Compare the2025 Hyundai SonataVS 2025 Kia K5

For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Hyundai Sonata have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Kia K5 doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.

The Sonata has a standard Blue Link, which uses a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver and a cellular system to get turn-by-turn driving directions, remotely unlock your doors if you lock your keys in, help track down your vehicle if it’s stolen or send emergency personnel to the scene if any airbags deploy. The K5 doesn’t offer a GPS response system, only a navigation computer with no live response for emergencies, so if you’re involved in an accident and you’re incapacitated help may not come as quickly.

Both the Sonata and the K5 have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front and rear side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front wheel drive, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning, driver alert monitors and available all wheel drive.

The Hyundai Sonata achieved a “Top Safety Pick” rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for the 2024 model year. This recognition was based on its impressive performance in the small overlap frontal crash test, updated side impact crash test, headlight evaluations, and pedestrian crash prevention testing. The K5 has not yet been evaluated by the IIHS for 2024.

The Sonata’s corrosion warranty is 2 years and unlimited miles longer than the K5’s (7/unlimited vs. 5/100,000).

Hyundai pays for scheduled maintenance on the Sonata for 3 years and 36,000 miles. Hyundai will pay for oil changes, tire rotations, air filter replacements, cabin filter replacement, brake fluid replacement, inspections, and any other required maintenance. Kia doesn’t pay scheduled maintenance for the K5.

J.D. Power and Associates’ 2024 Initial Quality Study of new car owners surveyed provide the statistics that show that Hyundai vehicles are better in initial quality than Kia vehicles. J.D. Power ranks Hyundai third in initial quality, above the industry average. With 1 more problems per 100 vehicles, Kia is ranked fourth.

The Sonata N Line’s standard 2.5 turbo 4-cylinder produces 99 more horsepower (290 vs. 191) and 130 lbs.-ft. more torque (311 vs. 181) than the K5’s standard 2.5 DOHC 4-cylinder.

On the EPA test cycle the Sonata gets better mileage than the K5:

Both the Sonata SE and the K5 LX have a standard automatic start/stop engine feature to stop unnecessary fuel waste and pollution at stoplights and heavy traffic. All Sonata SEs have a standard disable switch for the system, so a driver can keep the engine from shutting off when the vehicle stops temporarily.

To allow full utilization of available cargo room, the Sonata’s trunk lid uses concealed beam hinges that don’t intrude into the trunk. Its intrusive beam hinge reduces the K5’s useful trunk space.

The Sonata’s speed-sensitive wipers speed up when the vehicle does, so that the driver doesn’t have to continually adjust the speed of the wipers. The K5’s manually variable intermittent wipers have to be constantly adjusted.

Consumer Reports® recommends the Hyundai Sonata, based on reliability, safety and performance.