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The 2014 Hyundai Sonata

There’s every reason to get caught in the Dubai’s luxury lifestyle. Fashionably bling-tall-towers in shiny mirror layers, adorned by colorful strobes to add further sparkle. Where want succeeds over the mere need. It doesn’t matter what is there in your neighbor’s parking garage because there more chances of finding expensive gems parked in dust outside on the “Kacha” rather than housed securely in a parking garage.

Hyundai pitches a quite a powerful business proposal here in the shape of Sonata and scores well. At a time where mid-size sedans are over stepping into the territory of SUV (price wise). It’s pretty hard to prove your point to keep the customer close to its original requirement: which type of car and what car? Imagine your wish of 13 course dinner at a luxury 5 star hotel is answered when you buy a discounted coupon. All ingredients promised, but just wait until it gets served. We’ll come back to it later.

Hey look at me Design 7/10

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Our face-lift 2014 (top-spec) Hyundai Sonata arrived in a color called “Sleek Silver” that enhances its design ideology, and Hyundai says; it’s inspired of by nature where, “beauty flows the performance.” Starting from the HID encased Cat-eyed headlights that merge into a gleaming chrome strip sitting on top of the door line blending into the window arcs formed from A- pillar to C-pillar. The swoopy, low slung roofline almost qualifies for the sleek side profile of a coupe-sedan. The new wrap-around LED rear lights, now are next-generation lights.

Even though there are LEDs but you won’t see their individual glow bead-string as they are wrapped. The rooftop is finished in black color as it incorporates the class-leading panoramic glass roof. To round of the whole affect the car sits on beautiful shiny 18-inch alloys rims.

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Interior wise, the Sonata continues to impress with its modern take on design. There’s hardly anything that you’ll find out of place. The interior is done in the shades of grey with piano black inserts (shiny plastic that keeps the finger marks).

The faux piano black trim floats on the topside of the door, wrapping around the air vents and portions of the dashboard. Even so, you don’t feel it’s overdone, just the right amount. I especially liked the tactile finger placement behind wiper/washer stalks. It doesn’t allow your finger to slip when you are pulling it to spray the water on the windscreen, unless you decide to rotate for your desired wiper sweep speed.

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The front seats are electronically adjustable. They are perforated and supportive. Back to front there’s enough room for every occupant. The panoramic glass roof provides a good amount of light in the cabin. However, the best time to appreciate the cabin design is in the night when the instrument panel glows in the hues of white and cool blue. The instrument pod gives you ample information. A big center screen provides you the GPS navigation. A very good feature for the GCC region is the function of Qibla direction. However, everything you touch feels hard. The seats may be comfortable yet the leather surface is bit hard. The steering wheel is a meaty one and covered with leather, but you can still feel the hard rim inside. It’s all about quantity that this car is loaded with.

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Where’s the Soul? 6/10

Start the engine with push start/stop button. The 2.4l Theta II MPI straightaway comes to live. With paddle shifter behind the steering wheel invites you for an exhilarating driving experience as the car comes with standard electronically controlled 6-speed tranny. However, instantly you feel the roughness in the ride. I believe that is due to those large 18 inch beautiful alloy rims shod with 225/45R-18 Hankook Optimo low profile tires. This is an eerie feel. Even though the cabin is quiet but as the car drives you will feel as if the car is riding on the pebbles that were lying on the marble floor. Press the accelerator and engine shows its willingness to pace up in a youthful manner. But again, this time, the tires instead of translating this energy into motion just keep on spinning. The car is nimble with 178PS (approx. 175.5Hp). Nevertheless, even though the traction control switched on, Sonata has the tendency of wandering. It understeers heavily. On the exit turns to highway I had to be quite careful to keep the front wheel planted and straight, thanks to light and direct steering. It was suspected that the odd tire’s combination that was a terrible mismatch to a very willing engine. Good part here are the brakes: decent with assuring pedal feel.

The Value 7/10

Remember that question, that luxury dinner wish. You choose a discounted coupon for a 5 star like 13 course meal. All the ingredients are there. It’s just the matter of taste and feel. However, when all the boxes are checked there’s hardly any room for complaints as everything is there. The flavor is all dependent upon one’s taste buds. The mobile Bluetooth connectivity, dual zone air-condition, ample space. A powerful sound system. An Ion Cluster for cabin air hygiene. Blind Spot Detection and all-essential multimedia hub.

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This will definitely spring up an argument of simple complexity. Yes, the contradictions: what if you choose to buy an expensive car, is there any assurance in that, the car will be good all-around? I’d say stay content with you desire: surely, for AED 90,000 (for this top-spec model) you should need everything, and you’re not asking too much.

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