on the former is a five-speed manual, which is standard in the GLS, while the six is paired with a four-speed automatic that's an optional upgrade with the smaller engine.