The Hyundai Elantra – hello impossible?

It’s a wet morning … and a wet road has always been a challenge to test drive cars. At least, that’s what I thought when I made my way to the Hyundai marquee this morning at Citta Mall. Deliberately went there early to avoid the morning crowd and first thing I noticed is there will be 2 queue lines; one for walk-ins and another for pre-registered guests. Strangely enough, although I have successfully registered myself at the Hyundai Facebook page and received a confirmation SMS saying it has been confirmed, they do not have my details so guys, don’t take it for granted that you may be granted special privilege despite registering early. As far as I could tell, the advantage of pre-registration is you may be allowed to jump the anticipated long queue of walk-ins. If your name is not on the list of guests, you may have to queue just like everybody else so please go early. Anyway, upon entering, I had to register myself at the front desk on a PC, selecting which model to test before handing over my driver’s license where they will just snap a picture. Despite the time being only 10.15am (they start at 10am) I was already registrant number 12.

Remember: Only those with tags can test drive. The tags will be used at the end of the marquee tour to register a car. No tag, no test drive.

I was then asked to wait with others who’ve similarly registered for our turn. Those who went for the Bukit Jalil VW Das Auto event would be reminded of the waiting for earlier batches to finish before being allowed to proceed. We were then ushered into another small hall where a speaker will share some traits that made the Elantra the winner of the 2012 COTY North America, defeating cars such as the VW Golf, Passat, etc.

In a nutshell, the Elantra sells based on 3 key features:
1) Design – wind craft design
2) Fuel efficiency – co-efficient drag of 0.28
3) Safety – ESP+VSM

It was very interesting to see Hyundai simulating a wind tunnel in the hall

Next up, we were then ushered into another hall where a blue unit is parked amidst greenery …

Here is the first hall where we could molest … I mean, touch the car in detail. Of course, it’s the higher 1.8litre specced car being displayed here. Interesting to note that the spare tire is a reduced size one:

In the next hall, we were greeted with a supped-up white, replenished in full body kit, super dark tints and after market alloy rims:

Check out the smoked vs stock headlamps:

The 1.8litre full spec features Nappa leather (first time I tried them was on the Mitsubishi Lancer) and it feels finer than the regular leather found in lower variants.

That’s the rain sensor btw located behind the rear view mirror

Boot size is big …. not D segment big but very much on par with lots of other C segment contenders.

At the end of the guided tour, we were than paired to the car salesperson who will accompany us to our respective test drive units. It was my luck that I was paired to a SA who is very poorly trained. The first impression was fine as he was all smile and very friendly. But never once did he ask me my name. We were brought out to the end of the marquee where I had to surrender my tag and a staff there will register my tag number with the test units. First up was the 1.6 litre Gamma engine unit. As always, my tests focuses on 4 things:

Performance (straight line)
Ride and handling
Noise vibration and harshness
Gadgetry in relation to how they function when we drive

Prior to commenting about the performance, let me say that although I am driving a continental car now, I was driving the Elantra’s predecessor, the 2.0 Avante for 2 years and I am using that as a benchmark when testing this unit. Upon resting my bum on the seats, I noticed there’s lesser headroom compared to the Avante …. not surprising since one of the key selling is the lower coefficient drag which is partially achieved by lowering the roof line that has the consequence of making 6 footer look like a giraffe in a Mini.

In terms of performance, I find it adequate. Gamma is an earlier engine that is used in other Hyundai models such as the i30 (shame on the SA who didn’t know this when I asked him which other model in Malaysia shares the same engine). I have tested the i30 a couple of years back and compared to the Elantra, the engine noise is far less intruding and felt more powerful (different states of tuning, perhaps?).

The test route involves driving around Citta Mall …. all in all 10 corners with short straight roads (some of which doesn’t allow us to go fast as it’s full of cars and other test units that kept stopping due to switching of drivers. Duh!). The 1.6litre felt like a true city car … easy to drive and as long as you don’t pretend you’re competing in a Nascar competition, it’s a stress free car …. bordering to a tad boring like a Toyota. Compared to its predecessor, the steering feels slightly heavier (the Avante’s steering is, IMHO too overtly assisted) and is precise. Still, the suspension is soft and may get floaty at speeds. The gearbox does its job well, compared to the old Avante, the new Elantra gains 2 additional gear speeds which promises good fuel economy, especially considering it comes with Dual CVVT vs single CVVT. Gearshifts are smooth and though not quite the CVT/Dual-clutch area, it is fuss free. NVH is really a relative thing but to me, everything feels nicely packed and does provide a comfortable ride. Could not manage to push the car to 110kph so don’t know how’s the NVH then and what’s the rpm at that speed.

Next up was the full spec 1.8litre Nu engine. On the go, it certainly feels more powerful but not much. Then I realised ECO mode was on. My company previously rented a Sonata YF for a month and I noticed that with and without ECO mode, the driving characteristics is indeed different. Not Jekyll and Hyde different but engine response is improved (at the cost of fuel economy, I guess). When the driver selects this mode, the Elantra’s automatic transmission shift points and throttle response are adjusted to increase fuel economy by up to 7 percent. The downside, though, is more sluggish performance when the mode is engaged. It is really a shame that the SA sitting next to me didn’t know how to turn in off …. in fact even supplementing his lack of knowledge by bullshitting that the car is by default ECO on when going slow. I wonder why Hyundai never do a check on the competency of their SAs before enlisting their help in an event as important as a preview launch. At least the good thing is, I managed to fiddle around with the audio visual navigation a bit.

