Scoop: India bound 2011 Hyundai Sonata/IX45 spotted

2011 Hyundai Sonata/IX45

The Hyundai Sonata, right from it’s very first “poor man’s jag” iteration never managed to be quite the seller that Hyundai hoped it would be in India. Even a sweet but very thirsty V6 petrol motor couldn’t get the first gen Sonata selling as it had to contend with a very formidable rival in the form of the Honda Accord. This trend continued even as Hyundai replaced the Sonata with the second generation version called the Sonata Embera. Even a terrific CRDI diesel motor couldn’t push the Sonata Embera off dealer shelves as Hyundai’s image of a small car company stuck to the car like a diabetic’s open wound that never healed.

2011 Hyundai Sonata/IX45 Spy Shot

Like we reported almost a year ago, Hyundai being the ever persistent auto maker seems to be all set to usher in the 2011 Hyundai Sonata which in other parts of the planet goes by the name IX45. Spotted testing somewhere on the Bangalore Chennai highway was the 2011 Hyundai IX45. It seems like the IX45 moniker is to prevent the negative not-so-positive image associated with Sonata tag from weighing down the car. That seems to be a bright move from Hyundai considering the resounding success it’s cars with the i-moniker has been having. The 2011 Hyundai Sonata/IX45 has been receiving rave reviews globally and sells with a 2.4 Liter four pot petrol engine pushing out about 175 horses.

2011 Hyundai Sonata/IX45

A more powerful GDI engine version is also available which produces about 204 Bhp along with a petrol-electric hybrid version and a Turbo-Petrol version available too. But what is missing in all the variants of the Sonata YF/IX45 globally is the presence of a diesel engine. We really expect Hyundai India to remedy this situation and bring along a frugal diesel from it;s global range of diesel motors or even use the existing CRDI diesel engine that the Sonata Embera has. This, along with some value pricing that undercuts both the Kizashi and the Accord could finally see the sharply styled Hyundai IX45 breaking the jinx of Hyundai cars over INR 10 Lakhs being poor sellers.