2014 Hyundai SONATA Hybrid consumer reviews

I purchased my Sonata in August of last year, 10 months ago, and have driven it about 24700 km since that time in a wide variety of conditions including around town, on the road and several 2 day road trips. Milage has been good, but not excellent in comparison to other hybrids. I track every fill and my current average is 7.1 litres per hundred km or 33.1 miles per U.S. gallon. In fairness, many of my long trips are on 80 mph roads which defeats the hybrid system to a great extent. Keeping speeds under 73 mph means mileage at about 41 mpg. City driving is only slightly lower. Turning off the hybrid system when the car is cold is recommended. This removes the hesitancy during acceleration. I usually give the car 2 minutes to warm up, especially on cold days. I don't find the steering heavy as reported by others. It juste takes a bit of getting use too. Interior comfort is excellent except for the lower passenger seat in front. My wife complains about sitting too low so she needs a cushion. A power seat with up/down option would have solved this but it was not available, Also, the rear seats do not fold forward, leaving you with only a small passthrough for things like skis. A roof rack solved that. I bought the car for the warm beige interior and have not been disappointed. It is easy to keep clean and all the buttons and gadgets are fine. The navigation system seems to get confused once in a while but no worse than any others I have used. The exterior constantly turns heads in parking lots, its classic styling eliciting the same response as cars did in the old days. From an economics point of view, the hydrid system does save you money monthly which helps lessen the impact of those monthly payments. This is very much a full sized car with 199 hp so don't expect best hybrid mileage. It has power to spare when passing on a two-lane road and rides solidly like the Buicks of old (of which I had several). It holds the road in the wind, rain and snow (with snow tires which I recommend). Running tires at higher psi definitely helps summer mileage. The entertainment system is top notch. You could leave the vehicle with your ears ringing if desired. Overall, the 2014 Sonata Hybrid (no changes for 2015 I understand) has proven to be a reliable, comfortable and efficient vehicle leaving me with no regrets.

On the plus side, the car looks great. I get people in parking lots and gas stations making nice comments. Especially the sky blue color which, of course, Hyundai no longer makes. Go figure. Before I bought it, I took this model out for a very long test drive but I didn't test the proper things, I suppose. It's at its worst when driving on city side streets with lots of stop signs or speed bumps. When slowing down, it doesn't seem to be able to predict which gear to be in and frequently turns off the gas engine only for it to have to come back on a few seconds later. All this can cause very uneven acceleration often with what feels like bad hesitation and sometimes even lurching. Actually, I've decided, after several months that my car's name should be "Lurch". All this is at its worst when the engine is cold, especially winter cold. I find myself frequently turning off blue mode in the city and even doing paddle shifting to get it to gear down when approaching a stop sign. My other big complaint is that the steering feels heavy at highway speeds and requires too much effort as the car may wander a bit depending on the road conditions. (I'm wondering if this is the tires the car came with.) I'm not being wussy -- at the end of a day of long driving on a road trip, my hands and arms feel the fatigue. The NAVI is a bit goofy. It might say something like "turn right at the next street" when it's really two or three streets. And it frequently mispronounces street names. Even something common like "Fairview" comes out as "Fah-ear-view". Once it completely freaked out for over a day. When in Cincinnati, it thought I was off the road in Lexington, KY. As a mainframe computer programmer for forty years, my attitude is that when a program needs fixing, you revise it. So revise it, Hyundai! Saying something is computer controlled is no excuse; it should be an opportunity. The dealership is no help. The head of the service department said that maybe this isn't a good car for city use on side streets. Well thanks for nothing.

I really like my Sonata Hybrid 2014 Limited Ed except Milage, I just brought a Hybrid car, only because of good milage. Hyundai advertised Highway 36 and City 40. I'm getting Highway 30-35 miles and City only 26 miles. It's not a valuable car compare to what I paid. I called Hyundai customer care regarding this issue, They are really irresponsible and suggested to nearest dealer.

