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5 years with my Hyundai Elantra petrol MT: Thoughts & observations

21st September 2022, 10:27 by Dev Shah

This is our main car for all the family trips and the interior, as well as the boot space, has never disappointed. It easily accommodates all the luggage.

BHPian shikh_oberoi recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Our plan initially was to buy a new car for my dad since I was satisfied with the Verna which didn't have any issues besides some suspension work. But as always our plans took a U-turn and decided to buy a new car for myself and that dad will drive the Verna.

I took the delivery on 26th April 2017.

The initial budget was set to 15 lakhs.

Let me take you back to November 2016. We were considering buying the Creta, yes the Creta. The car I hate the most just because of the high pricing and various cost cuttings.

Requirements: A 5 seater petrol car below 15 lakhs and it shouldn't be a C-segment car or a hatchback. Choices were very few:

Renault Duster: Outdated car. No top-end petrol variant but with the best suspension in the segment and above.
Honda BRV: Wouldn't spend that much for a beefed-up Mobilio.
Ford Ecosport: Too old, but an excellent car for a first-time buyer.
Hyundai Elantra S: I was reluctant to buy this also, manual AC, no rear parking sensors. Hyundai was known for a feature-rich car but slowly they are deleting features from their new cars. I remember the old gen Elantra had most of the features standard across the variants. Plus dad was reluctant to buy a sedan again.
Maruti S-Cross: Another underrated car and I liked it very much, but it had a diesel engine. Rejected.

That's pretty much it. I was reluctant to buy the Creta but my sister and dad liked the Creta very much and thought having an SUV will be a welcome change. But then demonetization happened and we put all the plans on hold.

In March, dad again asked me to choose a car and I rejected the Creta for the Elantra 2.0 SX petrol manual by increasing the budget by 2 lakhs and dad agreed.

Pricing:

Ex.Showroom: 1490189
Registration:.....156148
1% TCS:............14902
Basic Kit:.............2500

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Total:.............1663739
Discounts*:........28739

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Net:...............1635000
Insurance**:......49500
Bank P.F:.............2500

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OTR:................1687000

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*Friend recently bought a Tuscon and I bought the Elantra from the same dealer so I got this discount. At the time of delivery, my adviser told me the prices have been increased by 1673 rupees and I need to pay it. I politely asked him to adjust the difference in discounts. Effective discount - Rs.30412. Plus I also got a 4th-year warranty free as loyalty.

**Bought the insurance policy from the dealer which includes Zero Depreciation cover, consumables cover, engine and gearbox cover plus tyres and key loss.

Buying & dealership experience:

Initially, I was happy since I got around 30k discounts but the advisor was lazy and weird. He specially came home to collect cheques for loan and forgot to get them signed. Told him to collect the balance cheque and he picked it up after 2 days.

I waited at the service center for 2 hours for the delivery because he didn't do all the paperwork. Forgot to take sign on some forms related to registration when he came home. Didn't do the insurance paperwork. He told me he was delivering some other car but still, he had sufficient time to do all that beforehand. Poor experience.

Observations:

Reverse gear doesn't slot freely many times. The current odometer reading is 35000 kms and this still happens.
Only after getting the seat covers, I found a comfortable driving position. Stock seats weren't that great.
The brakes are excellent. I avoided some reckless people and the car brakes performed really well.
The headlamps' throw is fantastic. My friend having the new Tucson told me that my Elantra's halogen headlamps seem better than his Tucson's HID.
Auto headlamp turns on even when there is a good amount of light. They turn on around 6:00 pm in the evening nowadays and I don't think I require them until 7:00 pm. Looks odd with the only car on the road with headlamps on.
The navigation system is great. Tells you with visual aid which road to take.
Power delivery is linear and the car never feels underpowered.
"Safety escort headlamps" are really useful. If the setting is at auto, headlamps turn on as soon as the car is unlocked.
Headlamps stay on for 10 seconds after locking the car and many times people have reminded me to turn them off.
No insulation sheet under the bonnet in my petrol variant. Truth be told, it doesn't need one. The cabin is silent.
The volume knob on the center console is placed on the driver's side. It should have been on the passenger side.
Interior dome lights illuminate the cabin very well.
Spare tyre is an alloy wheel.
Comes with a factory-wrapped leather steering wheel and gear knob.
Rear armrest has access to the boot which has been helpful a lot of times.

Dislikes:

The music system is really poor. The sound level is not up to the mark. My friend's Tucson has much better speakers.
ORVM aren't that great compared to my Verna.
No chrome usage in the interior plus I am not a fan of all-black interiors. I like a combination of beige and black.
No speed sensing auto-lock.
The door lock button beside the door lever doesn't operate locks for all 4 doors. If I use that button only the driver's side door gets locked. In Verna, all doors get locked from the driver's side. Have to use the different buttons provided near the power window which I previously used only for unlocking the doors.
Driver armrest is fixed and not at all comfortable to drive with a fixed armrest. These little things take away the fun to drive the car.

Drive:

The first thing I noticed driving the Elantra after my 2012 Fluidic Verna is that the car stays planted to the road. On many highway trips, I could feel the Verna jumping up and down on uneven smooth roads but the Elantra is at another level.
Clutch travel is long but it's light.
The ground clearance is average but if you are careful, the underbody will never scrape even with a full load.
This is our main car for all the family trips and the interior, as well as the boot space, has never disappointed. It easily accommodates all the luggage.
Since the car has all 4 disc brakes, the brakes are excellent. Although during initial ownership the brake pedal juddered 5-6 times. Felt similar to ABS engaging but during this time I never applied hard brakes.