Hyundai’s Sonata has ended the year 2015 on a high by retaining the title of being the best-selling car in Korea for the second consecutive year.
Hyundai has sold a total of 95,760 units of this midsize sedan from January 2015 to November 2015, beating its own Hyundai Porter truck (91,327) and the Hyundai Avante (also known as the Hyundai Elantra) sedan (86,968). Rumours have it that the strongest aspect behind the huge success of the Hyundai Sonata is the lineup of variants, which of late has been increased to a total of seven variants. In 2015 alone, the turbo, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and diesel were introduced.
It is believed that the introduction of the turbo petrol variant was one of the biggest changes for the Sonata. This particular version is powered by a 1.6-litre T-GDI unit that produces 180bhp, 265Nm of torque and is mated to a seven speed DCT gearbox. This turbo petrol Sonata has a fuel efficiency figure of 13.4 kmpl and is priced from Rs 13.5 to Rs 16.5 lakhs.
Hyundai discontinued the Sonata in India after efforts to make it sell in healthy numbers went futile. Hyundai has not revealed any plans of bringing it back to the Indian market.
