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New spy photos of the 2015 Hyundai Sonata have emerged showing the upcoming sedan fully nude in its home plant in South Korea.
The Korean Car Blog reports spy photographers have said the Sonata boasted a 2-liter T-GDI four-pot pushing 274 horsepower toward the front wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
The new Sonata will make its official launch March 24.
54 Comments on “2015 Hyundai Sonata Caught Nude In Home Plant...”
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Audi called.
They want their A6’s grill back.
Why does every 2015 import seem to have the same grill shape?
It’s like the vehicles people choose in the upscale conservative neighborhood I live in-everyone’s cars have to all look the same.
You’d better have a Japanese or German third-row crossover in your driveway.
And it better be black.
Honda called. They want their Accord front end back.
Nobody called. They didn’t want their weird fender chrome strip back.
Is that a fin section on the trailing side of the headlamp or just a tape mockup?
Based on the 3/4 shot that “fin section” appears to be part of the headlamp. Probably where the amber side reflectors will be on the US model.
That’s what I figured. Terrible afterthought of a design.
Actually, Hyundai called and want their hexagonal grill shape back which both Audi and Subaru have used, as well as others.
The side and rear are decent, but the designers went too conservative with the front fascia; the China-only market Hyundai Mistra has a better front end.
The lower front-fascia looks very similar to that of the Mazda6.
Nissan with the relaunch of Datsun is about to join the hexagonal shaped grill parade.
With Chrysler owned by Fiat, Ford with their global one model moves, Chevy selling Deawoo’s and Opal’s, most foreign manufactures with a factory here in the US and you still use the term “Imports”… quaint ;-)
Noted.
Millions of women will soon be able to more easily pick out their Sonata in the parking lot of the grocery, by looking for the side profile of a 98 A6.
“I think it’s a Hyundai (Hundayee), it has a H on the back.”
Actually, a little more raked back/sleeker than an A6 (and the XJ is even more raked back).
What did have a near identical greenhouse/roofline to the A6 was the Ford 500/Taurus.
With no price advantage, why buy this over an Accord or Fusion/Mazda6? Why buy any Hyundai, for that matter….
Warranty.
Astronomically large incentives.
Easy credit.
National pride if you’re Korean-American.
The Sonata has lower incentives than the Camry and a higher ATP, as well as buyers (on avg.) with a higher income and higher credit score.
The real question might be why buy it over a Kia.
This is a good question. I find the current Sonata to be absolutely bowel movement inducingly ugly, yet the Optima is a handsome looking car.
Am i the only one here that that thinks the current Sonata looks better than the Optima?
I think the Optima looks “handsome” and the Sonata looks “daring,” but that’s just me. I think they are both attractive in their own ways, but this new one looks like another beigemobile.
Somebody photochop some Subaru Legacy badges into them pix quick!
The current one was something different. Not so with this one.
Srsly, they had a good thing going. Hope Kia doesn’t mess up their awesome current design language (Optima c-pillar pure sex) for this crap.
It looks exactly the same as the ’14 from the A pillars back.
The new Chrysler 200 called. Couldn’t tell what it wanted though. Too much laughter.
Chrysler couldn’t make the call. They ran out of minutes.
And nobody speaks Italian there anyway.
YOU WIN THE INTERNET.
+1000 for the Chrysler reference.
The 2011 Sonata broke some new ground. I don’t see any improvement here. It looks 90% the same and 10% uglier. It looks more like the Camry.
I concur.
It definitely screams Accord.
Really? I think they’re at opposite ends of the midsize spectrum. Accord = upright greenhouse, classic three-box shape. Sonata (and Fusion) = “four-door coupe.”
Sorry, I meant the headlights and grill mainly.
Since when did the Accord have a hexagonal-shaped grill?
And Hyundai pioneered the elongated headlights placed prominently at the side.
I’m guessing Hyundai’s dealers have been complaining that the Sonata needed to be more conservative, but I’m not a fan of this. How are you different from your competition if you look like every other car out there? Hopefully the drivetrain and features will be interesting, but I’m having a hard time seeing this vehicle sell on anything but price; and Nissan is already doing that.
> I’m guessing Hyundai’s dealers have been complaining that the Sonata needed to be more conservative
It’s typical dumb corp thinking: make your stuff like the blandest most inoffensive bestseller. What about the people who buy your car because it stands out?
No – it was the Korean market, but being less polarizing doesn’t mean it has to be more bland (the Optima isn’t polarizing and at the same time is very handsome).
I think it is Altima-ugly but at least is it no longer Sonata-ugly
Hyundai is taking a lesson from Nissan’s Altima – for a successful car, don’t change the looks too much as it evolves. I can’t tell much difference between a 2002 Altima and a 2012 Altima.
Not just Nissan.
Most mainstream sedans usually go thru 2 generations before making any major changes to the greenhouse (see current and previous Accord, Camry and Legacy).
Although Ford doesn’t count because it uses the same body-shells across two or three generations, and not just for mainstream sedans (see Edge, F-150, Mustang, Fusion, Explorer, Expedition…and pretty much everything else)…
For every ho hum I have for the new Sonata, I have a shock that theres actually a blog that devotes itself to Korean cars.
bd2 runs all of them.
I’m sure it will be a perfectly competent car and will do what the overwhelming majority of buyers ask of it.
This can be said for pretty much every car on the market today, no?
That’s partly what makes it such interesting times.
Yeah, but Sonata buyers got all that plus a car that stands out (for better or worse). If they just wanted a beigemobile, they’d go shopping for a Camry. What makes a boring Sonata better than a boring Camry?
I like it but it is definitely part of the “same sausage different lengths” school of design. “Elantra, Sonata, Azera, Genesis” How big do you want it?
Accent too.
I’d say the Accent pulls the current design language off the best, with the Elantra a close second. I don’t know enough about the other two to say.
This appears to be from the same school of thought/design as the FR-S and 2015 Mustang “Hey let’s totally make this thing look like a hatchback, but we’ll give it a mail slot for a trunk opening.”
Why why why?
Aerodynamic slipperiness, without the resale-killing practicality of a hatchback.
It’s a hatchback!!!
The current Sonata is strikingly beautiful. I’d own one if they offered it with awd. They beat it with an ugly stick to return to this new old Hyundai Ugly.
Maybe they should just name it the Hyundai “MUTT”,because even though it’s ugly born from multiple sources,folks might perceive loyalty is implied,feel sorry for it and buy the damn thing.
I’ve never been a fan of the current Sonata. It resembles a four door Toyota Solara, one of the most vile designs ever. But I do recognize that the current Sonata helped Hyundai move beyond the third-world cars they used to make. This one isn’t as much of a step forward. They’ve taken the basic A7, Fusion, Rapide silhouette and remove all the sexiness from it. Maybe it will look less dumpy in person.
Still a good looking car, even if it’s a bit more generic now. And if you’re going to riff of another car’s looks, you can do a lot worse than Audi.
Hey, looking like an Audi is what moves Kias! I know there’s quite a bit of inter-company rivalry going on there, but this is going to far, Hyundai!