Rental cars always make me fall back in love with my MO

[Corin]

Made a whirl-wind trip to New Orleans this weekend (left Seattle at midnight Friday night, came back Sunday afternoon, was only there for 25 hours) and of course got a Hyundai Sonata of all things. Honestly not a bad little car, quiet, comfortable, had some power, and was relatively nimble.

But the transmission? Holy shift shock, Batman! That thing could NOT decide what gear to be in, especially under significant acceleration. Using cruise control, as soon as you hit a gentle slope the car would slow down about 5 mph before finally giving a jolting downshift then surging back up to the set speed.

I started using the tip-tronic "manual mode", but it had a serious delayed reaction and I finally gave up on it.

I guess I'm just too used to my smooth-shifting CVT. I've never liked automatics, always drove a manual until the MO. Now that I know how smooth a manual tranny can be, it just bugs me even more every time I drive a "conventional automatic".

[MuranoSLVER]

Originally posted by Corin


But the transmission? Holy shift shock, Batman! That thing could NOT decide what gear to be in, especially under significant acceleration.

`


Yep The MO's transmission definitely puts to shame most conventional automaics. Hope the 2011 Sonata takes care of that annoyance.

[Brewman2]

Drove a 10 Chevy Traverse while my 09 was in the shop.. Not bad

Drive quality was good, power was good, just lacked the higher quality in the interior..

The Impala I had for a day was CRAP

I did like the fact that the radio will stay on for about 10 minutes after you turn it off, unless you open the door

[Warhammer]

Originally posted by Corin
But the transmission? Holy shift shock, Batman! That thing could NOT decide what gear to be in, especially under significant acceleration. Using cruise control, as soon as you hit a gentle slope the car would slow down about 5 mph before finally giving a jolting downshift then surging back up to the set speed.

Dead on man! I think I'll be spoiled forever with how smooth this transmission is. It was very hard to go from an 03 MO to a 02 Frontier. The shifting in the Frontier was noticeable and took me a long time to get used to.

There is a lengthy hill just north of Truth or Consequences, NM that is always fun to drive. It's called El Camino Real and has a couple of good curves in it as well as a nice quazi-steep grade. I pass vehicles all the time when they're down shifting. As soon as I start to loose speed the RPM's go up. I think that in this area the RPM's settled at about 3500. My sister-in-law was very impressed with how smooth it shifted!

Here is a picture of the pass: