Text & Test Driven by Hani Musthafa Photos: Flywheel
India today has a fast growing car industry. But, this growth is not uniform in all segments of cars. There is this segment which is not as fast and strong in the competition and it is none other than the D-segment sedan. Which is why maybe not all car manufacturers are keen and serious about concentrating in this particular segment. However, Hyundai is one special brand that has been bringing attractive sedans for the past many years, ever since Elantra entered the game way back in 2004. With EPS as standard and 6 airbags, it zipped the mouths of every fault finders. And it is today the super successor of that grand opener Elantra rolling in. Hyundai has introduced another brand new version of their ever successful sedan ‘Elantra’ which has emerged strongly in India creating more threats to its competitors in this slow moving D-segment.
It’s a much-known fact that the Hyundai Elantra always had a deep-rooted presence in the country. Known for its stylish looks and loads of features, Elantra has been able to sell itself in a noteworthy manner among Indian car buyers who wanted to go up for a premium class sedan. The Korean car maker that sells the Elantra in the name ‘Avante’ globally decided to replenish the outgoing Elantra to bring in the new generation Elantra. As a result, the new Elantra comes packed with style, quality, features and practicality. The handsome Elantra, in fact, has balanced proportion and angular sheet metal. The car looks really nice in profile and my eyes don’t settle for seeing one car. It has its different parts resembling with stylish products of even other brands. The car has a bit of coupelike stance and the important thing is that it looks real modern and contemporary. Hyundai claims the car to be having the best in segment coefficient of drag 0.29. The styling has also helped in improved aerodynamics thus, ultimately reducing fuel consumption.
It retains the same old fluidic design keeping almost same dimensions but in a more sporty and elegant manner. Built on a new platform the 2016 Elantra is a bit longer but crucially wider. It is not the biggest nor is it the smallest in terms of size while standing against its closest rival, Toyota Corolla Altis. It gets more modern design bits all around its body. The front end of the car has got a major reformation. It gets a horizontally slatted hexagonal grille. The headlamps look slightly bigger and have embedded LED DRLs. At the bottom edges of the bumper lies the tiny fog lamp. The 10 spoke alloy wheels in gunmetal colour and a decent amount of chrome matches equally on its 5 different body shades. The tail lamp of Elantra has always been a special attraction at the rear and it still has no difference. The rear gets a pair of new beautiful tail-lamps which seems inspired from the Elite i20.
Unlike the exterior design language, the inside of the new Elantra too is brand new. It looks more like the interior of a European car than an Asian. The entire centre console is tilted towards the driver. The quality of components used inside the car is excellent. The cabin is now dressed in black and beige unlike the black with silver accent interior of the Elantra is being sold abroad. Most of the components inside the car are wrapped with leather and the dashboard literally looks like that of a luxury sedan. The car now has a fully loaded, all new steering wheel, new instrument console with large MID which also brings back the analogue fuel gauge and engine temperature indicator. The temperature control and even the push start button are finished in fine Matt Silver. For the 1st time in India, Elantra now comes with an electric sunroof.
Hyundai is known to fill their cars with features and the new Elantra will continue with it. Push-button start, rain sensing wipers, auto dimming internal mirrors, and electrically foldable wing mirrors and much more gadgets are all expected to be a part of the standard equipment. The top-spec car even gets ventilated front seats – something that you could do not find even in some of the premium executive sedans. This can really help the occupants during Indian summers. The 8-inch touch screen accommodates navigation and also let you engage Apple Car Audio. The speaker graphics of the car is also outstanding. There is also voice control to switch between modes and the steering wheel mounted controls are also comprehensive.
The steering mounted controls makes the least possible diversion for the driver by providing all the controls of telephony and music playback on the wheel itself. They also control multi-function display on the instrument panel as well as operate cruise control. In addition to Aux-In and USB ports at the bottom of the centre console, the under-arm rest storage space has a second USB port. All variants of the new Elantra come equipped with ABS & EBD along with dual front airbags. Elantra offers a safe ride with its dual front as well as side and curtain airbags. The car comes loaded with seat belt pretensioners while speed sensing auto lock as well as an impact sensing auto unlock makes it safe in times of emergency conditions. However, the SX version gets six airbags. Automatic transmission cars get an electronic stability program along with hill hold function.
It has driving modes where one could choose between ECO and SPORT to customise driving the experience. It proves that Hyundai engineers have a taken a lot of efforts on NVH, the car proves it. The engine is aggressive but you get no sign of it inside the car. Brilliant. The ride and handling have excessively improved from all previous versions of the car. And the steering, apparently the best ever experienced on a Hyundai. Elantra still features only semi-independent suspension though both ride and NVH have improved a lot from the outgoing car. Both petrol and diesel engines offer a very decent ride and handling. Feels stable and all the four wheels locked well with the tarmac. Lane changing is fun and confidence feeling is high. No worries, there’s ABS and EBD doing duty on all wheels. Hyundai offers the Elantra with 4 wheel disc brakes, which are further loaded with safety features like ABS, EBD, Electronic stability program and vehicle stability management. The front suspension is coupled torsion beam axle while the rear uses McPherson strut type with coil spring.
Hyundai continues to offer the Elantra with existing 1.6litre diesel engine. This four-cylinder turbocharged engine develops 126bhp of power and 260 nm of torque and comes mated to a six-speed manual gearbox and also with a six-speed automatic option. The petrol version is a brand new engine, a 2.0litre inline four cylinder naturally aspirated mill. It gives out a power of 150bhp at 6200rpm and a peak torque of 192nm at 4000rpm. This engine also comes mated to a six-speed manual gearbox and six-speed automatic torque converter transmission. Both these engines are highly refined and return some class leading efficiency figures (Petrol – 14.6 kmpl/Diesel – 22.5 kmpl) The Ex. Showroom price (Kochi) of the new Elantra starts from 13.22 lakhs and thus, will be taking on the other D-segment sedans like Skoda Octavia, Chevrolet Cruze, Toyota Corolla Altis and Volkswagen Jetta.