This was my first car purchase. Was relatively cheap (~$14,000) at the time of purchase (2013), but it felt and looked, like a more expensive vehicle. The car is black and has a nice sleek look to it. The paint finish still looks nice to this day. The gas mileage is still pretty good. I get about 35-40 mpg. I travel extensively with this car- approximately 600-700 miles per week, and it currently has 150,000 miles on it. It has surprising accelerating power to it, given that it's only a Hyundai Sonata. I don't feel like I have gerbils powering my engine. The speaker sound quality is nice. The hands-free Bluetooth voice recognition is useless, as I've never had any success with calling someone through talking to it. I have, however, have to bring it in several times due to recalls. The engine even seized up on me, due to a manufacturing process error. There were metal shavings found in the engine. Luckily, the dealership was able to replace it for free because it was part of the recall and still under warranty.

We chose the Hyundai Sonata after a recommendation from a family friend. Compared to the Honda Civic in our family, the Sonata is a higher class car and overall smoother. More importantly, it is better on fuel efficiency, quieter, and has a much larger interior (mid-size) that allows passengers to be comfortable even on long drives. These are the most important factors we were looking for, but its dashboard features are nice too, with an interactive screen.