Test drive Hyundai Sonata 1998 - 2001 sedan

Just gamma

It sounds strange, but Hyundai engineers and designers repeated the path of composer Salieri in the automotive industry when they created a new Sonata IV.
The eternal rival and envious of the ingenious Mozart in Pushkin admitted: I believed the algebra harmony. The fourth -generation Sonata was also carefully checked by the algebra. This science is accurate and implies the presence of a proven formula. In this case, the formula for building a representative car was used.
BLACK MAN. At the first glance at Sonata IV, the impression is that the Hyundai designers, like behind Mozart, was chasing a black man. The great composer did not recognize the name of the visitor who ordered him the requiem, and the Lexus Es 300 became the Black Man.
Outwardly, Sonata, especially if you look at it in front, practically repeats its features. Alas, this is bad. The car became just boring, losing the charming asymmetric shape of the front headlights, which was the hallmark of Sonata III. Obviously, the factory considered that the representative car did not stake to have playful forms. As a result, the front headlights and the radiator cladding took absolutely even classic forms.
 
Solo on the calculator. The classic formula for constructing the internal space of the representative car looks something like this: an electric package in a square, multiplied by a leather interior, multiplied on wooden panels and a climatic installation, plus hatch, plus the columns in all technological holes is Luxary Car. Let's go through all variables.
The electric package in the square implies the presence of not only the control of the rear -view mirrors and the windows, but also the electrical adjustment of the memory with memory. In Sonata, such a function is provided only for a driver's seat, and there is no memory function.
The salon is naturally trimmed with skin. In the sense of genuine skin. Everything is according to the formula, but ... lumbar support is provided on the driver's seat. It is desirable that in a negative position it would not be felt at all, but it is digging into your spine as the body got tired of the long road according to the turn of the corresponding handle. In Sonata IV, the presence of this lumbar support is constantly felt, and its deployment in the cocker area simply does not make it possible to relax at the wheel.
Wooden panels, climatic installation and hatch are left alone. They are present in an acceptable option, quite corresponding to the law of the genre. At a discount on the fact that the climatic installation in air conditioning mode works with amazing noise. And if you get into the car in a hot working afternoon, then any discussion with a business partner of compatibility of genius and villainy will have to be postponed until the temperature in the cabin drops to the ordered. Only the sound of a good audio system can block its roar, allowing you to lose both CD cassettes and CDs. Mozart sounds just wonderful on her.
SEXTET. A good representative car is associated with a powerful engine, and not with a quartet of four cylinders. As a rule, this is V6.
Until 1998, a three -liter 4G63 engine from Mitsubishi, with a capacity of 141 hp, was considered the leading in the range. Simultaneously with the new Sonata, the new engine was also offered to the public, again, the V-shaped six, but with a smaller volume of 2.5 liters. However, the power of the motor increased by 20 hp. Due to the DOHC gas distribution system (in the 4G63 SOHC motor), as well as by certain surgical intervention in the structure.
As a result, Sonata approached the engine power, high -speed and dynamic characteristics to most of its classmates, which can be purchased in Moscow for about the same money. Also, fuel consumption was slightly reduced, which is important in conditions of growth in oil prices.
The motor symphony in the cabin is practically inaudible to the engine reminds of itself only in sharp acceleration modes, when the tachometer arrow is rapidly approaching the red mark. On the one hand, the representative car was not created in order to constantly keep this arrow in the critical zone. On the other hand, I constantly want to. The gear rates on the mechanical box are selected so that it is not possible to ride long gear. In order to get real pleasure from driving on this car, in order for the car to prove its advantages, you constantly have to keep the motor around 3,000 revolutions and actively work as a gearbox.
Leading party. Mercedes and BMW, steadily the following formula of the representative car, necessarily introduce another rear -wheel drive variable into it. Historically, it is believed that such a system provides the driver and passengers with maximum comfort. Hyundai in this case retreated from the classic algebra and makes all Sonata cars with front -wheel drive. So what? Never mind. No one, even the most picky critic, will say that Sonata IV has a noisy suspension of front -wheel drive opponents often use this argument. Even in extreme acceleration modes from the front wheels, the driver of sounds annoying the ear is not heard. Only a soft rustle of tires.
On the irregularities of Moscow bridges, at the tram crossings, Sonata behaves in relation to the riders exclusively gallantly. The good old McPherson, fulfilled soundly, taking into account the weight of the car and its high -speed characteristics, plus a successful weight. And smoothly flowing in the cabin, the conversation will never be interrupted by a clang of teeth on by no means orchestral pits. And the cup holders can be used for their intended purpose, fixing there, like notes on a pupiter, a mug of morning coffee. In Sonata you can be calm, this coffee will not end up with your trousers or skirts.
By the way, all these positive qualities have moved to Sonata IV from the previous generation car and cannot be considered an exceptional feature of the new car. Unless ABS, which is now regularly installed on all modifications.
Variation on the topic. At the time of shooting next to us, the owner of Sonata III accidentally stopped by us. With a machine gun and a 2.0 -liter engine. Upon learning that we are working with the new generation of his car, he ducked with curiosity inside ours. Turning around for some time in a driver's place, he with a disappointed look crawled into the light of God. Yes, the same thing, only eight thousand more expensive, said, as he printed. Then he laid it on a boring front and drove off. Like this!
At one time, Lexus has practically become a cult machine for those who have not yet afforded Mercedes, but behind the vague concept, the foreign car has already distinguished the correspondence of a particular brand to a certain position in a society of their own kind.
The autopilot is inclined to believe that the fourth generation Sonata was created in order to repeat this path. Maybe in the near future, post -crisis Russian businessmen will celebrate their thorny path through confusing market relations with approximately such milestones: this is when I moved from Sonata to Lexus. Well, then this, when he got up and bought Mercedes.
 
Text Nikolay Kachurin, photo Dmitry Novokreshhenov
 

Source: "Autopilot"