06 Sonata. another thread.

[evan938]

so I got to drive nicks rental today. ho-ly ****. this thing is a beast. he too (like scott) got a v6 gls. darker silver, cloth, no sunroof. this car is pimp. took it for a drive, noticed a couple things i dont like but i could live with or change

1. sits VERY high. feels like im driving an SUV
2. drive by wire (or at least it REALLY feels like it)...has a bit of lag when you mash the pedal

so we got out on an open road just outside my neighborhood. made the turn, clear as far as the road i needed to turn on, no roads coming onto it, so 100% open. made the turn easy, mashed it. kept it in auto mode, looked down, doing 80, look down again, doing 95. all in about 1/3 of a mile. this thing was ****ing FAST!. i love it. i liked the cloth over leather, interior is nice, huge trunk. for being as big as it is, it moved

me and nick will be doing some racing friday if he still has it. i think ill get my *** whooped, but i want to find out by how much

i give it a 8.5/10

[04GTboySC]

haha for sure evan i totally agree.. if you get out on an open road this thing flew im gona miss it

o and i to agree the cloth seats are much better than my leather gt now i know why my back is always hurting because the leather is so hard on the back :(

ok got the car back...... brand new pulley / new belt and didnt notice the play after doing that apparently somehow the crank shaft had loosend? i dunno how that is

[CTele02]

Sorry for the Hijack: Didnt you have an aftermarket pulley setup on your car?

[04GTboySC]

yea i took the aftermarket one off the crank when me and keyan noticed the problem

[hyunelan2]

1. sits VERY high. feels like im driving an SUV


I felt that too. Someone described it as feeling like you're sitting 'on' the car rather than 'in' it. Gives a very clear view of the road though, and since I drive an SUV more than most of you guys, it wasn't all that strange of a feeling. Definately does make you feel high up.

[SuperGLS]

I'm telling you guys, the Lambda is a beautiful thing.

I felt the same thing as you Evan, press the gas hard and you are at HIGH speeds very quickly. When I test drove it I did the same thing on a highway onramp.

I was impressed with the Theta as well, but unfortunately didn't get to try it out in the same way as we had a salesmen with us.

[Seinster]

Damn the salesmen!
When I test drove both the V6 Sonata and the Grandeur, I floored it with the salesman in the car. Yeah the Sonata is fast, but try out the Azera mate, your impressed scale will be doubled, no doubt.
We have to sign a thingie over here though, saying how it's our responsibility if there is a speeding fine. ;)

[BobMs_wht2k2]

One of our advisors here worked with me at the Hyundai store too and is a fellow Elantra owner. She had a small fender bender and the SM gave her a :Loaner GLS V6. After 4 days she took it back and told him, I either want my car or another Elantra. I'm either going to die or get arrested in this car. The previous morning she was telling me about how she was dusting off an older Maxima and looked down to see the speedo pushing past 110 like it was 60. . . . she told me she was scared of the car!

[evan938]

I got a nice call at 1am last night just to tell me "the new sonata will go AT LEAST 130 before i shut it down" :)

[slvrsleeper]

Early road tests had it "redline limited" to 149 MPH! This suggested that there is no governor on the new NF. While this would make me a very happy camper indeed I doubt HMC would allow the fun to continue for very long. I can support everyones impressions of the NF as I spent an entire month driving and selling them back in June-July of last year. One additoinal thing I noticed, and maybe Evan and Scott can back me on this. The auto trans is very reluctant to upshift without command when in manual mode. The sportshift that I tried in all other Hyundais would always upshift short of redline when in manual mode! This annoyed the crap out of me as it seems to defeat the purpose of having a manual shift program at all. Only the NF would stay in gear until I tapped the shift lever, no matter how many RPM were showing on the tach. Just one more reason why I'll be buying one.......

