Comparison review: eight midsize sedans (Conclusion)

 The Hyundai Sonata isn't perfect for everyone, but it's
 a winner for its combing value with a strong sense of 
 quality. 

The best midsize sedan would work for everyone. It would be spacious and quiet for the family buyer, yet sporty, expensive-feeling, and stylish for the other. And it would be inexpensive, fuel-efficient, and safe for everyone’s benefit. 

 

It would be nice if such an ideal existed. It would certainly make it easier to choose which midsize sedan to buy. But in the current market, everything is a compromise, and you’ll need to find which compromise works best for you.

 

The strongest compromise of those virtues is the first-place Hyundai Sonata, for its sense of substance, refinement, and quality combined with the practicality of its spacious and luxurious interior and the value of its good gas mileage and bargain pricing.

 

But some buyers will want a sportier driving experience than the comfort-focused Sonata will offer. The best family sedan choice for that buyer is the third-place Mazda6, which outhandles the rest of its class and feels smaller than it is when you push it into fast corners. However, the average midsize sedan buyer will likely favor comfort, refinement, and price over this extra agility, and would therefore probably be better served by another car. 

 

The strong-selling and always critically-acclaimed Honda Accord, ranked sixth here, offers a bit more room than the Mazda6, but it costs more, isn’t as fun to drive, and doesn’t add any comfort or refinement to the Mazda. The second-place Ford Fusion offers a similar overall experience to the Accord, though it gives up a bit of gas mileage, and  but costs many thousands of dollars less. 

 

The fourth-place Chevrolet Malibu also handles well, but more in the sense of solidity than outright driving enjoyment. The Malibu’s mechanicals are strong, giving its driving dynamics a high dose of comfort, refinement, and fuel economy. However, despite this and despite a high-style environment inside and out, the car’s interior is let down by relatively tight rear seating and some cheap and misaligned interior panels. 

 

The best-selling Toyota Camry, ranked fifth, beats the rest of these eight if you want maximum isolation in your driving experience; the Camry’s very smooth and quiet ride are top-class. It’s also spacious and, unlike the Accord, not too expensive. However, the Sonata offers the same experience better in most ways and for less money; the Camry’s suspension soaks up a few bumps better, but cheap interior bits set its overall sense of quality a step behind the Hyundai’s. 

 

It would be harder to justify buying the two remaining cars of these eight. 

 

The seventh-place Nissan Altima looks nice on the surface, but despite its sporty pretensions brings little to the table in terms of driving enjoyment, even as it lacks refinement and interior space. 

 

And the last-place Chrysler Sebring (and the identical Dodge Avenger) is a distinct cut below the rest of its class. While most aspects of the car would seem acceptable enough in a vacuum, there is nothing it does better than its competitors and is consistently below-average compared to the other seven. 

 

It’s worth noting that two areas that are frequently of great importance to buyers, safety and reliability, are virtually a tie among these eight. None bombed any of their crash tests, and Consumer Reports and TrueDelta.com report that none suffer more than the average reliability defect rates, a rate that’s already low among new cars.  

 

There are other midsize cars beyond these eight, of course. As tested, these were moderately-equipped four-cylinder midsize sedans; Mitsubishi, Pontiac, Saturn, and Subaru are among the automakers fielding direct competitors. For time and space purposes, Mitsubishi’s aging Galant and Subaru’s cramped Legacy were left out, as were the Pontiac G6 and Saturn Aura, which are mechanically related to the Chevrolet Malibu, which is almost universally considered the best of the three. The Mercury Milan, too, is left out because it’s all but identical to the Ford Fusion. 

 

(If you’re especially curious about any of them, however, you’re encouraged to request a review via e-mail or in the comments section here.)

 

But there are also other types of cars that fulfill similar needs to family sedans. For some buyers, a roomy compact car will be just as good as a midsize one for much less money; the Chevrolet Malibu and Nissan Altima are no more spacious than the average economy car despite their larger exterior dimensions. 

 

Also, a wagon-style vehicle (a crossover, station wagon, or SUV) will offer much more practicality than a sedan, and good ones trade off only the styling of a sedan to get extra cargo space and versatility. The Kia Rondo tall compact wagon, for one, offers lots of space and competitive pricing, and many compact car-based SUVs fall into the similar price range as these eight while offering comparable comfort, refinement, and passenger space. Most will get lower gas mileage than these midsize sedans, but there’s not a huge difference in fuel consumption if you get a good one. 

 

Another popular alternative to traditional midsize sedans is the hybrid gas-electric Toyota Prius, which offers very high gas mileage plus decent interior space. But while base pricing and interior volume on the Prius is comparable to some of these eight, it’s really a compact car with midsize car pricing, and a fuel-efficient economy car without the pricey electric motor will likely make better financial sense in the long run. 

 

And it’s impossible to conclude without pointing out the cost savings of buying an almost-new used car over a new one, a car where someone else has taken the depreciation hit. Research the deal you’d be getting carefully (it’s easy for an overpriced used car to sell for more than the same car loaded with rebates brand new) and check for possible damage, but in general you’ll see significant savings. 

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