Yep, you read that right: we're reviewing a car. On Android Police. I know, it's weird. But we'll get through it, together! We might even have some fun. Yep, you read that right: we're reviewing a car. On Android Police. I know, it's weird. But we'll get through it, together! We might even have some fun. In all seriousness, we're going to be reviewing as many cars that come with Android Auto - or are powered by Android in some form - as we can this year. Consider it something of an experiment. I've never reviewed a car before, and I'm already rolling out the crust for my humble pie as I write this, but you've got to start somewhere, right? With that in mind, the focus of our car reviews will obviously be technology. And just to give myself a head start: I am probably going to fail to discuss aspects of in-vehicle connectivity and features that you consider indispensible in a car. This is going to happen because A.) those of us who own or lease a car we drive regularly tend to want to know if other cars work like our cars do for the sake of comparison, and B.) see: "I've never reviewed a car before." So, your constructive feedback is welcome on this review. With that all out of the way, let's get this review started.

The 2015 Hyundai Sonata will forever be enshrined in some tiny part of technological history as the first car on sale to have a Google-powered software interface as an option. As the first vehicle with Android Auto, the 2015 Sonata has to feel like a real milestone for Google (and Hyundai, though to a much smaller degree). Who knows how long Auto has been in the works at Google, how many iterations and failed concepts led up to this day, and how many pounds of coffee and cases of Red Bull were laid waste in pursuit of this goal.

We know Google has been working with Hyundai for some time now on Auto, as the test fleet for the system was comprised of Azeras, Hyundai's middle-child econo-luxury sedan that, oddly, does not itself yet have Android Auto available to consumers. Instead, Hyundai chose to debut Auto on its volume-seller, the mid-size Sonata. And that's what we're reviewing.

The money part (read: tedious but important details)

Our test vehicle is a 2015 Hyundai Sonata Eco with tech package (the tech package is required for Android Auto, because it gets you the 8" nav system). As equipped, this car MSRPs for $28,310 here in the United States. And if you know Hyundai, that means you can probably get it for substantially less than that at the dealer (or lease it for a very affordable price) - Hyundai wants to move cars. Here's the cost breakdown.

Sonata Eco base MSRP: $23,275

$23,275 Options Tech package: $4,100 (adds Android Auto)

Other costs Floor mats: $125 Delivery: $810

Total MSRP: $28,310

The cheapest Sonata you can get Android Auto on, by the way, is the Sonata Sport with tech package, which with comparable equipment (including floor mats!) would set you back $27,560 MSRP, a savings of $750. If you don't mind a bit of a "spoiler" for our review: don't buy that one unless you get an insane deal, because you're going to eat that $750 in the form of gasoline and joylessness over the term of your ownership. The bigger rims and sportier exterior trim are not worth the inferior powertrain - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

On the value side, Hyundai's warranty is industry-leading at 5 years and 60,000 miles for the basic warranty and 10 years and 100,000 miles for the powertrain. The catch on the powertrain one is that there is no transferability - that warranty is void if the vehicle changes owners. The 5-year/60,000 mile basic warranty does go on to new owners, though, and it's still the best one there is (well, tied with Mitsubishi and sister brand Kia).

Pictured: documentation

That's not to say Hyundais have a spotless reputation for reliability, though. While anecdotally many owners praise them, reliability studies have mixed opinions. One thing to keep is mind is that this is the first model year for this Sonata body style (the 7th-gen Sonata), and as Hyundai's #2 seller by volume here in the US (just slightly trailing the Elantra), a slight spike in dealer visits for minor initial quality issues (or perhaps more likely, older buyers confused by touchscreens) is probably inevitable and will settle out over time. I wouldn't worry too much here - Hyundai's warranty is excellent and the brand has improved by leaps and bounds over the years.

Another key concern of any car's value is gas mileage. Here are my extremely abbreviated thoughts on each model I've driven in terms of mileage.

