News & Reviews

Hyundai completely made over its popular Sonata family sedan last year, but the Hybrid was left to soldier on in a somewhat dated uniform. As you'll likely agree the wait has certainly been worth it, as the all-new 2016 Sonata Hybrid delivers even more appealing styling than the regular model.

The new model makes an altogether bolder statement with a much deeper looking grille smartly created by covering its bumper cap with the same matte black composite used for the rest of the insert slats, while surrounding the entire grille area with thick chrome edging, the Sonata Hybrid now looking more familial to the larger Genesis sedan and totally original when compared to other mid-sizers on the market. Elegant LED DRL-infused headlamp clusters with revised lens graphics hover above a stunning set of totally unique LED fogs. I love the way the rear portions of the headlamps meld into the leading edge of the chrome beltline moulding too, a design element shared across the entire Sonata Read Full Story

How do you like it? This is the refreshed 2016 Elantra GT, a car that's only been with us for three years yet has found a passionate following. It arrived on the scene in 2012 as a 2013 model, replacing the more wagon-like Elantra Touring that had a good five-year run paving the way for this arguably more fashionable five-door. Where the Touring arrived on our shores with carryover styling from the European-designed i3 when our current four-door Elantra had already been available since 2011, this time around Hyundai has given its sportier model a mid-cycle update first.

The new grille design transforms the look of the GT, tying it more succinctly to the rest of the Hyundai lineup that now offers a similarly styled hexagonal grille. At first glance it looks like an all-new design with four evenly spaced horizontal slats replacing the outgoing model's curved upper and lower ribs and bisecting bumper cap, but other than this not much has really changed. The bumper cap is still there, Read Full Story

Now in the fifth model year of its fourth generation, the 2016 Accent is deep within its product cycle with Hyundai planning a replacement sometime during the next calendar year. That's a good, healthy run for any car, yet sales of the subcompact model are hardly slowing.

Last year the Accent found 23,173 Canadian buyers for both its four-door sedan and hatchback body style, and despite its aging design 2014 was one of only six 12-month periods that saw the model spike over the 20k threshold since well before I first reviewed one in the fall of 2002. The Accent actually dates back to model year 1995, it being the replacement for the much-maligned Excel that was successor to the original Pony, the compact hatchback that started Hyundai off in our country back in 1984. That very year I was selling "competitive" Renault 5s and Alliances across the street from one of the first Hyundai stores to open in my area, and I quickly experienced my leads walk across the road and vanish, never Read Full Story

As far as compact crossover SUVs go, the Tucson has always delivered excellent value, loads of features and decent driving dynamics, but for me at least, it's never been a looker, that is until now. All-new 2016 Hyundai Tucson? You had me at hello.

OK, it's an overused movie line, the inspiration of which comes from watching too many back-to-back episodes of USA Network's Suits (that drops a lot of classic movie lines), but I could definitely see Gabriel Macht's Harvey Specter emerging from the leather-lined back seat of this third-generation Tucson as he arrives at Pearson Specter Litt, his Manhattan law firm, or maybe that's pushing it. Harvey's more of an Equus kind of guy when he's not at the wheel of his Bentley Continental GT. Instead, let's say that Patrick J. Adams' Mike Ross and Meghan Markle's Rachel Zane wouldn't look out of place up front while heading out of town for a weekend getaway, but as is often the case I seriously digress.

I wasn't too far off the Read Full Story