2026 Sonata SEL Hev
First I love the car. That said I have quite a bit of critical feedback. For context I travel quite a bit and rent a variety of cars often the comparisons presented are after multiple days driving many of the comparisons.
The ideal similar class vehicle for me would be combining Toyota’s 2026 Camry hybrid drivetrain the cvt they use is a blast to drive and provides a better performance feel across the power band. Take the Honda Accord (I drove the 2024 hybrid, not sure the trim) seats (talking about cushion and dimensions, your materials are great) and roominess (hip shoulder leg knee head and chest space - front and rear - Honda nailed it in this category. Keep your displays and interior technology forward approach and interior & exterior styling. Make your steering wheel diameter just a hair thinker (just a few millimeters not a lot but enough to give it a more substantial feel). Keep your hybrid battery capacity (actually maybe make it slightly more capacity I lose a bit of hybrid range/mpg because it doesn’t have enough capacity for a hilly portion of my commute and the battery reaches capacity and discontinues collecting charge - in my case maybe 15% more capacity would be just about perfect but i understand you’re balancing weight, range, etc among a lot of consumers in varying environments and mine may be outside that average band.
Finally, with the ADAS systems and bluelink* a much more Tesla like system would be wonderful. I feel like the lane maintenance doesn’t like to handle shaper curves as well and requires manual takeover. Options for adjusting how long the auto start should run before shutting off, allowing family members to have their own bluelink login so that they can use their phones to turn on the a/c. The unlock and climate buttons on bluelink have quite a bit of lag from when you hit the button to when the action occurs. Finally, features like lane merging etc… should be included on lower trim models (ideally even on the base model). Don’t go to a proprietary interface like Tesla though the Apple car play is wonderful.
Also, I have the low rating on recommending it to a friend just because I typically don’t make recommendations to others on what car they should buy.
Verified Owner