Sonata 2.4 : This is the base engine found in all but Eco, 2.0T, and Hybrid models. It's pretty bad around town, if I'm honest. I'd say high teens (16-19MPG) if you drive even a little aggressively. On the highway it was a lot better (mid 30s), but the combined figure suffered greatly because you have to wring out that engine to get much from it.

: This is the base engine found in all but Eco, 2.0T, and Hybrid models. It's pretty bad around town, if I'm honest. I'd say high teens (16-19MPG) if you drive even a little aggressively. On the highway it was a lot better (mid 30s), but the combined figure suffered greatly because you have to wring out that engine to get much from it. Sonata Eco : Around town, it's decent for a mid-size car, averaging in the low-mid 20s if you're having fun with it. If you're light on the gas pedal, I think 30MPG+ combined is totally doable. At freeway speeds, 40-45MPG is not at all unreasonable to get.

: Around town, it's decent for a mid-size car, averaging in the low-mid 20s if you're having fun with it. If you're light on the gas pedal, I think 30MPG+ combined is totally doable. At freeway speeds, 40-45MPG is not at all unreasonable to get. Sonata Hybrid : I didn't really pay close attention to the new hybrid's mileage, but consensus seemed to be 35-40MPG combined and closer to 40-45 on the freeway. If you do a lot of around town driving, the Hybrid will pretty easily best the Eco, but on the open road at higher speeds, they're quite evenly matched.

: I didn't really pay close attention to the new hybrid's mileage, but consensus seemed to be 35-40MPG combined and closer to 40-45 on the freeway. If you do a lot of around town driving, the Hybrid will pretty easily best the Eco, but on the open road at higher speeds, they're quite evenly matched. Sonata PHEV: It's hard to tell with a PHEV, because it's not about mileage so much as how often you'll be able to plug it in so you don't have to use any gas. Hyundai says the Sonata PHEV will do 24 miles on a charge electric-only, and that's pretty damn good.

The driving part (read: vroom)

I've now driven four different '15 and '16 Sonatas with four different powertrains probably around 1,000 miles between them. While I've yet to test the top-tier 2.0T, that car is a lot more expensive if you want Android Auto, at $34,460 (the 8" nav system does not come on the Sport 2.0T model, only the Limited). I also just cannot recommend a nearly-$35,000 Sonata - this is supposed to be an affordable car. You're getting near Genesis territory with that kind of money. Anyway, let's talk about driving: if you want a Sonata, which one is going to be the most entertaining?

Among the affordable options, I have come away liking the Eco substantially more than the rest of the Sonata lineup. I had a chance to drive the as-yet unreleased 2016 Sonata Hybrid and Plug-In Hybrid last month, and I also spent a week with the Sonata Limited equipped with the standard 2.4L engine. None of them have the character of the Eco's powertrain, which I would describe in a word as turbotacular.

Before praising the Eco, let's talk about the other options briefly. The base 2.4L Sonata makes a respectable amount of power for a car of its size, but it's far from quick, and the naturally-aspirated 4-cylinder simply isn't engaging in this application. It doesn't really like to rev, it gets pretty crappy gas mileage around town unless you're a featherweight on the throttle, and the power-band sits up high, meaning you'll really have to stomp on it for passes and freeway onramps. I really wasn't a fan of this engine, but it certainly isn't billed as being "sporty," either. It is a workhorse, and unless you're a saint on the throttle, you're going to want to whip it sometimes.

The 2016 Sonata Hybrid and PHEV I drove were preproduction, and I personally found the PHEV pretty dull on the road. The added heft of the batteries in the rear end, I think, made the car feel a bit "boundy" and numb on the highway, and acceleration at speeds above 10MPH was... leisurely. The Hybrid had noticeably more oomph to give, being substantially lighter than the PHEV (it also has a sport mode for snappier throttle response and more aggressive shifting), so if you're really concerned with gas mileage but also don't want to feel like a sloth, I think it's a solid choice, and it'll still feel quicker than the standard 2.4. Of course, the '16 Sonata Hybrid isn't out yet and I have no idea what it will cost. It's probably safe to say it will be substantially more than the Eco.

