6 months in. 2013 Elantra review., In depth Options

[JeffAWard]

Alright so my girlfriend and I purchased our 2013 Elantra GLS just a few days before New Years in 2013. Traded in my 2002 Monte Carlo SS. I drove that car for 8 years and put nearly 100,000 kms on it before the upgrade was necessary. I've put 14,000 km on the car since purchase.

Overall I'm still extremely happy with the Elantra. Fantastic purchase for us and have no regrets whatsoever. That doesn't mean the car is perfect by any means. So let's get into the good, the bad and a small bit of ugly.

Car Specs - 1.8 L 4Cyl. 6 Speed Auto w/Shift-Tronic. Glass sunroof, alloy wheels, leather wrapped steering wheel and shift knob. Heated front and rear seats.

The Good
• Fuel Economy - By no means is the Elantra an industry leader in fuel economy. In fact their probably average at best in terms of city driving. My car will use an average of 9L/100km in the city. Certainly not awful, but not fantastic. On the highway the car is a different story doing at times where I'm at cruising speeds as low as 5.0L/100km. In fact for my job I do a ton of highway driving and I can easily get 700km worth of distance out of the 48 litre tank. If I pushed it I might even get close to 800km on a full tank. Which is pretty outstanding. It's important to note that the car I came from was a gas guzzler. 3.8L V6 with over 220 HP. It was also heavy. So the change between economy is really apparent.

• Style - This is a personal preference but the style is pleasing to my eye. Love the lines on the outside. Car looks aggressive and sporty.

• Interior - A thing that I love is when you buy a car that is billed as an "economy car" and it's interior looks like you paid big bucks for it. No one wants a cheap looking car. Interior on the Elantra is very stylish. Things have the appearance of luxury.

• Interior and Storage Space - Comfortably sits 4, uncomfortably sits 5. No regular adult human is going to enjoy sitting in the middle back seat. But if you have 3 kids, perfect. The Elantra is a smaller car, but inside it doesn't feel like it. Decent leg room in the back depending on front seating positions and headroom is fine too. If you have the optional sunroof that really opens up the space and lets a lot of light in. Trunk space is also great, and for us easily hauls our two weeks worth of groceries with space to spare.

• Drive, Handling and Long Distance Comfort - I'd say average on all these. They're borderline in the bad section but honestly the car isn't meant to be a luxury car. It's rough in the way it turns, lots of understeer, especially when taking corners at higher speeds. I've often felt like the understeer, combined with the road conditions and how light the car is that I'm about to fly off the road. But it can be reigned in once you have more time understanding the balance of the car. Long distance comfort is again a personal thing. Some may find it ok. It takes me about 2.5 hours of continuous driving to start getting sore. The seats could stand to be more comfortable and arm rests should have more padding. But those heated seats sure are nice to rest sore back muscles on long drives.

•Warranty - Hyundai is an industry leader with this.

The Bad
• Underpowered - Remember this is the 2013 Elantra. For some reason Hyundai wanted to be one of the last car makers to add in Direct Injection to it's engines. The 2014 includes DI and increases HP output by around 25 which I would love to have on the highway. Sometimes it takes so long for the car to respond to my foot on the gas that it feels like it's never going to do it. The Eco mode has a lot to do with that, but even when off it's sluggish. I didn't buy this car for it to be fast, but I'd like it to be more responsive.

• Navigation Option - This might be only at my dealer. But there is no way to option in the navigation screen at lower tier packages. The only way to get the nav head unit is to buy the highest level of package the have. Limited With Nav is what they call it, which in my dealership started at $34,000. That is a poor move, as I would gladly pay $2,000 for my car to have the screen upgrade.

• Bluetooth Hands-Free - Overall this system is fine. But it's unfortunate that it only works with your phone and to change radio stations. I really wish I could use it to pull up a playlist on my iPod or get it to find an artist. It should have more uses.

The Ugly
• Tires - This might be a dealer thing. The stock tires are garbage. I understand saving a bit of money, but the tires on this car are a joke. I'd be lucky if they lasted 40,000km. I'll most likely replace them within the first year.

• Road Noise - This car again is a enconomy car. I understand that. But the road noise at highway speeds is deafening. When I listen to podcasts or talk radio I need to run my radio volume way up just to hear them. It's absurd how much noise comes through.


So that's it. Car cost us $26,000 and change and we honestly love it. In fact I'll probably stay within the Hyundai family depending on how well the warranty works for us when we need it.

This post has been edited by JeffAWard: Jul 20 2014, 01:42 PM

[trololololo]

great review !

[JeffAWard]

Thanks!

Just occurred to me that I forgot the Ugly part entirely. Just added that in.

[Alex2013GT]

Great review and spot on!