Rental Wonder: 2006 Hyundai Sonata

This week I happened upon renting a new Hyundai Sonata. Sure, you’ve seen the BMW-esque commercials with the silver car revving and cornering up a mountain road. Subtitle: 235 HP. Too bad it’s not rear-wheel.

From the standpoint of trying to push rentals on a weekly basis (with my own and the general public’s safety a top priority of course), this vehicle stands out as an exception from the average rental car fleet.

The standard road tests include:

• Power shifting – from neutral at standstill
• Power shifting – from neutral while rolling (various speeds and gears)
• Redline test
• Power brake test – slides at speed
• Drifting– usually wide cloverleaf exit ramps without edges
• 0-60 test
• Hard start – no power shift on dry pavement

Basic stats hold true- 235 horsepower from an overhead cam V-6 and a ‘poor man’s tectronic’ shifting system to boot. The look of the car is not bad; in fact today I got ‘the nod’ from a rice-burner. Could be the power of advertising.

Advantages:

• No-rev limiter, at least up to red-line RPM at 7000
• Ignition-kill does not kick in if you do a moving power shift.
• Parking brake – strong rear-brake is strong enough for power slides
• Horsepower-weight ratio is great. Hyundai makes a lightweight car.
• The ‘poor man’s tectronic’ is great. It’s a little clunky, but at least lets you run up to redline in each gear.
• Enough torque to break loose in 1^st in dry conditions
• The suspension is tight enough to do hard cornering without ‘nose-diving’ or unpredicted weight shifts;
• Drink holder in the rear-center arm-rest; bling bling
• Bodywork is tight- consistent edges and clearances all around

Disadvantages:

• Front-wheel drive limits any and potential of drifting this baby. If otherwise, this would be a true drifting machine.
• Ignition-kill sets in if you do a power shift from a standstill, like most rentals these days
• The center-console is over-designed

In sum...

Usually any rental fleet mid-size with 200+ HP is a death wish, but the Sonata actually has good gearing, balance, and suspension that add up to a predictably fun ride. This car puts comparable ‘mid-size’ rental fleet performers to shame.

cHARLOTte

I've determined from extensive research that cHARLOTte is super lame. A one trick pony primadonna with an attitude problem.

The metro-persona consists of 'the bank'. What's funny is that roughly -7/10 people in town work for 'the bank' and commonly self-reference their respective employer as 'the bank', even though there are 2 gigantic banks in town.

Even the homey culture is lame. Tonight I walked 2 miles through old run-down warehouse districts and didn't get cased once. Ain't no reefer here kids! And speaking of downtown, the cHarlottans refer to downtown as 'uptown'. Personal theory: to mullify suburbanite concerns that they'll get mauled going to work in the big city. You can circumnavigate the metropolis running in less than 30', and there are no more than 5 dark alleys where bad things might even conceivably happen.

The most insightful comment about cHARLOTte was from a dude working the valet stand. 'People in cHARLOTte are overly concerned about themselves. It's all about me'.

That does sum it up. Except this joint is like LA without the fuckin entertainment industry. Sort of like a mini-sanitary napkin version of south Manhattan minus chutzpah and any remote sense of style, with the exception of the men's grooming salon of course.

Too much butter, not enough soul.