The Eco, the car we're testing here, is definitely the odd man out in the Sonata range. It has the smallest engine by displacement, it's marketed as a gas-saver, it's the only Hyundai on sale with a dual-clutch transmission (all other Sonatas get a 6-speed auto, the Eco has a 7-speed DCT), and it is a mere $750 pricier than a similarly-equipped Sonata Sport. So, you'd expect that it's a bit slower than the other cars, but gets better em pee gees to balance things out, right? Wrong.

See, the curious thing is that most independent testing to date has the Eco pegged as the fastest Sonata from 0-60MPH (in real-world testing), in the high 6-second range - faster in most comparisons than the definitely-should-be-faster and much more expensive 2.0T. The reason? It's not completely clear, but a confluence of factors (lower weight, lower drag, much shorter gearing, quicker shifts) seem to be working in the Eco's favor here. While I would not call it a fast car by 2015 standards, it is certainly not at all a slow car.

The twin-scroll turbocharger provides ample and consistent torque to the 1.6-liter gas engine across the power-band, and the short gearing of the 7-speed DCT means you're a quick downshift away from even more power if the boost doesn't get you where you need to go. The result, basically, is that the Sonata Eco in normal and sport modes always feels ready to give you more. It's especially lively from 20-50MPH, and is downright giggle-worthy to drive in sport mode around town because of it. Roll down the windows and give it some gas in high gear and you can hear that turbocharger spooling up, which is musical compared to the nagging drone of most naturally-aspirated 4-cylinder engines these days.

The short gearing also makes it a surprisingly fun car to throw around tight back-roads. The eco-friendly tires will even break loose in second gear if you put your foot to the floor out of a corner, if only for a moment. That's not to say the Sonata Eco drives like a sporty car, though, because it doesn't. It rides like a comfy but supportive couch you sink into at the end of a long day, the kind of couch you could fall asleep in at a moment's notice, but equally sit at comfortably reading for a couple of hours.

Bumps are soaked up easily, and the low interior noise makes the Sonata feel even more refined and confident on the road. If there's one thing Hyundai knows how to do, it's make a sub-$30,000 car feel like riding in a $50,000 one.

One small thing to take into account about the Eco is the double-edged nature of the dual-clutch gearbox. In "eco" mode, the car shifts smoothly and almost unnoticeably, though laggardly throttle response makes this driving mode undesirable on almost anything but extended highway journeys. But even in normal mode, you can feel a bit of jerkiness in the transmission when slowly coming to a stop - the car really doesn't enjoy being in first gear very much, and as a consequence neither will you. In sport mode, taking off can sometimes be jerky as well, and the car occasionally will hold a gear substantially longer than it makes sense to at high (5K+) revs in this mode, though that's pretty forgivable. I will say that while the DCT does have a "manumatic" mode, it's not worth using unless you really, really plan on driving the car aggressively and need complete control. It's very difficult to guarantee your push or pull on the lever will result in a shift unless you're really following through; and even then, the transmission is clearly not designed to be abused in this way.

But the benefits of this transmission, I think, far outweigh any minor quibbles I have with it. It generally shifts very smoothly and quickly, and makes the car wholly more responsive than its automatic-equipped brethren. If Hyundai came up with a sport package for the Eco to add paddle shifters to the steering wheel and the Sonata Sport's exterior trim bits (and maybe some summer tires), they'd have an even more compelling vehicle for people who enjoy driving. But the Sonata Eco is marketed as being... eco. So, that almost definitely won't happen.

