Start with what the Hyundai Sonata is: a 4-door sedan with 1.8 , built from 1985, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign (1986).
The background
The Hyundai Sonata (Korean: 현대 쏘나타) is a mid-size car that has been manufactured by Hyundai since 1985. The first generation Sonata, which was introduced in 1985, was a facelifted version of the Hyundai Stellar with an engine upgrade, and was withdrawn from the market in two years due to poor customer reaction. While the nameplate was originally only sold in South Korea, the second generation of 1988 was widely exported.
The Sonata is currently manufactured in South Korea, China, and Pakistan. It was named after the musical term, sonata. It was formerly manufactured in the United States from 2005 until 2022, though after 2022, American production was phased out.
The engineering
The engine is 1.8 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to NNNN kg. Drive goes through a 5-speed manual / 4-speed automatic. The wheelbase is 2579 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
In the Hyundai line-up the Hyundai Sonata has a clear place: it replaced the Hyundai Stellar; the factory was Ulsan, South Korea. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the SEAT Ibiza, the Jeep Wrangler, the Renault Espace. Its Hyundai stablemates include the Hyundai Accent WRC and the Hyundai Accent.
Owning one today
Buying one now means $6,800–$33,200 for a typical example, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $2,747–$11,493 a year. Insurance sits around $1,050–$2,340 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.