2012 SONATA With Prices and Reviews

Upcoming Cars in 2012 SONATA With Prices, Specification And Reviews and Pictures

We’ve occasionally stumbled across prototype vehicles in parking lots or traffic, but we’ve never had one fall into our laps before. This 2012 Hyundai Elantra prototype, however, did just that. We were tending to business in the office when the forthcoming four-door literally parked right beneath our window.

We conveniently chose to take our lunch break at that exact moment, and meandered down to have a look for ourselves. Admittedly, there’s little mystery surrounding the new subcompact sedan since it’s already been launched in Korea, but this was our first close encounter with the new Elantra here in the U.S.

Hyundai is on a serious roll with the Sonata. It started out with the redesigned 2011 Sonata and its very capable standard power plant — a 198-horsepower, direct-injected 2.4-liter engine — and it escalated at last month’s New York auto show with the unveiling of the 274-hp Sonata 2.0T and the lithium-polymer battery-equipped Sonata Hybrid.

So what’s Hyundai’s next move? Well, sources close to the company have suggested it will be the Sonata Coupe. When you look at the fast roofline of the sedan, it’s as if the coupe body style is meant to be — and we have no doubt Hyundai picked the final design for the Sonata with this in mind.