The inside part (read: buttons and leather)

Before we talk about the technology, let's just get the interior appointments out of the way. First, Hyundai's seats are great if you're tall. Or fat. They're supremely comfortable and don't sit up weirdly high. The leather that's included in the tech package looks of good quality (definitely better than the leather in my girlfriend's Mazda 3) and has a stiffness that almost harkens back to old Mercedes leather, though the texture is more matte and soft. As with all leather, only time will really tell how it'll age, but I'm personally quite impressed.

The leather-wrapped steering wheel is nice and fat, and while not unwieldy in its size, is definitely more luxury than sport. It offers pretty pleasing ergonomics, in my opinion, and has ample telescope and tilt range. The buttons on the wheel are among my least-favorite on any car I've driven (admittedly, not a huge list there), and that's 99% because instead of see-saw switches or more buttons, Hyundai used toggle switches for things like volume, track control, and the instrument cluster HUD display's navigation. They just aren't natural to use with your thumbs, and they require a good bit of pressure to engage.

The quality of the trim inside the cabin is very respectable and probably miles ahead of what you'll find in, say, a Ford Fusion - I'd just prefer it in black. The gray is... not interesting. I admit I'm something of a fan of Mazda's blacked-out interiors on the 3 and 6, though I'm aware that those are divisive visually. Hyundai's wood-grain inserts smack of pandering to an older audience, and I just find it to be trying too hard in a car that already has trim-uppers that are clearly leather-grain plastic. This is Hyundai's market, though, and there's no denying they've cornered it. The reaction of everyone who sits in one of these cars is "wow, this is actually really nice." Hyundai is clearly doing a lot right, though I would love to see them offer a couple more interior trim variations that are a little less... aggressively Luxurious(TM). The Eco interior is offered in either gray or beige, and I can't say I'm a huge fan of either color.

The control console area seems like a solid middle ground between too many and too few buttons to me. Everything is clearly marked, and you've got individual buttons for automatic climate control, front and rear defrosters, re-circulated or exterior air, fan mode, fan speed, dual-zone climate sync, and easily visible LED indicators for things that toggle on and off. The temperature, volume, and tuner knobs are all quite easy to grip and spin with little resistance and solid feedback.

As such, these basic in-vehicle functions are very intuitive once you memorize the layout. If you think of the climate control area as two 4x4 grids between an elongated 2x1, the organization is simple to mentally map. The buttons themselves have very cushy gaskets (or something similar), so there's not much feedback, but I didn't have any trouble with them after a day or so. Driver-side controls at the armrest include a window lock, four window controls (2 auto up-down switches on this model for the fronts), power mirror controls, and a door lock switch.

Back seat space makes the Sonata a real 4-person car, and it would easily do 5 adults in a pinch - shoulder room would just be a bit snug. The trunk is enormous, too - even my old W124 is a bit jealous of all that space (16.3 cubic feet, if you're curious). The trunk can be opened just by standing next to it if you've got the key in your pocket, even if the car is locked (without unlocking the car itself).

The technology part

The Sonata Eco I tested came with a couple driver assists. You get a rear backup camera (soon to be US-mandated) of good quality, blind spot monitoring (which I turned off, because it's crazy aggressive), and backup cross-traffic monitoring. Only the Limited models can opt up for the fancy adaptive cruise control, collision warning, auto high-beams, lane departure warning, and electronic parking brake.

Speaking of the last one, I'm not in love with the parking brake on these cars - instead of using a release pull, Hyundai's parking brakes are self-releasing. Kick it in, and it's engaged. Kick it again, it pops out. The problem I have with this is that if I really push in the brake when I park it, it can take a few kicks to get it back out. While I suppose I prefer it to the electronic switch, something about a parking brake release (or in a sporty car, a handbrake) has always felt... right to me. I'm probably just nuts.

Anyway, the Eco with tech package does get some toys. Here are a selection of the techno-things the tech package adds aside from the 8" nav screen in the dash.

