How Hyundai’s Sonata Carved Out an Enduring Niche for Itself in the Market

Buying a car today can feel more complicated than it used to, but that is largely because there are so many excellent options to choose from. Even manufacturers whose output used to be regarded with a bit of suspicion have since become top providers of highly reliable, value-packed cars. Likely no company better illustrates this development than Hyundai, a South Korean manufacturer now celebrating fifty years in business. Once regarded as a company capable only of serving the very lowest end of the market well, Hyundai has become a lot more since.

It took plenty of hard work to get there, of course, but Hyundai cars now regularly hold their own in the middle of the market and even quite a bit higher up. Probably the single best representation of Hyundai’s steadily elevating standards has been the Sonata, a vehicle that competes head to head with legendary models like Toyota’s …