2015 Hyundai Sonata Eco. All Photos by Randy Stern
A Victory & Reseda Preview of the 2015 Hyundai Sonata
Meet the new Sonata…same as the old one?
Hyundai would rather have you think otherwise. The 2015 Sonata has arrived, sporting a “mature” look with a few new twists to their midsized family sedan. A week-and-half after driving the outgoing model, I drove the new model along U.S. Highway 12 from Chicago, through the south shore of Lake Michigan and into southern Michigan countryside towards Ann Arbor. It was the perfect chance to get a feel of the changes Hyundai made to their popular family sedan along some bucolic and charming countryside.
The last Sonata was edgy with its Fluidic Sculpture design inside and out. This model stood out amongst the crowd, though some elements had been adopted by its competitors. The public responded with over 825,000 units sold since its introduction in the spring of 2010, selling over 200,000 units every year for the past three years. According to Mike O’Brien, Vice President of Corporate and Product Planning at Hyundai Motor America, the Sonata is responsible for 29% of all Hyundai sales annually.
Instead of creating something more revolutionary, Hyundai adjusted the best elements of the prior Sonata onto Fluidic Sculpture 2.0. Essentially, what O’Brien said that while the first Fluidic Sculpture Sonata “got us into the party,” the new model is “going to get us invited back.” In other words, Hyundai felt that if new Sonata was going to look more radical than the last, the customers might feel more alienated from it. What the new Sonata signals is a “maturing” of their Fluidic Sculpture, achieved by “doing things a little smarter…something that looks more premium…more value,” according to O’Brien.
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Commentary: The Heirloom’s Convergence
All Photos by Randy Stern
When I committed to writing about automobiles over baseball, it was a liberating experience.
The results have been many. Doors opened and experiences multiplied through the journey of covering the automotive industry and its products.
On occasion, I would return to baseball. It is not exactly an obligatory thing, but it is deep in my DNA that it could not be totally eliminated. Though I could be deep in discussions about the 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT or watching the supposed early production units of the 2015 Ford F-150 slowly coming out of hiding, there would be a blip of baseball that would come across the screen – any screen. It is that piece of eye candy that distracts even anyone’s field of vision.
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