Dimension hi-fi sound system

"Smart trunk" - the trunk will automatically open if you just stand in front of it for a few seconds with the key in your pocket

4.2" HUD information display in the instrument cluster (displays gas mileage, tire pressure, allows you to set up vehicle features)

information display in the instrument cluster (displays gas mileage, tire pressure, allows you to set up vehicle features) HD radio

Auto-dimming rearview mirror w/ compass and Bluelink (roadside assistance)

Hyundai BlueLink (connected car app for your smartphone)

Proximity entry and push-button start

This is in addition to the leather [heated] seats, illuminated driver's door handle, leather steering wheel and shift knob, dual-zone climate control, and aforementioned 8" display with navigation. It's better to really just think of the tech package as another trim level rather than an option - it's basically the Sonata Eco+.

Going piece by piece, we'll start with the Dimension sound system. Of newer cars I've driven that aren't dramatically more expensive than this, this is probably my favorite stereo. The Dimension system, once you turn off the adaptive EQ, is a very well-balanced system that produces surprisingly detailed and crisp sound. As much credit as I think we all owe Bose for their various technological achievements in car audio, every modern Bose system I've heard in a car just sounds like crap to me in regard to actual fidelity - muddled, mid-heavy, and designed to drown out ambient noise more than to produce pleasing audio. I drove a fully-loaded 2015 Buick Regal GS for a week last month that stickered for over $45,000 and the Bose system in that car was just not good. The Sonata's system benefits from the car's very quiet cabin at speed, allowing the speakers to do their job without having to be turned up into oblivion.

The 4.2" heads-up display in the instrument cluster is useful for tracking trips and gas mileage, but I think Hyundai struggles to make it work as anything beyond this. Yes, you can check your tire pressure. And toggle driver assists like cross-traffic warnings (only when parked, though). And see when your next scheduled service is. But aside from the trip and mileage data, none of it really has to be here, it could all equally be managed in the infotainment UI. (Granted, this separation is unintentionally nice if you're using Android Auto.)

BlueLink is Hyundai's take on connected car, and you can read about it here. The short of it is this: you can remotely locate, lock, unlock, and start your car. It does other things (like sending an address for navigation to the infotainment system remotely), and it also has a smartwatch app for Android Wear, but still lacks things like pre-conditioning and vehicle status info on currently available cars (the Sonata Hybrid and PHEV will get some new BlueLink features... like pre-conditioning). It's not bad, but honestly, I don't consider it a highlight of the ownership experience unless you really want to control your car via your phone. At E3 last week, I saw a guy with a new BMW M4 try to lock his car with his iPhone as he walked away from it (with swagger), have the command not go through, stop walking, and then try again no less than 3 times before finally giving up, only for the car to then lock as he approached it. For things like warming up your car in winter or cooling it down if you live in an extremely hot climate, these apps can be useful, but most of the functionality is gimmicky unless you have a fairly specific use case. It's mostly for showing off.

So, now that we've got driver assists and connected tech out of the way, let's delve into the infotainment system and Android Auto.

Infotainment and Android Auto

Hyundai's 8" infotainment system is generally well-regarded in the auto industry because it is highly activity-oriented with a dedicated hardware button for each primary function. At least, that's why I think it's highly regarded, because as a piece of software it's extremely average and not especially nice to look at or really even interact with. Hyundai has attacked the infotainment interaction problem in a few ways, but has explicitly avoided giving drivers a universal non-touch input option. Many newer luxury cars use knobs and other hardware controllers as the primary input method for the infotainment system when you're actually driving, and I truly think that's a safer way to do it.

Hyundai kind of has one foot in the past here - they're still using an array of activity-mapped hardware buttons alongside the screen to quickly access things like navigation, voice commands, the radio, Bluetooth/USB audio input, the Bluelink system, the map, vehicle information, and setup. Simultaneously, they're very strongly pushing touch input - there's no other way to actually navigate the UI in the system. You can use the buttons to get to a particular screen, but once you're there, you've got to use the screen. I just don't think this is optimal.

