Newsweek loved the new Sonata:
It’s the revenge of the nerds. The story of the Sonata, Hyundai’s midsize family sedan, goes like this: the school geek is all grown up, and now he looks like George Clooney. Well, maybe not George as much as Patrick Dempsey. Nineteen years after South Korea-based Hyundai made its American debut with the supremely shoddy Excel, the brand has morphed into a quality product. No, really. The completely redesigned Sonata, built at Hyundai’s new plant in Alabama, looks and moves like an A-list car.
Check out the road test video here.
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23 Comments
The previous model was cool, the previous previous model was cool, the previous (3x) model was nice. The only thing that never came to mind when I thought Sonata was “nerd”.
In fact, Consumer Reports says that the new Sonata is actually one of the most reliable cars in the market today! It might even be the most reliable car according to its survey (the largest of its kind). On the other hand, I believe CR makes a point of stating that the rest of the Hyundai lineup has not caught up yet and still has shoddy models.
I’ll still stick to Japanese cars for now, thanks.
And speaking of cars, check out this entry in my blog about European vs. Japanese cars and the sad comment from the first anonymous poster, in which he accuses Japanese car buyers of being liberals (I think that’s what he’s saying — not sure, what with his constant stream of invectives against Asians and Asian cars).
James
aka Guns and Butter
aka The Asianist
Hmm… First articles about Racer chix. Now history of Korean automobiles… It was bound to happen. The Webmaster is slowing becoming a Riceboy.
http://www.riceboypage.com
I jest, please don’t ban me! Admit it, you have Grand Turismo.
Speaking of Racer chix, I remember when the page was full of such delightful articles about that Francine Pieto woman and such other important subject matters within the human experience. What happened? Is Dokdo or 6 way talks or joint military exercises so much more important than Francine Pieto’s artistic works?
‘in 10 years, there probaly won’t be a hyundai.’ german car official shortly after the korean financial crisis in 97
‘who’s sorry now?’ barbara straisand
‘count the koreans out at your own risk.’ nulji
In fact, Consumer Reports says that the new Sonata is actually one of the most reliable cars in the market today!
That was for last year’s models, not the new one.
Since when did reliability become such an exciting topic? I have always thought of it as a basic, minimum requirement in purchasing a car, regardless of make or national origin. My ??73 VX Bug is reliable but you don??t see me dancing in the street because it starts every time I put the key in and turn the ignition. I am not saying that Korean cars are not reliable, I am saying that they damn well better be if they hope to sell any. What I have found disappointing about the new Sonata is that from a style point of view, it seems to have ??borrowed?? much from the Honda Accord.
James, come on. You know damn well that one of the biggest problems Hyundai faced was a big fat reliability issue. That they went from the bottom of the heap to close to the top of the mountain woudl be a major coup for any car company.
Hyundai does, as you say, damn well hope to sell some, so this means a lot.
True but I have to suspect that given their past, anyone buying one is more likely to report a very positive improvement because of lower expectations than say someone who purchases a Mercedes or a Lexus becuase those cars have a reputation and name to live up to and the accompanying expectations are disproportianatly high . I have no doubt that they have improved their quality by leaps and bounds. I met a guy in the states who traded his Volvo in on a Grandeur and now finds himself looking for excuses to drive places he likes the car so much. I am just saying there survey responses can be pretty relative.
These aren’t surveys. These are compilation of millions of records of database. Read how they are determined.
http://autos.msn.com/home/reli.....sinfo.aspx
The greatest myth is that Hyundais were not reliable. They were reliable as far back as the early 1990’s, in terms of major components not breaking down. What they were though, were cheap little transports that tended to rust easily.
Well, I heard that another thing they were was two different quality levels - domestic and export. Supposedly, cars produced for the domestic market were made to different standards of quality and safety than were cars made for export. Is that true?
I can’t read the comments because the fonts are so small.
gbnhj (#10), I have heard that many times–usually from Koreans–but I have never seen it substantiated. If there were a snopes.co.kr, that’s one of the things I’d ask them to check out.
