2004 Hyundai Sonata GLS V6

Here's what you mainly need to know about the Hyundai Sonata: Good car, great value, affordable price, and best warranty on the market. Go to the Hyundai web site, www.hyundaiusa.com, click onto the warranty section, and right there at the bottom of the explanation of the warranty coverage is this: "When Your Warranty Outlasts Your Car Payments, You WIN!" For budget-minded buyers—and who among us, really, doesn't have some sort of budget——the thought of the warranty outlasting the payments is a strong inducement to give this product a good look.

The GLS V6 we drove represents a lot of car for your transportation dollar.

The Sonata lineup begins with the "just regular" Sonata, with a 2.4-liter inline four-cylinder engine of 138 horsepower, a manual transmission and EPA fuel economy ratings of 22 mpg City/30 mpg Highway for a base price of $15,499. Next is the Sonata V6, with a 2.7-liter V6 rated at 170 horsepower, then the GLS and finally the LX, both of the latter fitted with the V6. Fuel economy numbers for the V6 models are 20 mpg City/27 mpg Highway with the manual transmission, and 19/27 with the automatic. The base price for the LX with automatic is $19,374. The GLS we drove had the optional anti-lock brakes and a cargo net with a bottom line of $18,437.


That gave us quite a lot of car. Standard equipment on the Sonata line includes four-wheel disc brakes, power mirrors, fog lamps, an AM/FM stereo with CD and six speakers, cruise control, power windows and door locks, rear defroster, 60/40 split rear folding seatback, and remote keyless entry with alarm. To that, the GLS adds alloy wheels, a cassette player to the sound system, power antenna, upgraded cloth upholstery and carpeting, a cabin air filter, plus a fairly comprehensive list of additional conveniences such as extra storage areas, lighting and so forth.

A decent place to sit for a ride, with plenty of room for front and rear passengers.

On the safety side, the Sonata includes both front and side airbags, automatic locking retractor seatbelts at all seating positions except the driver's seat (these types of belts make it easier to securely install child safety seats), child seat anchors, front seat belt pretensioners with force limiters (which help the airbags do a better job), adjustable-height anchors for the front seat belts, side-impact protection and front and rear crumple zones. It's true that many of these items are becoming more common these days, but it's commendable to find so many of these features in a car that's available at such an attractive price. It wasn't that long ago that in order to have this level of safety features you had to spend three or four times as much for the car.


Some of the primary competitors for the Sonata may be thought of as the usual class-leading suspects, the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and we'll include the Ford Taurus. In price the Sonata is closer to the Taurus, although thousands of dollars less. In size it's closer to the Accord and Camry, although even more thousands of dollars less money. In warranty coverage it clobbers all of them.