For things like music playback, you do get steering wheel controls, but their usefulness is highly context-dependent. Small-ish touch targets and unpredictable scrolling have made me basically afraid to navigate the radio interface unless I'm at a stop (seriously, it is super distracting). For audio input, you have Bluetooth music streaming, an auxiliary jack, and a USB port.

You've got your standard stuff - navigation including a map of your current position, a UI specifically for audio coming in via USB or Bluetooth, Pandora (didn't test it - but worth noting that Auto still doesn't have it), a dialer and contacts UI for your connected phone, and some very basic and non-persistent driving stats from BlueLink (AFAIK, if any of it does get uploaded somewhere, you don't have access to it). Navigating by voice-inputting an address is achievable, but only with patience.

In some sense, Hyundai's infotainment experience is a great example of why something like Android Auto is necessary, then. But it's also far from the worst in the industry. In fact, it's pretty damn good by that standard - mostly because everything seems to actually work and is laid out relatively intuitively. But still, if you've been using a smartphone for the last 5 years, you can understand that feeling of getting into a modern car and going, "Oh. It's still... like this?" And that feeling is still very much here in this car. You know the feeling, the one of "is that warning message really going to pop up every single time I start the car? Why is this a thing?"

Android Auto on the Sonata does have a leg up on 3rd party systems, in that Hyundai has configured it specifically to play nicely with the steering wheel controls and use the vehicle's built-in GPS as opposed to the connected phone's, allegedly reducing power consumption. I did have one annoyance with Hyundai's implementation, though - if you plug in a phone via USB before the infotainment OS is fully booted in the car, it won't go into USB host mode and you won't get the prompt to start Android Auto. This is not great UX, and it can be frustrating if you're in a hurry and then realize, "oh wait, I have to plug in my phone again because the car didn't recognize it." I'm hoping this can be fixed. There's also no auto-start option for Android Auto, you'll have to explicitly launch it each time you connect your phone to the car (easily done by a button on the homescreen interface, but still).

Once Auto is launched, be aware that you lose a couple things in the car's infotainment system. Namely, Bluetooth audio streaming and the car's own native voice command system. The latter isn't exactly a loss, the former is a toss-up depending on what music service you use. I'm actually working on a whole separate "second take" post about Android Auto, so I'm not going to get into my detailed thoughts of the Auto platform in this post. Look out for it in the near future.

Suffice it to say, one of the most liberating aspects of Android Auto is voice control. You long-press the steering wheel button for voice, and you get that comforting Google 'bloop' letting you know it's ready to accept a command. You say "navigate to the nearest Home Depot," and it gives you a list of three nearest locations, you tap one, and you're on your way. You can see the store's hours and call the store from the navigation UI, too, because it's Google and of course it should do that, Google is god damn smart. To automakers, this must seem like witchcraft. It really is a reason to forsake your car's existing navigation system - Maps is only a lot better in almost every single way (at least here in the US, I realize that's not true everywhere).

Controlling music, if you use iHeartRadio, Spotify, or Play Music, is also a generally good experience. "Play Elliott Smith on Spotify" is an actual command you can give Auto, at which point it will launch the Spotify interface and start playing music. For third party audio apps, I've found you do have to specify the app itself or Google is going to default back to Play Music for your command or just not understand you. Hyundai does not make use of the mysterious fifth panel in Android Auto, and it just serves as a placeholder with a shortcut back to the Hyundai infotainment UI. If you want to navigate a library of music or podcasts, that's going to depend on that app. I don't really use Play Music anymore, but the Spotify app generally got the job done. It had my saved artists, albums, playlists, and all the browsable stations you get on the full mobile client. It was less than reliable sometimes, however, simply not playing music when I told it to, though I'm inclined to blame this on Spotify, not Auto.

I'll be honest: the black bar really seems like wasted space in the map view. Like, a lot of wasted space.

