New York 2010: Hyundai Sonata Turbo is Powerful, Frugal

Hyundai's new Sonata sedan has been a press darling these days. It's got everything that mid-size car buyers are looking for: great looks, a reasonable price and a long warranty, plenty of space and quality, and a remarkable power-to-efficiency ratio.  Hyundai just debuted the 2011 Sonata Turbo at the New York Auto Show, and if anything the media love for the new four-door is about to reach a fever pitch.

Let's talk numbers for a minute.  The regular Sonata uses a 2.4L 16v I4 with gasoline-direct-injection to produce a healthy 198bhp and 189lb-ft of torque, which is more than any of the four-cylinder competition in it's class, all at an "are you serious?" 35 highway MPG.  That's impressive in it's own right - they're out-Honda-ing Honda itself with those numbers.  Now, when the new Sonata debuted they said "No V6 this time" and everyone kind of shook their head and said "why?"

Turns out they had a trick up their sleeve.  Rather than a heavy, thirsty V6 Hyundai has gone the turbocharging route, seemingly to great effect.  The 2.4L GDI Theta II motor gains a twin-entry turbocharger that huffs 17.4psi(!) of boost into the all-aluminum four-cylinder, and the power numbers are damned impressive.  274 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 269lb-ft of torque in a wide spread between 1,800-4,500 rpm mean there's no waiting for a turbo to spool, just gobs of torque low down where you'd want it - and where a big V6 used to deliver it.  Of course, never that low down.  What's more impressive?  This 9.5:1 compression ratio, 1.2 bar of boost turbo motor will happily sip on 87 octane fuel.  Other neat features include a stainless steel one-piece exhaust manifold/turbo setup and an electronically controlled wastegate for more precise boost management.

Mated to a 6-speed automatic developed in-house by Hyundai (with paddle shifters! in a Sonata!), this impressive engine will deliver estimated fuel mileage numbers of 22 city/34 highway.  Let's see, a big sedan with a powerful turbo motor that gets almost 35 mpg on regular gas?  What's the catch?  Well, for one thing - no stick shift.  For another thing... err, actually, I can't think of anything else.  With a power-to-weight ratio of 12.2lbs/bhp the Sonata turbo has better numbers than any sedan competitors in the class, and it's even better than the V6 Camaro - for real!

What else do you need to know?  According to Hyundai, the Sonata turbo (available in SE and Limited trim levels) will come in under $25,000 "well equipped."  Quite what that means remains to be seen, but that much performance and economy for that little money would have been a pie-in-the-sky dream 10 years ago - who would have bet back then that Hyundai was going to do it?