Vehicle: 2009 Hyundai Elantra Touring GL Sport – Automatic
Price as tested: CDN$22395
Handling: Hyundai has been on a roll lately. Its not only their astonishing Genesis has won Directshift’s overall car of the year, it has also named as North American Car of the Year and Canadian Car of the Year. It really shows how far Hyundai has come along in the last 20 years. Will this Elantra Touring serve as another winner in Hyundai’s stable? We will find out after this test drive.
The Elantra Touring is an Elantra with a twist. It doesn’t share its platform with the Elantra sedan nor any of its chassis tuning. Hyundai didn’t change any settings when bringing the European i30 as Elantra Touring to our shore, which is a very good thing.
The Touring has none of its sedan silibing’s softness. Instead, Touring has a plenty of European hot hatch feel that should make any driving enthuisasts happy. Its exceptionally well-damped when driven through washboard pavement and on any roughness. What is really impressive me is how Hyundai engineers have managed to balance the firm handling without losing the supple ride quality in this Touring. Its European firm and supple without being harsh. The suspension has been extremely well-calibrated for both all-out handling and ride comfort. When it comes to balancing sporty handling with sublime ride quality, this Elantra Touring is able to run rings with class-leading Mazda3 Sport and Rabbit 2.5. The steering provides excellent feedback, very responsive and exceptionally precise. It also provides the right amount of weight with its thick-rimmed steering. When pushed through corners, the Touring excels with minimal body rolls. Understeer is only surfaced when pushed into limits. While the cornering limits is high with the Touring, its the European driving feel that makes it truly an amazing car to drive. If there is one car that Hyundai should build a performance hatch on its basis, this amazing Touring is more than capable to build a hot hatch to rivalled those of Golf GTI.
Performance: The Touring shares the same powertrain with its soft sedan silibings. It uses the same 2.0 liter 4-cylinder 16-valve DOHC with advanced variable valve timing. When it comes to engine refinement and smoothness, this powertrain has impressed us when Hyundai launched Elantra sedan back in 2007. The same goes for the Touring. Its smooth revving right from the low to high rpm without any of the harshness and roughness. 138 horses and 136 lb/ft of torque are also aplenty to move Touring’s 3112 lb of metal. The Touring comes standard with a smooth shifting 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic on our tester. This auto tranny provides low enough 1st gear for peppy launch while the top 4th gear is high enough for comfortable cruising. Consider how much progress Hyundai has been in the last couple of years, this Touring should equipped with a 5-speed automatic to provide a higher gear ratio for an even more relaxed cruising. While the rest of the segment has moved from 4 to 5-speed automatic, this 4-speed just feels somewhat lacking in this impressive car.
Brakes: Our Elantra GL with Sport Pkg comes standard with 4-wheel discs with ABS. However, it doesn’t mean all Touring comes standard with ABS. The ABS only offers from L w/preferred equipment package to our GL w/sport pkg. The base L doesn’t even offer it as an option. Consider the Honda Fit which already come with ABS standard, even in the base DX trim. Its totally unforgivable for Hyundai’s move. As for the brakes, this Touring provides excellent pedal feel and modulation. The pedal feels firm and solid, while the ABS doesn’t step in unnecessarily. For a good ABS system, this one is as good as you can get.
Interior: Slip behind the wheel of the Elantra Touring, you will feel its build quality and use of materials rivalled those luxury cars twice its price. All the switchgears have a solid, tactical feel. There are plenty of high-quality soft-touch plastic around the dashboard and center console. It all comes standard in a flawless fit-and-finish to wrap up the overall package.
As for the cargo space, this Touring continues to impress. It all starts with a much-needed wash wiper for a proper hatchback to clear off the rear screen. The hatch opens with a squared side sills and low loading floor for excellent cargo access. Once inside, you have 60/40 split fold-down rear seats. Best of all, you can fold the seats down without removing headrests. Thank you very much.
Conclusion: This Elantra Touring will surely be another home-run for Hyundai. Not only does it got a classic good looks, it has plenty of grace and pace to go along with its world-class quality. This is a very attractive package that is hard to overlook in the market.
OVERALL VERDICT FOR 2009 Hyundai Elantra Touring
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Performance: 4.5/5
Handling and ride/fun-to-drive: 5/5
Interior/ergonomics/user-friendliness: 5/5
Fit-and-finish/build quality: 5/5
Cargo/accessibility/layout: 4/5
Value-for-money: 5/5
Overall rating: 4.75/5