YOU BLOODY UTEY
Hyundai’s popularity just keeps on growing in Australia and they’ve almost got the market covered ... except for that traditional tradie workhorse
HYUNDAI’S been on a fair roll for a fair while now.
Back in the 1990s the Korean cars, and then SUVs, were the poor cousins in the automotive world.
Good for hire car fleets and young kids off to university.
Unknown resale values and reliability standards, some ordinary style plus build and engineering standards not up to Japanese grades, saw Hyundai make a slow, steady start. Even at bargain prices. Fast forward a couple of decades and about the only thing missing from the well-credentialed and wellaccepted Hyundai range is a ute.
And the word is there could be one of those down the track.
The Hyundai Santa Cruz may well be more the “lifestyle” sort of machine though rather than full-on, one-tonne workhorse with no surety it’d be built in right-hand.
Otherwise this mob has most of the market covered – from small and cheerful run-arounds like the i20 to seven-seat SUVs, with a mix of sedans, vans and a sportster in between. Among this lot the compact Hyundai i30 often tops the sales charts as Australia’s most popular car.
Now it’s the sixth-generation Elantra – a touch longer, wider and taller than before – attracting attention from critics and consumers.
First things first – this is one of the most handsome sub-$30,000 cars on this market, a stylish sedan that starts out at $21,490 for the entry-level Active version.
There’s a connection to previous Elantras’ proportions and style but here, squint a little, forget the badge, and that front end treatment with sculpted bonnet and sweptback headlights looks a bit like something Aston Martin might do.
No, this new season Elantra doesn’t go, stop or steer like an Aston.
But, and here’s the second-best bit about this Korean sedan, it’s one of the best handling of sub-$30,000 cars.
It rides and steers with competence more often found in more expensive machinery.
There’s a nice weight to the steering and responses are immediate with little to suggest this is a frontdrive car.
Now while that smart aero style for 2016 can be attributed to “Fluidic Sculpture 2.0 design”, led by Hyundai’s stylist Peter Schreyer, the handling package is Australianflavoured.
Prototypes for this model were pounded around to find the right dynamics for our road conditions and driving tastes.
In another appreciated nod to this market, both Elite and Active models have full-sized spare wheels.
All up there were 48 separate suspension combinations tried.
The result is, quite simply, a nice bargain car to drive on Queensland roads.
The 2 litre petrol engine has 112kW and the Active model has the choice of six-speed manual or sixspeed automatic; the Elite arrives with auto only.
And thanks to 192Nm of torque, auto Hyundais get off the line with relative ease though the four-cylinder engine can sound a bit gruff at the top end.
With this style and on-road dynamics, the Hyundai Elantra for 2016 is a very good sedan at these prices.