Interactive Review: 2020 Hyundai Sonata Limited 1.6T

15 hours ago, ocnblu said:

We've had plenty of Venue SE where I work, in various colors.  I stand by my assertion that Trailblazer L, available only in white, is persona non grata when it comes to availability.

If you had the power to infer, you'd know that price is of paramount concern.  None of the "competitors" you list in base trim are ever put on dealer lots... they are price leaders for ad purposes only, where Hyundai makes the base car as accessible as the uplevel trims.

Interesting as I cannot find any Venue SE cheap bottom line auto's, but I do find plenty of mid range and up, so your in the 24K and up price range.

I also did not find any TB L but found plenty of TB LS starting in the 21K price range.

It would still appear that both the TB and Venue compete head to head.

https://www.cars.com/for-sale/searchresults.action/?mdId=36723428&mkId=20064&page=1&perPage=50&rd=99999&searchSource=GN_REFINEMENT&sort=relevance&stkTypId=28880&trId=24929&zc=17603

410 results with the same criteria used to search for Trailblazer L.

Save for the vapor, loss leader Trailblazer L that no one will be able to actually buy in quantity, the Trailblazer and Kona are way more closely matched in size and price than the Chevy is to the Venue.  The Venue occupies a space a tick below the Trailblazer in size and price and tops out in the $23k range, where the Kona and Trailblazer each have top trims in the $31k range. 

Well, I was going to say that I liked the K5 better....the Sonata is just too odd looking to me......

Saw a K5 at the local dealer over the weekend, I also like it better than the Sonata overall.  The front end of the Sonata reminds me of a bottom dwelling catfish, but the rest of the car looks fine, imho.  The K5 is not saddled with any excessively bizarre elements.  Both have very nice interiors.

On 9/10/2020 at 6:41 PM, balthazar said:

Just saw Nashville hotel bookings are off by 46%. That means parking there is easier by the same amount. 😉

Good, I am going there next month to walk some civil war battlefields. It will be easier for me to get a room and get into palces to eat. Lovely!

3 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Saw a K5 at the local dealer over the weekend, I also like it better than the Sonata overall.  The front end of the Sonata reminds me of a bottom dwelling catfish, but the rest of the car looks fine, imho.  The K5 is not saddled with any excessively bizarre elements.  Both have very nice interiors.

Will agree with you on interior quality, but both sedans would rate rather low for me for a number of factors if I were buying a new car. One being depreciation, Hyundai Kia products seem to depreciate like a rock. 

9 hours ago, ocnblu said:

I do like the Hyundai better than the Chevy, but better options exist than either IMHO. 

13 hours ago, ocnblu said:

*yawn*

I said MSRP BEFORE INCENTIVES.

Vaporware Trailblazer L has wheelcovers.

*yawn* yourself hypocrite. Again, refer to your very first statement and admit that you were wrong. There is competition but you don’t want your mommy to pay slightly more for more power and more room. That’s really all you have to say instead of dancing around your mistake and making up endless excuses for it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go put an American flag on a Toyota Tundra. Hope that’s okay with you.

I believe it started right around here... 

Looking at this car again, outside still Meh in my book, interior is nice for the class of car it competes in. For those that want a car, this should serve them well.

I do wonder where the auto market will be by 2025 and 2030. I wonder how many actual cars will still be around compared to trucks, SUV, CUV and some sort of car hybrid, mix of car with CUV.

Interesting times we live in for sure.

4 hours ago, ccap41 said:

I believe it started right around here... 

Exactly.  I said something positive about the Venue, which was largely off topic and could have been passed over, but someone had to go there.  So the comment on 9/14/20 at 9:37 a.m. is what started the descent.  A challenge like that deserves an answer.

So my on topic comment is this:  Everyone is going crazy, overstyling their sedans to try to grab a dwindling customer base.  It is still worth it to develop sedans, but the base of buyers is shrinking by the day, so every sedan has to "stand out", and crazy styling (in the age of oppressive regulations) is the popular way to do so.

2 minutes ago, ocnblu said:

Exactly.  I said something positive about the Venue, which was largely off topic and could have been passed over, but someone had to go there.  So the comment on 9/14/20 at 9:37 a.m. is what started the descent.  A challenge like that deserves an answer.

So my on topic comment is this:  Everyone is going crazy, overstyling their sedans to try to grab a dwindling customer base.  It is still worth it to develop sedans, but the base of buyers is shrinking by the day, so every sedan has to "stand out", and crazy styling (in the age of oppressive regulations) is the popular way to do so.

No Oppressive Regulations, auto companies have been able to step up to making cleaner running auto's.

Over styling seems to be the new norm. We will probably see more style return as we go to EV's where they do not pollute into the air. Future is bright for auto's both ICE and EV and companies will find a way to give the public what they desire while stepping up to clean regulation to ensure we are not breathing toxic emission. 

Emissions has nothing to do with styling, tho.

11 minutes ago, balthazar said:

Emissions has nothing to do with styling, tho.