Let's get to the elephant in the room, though: charging. Does the Sonata actually charge your connected Android phone enough to keep it alive while running Auto? This has turned out to be a trickier question than I'd like to answer. See, here's the thing: with some phones, yes, the Sonata seems to be able to get enough juice to the phone to gain net power. The Galaxy S6 Edge I used for most of my evaluation would generally gain 5-10% an hour (yes, it is slow) while connected to Auto. But the ZenFone 2 I tried initially lost battery no matter what I did (even with navigation off and music not streaming). And the S6 Edge lost power, too, sometimes - a behavior that I found correlated strongly with network congestion and coverage. Going in and out of cellular coverage or during high network traffic, power usage for Auto seemed to increase dramatically while doing things like streaming music as the phone's radio had to stay on longer. This only makes sense, but at that point, the Sonata's USB port just couldn't keep up with all the power the radio on the connected phone was using. This is undoubtedly a concern.

For two-direction commuters, it's probably not the end of the world as long as you can charge your phone at work, or keep it alive till the end of the day. For people using their car on and off all day as part of their job? This could be a real problem. And this leads me to a question: is there enough to like in Android Auto to use it for anything aside from navigation when necessary?

That's a tough call. With your phone plugged into the 12v outlet on a real charger and connected to the car via Bluetooth, you're getting a lot of hands-free functionality without sacrificing too much. Yes, the Hyundai navigation experience isn't great, but if you really need navigation, you can plug in Auto when that's something you want, and just leave it off otherwise. Auto's music experience isn't so magical that you're going to be "ruined" for every in-car audio system. With Bluetooth streaming, you can just pick up your phone and launch an app before heading out, and honestly, you can do that more quickly and with less frustration than trying to do the same thing in Auto, where you're hampered by a resistive touchscreen, mild input latency, and occasional performance hiccups.

You'll still get your incoming calls hands-free, you'll still get SMS notifications (usually), and your phone can actually charge (or just stay in your pocket!) instead of fighting for its life on the underpowered USB port. To say that Auto is a clear-cut, objectively better way to do phone connectivity in the Sonata, then, isn't exactly true. There's give and take. Add to that the fact that Auto only supports a tiny number of music and podcast apps, and Bluetooth streaming may still be the best option for many people.

That's also a testament to Hyundai's commitment to technology - you can use your phone with the car in this way and it's actually just fine, in my opinion. Until Auto's 3rd party content starts offering me some more compelling reasons to stay plugged in, I have a hard time holding it up as the salvation of in-car entertainment that some people have. Auto still has evolving and growing to do - a lot.

Conclusion

If you want Android Auto, the Hyundai Sonata is currently the only car you can buy that has it. Lucky for you, the Sonata is a fantastic car in the budget mid-size sedan segment with a variety of powertrains and some great tech. If you have the time and patience to shop around, get the Eco model - it is so much more fun to drive than the SE/Sport/Limited 2.4, and the tech package gets you all the bells and whistles that you'd actually want. Anything above that is just icing on the cake. If you can get the Sport 2.4 with the tech package at a big discount, I wouldn't count that car out, either. The engine isn't exactly great, but it gets good highway mileage and it's still more interesting than a Camry. Without really having many other OEM-built Android Auto experiences to compare to, it's also a little difficult to judge the Sonata's connectivity in certain respects just yet.

Now, if you're waiting on something with a Hybrid or PHEV badge, I'm not as sure the Sonata is an easy call. We don't know MSRPs for the '16 Sonata Hybrid or PHEV yet, and while I'm guessing both will be priced competitively, I'm also pretty confident that you'll be paying a premium for them versus the the 2.4 and 1.6T (Eco) Sonatas. I've driven both and I'm not particularly excited by either, though I can understand I'm not really in the market for a hybrid or PHEV.

Even without Android Auto, the Hyundai Sonata is one of the smartest cars in its price bracket, and you really can't do much better in terms of value for money.