JYC, it is a widespread belief. Or at least it was. But it was mostly related to cars, not electronics. For electronics, most Koreans probably still buy the idea that Japanese-made electronics are somewhat better than their Korean counterparts, and both are a bit better than Taiwanese stuff, and all are better than Chinese-made stuff.
Rowan, read the link in #9. It’s fairly objective criteria.
I know some of you out there are thrown into a state of cognitive dissonance whenever something positive about Korea is in the news, but the attempts to dismiss this are becoming comical.
Remember that joke in “Back to the Future,” where 1955 Doc Brown looks at the 1985 time machine parts and announces to 1985 Marty, “Here’s your problem: ‘Made in Japan!’”?
Japan started out with lower-quality but cheap stuff, and then focused on quality — successfully. Now they are the ones to beat. Many Korean companies made no secret of following that business model, and some of them have become successful. In a couple decades, maybe Chinese or Thai companies or Indian companies will be giving Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, and Kia a run for their money.
I doubt that there are really two different quality levels, that doesn’t make sense from a manufacturing point of view. More than likely what people are refering to is the difference in performance tolerances between products meant for domestic consumption and those meant for export. There was a group of people (KIA employees I think) that recently got busted for stealing parts meant to go into cars for export and then sell them on the black market here in Korea because they would enhance performance for the cars they were installed in. I think that is the essence of why Koreans tend to have this misunderstanding. It could just be a sill old wives tale like sleeping with the fan on will kill you or that charcoal will block and absorb all electromagnetic radiation in your home.
James, I had always thought the same about the impracticality of manufacturing two different quality levels within the same car.
More than likely, it may have been a reference to things like California’s strict pollution control systems, and it just got sexed up to an urban legend about exporting the good cars to the US or other countries, while the Koreans got the short end of the stick shift.
If there were a snopes.co.kr, Korean society would collapse overnight.
Is this really a widespread belief in Korea?
Maybe this kind of belief comes from the fact that there are rather noticeable price differences between the prices of the same product made by domestic electronics makers, with the price in Korea being much higher than for the same product overseas.
where do the stats for korean cars being reliable come from? if its from in korea (for korean cars) as opposed to a foreign country for foreign cars. It could be something to do with the fact that they never actually repair anything on a korean car. All a korean mechanic knows how to do is change parts. so if they don’t know whats wrong they replace parts till it works again. My 10 year old daewoo i sprob half relaced parts by now. that has to help reliability. The cost of parts is what makes this possible. parts and especially labour are a lot cheaper here, so its viable to change the parts, where its not in other countries and things are more likely to be repaired rather than replaced.
Guns and butter wrote:On the other hand, I believe CR makes a point of stating that the rest of the Hyundai lineup has not caught up yet and still has shoddy models.Can you tell me where you saw that? I looked at part of what Consumer Reports had to say through MSN or something, and I couldn’t find that. A quick glance indicated that the other cars got fairly good ratings, including on reliability.
“where do the stats for korean cars being reliable come from?”
Read again, post #9. I didn’t say “Korean cars”, I said “Hyundai”. The stats are a compilation of millions of mechanical data from North America. It’s the biggest that’s out there. It’s all there for you to view and compare each models and makes.
For instance let’s look at the year 1991.
Compare the 5 out 5 stars Hyundai Sonata
http://autos.msn.com/research/.....del=Sonata
with
everyone’s favourite, the Honda Accord with 4 out 5 stars.
http://autos.msn.com/research/.....del=Accord
Kushibo:Can you tell me where you saw that? I looked at part of what Consumer Reports had to say through MSN or something, and I couldn??t find that. A quick glance indicated that the other cars got fairly good ratings, including on reliability.I think I read that in the CR annual report (it comes as a booklet). If you check the survey, Sonata did very well in reliability but other models are, yes, still lagging behind.
Still, I must admit, the reliability of Korean cars has improved tremendously. I will nonetheless continue to buy Japanese cars for now and until someone else makes cars with as great a balance of luxury, performance, reliability and service (in fact, I just bought another Japanese car yesterday).
James J. Na
aka Guns and Butter
aka The Asianist