The system offered uses Papago and again, the testing didn’t go well. We were just 200 meters away from Citta Mall and after 2 minutes of routing, it still couldn’t finish telling me which way to go. The SA said maybe the computer needs some time to warm up. Pathetic.If everyone knows the car is going to be used for test drive, why can’t they switch on all the necessary functions before handing them over to the customer? Oh, perhaps that’s the job of the SA …. woe to Hyundai if they have more of the SA that served me this morning. To cap things for the worse, he asked me what car am I currently driving. I told him VW …. he instantly qualified the Elantra as insufficiently powered compared to a VW and may not appeal to me. And this is even when I’m not saying anything. Heck, I had to convince HIM that this car still has its advantages. HSDM, where did you find this guy??

On a positive note, the reverse camera is nice to use …. with such a large LCD touch screen, it certainly allows drivers to see what’s behind better. I still feel that Kia’s reverse view located on the rear view mirror is better as it allows drivers to supplement the camera view with actual reflection on the mirror whereas the Elantra make increase reliance on the screen instead of the rear view mirror.

Sadly, both 1.6litre and 1.8litre have no auto lock, no powered side mirrors and only comes with 2 airbags.

The interest rate is said to be around 2.4% – 2.5% being offered by certain banks and waiting list is said to be 1-2 months.

I compiled the list of 1.8litre Elantra competition based on segment, followed by closest matching displacement and price. Again, do note that despite my best efforts, there may be inaccuracies in the data presented below (such as some manufacturers advertise their selling price with and without insurance, special variant options such as the Kia Forte 2.0SX) so if you detect any errors, please let me know and I will correct it.

Based on the 1.8litre comparison, it is quite clear that the Forte 2.0 is the clear segment leader when it comes to specs vs price. Many may have concluded this on their own …. but what surprised me is that the Elantra 1.8 is not that far ahead of everyone else (if it is at all. That depends on your perspective). Granted that the Elantra 1.8 has nifty features such as a sunroof and an amalgam of ESP (controls braking+engine power) and VSM (controls steering), do we really need to pay RM111,888 for most of the other nice-to-have features? And these features are also found in the Forte which makes comparison with its sister-rival unavoidable. The exclusion of side and curtain airbags is also clearly noted. It does however have better rear legroom.

The 1.6 review

Finally finished compiling the list of competition for the 1.6 variant which is less because manufacturers such as Honda and Nissan chose to offer either a higher cc engine or, in the case of Nissan, the Sentra which is a different segment. Of course, for 1.6, there are other cars such as the Peugeot 207 but again, segment size is different, hence excluded from this comparison.

There has been many who remarked that the 1.6litre’s performance is sluggish but honestly, what are they comparing against? Have they tested other cars such as those listed in the comparison above and still come to the same conclusion? Comparison with the acceleration power of Toyota Vios and Honda City is also unfair since they’re not of the same segment.

I bet majority have that impression because the immediate car (before or after) the 1.6 unit test drive is the 1.8 Nu engine which of course is a more powerful unit. Personally, I find the power delivery sufficient …. after all, those who do buy the 1.6 is more for getting for point A to point B with little fuss, a little flair (with the windcraft design and all) and saving some money (as opposed to the asking price of the 1.8). I did something extra with this sheet …. I added kerb weight and calculated power-to-weight ratio of the cars found. Turns out the performance of the Elantra is better than the Forte. So what do you think of the 1.6AT?

Full spec sheet is as follows:-

Elantra 1.6MT and 1.6AT Standard
16″ allow wheels
LED side mirror signals
Fog light
Steering wheel audio control
Grey leather seats
Safety power window
Aux, USB & iPod connection
Auto light system
Driver power window (Auto up/down)
Standard audio system
Manual air conditioning
Advance airbag technology
Parking guide system

Elantra 1.6AT High Spec
In addition to the MT and Standard Spec

Black leather seats (instead of grey)
Supervision cluster (Hyundai’s equivalent of Toyota Opitron meter)
Auto light system
Leather wrapped steering wheel & gear knob
Steering tilt & telescopic
Vehicle Stability Management (VSM)


Elantra 1.8AT Premium
In addition to the 1.6AT High Spec

17″ alloy wheels (instead of 16″)
Sunroof
Black Nappa leather seats (instead of black regular leather seats)
Audio visual navigator (GPS, DVD, reverse camera visual display)
Power driver seat
Dual-zone auto air conditioning (instead of manual)
Rain sensor
Aluminium pedal
Auto cruise

I was in Korea earlier last year and managed to pick up a copy of their brochure. The Avante is very well specced there. We miss out on HID, Hyundai’s version of VW Park Assist called Smart Parking Assistance System,

6 Airbags, electric folding side mirrors, heated seats for both front and rear (admittedly, not very useful in our climate, forward parking sensors …. essentially, HSDM decided to cut the spec sheet, probably hoping to reduce the selling price. Sadly, it created the general perception that the Elantra is under-specced and over priced. What do you think?