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2021 Hyundai Sonata vs. 2021 Toyota Camry
2021 Toyota Camry SE Nightshade Edition ・ Photo by Brady Holt
Year after year, the Toyota Camry has a target on its back. It’s America’s best-selling mid-size sedan, long renowned as an excellent family car. And this year, Toyota cycled back to make it even better, updating the 2021 Camry with more sophisticated safety features and a newly available 9-inch infotainment touchscreen.
Still, the Camry faces a tough challenger in the 2021 Hyundai Sonata. The Sonata received a dramatic redesign for 2020, which introduced a striking exterior, a posher interior, and an upgraded powertrain lineup. And it keeps the brand’s famously low pricing. To see which is the better mid-size sedan, we tested both the Camry and Sonata so we could compare them across eight categories and name an overall winner.
Exterior Design
Hyundai and Toyota took different approaches while styling their mid-size sedans. Toyota keeps things simple, classy, and generally unobjectionable. You won’t find lots of creases and edges along the Camry’s bodywork — just a high, rounded roof and big windows. Still, the sport-themed Camry SE, XSE, and TRD trim levels have a more aggressive hourglass-shaped grille, a different rear bumper, and an available two-tone roof. Our tested Nightshade Edition has blacked-out wheels, side mirrors, door handles, and badging. Toyota revised most trim levels’ front bumper as part of a 2021 update, but it’s a subtle adjustment.
The freshly redesigned Sonata doesn’t believe in subtle. Hyundai sweated the details, including a hood that fits seamlessly against the grille, and LED headlight spears that merge seamlessly into chrome trim running up toward the windshield. A crisp lightbar connects the angular taillights, which emerge from a crease running along the whole side of the vehicle. And the sedan’s overall shape is low and wide, for a more athletic stance than the Camry. We won’t decide for you whether you prefer the more adventurous Sonata or the more classically handsome Camry.
Tie
Photo by Brady Holt
Interior Design
The Sonata and Camry interiors are less different than their exteriors. And if anything, it’s Toyota that shows more design flourish, with a center stack that curves down and away from the gear selector and cupholders. The Sonata dash is more straightforward: infotainment on the top, climate controls in the middle, and open storage space below that.
We’ll again defer to readers’ aesthetic preferences, but the Sonata secures the win in this category for its superior cabin materials and its more advanced infotainment. Entry-level Sonatas have a standard 8-inch touchscreen, while a 10.25-inch touchscreen is available as an option. This year, the Camry’s infotainment screen moved higher in the dashboard, letting it fit a new 9-inch system as an available upgrade from our test vehicle’s 7-inch unit. Besides its bigger screens, the Sonata’s system is also more responsive than the Camry’s. The Toyota’s cabin is pleasant, up-to-date, and user-friendly, but even after this year’s Camry update, the Sonata’s is even more so.
Photo by Brady Holt
Interior Space and Comfort
Both of these mid-size sedans are spacious and comfortable, with room for four adults to stretch out for a long road trip, or five to avoid feeling too pinched on a shorter drive. The Sonata has the lower-slung, sportier vibe you’d also find in a Honda Accord, while the Camry sits you up a little higher and more upright. We found the Camry’s seats cushier and more enveloping, both in the front and the back, and their support holds up better on a long trip.
The Sonata has more rear legroom than the Camry but a lower seat cushion, which provides less support for adults. The Sonata’s trunk measures a generous 16.0 cubic feet, while the Camry’s is a less impressive 15.1 cubic feet. The Hyundai offers more room, but the Toyota is where we’d rather sit. Unless you know you’d max out your trunk volume, we’ll give the nod to the Camry.
Photo by Brady Holt
Ride and Handling
The Toyota Camry is almost synonymous with dull-driving, comfort-focused transportation. That’s not the case these days. It still offers outstanding smoothness and quietness, but it has also become quite agile. Its steering is responsive and decently precise, and the car doesn’t pitch and roll when it takes a curve. Choosing the available all-wheel-drive system is a boon in slippery conditions, but our AWD test vehicle gave up a touch of ride and handling polish to front-drive Camrys we’ve driven in the past.
The Sonata’s not bad to drive, either, to be sure. Bumps thump through more than they do in the Camry, but the suspension is more steady and firm than stiff and unyielding. The Sonata’s responsive steering also helps it feel agile when you’re driving gently. However, the Hyundai’s steering can go numb when you push the car harder, and its handling also has less poise than the Camry. A new 2021 Sonata N Line performance model promises sportier performance, but if you’re sticking with everyday models, the Camry is both more comfortable and more fun.
