2011 Hyundai Azera Midsize Car Review & Performance

The Azera isn't the kind of car you'd look at twice. In fact it's kind of invisible. It's not ugly, but lacks sweeping lines. The styling says old man's car.

It tries to be like other cars in its forward half, and mostly gets away with it, including the glittery chrome, unless that other car is, say, a Lexus.

But in the rear it tries to be different, and it succeeds, although maybe not as intended; it's got distinctive bulging hips, like a someone wearing a speedo or bikini that shouldn't be. The spoiler over the rear deck is a little hump, as if they forgot to finish it.

The gauges on the Azera are extremely pleasing. What Korean designers seem to do is copy other designs and execute about perfectly (when they get the exterior down, watch out). The speedo and tach are not original, just right: organic white lettering with bright red needles, sharp and clear so the information jumps out at you. The blue backlighting of instruments, switches and buttons is nice too.

The speedo and tach are optimistic at 160 mph and 8000 rpm, as they all are. It's just that, with a Korean car, still a relative newbie on the luxury block, you can't help thinking it's some sort of statement that: we're as good as you all. And bully for them.

The temperature gauge is to the left, fuel to the right, and between the speedo and tach there's a digital info display that's also easy to read. However, you do have to reach around the steering wheel to the dash to hit the button that changes the information in the display. And we could live without the flashing ECO light on the Limited model.

The steering wheel has cruise control and audio controls, and is woodgrain from 10 to 2 o'clock. There's a big grab handle on the door, also woodgrain. The door pockets are medium-sized, and tucked under the armrests, so you'll have to put your one-liter bottles of Pepsi between your thighs, or in your passenger's hands.

The front seats are pretty good, neither hard nor soft, not exactly a sport fit but supportive. They're appropriate for the car, and we found them adequately comfortable for two three-hour stints behind the wheel.

In the rear seats, there's 38 inches of legroom, a competitive number. Hyundai claims that the Azera's total cabin space of 123.5 cubic feet is greater than the Toyota Avalon and Nissan Maxima.

The navigation screen hangs under a big flat gray vinyl dashboard, and it's simple to program and easy to read (split with map and directions), although it could use an eave for shading and better visibility. The navigation system itself gave us fits and got us lost. Either it was all wrong, or somehow we hit something that programmed a previous stopover point, because it kept trying to take us south from Los Angeles, we think to the Pacific Athletic Club in San Diego, when we wanted to go east to Palm Springs. But even after we figured out how to shut it up, and we tried again later, it missed more turns. Another time it told us to turn left, 20 feet past the left turn. Another time it told us to stay left on the freeway when we needed to stay right. Another time it turned the volume down on itself, and began speaking so softly we couldn't hear it.

The center console begins with a cubby under the navigation screen, and runs back over the shift lever that can be used to manually change gears, to two concealed cupholders, a coinholder cubby, and a big double compartment between the seats. The armrest on the door is good, but the one on the center console compartment is too far back to rest your right elbow on and still have your hand on the steering wheel.

Rearward visibility is good, and there's a standard power sunshade in the rear glass. Wide enough that we didn't have to scrunch our 70-inch frame very much, easier on the neck than upright in a seat in the airport, and quieter.

Our favorite part of the interior was looking out to the hood, where two windshield washer nozzles looked back in with jets like robot eyeballs, as if Wall-E's babies were staring up at us through the windshield.

With all the desert freeway driving, we had a good chance to feel the Azera at 80 mph in the flow of traffic, and it easily held its own. It's a very smooth engine.

It was a nice comfortable ride, at least on the terrain we crossed, which did include some bumps. At first we thought the ride and handling felt floaty, but the more we drove it, the tighter it seemed to get. Certainly tight enough for freeway work. Solid and not harsh over speedbumps, although it didn't do sharper railroad tracks as well.

We took the Azera through some uphill curves to a viewpoint over Palm Springs, and at a lightly brisk pace, it didn't really like all those corners. Again, the handling was adequate, but the suspension was built for comfort, not sport. A lot of little corrections were necessary to keep the car on line. If we had driven much faster we would probably have reached the point of wallow.

Coming back down, we challenged the brakes, tentatively. No fade, and good pedal feel, but probably only because the challenge was light. Again, the Azera isn't a sports sedan, it's a cruiser.

The 6-speed transmission, called Shiftronic, along with the engine, are the best features of the Azera. The transmission offers manual shifting with the lever, and it responds well. In automatic, the transmission was very well-behaved, kicking down no more than necessary, which wasn't a lot with the good 262 foot-pounds of torque from the engine. Some impressive stats on the transmission: 26.4 pounds lighter than the 5-speed it replaced, 1.6 inches shorter, and 62 fewer moving parts.

Unfortunately we didn't have a chance to drive the Azera GLS with the 3.3-liter V6 and the same transmission, because at a price that's significantly less than our Azera Limited, if the engine is nearly as smooth, it sounds like a better value, especially since it gets another mile per gallon, rated at 18/28 mpg. That smaller V6 still makes 260 horsepower, and that's pretty darn good.

The Azera Limited with the 3.8-liter engine is EPA-rated at 19/27 mpg City/Highway. We saw 28.5 mpg at a steady 70 mph, and 26 mpg running 75-80 mph in a crosswind out to Palm Springs. After 286 miles including some stop-and-go freeway traffic, we averaged 25.6 mpg. Azera takes first-in-class on fuel mileage.

The Azera GLS ($25,495) uses a 3.3-liter dohc V6 that makes 260 horsepower and a 6-speed sequential automatic transmission with manual shifting. The GLS comes standard with upgraded cloth upholstery, automatic dual-zone air conditioning, eight-way power driver seat, four-way power passenger seat, 60/40 split folding rear seat, 172-watt AM/FM/CD MP3 audio system with six speakers, steering-wheel audio controls, cruise control, HomeLink garage door opener, three 12-volt outlets, power windows, power locks, heated power mirrors with manual foldaway, tilt/telescoping steering wheel, remote keyless entry, fog lights, and 16-inch alloy wheels. The GLS Premium package ($2200) adds leather seating surfaces and steering wheel, heated front seats, power sunroof.

The Azera Limited ($30,095) uses the bigger 3.8-liter V6 making 283 horsepower, along with that same new 6-speed automatic transmission. The Limited upgrades with leather upholstery, heated front seats, power tilt/telescoping steering wheel, memory for seats, mirrors and steering-wheel adjustment, woodgrain-trimmed leather steering wheel, power sunroof, power rear sunshade, 315-watt Infinity AM/FM 6CD MP3 10-speaker audio, ECO shift indicator, compass, outside temperature display, power foldaway mirrors with exterior puddle lights, in-glass turn signals, 17-inch painted alloy wheels.

The Navigation package ($1750) for the Limited model includes the LG Navigation System and a 605-watt, 12-speaker Infinity Logic7 Surround Sound audio system.

Safety equipment includes eight airbags, stability control, traction control, ABS with EBD and BA, and a tire pressure monitor, LATCH child-seat anchors.