HYUNDAI has been supplying Hong Kong with affordable and practical motoring alternatives for years and as each model has been introduced, the Korean manufacturer has expanded the marque's appeal and potential customer base.
The Excel and Elantra offer good basic family transport for rock-bottom prices; the Scoupe GT caters to budget-conscious sports coupe fans; and the latest addition, the Sonata, rounds out the Hyundai stable with a feature-packed midsize saloon that will not tax the budget.
Taking its place in a competitive arena that includes the likes of Camry, Accord and Maxima, the Sonata is most noteworthy for its impressive all-inclusive price of $238,000.
Considering the package includes important safety features, such as a driver's airbag and ABS braking, and caters to executive tastes with leather seats, powered driver's seat and electric sunroof, it would appear Hyundai's reputation of ''more bang foryour buck'' is well represented here.
Hyundai designers played it safe with the Sonata's styling, but while the aerodynamic lines of the sedan are not ground-breaking, there is sufficient identity to the bodywork to set it apart. The front-end treatment is strong, with a sloping hood terminating in a simple but elegant chrome-accented grill, framed by narrow wraparound light clusters.
Additional chrome around the windows offsets the body-colour. Squat Michelin radial tyres mounted on smartly-styled alloy wheels, and twin stainless steel exhaust pipes, subtly suggest the potential for respectable performance.
Under the hood, that possibility is further reinforced by the presence of a transversely-mounted, three-litre, single cam, V6 engine producing 146 horsepower.