It's obviously not a sports car, and doesn't need to be as it provides a very smooth and quiet ride making it a good town and highway cruiser. In the wet it can lack grip mainly due to the cheap Diamondback 205/65 tires we have on it currently, and is a little scary to drive due to the lack of ABS brakes which were an option.

It rolls into corners and understeers if you push it any more than a normal pace, while the steering is somewhat slow but offers some road feel, most being kickback however. On the handling front it’s definitely a Hyundai of old. It’s not the most economical engine though as 4th gear doesn’t engage until 59km/h, but will cruise in 3rd at 50km/h at about 1700rpm. You can tell that there's a lack of Power every now and then, but the engine pulls really well despite the low torque figure and the current issues it has. Together they work extremely smoothly, with usually decisive gear changes. Never the less, the Mitsubishi designed 2.4-litre makes 104Kw and about 205Nm, being sent through a four-speed auto with a ‘manual mode’. These problems incur a higher than average thirst for Oil. Yes, that is a lot of expensive problems you may say, but don’t let that fool you, as the car still actually runs perfectly fine even to our surprise and can take a thrashing here and there, which we rarely do anyway. Other things that were replaced was the Alternator at 5 years old, A new coil at about 10 years old, and power steering hose at 13 years old. It's also showing signs of worn Piston Rings, Shock absorbers which creak, Engine mounts, and a worn Head gasket which was originally replaced in 2013. Currently with only 237,541km on the clock, it needs a new Thermostat which is stuck open, Oxygen sensor (I believe), and A/C compressor which isn’t working, last summer was a scorcher in it. Let’s go over what’s wrong with it first though. Now at a little over fifteen years old how has the Sonata held up? Well to be fair only averagely, but it still provides us with transportation to where ever we want to go. We ended up ordering a Solid Black 2.4L Auto with the Leather & Woodgrain pack, a rarely optioned pack, which looked a whole lot better than the standard black/colour patterned cloth seats, all for a little over $28,000 which undercut all our options. We also liked the classic curves and chrome beltline, looking reminiscent of a poor man’s Mercedes-Benz crossed with Jaguar styling. We took it for a test drive where it performed well and offered the room we needed for a growing family. We then came across a Burgundy EF-B Sonata optioned with the Leather & Woodgrain package sitting in the dealer. So why did we choose it you might ask? We looked at the Vectra, 626, Magna, Camry and a few other medium cars of that era, but all were a bit over our budget for what we wanted. Now while that may have been the case back then, it didn’t stop the Sonata from being our first brand-new car. Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears had just called it off, Kath & Kim aired, the VY Commodore and BA Falcon were introduced, and Hyundai were regarded as cheap & unexciting ‘Junk’.

Autumn sonata parents guide