All the essentials and then some

MANILA, Philippines - The Hyundai Elantra comes in three variants with two engine choices, manual or automatic, and an increasing level of safety and luxury features.

And of the three, I like this one the best: gutsy, small displacement engine, 6-speed stick shift, and most of the modcons I look for in a family car. That it looks a little bit like a sports coupe is icing on the cake. The “Fluidic Sculpture” design characterized by swooping fenders, windswept, oversized lights, and hawk-like visage give the car an imposing character.

Even the “basic” GL has the essentials: driver’s side airbag, ABS, stereo with USB and AUX connectivity, and power everything. Missing are foglamps, rear disk brakes (it uses drums), a passenger side airbag, reverse sensors, a fancier stereo, and the 60:40-split fold rear seatback. An SRP of just P798,000 is the exclamation point, undercutting most of the competition and even a few top-of-the-line subcompacts.

With the passenger side airbag excepted, most of what’s deleted are either things you don’t really need or can actually get in the aftermarket ala carte. Rear disks are nice, but for daily driving it’s unlikely you’ll ever need the extra stopping power or fade resistance over drum brakes.

The GL also makes do with 65-series, 15-inch rubber versus the 1.8-liter GLS’ 55-series, 16-inchers. But to be perfectly honest, Hyundai’s choice of rubber doesn’t really give one variant that much of a perceptive advantage over the other. Even the GLS’ Hankook tires lack the sort of confidence inspiring grip on even moderately slippery roads, so a tire (and wheel?) upgrade is about the first thing a hard-charging Elantra buyer will do.

I got the opportunity to drive one to Subic and back last month and was thoroughly impressed with the car. Power from the little engine is sufficient to keep one moving along at a respectably brisk pace, and will enable you to exceed the highway speed limit by around 80 to 90 km/h on a clear road. Rowing the stick shift is a pleasure with the short throws, easily defined gate, and moderately light clutch effort. Wind and road noise are acceptably low at high speeds, which means you have to pay attention to the speedometer when driving this thing or else you’ll get fined for speeding! What sounds like 100 km/h may actually already be 130 km/h.

The 6th gear is an overdrive, and judicious use of it in between full throttle passing manoeuvres and 140 km/h cruising yielded fuel consumption of just 7.7 liters per 100km or nearly 13 km/l. The steering effort is light at low speeds and firms up once you get going, with a reasonable amount of road rumble felt through the wheel to give you an idea of what’s going on with the tires.

Even with a space- and weight-saving torsion beam rear axle, the Elantra has a reasonably sporty handling dynamic with good turn-in response with modest understeer and body roll. The tail will gently slide out if you force it with a dab of the brakes mid-turn. About the only real, practical downside is it’s not as adept at filtering road vibrations as a fully independent suspension. If one wheel moves up or down from a bump, the beam forces the opposing wheel to move in response, and that results in more suspension movement that tends to shake up the car a bit on subpar roads.

The most visible payback is in trunk space. With fewer suspension bits to build the chassis around, the Elantra gets away with 420 liters of trunk volume and a full-size spare tire. Even without the split-fold seatback of the top-of-the-line GLS, I was able to put 4 bike wheels, 1 small cooler, 1 suitcase, 1 gym bag, 1 large plastic box, and several grocery bags in the trunk.

Roomy, stylish, thrifty, gutsy, and – important if you’re a car guy – fun to drive, there is a lot of value in the GL. Anything that’s lacking is easily remedied with a trip to some quality aftermarket vendors.

The Good

• High on style, substance, and lots of fun to drive.

The Bad

• Comfort-oriented tires need more grip.

The Verdict

• A genuine contender in the Compact category