On Aug. 22, Hyundai Motor held the Sonata head-on collision test demonstration at Hyundai Motor’s road circuit, located in the international business district of Songdo, Incheon. This was to prove that there is no difference in the steel stiffness and safety between the domestic and the U.S. models of the Sonata. In a survey conducted before the test, 74 percent of the respondents said that the domestic and the overseas models of the Hyundai Sonata would differ in safety.
After the countdown ended and the starting signal rang, the U.S. and the Korean models of Hyundai Motor's Sonata mid-sized sedan began driving straight at each other.
It took only three seconds for the two remote-controlled vehicles to travel the 193 meters that separated them, achieving a top speed of 56 kilometers per hour. With a loud crash sound, there was a puff of smoke and scattered debris of cars. When the smoke cleared, it had been confirmed that the two vehicles had been damaged in similar ways.
In a bid to ensure fairness, Hyundai Motor officials and car experts visited its plants in Alabama, U.S. and Asan, Chungcheongnam-do, or South Chungcheong Province, to get the vehicles for testing. After the crash test, the experts and power bloggers in the automobile industry checked its condition and confirmed that there was no difference in the steel stiffness of the two models. Also, both vehicles’ airbags for the driver, passenger, and sides exploded, which was another issue of controversy. The crash test dummies on the two cars had similar degrees of injury as well.