Proliferation of tiny turbo 4 cylinder engines, further mechanical homogenization of product across OEM boundaries, mechanical individuality is going away, so styling has become a bigger differentiator.

Yet that, also has seen a great degree of homogenization.

Some of you just need to relax and have fun on here. It's a car blog not everybody is going to agree on everything all the time. There are a couple of you on here who find the need to berate others because they don't state something that you agree with or don't agree with what you state on here...you know who you are. We've all most likely been a part of it and it's really unnecessary. Go take out your anger on something else. I think @Drew Dowdell and others would agree. Take a couple of DEEP breaths and think about it before you go off.

 Cheers! 🍻 

Looking at the front end of this car has reminded me of one thing that I have come to dislike about all of them, the lowered airdam plastic thing that scraps or gets ripped off by the cement wheel stops in parking lots.

@ocnblu made his truck look a 1000 times better when he took off that over bearing piece of plastic. I noticed regardless of who the OEM is, they have all given a big buck tooth look on the black plastic look in the front to push air around the auto rather than underneath it.

I get that it helps with fuel economy, but man does it suck in the looks department.

20 minutes ago, David said:

Looking at the front end of this car has reminded me of one thing that I have come to dislike about all of them, the lowered airdam plastic thing that scraps or gets ripped off by the cement wheel stops in parking lots.

@ocnblu made his truck look a 1000 times better when he took off that over bearing piece of plastic. I noticed regardless of who the OEM is, they have all given a big buck tooth look on the black plastic look in the front to push air around the auto rather than underneath it.

I get that it helps with fuel economy, but man does it suck in the looks department.

An airdam that probably only saves 0.25 mpg. Took the one off of my '17 Colorado Z71 that I had right away, it does look MUCH better and gives it a lot better front-end ground clearance. It has approx. 15 or 16 freakin' screws in it that screw in from the top down so it's kind of a b!tch to get your hands and arms up in there from a creeper on the floor, but it pays off in the end. 

1 hour ago, USA-1 said:

An airdam that probably only saves 0.25 mpg. Took the one off of my '17 Colorado Z71 that I had right away, it does look MUCH better and gives it a lot better front-end ground clearance. It has approx. 15 or 16 freakin' screws in it that screw in from the top down so it's kind of a b!tch to get your hands and arms up in there from a creeper on the floor, but it pays off in the end. 

Looks much better!

Actually I like the Sonata's steering wheel, it's different and "retro modern".  I see the new Tucson has a similar steering wheel design.  The new Tucson looks cool overall, imho.

I like the new Genesis steering wheel too.... very retro.

Trailblazer is well done and NICE inside.  Shame the Equinox isn't as interesting inside, or outside for that matter.

Never makes sense to get an L or LS chevy.  Wait for discounts and get an LT, this applies for just about any Chevy model.  You will hardly pay a scosche more and those will be the ones actually on lots.  By the dozens.

I wouldn't think about getting anything besides the 1.3 and 9 speed in this rig.  As such, its still slow, that will be its achilles heel.  It should have been the 1.5 + 9 speed or even a 1.6.

Chevy really nailed the market with this apart from the weak engine.  5 years from now I don't think anyone will have a clue what a Hyundai Venue is, much less spot it in a parking lot anywhere no matter how long they look.

Where's our 2.0 "SS" Trailblazer?  or 2.7

Saw an orange LS AWD at one dealer, and two gray LT at another dealer yesterday.  Had to keep moving so the buzzards didn't land on me, maybe I'll mosey out again today and spend some time studying.

I just saw one of these Hyundai Sonata's on the road. It was coming towards me down a main thoroughfare and honestly from a couple of blocks away it looked like a car that had just been in an accident. I didn't know what it was until it was across the intersection from me. The strange front-end looks all droopy like it was parked too close to a structure fire and it melted the grille and headlights, and the way they ran the LED light piping up the hood looks really out of place, just plain ugly in person. I thought to myself man they must have gotten a screamin' deal because they definitely didn't buy it for the looks 🤣

5 minutes ago, USA-1 said:

I just saw one of these Hyundai Sonata's on the road. It was coming towards me down a main thoroughfare and honestly from a couple of blocks away it looked like a car that had just been in an accident. I didn't know what it was until it was across the intersection from me. The strange front-end looks all droopy like it was parked too close to a structure fire and it melted the grille and headlights, and the way they ran the LED light piping up the hood looks really out of place, just plain ugly in person. I thought to myself man they must have gotten a screamin' deal because they definitely didn't buy it for the looks 🤣

Maybe this was the Clown Edition!

The new K5 looks better, IMO....they should have kept the Optima name, K5 is such an uninspired name for a midsize sedan.

...but a WONDERFUL name for a 4X4!

15 minutes ago, David said:

Maybe this was the Clown Edition!

All in the same!

8 minutes ago, ocnblu said:

...but a WONDERFUL name for a 4X4!

Yep! Love me a K5 Blazer!