Hyundai Sonata NF 2004 test drive - 2008 sedan

Three in the boat

It seems to me that the Koreans from the Hyundai Motor overestimated their achievements. To roll out a new sonata, which in the Russian market for some reason was called a soulless and clumsy NF index, at the price of the chord and ointment 6 with two -liter engines - a bold step.
 

DRIVER
Leonid Klyuyev
chief Editor

Unreasonably brave, because the Japanese are made from another test. Of course, for Hyundai, the introduction of a six -ducal standard, coupled with ESP, is a truly epoch -making event, but, by the way, in Europe they have long become the norm of life, and among much cheaper cars.
 

Moreover, ESP is here - that an evil dog behind a fence, which is poured with barking for every rustle. When moving in a straight line, it is enough to download the steering wheel from side to side, as ESP abruptly hits the brakes, roughly pulling the car. It is not clear whether the creators of the sonata initially did not trust the driver, or sought to emphasize the fact of the presence of an advanced system in the list of onboard electronics.

 
Perhaps the most important suspension began to work without sound support inherent in Sonata V and Elantra
 
The third option is also possible: the normal operation of the stabilization system is prevented by a certain vocabulary of the front and rear suspensions. It is most clearly manifested with intensive restructuring, accompanied by frank flowering of the rear axle. Another car that behaved in the same way comes to memory - Rover Streetwise. In the turns of Hyundai Nf, it is tangibly fired, but pleases with stability and immunity to the quality of the road surface. However, any attempt to quickly shift the wheels overwhelmers on a sudden jump in force on the steering wheel - in other words, it will not be easy to combine movement in an arc with a detour of an obstacle. Once entering the turn, the car desperately resists the change of trajectory.

 

At the same time, the smoothness has improved - when compared with the previous sonata. The car also copes with a trifle easily, but reacts more calmly to large flaws of asphalt. Perhaps the most important thing is that the suspension began to work silently, without sound accompaniment, which is characteristic of both the fifth sonata and Elantre. The four -cylinder engine of the Theeta family with the gas distribution phases system - the fruit of the collective efforts of Daimlerchrysler, Mitsubishi and Hyundai as part of a joint venture in the summer of 2002. Unfortunately, an accelerator and a lazy automatic machine with long gears, configured for soft work, interfere with evaluating its capabilities in full. It seems that the machine starts hard, the engine is lazily gaining momentum. The revenue comes to the revenue, the sequential mode of the machine, which is extremely effective: manually transmission up and down switch quickly, almost without delay.

 

In Europe, the new Sonata is also proposed with a 3.3-liter V6 of the LAMDA series with a capacity of 230 hp, in a pair of which a five-speed automatic is assigned. I'm afraid that in the event of this version in Russia, its price will be indecently high. The car already turned out to be expensive, while raw in places. Let's hope that the Koreans have enough strength to bring her to mind as quickly as possible.
 

MASTER
Kirill Brevdo
deputy Chief Editor

NF. It’s just that NF we all have to call the car, on the trunk of which it is written clearly and clearly: Sonata. So why not call a spade a spade?

Yes, because there cannot be two sonata at the same time. Because the new Korean Sonata does not cancel the old Russian one, which is still produced in Taganrog (and, apparently, will be produced for a very long time). Because NF, even in the basic configuration of three thousand euros more expensive than a Russified and completely cosmically packed in the fullest predecessor with V6 and cartridges-pugs. And the difference between the basic sonatas is completely rampant: nine thousand euros!

 

Meanwhile, even the most handing machine from Taganrog is equipped with a real CD player, and not an obsolete cassette. For the money that dealers ask for NF, I can and want to be capricious!
 

Of course, the sixth Sonata creates a complete impression of a modern car. But Korean present has not yet finally come off the Korean past. Everything is very similar to the fact that even the unconditional leader of the entire auto industry of the country of the morning freshness of Hyundai cannot get together and make a Japanese-European-European machine entirely, at once, to the slightest detail. What will come for the States will cut the eye in Europe. And the prices are already-wow!
For example, a car in our pictures costs 25,200 euros - this is more than 31 thousand dollars! So the price level that Hyundai offers us in the person of the latest NF is very far from budget proposals. There are no less tempting offers from Ford and Mazda with magnificent Mondeo and six, respectively, around. Yes, and Toyota Camry begins very close!

 

And here - Korea. No matter how high -quality and sophisticated these cars are, they do not reach the prestige either to European, Japanese, or even to American cars.

 

Although, if you abstract from the market, Hyundai NF itself is a fairly high -level car. The running qualities of the car leave the most pleasant impression. A good -called engine coins perfectly with a shistro automatic box, harsh brakes have enviable efficiency, and the smoothness of the move is even close to the ideal. It’s also joyful inside: light skin, carbon (cheers! Finally there is no Korean wood that has been filled with the point of mind!), A soft torpedo. But at the same time - door handles made of cheap plastic sore, moronic archaic electronic watches in the middle of the central console. And the bar is taken.
 

I am somehow closer to an honest and inexpensive taganrog. Even with Korean wood.
 

ESTHETE
Nikolai Svistun
editor of the heading

As you know, the cinema is good, bad and Indian. The car market at the turn of the centuries forced to transfer the comic (actually very serious) movie classification to the world of four -wheeled friends of man. Like ten years ago, all cars can be safely divided into good, bad and Korean. Of course, there are also the Chinese, and Iran, who was knocking on the Russian market, and the mother-Russia, finally. But they are more likely to relate to the second category and do not yet deserve their own. At least on mine - aesthetic - a look.

 

But the Koreans deserve. They have already learned not to cause disgust, but they still do not know how to fall into memory or generate emotions. But there is a professional interest in them. And it consists in one single question - what’s where they get from?
 
Here in the photo Hyundai NF. In fact, this is another, sixth in a row, Sonata. He will pass by - you will not turn around. But what is the opportunity to check the erudition! Profile - Volkswagen concern in bulk and retail. The front part is the sixth Passat, the rear - Audi A4, the opening of the rear door is Ford Mondeo, the projectile head optics - Mazda 6 and so on and so on. You can practice endlessly. There are original elements too. The now fashionable line from the roof to the bumper did not reach the bumper - they threw it on the hood. I recall Pushkin. Alexander Sergeevich. I remember, I warned about the thirst for fingering at all costs. It leads, according to the poet, directly to stupidity.
 

Maybe inside it is more original? In general, yes. The first impression is very pleasant: soft plastic, inserts for Kevlar, a dark upper -light bottom and then the details stick out out. How to equalize an unsuccessfully located emergency button? Window - a signal about an unsteady passenger belt will light up in it. Why is this watch with an antediluvian display? Yes, even in the center of the torpedo (read - far from the driver's eyes)? Have mercy - well, do not leave this place empty! In a certain sense, in a certain sense, in the end, we eventually have four displays, the number of which does not even think to go into quality. Trust the picture of secondary governing bodies. And the buttons of control of mirrors-windows, and steering wheel switches-exactly like two and a half times more accessible accent.

 

By God, for more than thirty thousand dollars I would like something more memorable. And - obviously - less Korean.
 

Autography
Hyundai NF
Still known as Hyundai Sonata VI
Hyundai Sonata v (2001) predecessor
Premiere September 2004
Body sedan
Engines 2.4-3.3 l (166-230 l.
Production of South Korea
Expected replacement 2008
 
Photo: Vsevolod Konovalov
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Source: Wheel magazine [No. 95/2005]