Hyundai Elantra Petrol - Driving Impression!!!

[Shan2nu]

Well, since my uncle was interested in buying a diesel car, we thought we'd give the Accent crdi a try. But the showroom here didn't have it for a test drive. then i asked him about the Elantra CRDI and he said that it waould be there in 2 days.

Just then i set my eyes on a white Elantra parked below. On asking him about it, he said that it was the petrol version. Since we were already there with no other test cars, we thought we'd give the Elantra "P" a try.

At first glance the Elantra does look like an over grown Accent. The body lines and the head lights are a bit similar in shape.

The interiors aren't the best i've seen in that class. The center console looks outdated with the buttons being very geometrical and rigid. The speedo and tacho dials look good but not sporty in any way. Didn't like those alien space craft like designs in the middle of the dials.

Once we settled down, the first thing i noticed was that the rear leg room was veery limited. Push the front seats back and even an average person would find it difficult to snuggle in. As we took off, i found the ride quality to be excellent.

I drove it on the same road where i tested the Corolla and it surely felt much more comfortable. Interestingly the suspenssion felt rigid and the handling was better than the usual Hyundai type. The steering was dead to the core, there was no feed back what so ever. The car felt a bit twitchy at high speeds.

Acceleration at low rpms was good but got coarse as the revvs increased. The brake feel, unlike the CDRI felt good and precise. The gear shift was average, good for sedate driving but not at all sporty.

I was impressed with the way this car pulled from higher gears. So i asked the guy how much torque the engine produced and he confidently said 125 kgm..................125 KGM!!!!!!!!! The Bugatti Veyron for that matter produces 102 KGM, lol.

I knew he meant to say 125nm but i decided to see if he actually knew what he was saying. So i asked him again, "R you sure it's 125 kgm?" And he said he was a 100% sure of it.

And he went, "yes sir, it's a very powerful engine". He didn't even know whether that figure was good or bad.

But i wasn't gonna fall for that coz even if it was 125 nm, that's way to less for a 1.8 and the car surely felt more torquey. Usually such cars produce around 16-17 kgm. Later on when i asked for the spec sheet it read 16.6 kgm or 157.7 nm, in bold letters.

I showed him that and he said the 125 nm was for the Accent crdi. Turns out that the Accent crdi infact produces 187 nm, lol.

He didn't know how ABS or TCS worked. I have no idea how Hyundai manages to sell their cars in such large numbers.

Now, getting back to the Elantra, i'd say that thought it's not as performance oriented as it shuld have been, it still is a better deal than the Corolla and the Optra. You get so much more for what you pay.

But given a choice, i'd still opt for the Octavia. It may be underpowered and all, but it's undoubtedly, the best car in it's class.

Regards...
Shan2nu

[S350L-E240]

I hate this car,
It might have a nice CDI engine,
But i guess thats where the niceness ends,

But it looks like hyundai has a winner in India,
Cuz i do see a lot of them on the road,
Also on the highway came across 4-5 of em'

Dunno why wud people not buy the Skoda or Optra,

[Dippy]

Has any one noticed that the Elantra and Santro Xing grille are quite the same?

[aadix]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (S350L-E240 @ June 07 2004,15:04)]Dunno why wud people not buy the Skoda or Optra,

coz the diesel version is almost 2lacs cheaper than a skoda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rtech]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (aadix @ June 07 2004,15:36)]

coz the diesel version is almost 2lacs cheaper than a skoda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey aadix...the CRDi costs 11.3 or so, the Octavia costs the same. Why would you buy an extended accent over the Skoda now?

Service back up is the only other reason i can think of, but then how often do you actually service the car anyways!

Rtech

[2fast2furious]

HAIL......... Octavia... ofcourse its far much better then that of elantra !!!

[lamborghini]

hey shan2nu
good write up
reminds me of a vectra drive i had been on while my jijaji was deciding between a vectra and a mondeo..
it was during summer and in the afternoon and damn hot and the dealership MANAGER did not know how to put the damnit aircon on...
at the same time we went for a test drive of a camry and the dealerships car's glove box and armrest was covere with a packet of open chips...
in comparision the ford guy impressed and nothing akward happened...
oh yeah , in the end we went for the mondeo...
its an awesoem car but i have not seen it as yet as i have not gone visiting
BTW , the octavia is outselling the elantra..
just saw one in my building....
YUCK is an understatement when compared to the corolla