Another eccentric
Hyundai supplied the Sonata in the Netherlands for more than twenty years, but the model has not been found on the Dutch price lists for 13 years now. Elsewhere in the world the Sonata still exists. And how. The current generation of the once quite modest sedan is already a striking appearance, but the new model adds a big design scoop on top of that.
Hyundai is rapidly renewing its models. On cars such as the Staria, which is not available here, and the well-known new Hyundai Kona, Hyundai introduced a new design language, complete with a horizontal strip of LED daytime running lights, sharp corners and bold creases. The Hyundai Elantra and Accent were packed extravagantly not long ago and now Hyundai is performing a facelift on the now four-year-old Sonata. You guessed it: that car is now a pretty distinct appearance.
The facelifted Hyndai Sonata, like many of its sister models, now has a muzzle with two-layer lighting, so the more common single headlight units of the original have to make way. We see a strip of LED lighting over the entire width of the front. The actual headlights are located one floor below and are housed in a more or less rectangular module. A lot has also been renewed at the rear. For example, the rear lights are connected to each other as before, but in a completely different way. The part of the taillights that is located outside the tailgate retains its shape, but there is considerably less ‘lighting’. After all, the edges are now made of non-transparent plastic. Hyundai also introduces a new rear bumper on the Sonata and brings new alloys to the model. But we’re not there yet.
As if the above were not enough, the Hyundai Sonata also gets a completely new dashboard. The traditional covered instrument panel with a separate infotainment screen next to it has been replaced by a panel without a roof in which the screens are housed together. The lower part of the dashboard is also completely new and even the center tunnel between the front seats has been completely changed. The door panels have not been changed. Apparently a line has to be drawn somewhere.
Western Europe
The new Hyundai Sonata is of course not coming to Europe. The Sonata line came to an end here in 2010 when Hyundai introduced the i40 developed for Europe as a replacement. That i40 no longer exists, by the way, the model was already cut from the Dutch delivery range in 2017. Spread over several generations, the Sonata accounted for some 5,300 copies delivered in the Netherlands in more than twenty years. Successor i40 made about 4,300 Dutch deliveries.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl