LIKES
- Shapely body
- Quiet cabin
- Luxury-car ride
- User-friendly infotainment
- Excellent warranty
DISLIKES
- The frown up front
- Maybe an excess of chrome
- So relaxed, it’s almost sedate
- Entry models’ lesser interior trim
BUYING TIP
- The SEL and SEL Plus earn our pick for value and standard features.
The 2022 Hyundai Sonata revives the family-sedan formula with excellent warranty coverage and safety, and with the Limited’s luxury threads.
What kind of car is the 2022 Hyundai Sonata? What does it compare to?
The 2022 Hyundai Sonata sedan mates an expressive body with a spacious and finely finished interior to tackle the top rivals in the mid-size family four-door niche: the Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, Kia K5, and Honda Accord.
Is the 2022 Hyundai Sonata a good car?
With the Sonata, Hyundai wraps shapely metal around a value-packed cabin with top-tier safety scores and warranty coverage. We give it a TCC Rating of 7.3 out of 10.
What’s new for the 2022 Hyundai Sonata?
Last year’s Tech package—a panoramic sunroof, 12-speaker Bose audio, and a 10.3-inch touchscreen—now comes standard on the SEL Plus. The N Line model adds a Night Edition package with 19-inch black wheels and other darkened accents.
All share an audacious style that takes chances with body creases (for the win) and with a wide, gaping front end (um…). There’s plenty of brightwork to go around, too. Inside the Sonata chalks up a unanimous win with a wraparound dash paneled in high-resolution displays; the black plastics and sportswear-like material on base models swaps out for quilted leather and softly padded trim on the Limited.
A 191-hp 2.5-liter inline-4 powers base cars to average acceleration, but speed isn’t really the Sonata’s game. It’s tuned for a blessedly smooth ride and sedate driving manners, although the available 180-hp turbo-4 in the SEL Plus and Limited have perky low-end power. The Hybrid’s calling card is an EPA combined fuel economy rating of 52 mpg. The outlier? The deeply satisfying Sonata N Line, with its frisky 290-hp turbo-4, dual-clutch transmission shared with the Veloster N, and excellent grip.
The Sonata’s built with big adults in mind, and its front seats offer a good driving position and upgrades for leather, heating, and cooling. Back-seat space suffices for three across, and the trunk can handle 16.0 cubic feet of stuff. Where the Sonata sings is in the Limited trim, where nicer finishes, more sound deadening, and finer leather radiate luxury-car feels at a mid-$30,000s price.
The Sonata’s crash-test ratings earn it an IIHS Top Safety Pick and a five-star NHTSA rating, and every model has automatic emergency braking.
How much does the 2022 Hyundai Sonata cost?
Prices range from the mid-$20,000s for a Sonata SE with 16-inch wheels, cloth upholstery, and an 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, to a $35,000-plus Sonata Hybrid Limited with cooled front seats, leather upholstery, and a head-up display.
Where is the 2022 Hyundai Sonata made?
Some are assembled in Alabama, with the remainder imported from South Korea.
Styling
A welcoming interior matches the latest Sonata’s sleek style.
Is the Hyundai Sonata a good-looking car?
It’s attractive inside and out, and worth a couple of points for the exterior and one extra for the cabin, for an 8 here.
Hyundai’s alternated fab looks with drab looks on the Sonata over the years, but this version’s a winner from the finned taillights forward through a roofline that sweeps over a finely surfaced body. Family sedans usually have dad bobs, but this car’s cut. It flops at the front end, in comparison: its grille frowns toward the ground, in search of a better mood that even its nifty boomerang-style LED running lights can’t inject.
Performance
Base Sonatas exercise moderation; the N Line’s a turbocharged blast.
Is the Hyundai Sonata 4WD?
No, all models come with front-wheel drive.
How fast is the Hyundai Sonata?
The weakest link in the chain is the 191-hp 2.5-liter inline-4, which powers the majority of Sonatas sold. With unhurried but reasonable acceleration and smooth gear changes from an 8-speed automatic, its one bummer is the set of awkward toggle-switch transmission controls.
The 180-hp 1.6-liter turbo-4 that comes with the Sonata SEL Plus and Limited offers more grunt, despite its lower horsepower quote. It’s tuned for low-end torque and better responsiveness. Under hard acceleration it’s quiet and smooth, with a touch of turbo lag that the transmission can’t mask, since it’s tuned for frequent fuel-saving upshifts. If we had to choose, we’d pick the Sonata Hybrid’s 192-hp combination of a 2.0-liter inline-4, 51-hp electric motor, and battery pack. Coupled to a 6-speed automatic, it’s a well-integrated hybrid system that’s nearly seamless in transitions between gas and electric power; even if it’s not objectively quick, it does generate exceptional EPA ratings.
In any of these forms, the Sonata’s a calm, grown-up sedan with fuss-free handling. It prefers a Normal drive mode, where it settles into winding back roads with lightly weighted steering and imperceptible shifts. Its strut-and-multilink suspension comports itself well on almost any road surface, though hairpins reveal the basic softness that even its bigger 19-inch wheels can’t upset. It’s excised the jumpy feel that used to plague its Sport modes and the steering doesn’t get overly heavy, either. Best of all, the stiff body cancels out quivers that railroad tracks might induce.
With the Sonata N Line, Hyundai reserves its strongest turbo-4 to send 290 hp to the front wheels through an 8-speed dual-clutch automatic. It’s good for 0-60 mph times in the six-second range, and the engine revs eagerly to take advantage of its wide torque band. With drive modes that offer a Sport+ program, the Sonata N Line can also radically alter its shift speeds and traction controls.
It’s a grippy, grin-inducing sport sedan, especially with the inexpensive upgrade to summer tires. It gets its eager roadholding from stiffer mounts for the engine and transmission and stiffer chassis bushings, thicker anti-roll bars, and more tightly tuned dampers. It also has stronger brakes and a rack-mounted steering motor for more precise maneuvers. Push through a bit of torque steer and the Sonata N Line powers through corners cleanly and encourages the kind of driving that discourages having anyone ride in the back seat. Rated by itself, the Sonata N Line would be at least a 7 for performance.
Comfort & Quality
The Sonata’s good for five people and five-plus suitcases.
With its five-passenger seating and big trunk, the 2022 Sonata earns an 8 for comfort and utility.
With a 111.8-inch wheelbase and an overall length of 192.9 inches, the Sonata sits squarely in the mid-size sedan niche, along with the Accord and Camry. Like them, it’s an anti-crossover with plenty of passenger space despite a low roofline and a sensuous shape.
Front passengers have excellent leg and head room. Base models have manual seats with a good range of adjustment and a sporty woven upholstery, while upscale versions add power adjustment, synthetic or real leather upholstery, heating, and cooling. The Sonata Limited has a power front passenger seat, too.
Stick with the Sonata Limited for a more luxurious drive. It gets more sound deadening and better upholstery, with quilted leather trim. It’s essentially a replacement for the old Azera premium four-door.
Safety
The Sonata earns its crash-test stripes.
How safe is the Hyundai Sonata?
Very safe. The IIHS gives it a Top Safety Pick award, while the NHTSA rates it at five stars, though front-impact protection checked in at four stars. It’s an 8 here thanks to those ratings and its standard automatic emergency braking.
Sonatas also come with adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitors, and active lane control. Sonata Limited sedans also get a surround-view camera system.
Features
The Sonata touches all the bases for features.
With a price tag from the mid-$20,000s rising to the mid-$30,000s, the Sonata makes every penny count. Every version has great infotainment, standard features, and value, and Hyundai slaps on free maintenance for 3 years or 36,000 miles and a 5-year/60,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. That makes it a 9 here, missing only a point for standout options.
The base Sonata SE comes with cloth upholstery, 16-inch wheels, LED headlights, and an 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Which Hyundai Sonata should I buy?
How much is a fully loaded Hyundai Sonata?
The Sonata Hybrid Limited costs more than $35,000 but comes with a power front passenger seat, cooled front seats, a head-up display, and parking sensors. It also has a solar roof panel and limited self-park ability (the driver can move it forward and backward from outside the car via the key fob).
Fuel Economy
Sonata Hybrids offer stellar fuel economy.
Is the Hyundai Sonata good on gas?
The Sonata’s best fuel economy ratings come in hybrid form, no surprise. But Hyundai sells more gas-only cars, so its 6 score here is derived from EPA ratings of the base model: 28 mpg city, 38 highway, 32 combined. The lower-output turbo-4 Sonata carries ratings of 27/37/31 mpg, with the Sonata N-Line checking in at 23/33/27 mpg.
Hybrid Sonatas take the gas-mileage gold. The EPA pegs the Hybrid SEL and Limited at 45/51/47 mpg, and scores the Sonata Hybrid Blue at a stunning 50/54/52 mpg.
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