Once in a while, a car comes along that’s so potent that it turns the segment on its head, or even better still, create its own niche. The eight generation Honda Civic, that we Indians still swear by, was one such car. It can largely be attributed for creating the sub-D, Super-C segment, and invited cars like the fifth-generation Hyundai Elantra to the field to play.
The Civic’s party was spoiled with the rise of the SUV brigade, which took down the formidable Honda, along with its rivals like the Elantra. The brigade, which is now led with Hyundai’s own Creta, took down a once healthy segment, currently contested only by the Toyota Corolla Altis, slow selling VW Jetta and Chevy Cruze models after the Elantra was axed last year.
The Elantra is back, and aims to re-introduce some much needed violence in the segment. Does it have what it takes? We find out. But first, here’s a background check on the car. The sixth generation Hyundai Elantra was unveiled on September 2015 at the company’s Global R&D Center in Namyang, South Korea where it has been engineered and designed. It made its global première at the Frankfurt Motor Show in the same month.
At 4,570 mm long and 1,800 mm wide, the new model is 20 mm longer and 25 mm wider than the previous-generation Elantra, resulting in increased interior space, which, Hyundai says is comparable with that of the segment above. The redesigned body structure incorporates 32% more advanced high-strength steel compared to the original Elantra.
The new Elantra doesn’t only look slippery, but with 0.29Cd of drag co-efficient, the highest in the segment, is slippery through the air too. This virtue can be attributed to a flatter underbody, a swooping profile and the front ‘Wheel Air Curtain’ – the boomerang like inserts on the front bumper that actually optimize the air-flow around the front wheel, apart from cooling the front brakes of course.
Looks
When you have a design team led by Peter Schreyer, who has iconic designs like the Audi TT to his name, the least you can expect is a good looking car. And this is arguably the best looking Elantra yet, in all its 26-year old history. With a well-proportioned volume, and a low, wide stance, the new Elantra clearly stands out on Indian roads, especially in the more lustrous colors.
Imbibing Hyundai’s Fluidic Sculpture design philosophy, the new Elantra maintains its predecessor’s familiar silhouette, but this time around, the lines are defined better, while the surfaces get tauter.
The front is characterized by a new, low-set, trapezoidal grille, a feature that appeared on the stunning Vison G concept, as well as the ix35 compact SUV. Five slats highlighted with chrome fill the grill’s void, while the grille itself receives a thick chrome border.
The svelte headlamps bear an uncanny resemblance to the new Jaguar XE, and are jewelled up with L-shaped LED strips. The bumper gets the aforementioned ‘Air Curtains’, while within them nestle the diminutive, first-in-class, projector fog lamps.
In profile, the new Elantra continues to have a swooping roofline that culminates into a coupe-like rear section, while the well contoured wheel arch flares integrate seamlessly with the bodywork. For India, the new Elantra will ride on 16-inch, gunmetal finished alloy wheels wrapped with 205/60 Hankook Kinergy tires.
The rear end is particularly eye-catching, and features horizontal, LED tail lamps with graphics that look like an evolution of the Elite i20’s, along with a subtle, integrated boot lip spoiler.
Yep, chromed door handles for us Indians
A closer look at the 16-inch, gunmetal finished, five spoke (with a twin spoke design) alloy wheels.
The India-spec Elantra has 165 mm of ground clearance.
Interiors
The interiors are conventionally styled, with an all-black theme that gets sprinkled with dull silver inserts. The new dashboard can be defined by flowing lines that possesses an understated elegance.
While the dashboard is layered with soft-touch material, the rest of the trim inserts, sadly do not give off that much needed premium air. The door trims are a sea of hard touch plastics, and there’s no chrome for the inside door pulls. The knobs and buttons are a saving grace, and offer a tactile, up market feel. However, levels of fit and finish are commendable, with everything feeling really well put together.
The leatherette clad front seats are immensely comfortable though, with terrific lower back and under thigh support. You can also get your bottom and back cooled with the integrated, front seat air-conditioners, which is a stand-out feature in this segment.
The rear seat is fairly comfortable, but headroom for taller people at the back could be a bit cramped because of the swooping roofline. Legroom at the back is sprawling, and so is it at the front. The cabin’s very voluminous, and apart from the slightly constrained headroom at the back, the interiors offer generous amounts of room in all directions. Like the Creta though, the door sills are positioned slightly higher.