Rented an almost new one, drove it for a week. My first hybrid, took a little learning. Nice looking car, very comfortable and smooth. Some slight bumps when it transfers from electric to gasoline engine. Nothing serious, just an idiosyncrasy. Also the steering felt a little front-heavy to me, maybe just because I'm accustomed to rear wheel drive cars. With mostly highway driving, I got 33mpg.

I was deciding between the Sonata Hybrid and the Nissan Altima and finally settled on this one primarily because of the price, Mileage and great interiors. This is a great car overall with good mileage (I get about 37 local and 40 highway) and our primary driving is local to schools and other chores. This is by no means a performance car and people who buy this do not buy it for racing from 0 to 60 in 5.7 seconds. This is a family car and is a comfortable ride for four people and rides quietly in city conditions. Since I bought the Limited version, I have the navigation and the 7" touch screen which we love. The interiors are something that is very different and nicely laid out compared to an Altima or an Accord. Again this is purely individual perception and this is just my opinion. We all know the Hyundai has come a long way with respect to quality, but the reason I gave this a 4 star is that the third week we had a minor issue with the car and had to take to the dealership. The TPMS was showing an alert and was finally diagnosed as one of the wheels not seated properly in its rim and they had to re seat the particular wheel.. Though I was not charged anything, I spent about an hour and a half at the dealership and would consider that as lack of QC / reliability. If I have to point out another issue, it is with the passenger seat height adjustment. For some reason, even with all the available packages, there is no height adjustment for the passenger seat and feels like you are sitting in a pit. Overall - great car

Adjustable mirrors, seats should be controlled by the buttons installed in the cabin, rather than manually. It is 21st Century - don't forget about it. Good luck!

In my opinion, this is the Best car in comparison to Camry, Prius or Accord hybrid vehicles. This 2014 hybrid model is giving 46+ miles per gallon on highway while doing 65 miles per hour because my commute consists of mostly highway driving. For local city driving, it is giving 47+ miles per gallon. I have already driven more than 1000 miles; I still love this car. I was a Toyota's loyal customer and had four Toyota vehicles in last 10 years. I am glad, I did not buy Camry or Accord this time. Thanks to Hyundai Engineering team for this car!

The Sonata Hybrid is a super car. It is not a Corvette but it can be quick. However, it's shining point is its fuel economy. It best mileage is advertised in the low 40 mpg range. Out of the box our Hybrid started pulling numbers in the 46/47 mpg range around town. My practice is to immediately dump the factory oil replacing it with Mobil 1. With only 150 miles on the car was getting a solid 49/51 mpg around town. Yes, we do drive conservatively aiming for good mileage and I am sure that our results are not pro-typical, but the 50 mpg range for a new car is fantastic. We can not wait to take it on a trip. The car handles like a much bigger car (variable rate steering helps) with sure straight breaking. Exceptionally comfortable to drive. The only criticism would be the front passenger comfort. The seat is very low and non adjustable leaving the passenger to strain to see around them. Other than that it is a super car that is a joy to drive. Even though it is a bit pricy, we would highly recommend the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid.

Great looking car, overall MPG has been 30-34max after 6 months. Numerous build quality issues including problems with the transmission shifting, and the EV mode routinely does not consistently kick in. Also very disappointed the backseat does not fold down at all. Also the navigation system is very inaccurate I end up using my phone for directions most of the time. Overall this is not a hybrid vehicle I would not buy again or recommend to anyone, unfortunately, the hyundai service departments are very difficult to work with and routinely would dismiss legitimate issues as "normal".

Well my grandson said-Meemaw dont you think that's kinda flashy? I love the car-the seats are a little stiff but still very nice-very roomy and with lumbar support and heated seats and many electric adjustments I have lots of options. MPG around town is 28 and on highway quickly gets to cruising in the 33. The power is smooth and more than adequate. The features are so numerous and the hands free does a multitude of things for max safety and convenience-things found in much more expensive cars. It even keeps track of hours on the road-cumulatively- I have 57 hours! Cant wait to take a road trip-but every day is a pleasure in this car!