Toyota Camry
Photo by Brady Holt
Acceleration
The Camry’s performance advantage extends to a straight line. The standard engine is a 2.5-liter four-cylinder that generates 203 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque. It’s strong and lively, and it feels natural to drive it either hard or gently (though it gets harsh-sounding if you floor the accelerator). Power junkies can upgrade to a strong, smooth, quiet 3.5-liter V6 that makes 301 horsepower and 267 lb-ft of torque.
The Sonata has a choice of two engines with similar power output to each other: a standard 2.5-liter four-cylinder with 191 hp and 181 lb-ft of torque, and a 1.6-liter turbo with 180 hp and 195 lb-ft. This turbo is quicker off the line, smoother, and quieter, but it’s still only a rival to the base Camry’s power. The new Sonata N Line has a 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with 290 hp and 311 lb-ft of torque, which is a better challenge to the Camry V6 — but Toyota doesn’t make you buy a performance model to get this much power. The Sonata and Camry are also both sold as gas-electric hybrids, which we’ll discuss in a moment.
Photo by Brady Holt
Fuel Economy
The 2.5-liter front-wheel-drive Camry has EPA ratings that range from 31 mpg to 34 mpg in mixed driving, depending on the trim level — the best showing in its class. Even the most efficient four-cylinder Sonata barely edges out the thirstiest four-cylinder Camry; standard Sonata estimates range from 30 to 32 mpg combined. The Camry V6 gets 25 to 26 mpg depending on the trim level, trailing the Sonata N Line’s 27 mpg, and the AWD four-cylinder Camry gets 29 mpg. We averaged 33 mpg in an AWD Camry and 38 mpg in mostly highway driving with a front-drive four-cylinder model. Our 1.6-liter Sonata averaged 32 mpg in mixed driving.
For maximum fuel economy, the Hyundai’s gas-electric model has a slight edge over the Toyota’s. The Sonata Hybrid manages 47 to 52 mpg combined, depending on the trim level, just ahead of the Camry Hybrid’s range of 46 to 52 mpg. But with the most popular engines, the Camry has the advantage.
Photo by Brady Holt
Safety
The Camry and Sonata are both among the safest sedans you can buy, with top-notch scores in crash tests and collision avoidance, and with a long list of standard high-tech safety systems. They both include adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, and lane-keeping steering corrections as standard equipment on all models. Toyota upgraded those systems this year to improve automatic emergency braking performance, which now ties the Sonata in Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests. Both sedans also earned Good scores in all IIHS crash tests and overall five-star National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ratings.
However, the Camry earned a higher IIHS score for its base-model headlights and a slightly higher NHTSA frontal-impact crash test score. And its optional all-wheel drive provides greater traction in slippery weather. The Sonata does provide blind-spot monitoring on more trim levels than the Camry, but overall, the Toyota takes a slight safety lead.
Photo by Brady Holt
Pricing and Features
The 2020 Hyundai Sonata is priced from $23,950, compared with $25,045 for the base 2021 Toyota Camry. But while Hyundai is known as a value brand, the Sonata’s bigger advantage over the Camry isn’t a cut-rate price tag — it’s all the extra stuff that Hyundai provides for similar money.
Many features that are often restricted to vehicles’ pricey trim levels are widely available on the Sonata. These include Digital Key, which lets Android smartphones unlock and start the vehicle; a digital gauge cluster; a 12-speaker Bose sound system; and a heated steering wheel. You won’t find those features on any Camry, for that matter. Nor does it offer the Sonata’s available blind-spot camera or “Smart Park” system, which lets you use the vehicle’s keyfob to remotely move the vehicle a short distance. We mentioned that only Toyota lets you get all-wheel drive or a V6 engine, but otherwise, you can get all of Camry’s features from the Sonata as well, and then some. Hyundai now also trumps Toyota’s once-outstanding free maintenance program, offering three years to Toyota’s two years. The Camry is a well-priced mid-size sedan with lots of standard safety features, but the Sonata has more features for the money overall.
Hyundai Sonata
Photo by Brady Holt
Final Thoughts
Merely tallying up the wins makes this matchup look lopsided, which wouldn’t be fair to the Hyundai Sonata since many of the Camry’s wins were narrow ones. Hyundai’s latest mid-size sedan provides high-end style, features, and build quality even at affordable prices, while staying competitive across the board for its spaciousness and driving experience. Overall, the Sonata is a solid competitor even before you consider its price advantage and nifty features.
But to us, the Toyota Camry justifies its slightly higher price. It may not have the Sonata’s visual punch, but this sedan that wafts down the road with equal parts serenity and fuel efficiency — and it doesn’t shy away from a winding road, either. It might not be quite as fancy or flashy, but it’s the better-rounded mid-size sedan.
Toyota Camry
Photo by Brady Holt