CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON

The D-segment Korean vixen - the Hyundai Sonata - now gets a set of finely sharpened claws which it seemed to be missing earlier. Yogendra Pratap who went for a drive in the 2.7-litre V6-powered Sonata to Goa, drove the car back to Pune for a complete road test and found that the heart transplant has served to reveal new dimensions to the car, hitherto unsuspected in this docile Korean animal.

The Sonata, with its catchy and flashy looks as well as keen pricing had been ruling the roost in the D-segment but did not compare to any of its competitors on the performance front because of it being lazily geared (read that as ‘underpowered’ a word which comes easily to hand especially if you are an enthusiast) courtesy its 2-litre inline 4-cylinder mill. If you wanted to be chauffeured around town and turn heads wherever you were taken (well, around in the city that is), the Sonata was the car for you. But if you wanted some adrenaline-pumping action, or if you just had that urge to get in behind the wheel and lay it on, hard and thick, then you had to look elsewhere, as the Sonata just did not oblige. However harsh it may sound and as our four-car shoot-out in the January 2002 issue discovered, the 2-litre Sonata always brought up the rear, instead of showing it, considering that it would be a pleasant sight. So whatever few true enthusiasts there were in this category of buyers were being attracted by the more sporty offerings from Ford and Honda. Hyundai, though had another trump up its sleeve in the form of its 2.7-litre Delta V6 engine which would effect a sea change in perceptions about the Sonata.

This road test puts the V6 powered Sonata through its paces to discover whether the car now offers brilliant performance along with its many other outstanding features.