The Elantra is designed with Hyundai’s current ‘Fluidic Sculpture’ design language for a ‘Wind Craft’ inspired shape, or so the marketing goes. Whichever way you look at it though, it’s a good thing, and better than the i45 in my opinion. There are less crease lines and it’s a slightly less complex shape than it’s larger sibling.
Hyundai is calling the Elantra ‘The Big Small Car’ and refreshingly, this isn’t just marketing spin. Big is right, despite being officially classified in the small car segment. There’s a huge amount of open space inside the cabin. Front and back, there is easily enough room for the over-six-foot club, tested and proven with a 6’3” colleague. Plenty of legroom too; heaps up front and unusually so for rear seat passengers.
Hyundai has always been generous on the creature comfort kit and the Elantra gets the full suite including Bluetooth phone and audio streaming (that will take less than a minute to pair up to the head unit), tilt and reach steering wheel, cruise control and a four-speaker audio unit (better than your average unit) with reasonable tone. There’s also a full-sized spare wheel under the boot floor in all models.
Fuel consumption is also a strong point with Elantra and although we didn’t run any tests during the launch program, the published combined figure of 6.6L/100km for the manual and 7.1L/100km for the auto would seem possible, due to the car’s relatively light weight for its size and trim levels.
Safety-wise, it doesn’t get any better than a five-star safety rating from ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Program) whose job it is to carry out a series of crash tests on selected cars to determine the level of occupant safety and then rate the car out of five.
According to Hyundai, the new Elantra is the only car in its class that offers Vehicle Stability Management (VSM); an advanced active safety management system that integrates all the car’s active safety systems and adding the Motor Driven Power Steering for additional safety in emergency situations.
In the all-new Elantra, Hyundai has produced a very strong proposition for Australian new-car buyers. This is a small car that offers big car features with performance, handling and ride as good as the Euro offerings at a much reduced price point.
Source: Car Advice