Picked up a gray Sonata w/ two tone gray interior at the San Jose airport Friday evening, drove through late rush hour traffic down the 101 to Salinas. Drove from the hotel to Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway on some twisty roads Saturday and Sunday, and then back to the San Jose airport Sunday afternoon.

 

Impressions:

 Smooth, quiet, reasonably powerful, good on gas, well put together, good outward visibility.  Kind of an anonymous midsize, pleasantly styled but not particularly memorable.  I'd driven a rental Sonata 2 generations ago, this definitely felt bigger and more solid.  Seemed to have more space inside than the Malibus I've driven in recent years.   Dash design and control layout worked, a lot of hard plastics but not cheap looking.  

 

All in all a decent way to get around for a couple days. 

It seems the new greenhouse is even longer than the 11-14 models, and I think that makes it seem more spacious to some degree.

 

Which engine?  When i drove a 15 it had a nasty vibration and noise coming up through the floor when at a stop light.

I'm not sure which engine..didn't have any engine badging that I noticed and I didn't open the hood. Seemed smooth overall..