The sedan is dead, they say, killed off by the SUV. But no one told Hyundai, so they upsized their Sonata into a big, sleek car with four doors and a trunk. A modern, grown-up sedan, that is.

How modern?

This one is not only a smooth and silent 50MPG hybrid, it also has solar panels in the roof, which can add two miles of electric-only driving every day. It’s also way more Web-enabled than I am, right down to a digital key in my smartphone.

This sort of cleverness abounds—click a turn signal and a camera shows me what’s on that side of the car.

I have but one teensy grumble: the regenerative brakes are slightly touchy.

But gas is cheap, you protest; why spend more for a hybrid? It’s not about the money anymore, it’s about emitting less CO2. And, hybrid or not, the Sonata is astonishingly inexpensive.

Even this top-end Limited model, with a boatload of features and amenities, costs just $36,000. That’s with Hyundai’s 10 year/100,000-mile warranty, which even covers the hybrid batteries.