Last week we posted a first drive of the 2012 Hyundai i40 Touring with the subhead, "The Sonata Wagon We Can't Have." A Sonata with more space sounds like a win-win and, with some minor complaints about seat folding, it was. Trouble is, there are no plans to bring it to the states anytime soon. No matter how hard everyone tries, we just won't take our wagony medicine.



Then why is Hyundai bothering to test an already developed car on an LA freeway-- this isn't a car that needs hot weather validation and it's not in death valley-- in plain view of some Edmunds employees? Surely there would be an easier, cheaper way for them to drive the 1.7-liter turbodiesel or 1.6 / 2.0-liter gasoline motors in a Sonata on U.S. roads, but we can't rule this out as simply a powertrain prototype.