[hyunelan2]

Car&Driver found the same thing with the manumatic mode. They said unlike Hyundais other transmission controls, the car would not over-ride you. On the Delta-based manumatics I drive occassionally (04SF, 04Sonata), the thing will constantly shift on you, even in manumatic. That especially sucks when you want to downshift from 3-2, and the car does it a split-second before you do, so you end up shifting 3-2-1.

[evan938]

if the speed is too high and the revs are too high, it will not let you drop it into too low of a gear. you can be in 3rd at say 60, drop it to 2 which will put it close to redline, but it will not allow you to go into 1st. and as far as auto upshifting, i could have sworn when i was driving, i went thru 1st, went to go tap it into 2nd and it was already there

[pjc6281]

Yea, I actually have sent some trade in info to some dealers to see what they would want for one. I might go with the 4cyl though cause of cost of car and gas, but we'll see what they can do for me.

[evan938]

i would not buy that car w/o the v6 in it. i would also get pulled over in the 1st week if i bought that car

[hyunelan2]

I had a 4-cyl rental for a day, and thought it was sufficient to power the car. Hell, the nyew 4cyl has almost as much power (10hp less) than the V6 in the last-gen Sonata (but we'll leave the Delta out of THIS tread).

However, the fact that the 3.3L V6 version comes with the 5-speed auto transmission, over the 4-speed auto of the 2.4L does have an impact on me.

[evan938]

i just wish they would do a 5/6 speed v6 sonata. tint the windows, drop it, wheels, short shifter...that would make it a hot car

and then maybe even kit it w/ a studie kit...be the 2nd one in the states, 3rd in the world (AFAIK)

[hyunelan2]

{not going to happen alert} A Sport version of the Sonata with the larger 3.8L Lambda, and a 6-speed (Even 6-speed auto) would be... awesome -for lack of a better word.

However, manual transmissions are getting harder and harder to come by. I think this is not-only market-controlled, but with the increasing 'computerization' of cars, I think the car having conrol over the transmission is going to become even more common than it is today. Clutchless shifting (manumatic/shiftronic) is gettin much better than it was even 5 years ago. I could see it being not long until the clutchless transmissions respond just as quickly as a true manual does.

[04GTboySC]

The auto trans is very reluctant to upshift without command when in manual mode

slvr you are so right and evan i have to agree with you... i would defintly get pulled over a ton more than i already have if i owned the sonata

[SuperGLS]

and then maybe even kit it

In Germany they sell it with a very small lip kit, it looks OK.

[evan938]

you know, honestly, i could probably live with an auto transmission, or even that shiftronic thing, but the drive-by-wire kills it. if it was a cable controlled throttle, it would be perfect. the lag it gives while it processes just makes it not as fun to drive. its like...ok..im flooring it...umm...oh, here we go

[shmorf]

this car i have a feeling is very similar to my dads 2001 maxima, close numbers and that car does fly. he should have got the mt though

[02ChiantiGT]

I love the new Sonata. At the dealership I work at we have Ford,Hyundai,Kia, and Suzuki. I believe it is our best selling car.Last Friday alone we sold 9 Sonata's!!! I have driven both the 4 and 6 on the road. The 4 is quiet and is alot quicker than the previous 4. The 6 cyl pretty much speaks for itself. My mom's 03 Sonata's lags behind compared to this generation Sonata. My dad's lease is up on his GT in March of 07 and probably in December he will look to get rid of for something bigger, and I have convinced him to get a Sonata. Probably a leftover GLS 4 in Deep Water Blue(dark blue). He will probably get one with the 17 inchers if he gets a good deal on a V6. I noticed on the other thread people are saying the GLS is not available with them, that is not true. We have a ton of GLS V6's with them. They are a $265 option from the factory.

[SuperGLS]

Around here it seems to me that the GLS V6's are the most popular version. I think I remember reading that Hyundai felt that over 60% of the sales would come from this version, so that makes sense.

And like he just said, you can definitely get the 17's on it.