News of the impending death of the Hyundai Sonata have been greatly exaggerated, apparently, because what you see here is the 9th-generation car that's been redone to look positively stunning. The 8th-generation Sonata pushed the envelope in terms of exterior styling but didn't win over customers resulting in plummeting sales figures. The restyled Sonata for 2024 hopes to change all that, and by the looks of it, we're guessing that will happen.
Hyundai didn't completely go back to the drawing board because the body and the overall shape of the Sonata remain the same, but revisions to the front and rear end make it drastically different in terms of the overall look. We have to say that the brand did a masterful job of making the 9th-generation Sonata look like a huge departure from the current car to the point where if you saw them side-by-side, they'd look totally different. Let's take a closer look at the changes.
The Racy New Exterior
The new car ditches the old headlights and fish-mouth grille and swaps them out for a full light bar and totally redone grille setup with a large trapezoidal main grille flanked by intakes and deep-inset headlights. The design language is called "The Sportiness" and provides what Hyundai calls a "seamless horizon lamp". The changes are substantial and give the new Sonata a totally new front end that's not polarizing the way the outgoing car is.
The tail end of the outgoing car was not as drastically styled as the front, but Hyundai was smart to revise it, as well. We actually quite liked the ducktail spoiler and the bracketed taillights. The new back end sports straight lines in what the brand calls the "H-lamp", essentially two outboard short vertical light bars connected by a full-width light bar. We also love the new lower outlets that make room for the quad pipes on the upcoming performance-minded Sonata N-Line. The N-Line will also receive a more aggressive decklid spoiler and larger 19" wheels that look positively racy.
We think the new Sonata even looks better than the newly redesigned and very attractive 2024 Honda Accord (photo above) because it's not all straight lines and not as minimalist as the Accord's body. You decide, but our vote's with the Sonata.
The New Cabin Touts New Style and Tech
The interior of the new Sonata gets redone to match the new exterior, and the results are tremendously good. It borrows much from newer models like the 2024 Kona and the upcoming Ioniq 6 sedan. The dash is dominated by two large 12.3-inch screens that are now housed in a single curved display with configurable instrumentation and the latest infotainment OS. Even the climate and audio controls are rearranged underneath the linear vent setup. The three-spoke steering wheel is also new, and the gearshift is now located on the steering column to make room for more storage.
Of course, the new Sonata will get tons of tech in the form of a Digital Key 2 that can lock and unlock the vehicle from a smartphone or smartwatch, an improved premium Bose 12-speaker audio system with CenterPoint 360 technology, and Remote Smart Parking Assist that can be used to park (and unpark) in tight spaces when the driver is outside the car.
The car will also get improved sound-deadening, improved safety measures like Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist 1.5, Rear Cross-traffic Collision-avoidance Assist, Blind-spot Collision Assist, Safe Exit Warning, Safe Exit Assist, Lane Keeping Assist, Lane Following Assist, Smart Cruise Control with Stop & Go, Navigation-based Smart Cruise Control, and Highway Driving Assist.
In terms of power, the Sonata will get three choices: a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder (191 hp), a turbocharged 2.5-liter four (290 hp), and a 2.0-liter four-cylinder hybrid (151 hp) that are all from the current Sonata. It's likely that the new car will get power bumps from those powertrains, but we're unsure of the details that will likely come closer to the sale date, which will likely be this summer.
Get a Great Deal on a Hyundai Sonata Near You
The Hyundai Sonata is one of the best family sedans out there, and a great used one is truly affordable. Read our full review below.
2020 Hyundai Sonata Limited Review
