2017 Hyundai Elantra

Hyundai has a fresh product line, growing sales, and a vastly improved quality reputation. But it also has a major problem: It’s a car company in an increasingly truck-focused world. The brand’s sales mix is 76 percent cars in a market that is running at 57 percent trucks, including ever-more-popular crossovers. “We need more trucks,” says Hyundai Motor America president and CEO Dave Zuchowski, alluding to the two medium and large crossovers coming for the new Genesis luxury sub-brand as well as the two sub-Tucson small crossovers coming for Hyundai.
n the meantime, Hyundai isn’t slowing its car development, and the new Elantra, already on sale, is proof. The old Elantra set the compact-sedan segment on its ear with fluid styling and upscale features, and it was the brand’s bestselling model in calendar year 2015, with more than 240,000 moved (that includes about 20 percent to fleets). But the car had major weaknesses; namely, a weak structure that fluttered over bumps and a weak suspension that delivered a plodding ride and not much joy to the steering. The new Elantra significantly moves the bar in body refinement, in large part by being glued together.

Annie, Get Your Glue Gun

Aerospace adhesives have long been adapted to car construction to augment or replace spot welds and fasteners and to supply continuous bonding along a seam for extra stiffness. The old Elantra had about 10 feet of glue bead in its body; the new Elantra has 394 feet of robotically applied adhesive bead. If it were an AMT model, it would undoubtedly survive your childhood testing regimen of firecrackers and basement-wall impacts.

Besides that, Hyundai has reconfigured the rear twist-beam suspension with a longer and more vertical shock absorber for better impact damping, and conducted an extensive noise-reduction program. New sound-deadening material in the wheel wells, better subframe isolation, and smaller firewall holes combine with a thicker windshield and side glass to cut cabin noise. Greater use of high-strength steel, says the company, allowed it to hold the line on curb weights, with the lightest SE manual at just over 2750 pounds and the heaviest Limited arriving at just under 3000 pounds. That’s in line with Elantras we have tested in the past.

A Two-Engine Lineup—For Now

Two engines are being offered initially. A 147-hp 2.0-liter with a six-speed automatic will be the mainstream engine, with a 1.4-liter turbo and seven-speed dual-clutch automatic as the Eco option. A six-speed manual also is available on the base SE. A third, more powerful engine will come this fall in a Sport model to be shown at SEMA in November. We’re bound by secrecy not to discuss the Sport too much, but it may just have a major technical change between its rear wheels that does not involve propulsion.

Hyundai let us sample the priciest version for a day in the San Diego hinterlands. Our $27,710 Limited had both the $2500 Tech package (8.0-inch navigation touchscreen, Infinity premium audio, sunroof, and heated rear seats—heated fronts are standard on the Limited) and the $1900 Ultimate package, with swiveling HID headlights, emergency auto braking with pedestrian detection, and a group of anti-disaster devices normally found on more expensive cars, such as adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist.

Thus what we had was a nicely equipped Sonata in seven-eighths scale. And like the Toyota Corolla that the Elantra exists to destroy, it’s no sports sedan. However, while its dimensions are nearly the same as the old Elantra’s and it offers respectable back-seat space and a 14-cubic-foot trunk that expands with folding rear seatbacks, the car is much stiffer, the impacts no longer causing waves of shudders in the body and steering column. Moreover, road and wind noise and the inevitable thwack of the Limited’s large, 225/45 tires on 17-inch wheels slapping the pavement are pleasantly distant, the cabin a decent isolation chamber for a car at this price point.

The new car’s controls are well weighted and responsive, and the Elantra can hustle when it needs to, the suspension digesting the road and not easily thrown off its path by rough pavement. It’s no Mazda 3, but at least it’s a stiff platform on which to base sportier models such as the aforementioned Elantra Sport, as well as maybe a coupe and a small crossover. Every step Hyundai takes toward dynamic refinement is to be cheered, as this one should be.

You have to poke the 2.0 deeply to get any real thrust, but the torque band is acceptably broad and it serves its duties with a muted and dispassionate growl. Three driving modes—Eco, Sport, and Normal—fiddle with the shift timing, throttle response, and steering effort, with the mild Sport mode being none too sporty (this is not a criticism; it matches the car’s personality). There are no paddles, so if you want to shift yourself, you must remove one paw from the steering wheel and work the shift lever. If you’d rather not, the computer does a fine job of delivering the right ratios as needed.

With sales of passenger cars softening, even the mighty mid-size segment is taking a hit. This refreshed compact, this mini-Sonata, isn’t going to generate a lot of headlines, but it’s a major improvement to a key player in Hyundai’s lineup. With the new Elantra, the company proves itself highly responsive to criticism and willing to tackle its problems. So here’s our conclusion on the new Elantra: More like this one, please.