Ergonomically, the new Elantra pretty much ticks all the right boxes. I like the ‘driver focused’ layout of the cockpit, with a center console that’s angled at 6.9 degrees towards the driver. The steering is manually adjustable for rake and reach, while the driver’s seat is 10-way electronically adjustable. The aluminum pedals are well spaced out, but the dead pedal is a bit too upright for my liking.
The center console is dominated by the large, all-new, 8.0-inch touch screen equipped infotainment system that is equipped with both Apple Carplay and Android Auto for integration of app based navigation (MapMyIndia), streaming audio, voice controlled search capabilities and smart phone applications.
Touch sensitivity is fantastic, with almost instantaneous responses and well-layered, intuitive menus. The screen doubles up to display feed from the reverse camera, replete with adaptive guidelines, while the 6-speaker ‘Arkamys’ developed sound system sounds crisp and deep.
The 3-spoke, leather wrapped steering wheel, which comes with controls for the audio, Bluetooth, cruise control and the trip computer, feels great to hold. The clearly legible instrument cluster is a simple affair, with a decently sized MID between the dials that is pretty comprehensive.
As for interior storage, the new Elantra offers a decently sized compartment between the front seats, while the door pockets can be crammed with one-litre bottles.
There’s also a ‘Ski Through’ feature, which is basically a large port hole of sorts between the rear seat that opens out into the 458 liters of boot space.
Being a Hyundai, the Elantra is feature rich, and also offers equipment like an electric sunroof, dual-zone air-conditioning with a ‘Sync’ function that equalizes zones, rear AC vents, auto-opening ORVMs, door pocket lights, aluminum sill plates, USB charger, electro chromatic rear view mirror, cruise control and a smart key with button start.
Engines
The 2.0-litre, ‘Nu’ petrol engine is the biggest petrol engine in its class, and features a lightweight, all aluminum block & plastic intake manifold. The four-cylinder, 16 valve engine comes with dual variable valve timing and is good for 150 bhp; 3.4 more than its predecessor. The torque figure has gone up by 14.5 Nm and now stands at 192 Nm, which makes it more powerful than the erstwhile 1.8-litre engine. While the MT variant is rated at 14.59 Kmpl, the AT will do 14.62 Kmpl (both ARAI certified figures).
Alongside the petrol engine, Hyundai’s proven 1.6-litre Common Rail Technology diesel engine is available with the new Elantra, and offers a variable geometry turbocharger for low and high end torque. Both engines can be had with either an in-house developed 6-speed manual, or a 6-speed automatic transmission.
We just drove the Elantra petrol in both AT and MT guises.
NVH
Engage the brake, press the start button and the motor settles into a barely audible idle, just a shade below 1000 clicks. It’s particularly silent for its class when idling,the ‘Nu’ engine, and if the tachometer were shrouded, you’d have to be the canine kind to make out if the engine’s running or not.
Give it some gas and the engine doesn’t let you rev hard while the car stands still. Straightaway, the engine admits that it doesn’t like being revved too hard. Don’t get me wrong here. It doesn’t sound strained or coarse. Instead, there’s just an uninvolving, appliance like drone that rises or falls depending on the twitchiness of your right foot.
At idle, there are next to no vibrations creeping in through the steering wheel or the pedals. Only the gear selector lever, amongst all the controls, buzzes a bit to let you that the engine’s alive. Even with the tachometer sitting high at 5,000 clicks and the Elantra standing still, merely the floor responds inside with a minor tremble.
Do not let the lack of sound insulation beneath the bonnet fool you; the Elantra’s as quiet as a tomb inside.
Moving off and carrying sedate speeds, and the Elantra’s dual-zone air conditioned interior still stays remarkably quiet. When Hyundai says that it is the quietest cabin in its class, they aren’t kidding. For this generation, the Elantra stays the quietest because of reduced panel gaps, thicker glass, revised engine mountings, new sub-frame bushes, and finally, the more rigid body shell.
In case you’re wondering, all of those NVH-reducing techniques have paid off. There’s barely any wind or road noise at cruising speeds, and an eerie, funeral-like silence engulfs the Elantra’s cabin. The spirits can be lifted in an instant with the punchy ‘Arkamys’ sound system though. Only when you mash the throttle, does the drone of the engine reappear inside.
How does it move?
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