I love the double headlamps and the chrome teeth in the grille. Same goes for the hooded driving lights in the air-dam, the large transparent wrap around tail lights and chrome outer and inner door handles.
The 1.8-liter twin cam puts out a lavish 127 brake horse power at 6000 rev/min
and 16.6 kg.m of grunt at 4, 500 rev/min. My experience is that when you wind the four-banger up to 4, 000 revs, she really shows what she’s made of!
Overall though, the car has an air of hushed competence about her.
When you put the pedal to the metal, she peels off, away from the traffic lights and settles without hesitation into a businesslike cruise.
Conditioned by a Buick Regal from my past, my mind expected the tilt wheel to go from full racing car vertical to bus-driver horizontal. However the Elantra’s tilt wheel disappointed. The two different driving positions were barely discernible from each other.
You cannot start an Elantra without pressing the clutch pedal.
An electric interlock switch in the clutch pedal mechanism ensures this. Ever wonder why?
The Elantra was meant for the American market.
The automatic transmission is a universally accepted feature in the quintessential American car. At the end of a drive, you typically rein the car in-place with the brake pedal and gate the shifter into ’’Park’’ or ’’Neutral’’ before killing the engine. It would be rare-to-impossible indeed, for the shift-lever to be, therefore, in “Drive” with the engine off.
Even had you somehow, stalled off the engine with the shifter in “Drive”, an electric interlock switch prevents you from cranking the engine, until you shift it back into ’’Park’’ or ’’Neutral’’.
Most Americans, spoiled by automatics since the late 1940s have lost the unconscious instinct to ensure the gear lever is in “neutral”, before starting the car.
Thence, the clutch pedal interlock switch. A poka-yoke device to prevent you accidentally cranking the engine with the transaxle in gear. It protects the starter motor from the powertrain load, and you from uncontrolled acceleration.
The power steering had a just right feel -- neither too hard like an underpowered econobox, nor too soft like an American land-yacht.
Unlike the Corolla’s rather plain six-spoke alloy wheels, the Elantra’s cyclically-contoured six-spoke alloy wheels, give the impression of motion even when still.
The fact that the manufacturer is doing well in India, inspires confidence too! After selling a million Hyundais in India, they are setting up a second plant at Irungattukottai, TN adjacent to the one existing already.
If you are willing to be set back by a million rupees or so, this is the car for you!