2018 Hyundai Elantra Sport Finding the 'Sport' in this Civic Si rival
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00:00This is a good looking car.
00:23In fact, when I asked you guys on Instagram if you preferred the looks of this Elantra
00:27Sport over the Civic Si, over 80% of you said yes.
00:32Clearly Hyundai got something right then.
00:34I think it looks quite excellent myself, especially finished in this blazing yellow and with some
00:38of those dealer installed rear aero bits.
00:41So let's not beat around the bush here.
00:42This is the Elantra Sport.
00:44So it comes with a 1.6 liter turbo four with 201 horsepower and 195 pound feet of torque,
00:51which is available to you at an impressively low 1500 RPM.
00:54It has a real handbrake and traction control that you can turn completely off, but it is
00:59only front wheel drive and does not have a front limited slip differential.
01:03But I think it still deserves a good kicking before we can decide whether it is sporty
01:06or not.
01:07But either way, you can't argue with the value for money here.
01:10With very comfortable leather seats, a trunk that opens when you simply just walk up to
01:13it, a fully equipped interior with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connected to a surprisingly
01:18good sound system, it's pretty impressive that it comes in at $27,499 Canadian in this
01:22trim level, undercutting the price of the Civic Si.
01:26But the problem is, next to the likes of the Si, it feels a bit dull if you're just thrumming
01:30around at low speeds.
01:31However, after spending some time in it, I noticed something.
01:35All right, here's what I've learned.
01:37The Elantra Sport doesn't really come alive until you start driving it a little bit quickly.
01:44Okay?
01:45I didn't realize this the first time I drove this car, and it has awoken this vehicle for
01:50me.
01:51The Civic Si is a little bit more fun, I would say, at low speeds.
01:55This car doesn't come off as engaging, all right?
01:59What I mean by that is that when you first get in and drive, you're like, uh, I was kind
02:02of hoping it'd be a little bit better.
02:04But then you're out here on a road like this, and the whole thing wakes up.
02:08You don't need to drive that fast, but just a little bit.
02:12And yeah, the front end just becomes so much more communicative than it does feel at low
02:18speeds.
02:19So I've got the traction control just on the one-step-off thing, right?
02:23So acceleration out of corners, I do get some inside wheel slip, because there's no limited
02:28slip differential.
02:29But for the most part, you don't notice, and you won't care, because you're having too
02:32much fun.
02:33Okay, to be fair, this road is fun in almost any car.
02:38But I'm having a killer time right now in this one, because as you get some weight into
02:42the steering, like this, you start to feel the front end communicate with you.
02:47It's telling you where the grip of the tires are.
02:50And since this is the Sport model, that means that Hyundai has added independent rear suspension,
02:55which doesn't come on the lower models.
02:57So the car stays planted.
02:59They also talk a lot about their superstructure, which is their chassis.
03:03I've been in cars that have stiffer chassis than this, without a doubt.
03:06However, this is still a very stiff car.
03:09You can feel it, and feel that the suspension is doing the work over the bumps to keep you
03:14planted, rather than the flex in the frame of the car.
03:18Which means that you have predictability as you approach the limit.
03:22That's all you want in a sporty car, really.
03:25And to make matters better, I have an excellent driving position.
03:30Now we're talking.
03:31Thank you, Hyundai.
03:32Why manufacturers still, to this day, do not prioritize driving position is beyond me.
03:38I've got my feet in a perfect position, a little bend in my knees.
03:42My seat back is up nice and straight.
03:44I'm really comfortable.
03:46And the steering wheel comes all the way out to me, so I can have bent arms while I'm driving.
03:50That's all I ever want in a car.
03:52All right, the drivetrain is a little tick of lag on each shift, even if you try and
04:05stay way up high in the revs.
04:09But torque is still available very quickly.
04:12There's very, very minimal turbo lag.
04:15That doesn't really take away from the driving experience, though, because it is an obviously
04:19turbocharged car, which is totally fine.
04:21We've got 201 horsepower, 195 pound feet of torque.
04:25It's pretty much everything you'd need to just have a little bit of fun on the weekends,
04:29but still not worry about it being too aggressive of a car to drive every day.
04:34You can tune these, and I've heard of guys that are getting some pretty impressive numbers
04:37out of this engine without any serious failures that I've heard so far.
04:43However, I would say that as this engine comes, it's fine.
04:48It's a little bit...
04:49What's the word that I'm looking for?
04:51Gritty?
04:52Is that a word that makes any sense to you?
04:54I don't know.
04:55It makes sense to me in my head.
04:56The engine feels gritty.
04:57It doesn't feel like a super refined power plant.
05:00It does not feel German, without a doubt.
05:02It's not even anywhere close.
05:05In some ways, that adds a little bit to the character of the car, and it's not something
05:09that I'm going to knock points off from Hyundai for, because it doesn't really matter.
05:13When you get out here, good manual transmission, there's no rev hang in between shifts, and
05:19we pop it in something like fourth gear, down to third gear for the twisty stuff, and we're
05:24in paradise here.
05:25Look at this.
05:28As you go around corners like this, the front end starts to really let you know that you
05:34are turning a corner.
05:35Some cars don't do that.
05:37I can't really drive this car at the limit on this road, obviously, to tell you really
05:40what the understeer, oversteer characteristics are, but I can tell you that based on what
05:45I'm feeling here, in terms of the sharpness of the car and the communication from the
05:49chassis, this would be a pretty fun car to autocross.
05:52Wouldn't be the most fun, but it would still be a car that I go, yeah, you know what?
05:55Give it to me.
05:56I'll do a lap.
05:57And it has some sporty things, right?
05:58This comes with this D-shaped steering wheel, which feels nice in my hands, and as I said,
06:03it comes out at me, which is the most important thing in the world.
06:05A black headliner, that's pretty neat, and there's some carbon fiber-ish accents around
06:09the cabin.
06:10The cabin is, it's fine.
06:12It's good.
06:13It's not, it's not a luxury car, but it doesn't feel economy car either, which is good.
06:19Ergonomically, everything makes sense, okay?
06:23They did things right with this car.
06:25By that I mean the gear stick is in a spot where I can have the armrest down, and I can
06:30rest my arm on it, but I can still shift without hitting my elbow on it.
06:34I've been in BMWs and Audis that can't even do that.
06:37Now, the engine, well the throttle isn't actually super responsive, so downshifts, I learned
06:42how to do it after a couple tries, but they're not super intuitive.
06:46You can do it, but the clutch in this car is very forgiving.
06:49There's no harsh jolts as you release the clutch, which is nice.
06:53Heel-toes, not super easy in this car.
06:56Not as bad as the Focus ST, but I have been in cars that have better spaced pedals, okay?
07:03So there's that.
07:04I can heel-toe in this car, but it's not easy by any stretch of the imagination.
07:10Now that's kind of the performance driving side of this car out of the way.
07:13It is the sport model after all, so I had to talk about that, but what's the car like
07:16to live with every day?
07:18Actually it's very good.
07:20I haven't had any issues whatsoever.
07:22The climate control makes sense.
07:24Okay, here's a thing that I have.
07:26This is my check.
07:27If I can't look down at a dashboard and immediately know how to adjust the fan, the temperature,
07:33and the volume, then I have an issue, okay?
07:37Immediately I have to look down and go, that's how I change the volume.
07:40There is a knob for temperature, and there's two big buttons for up and down fan.
07:45How hard is that, really?
07:46There's no need to complicate things and put stuff in digital menus.
07:50That's not necessary.
07:51It's annoying.
07:52This is easy.
07:54The infotainment is good.
07:56It doesn't look particularly shocking.
07:59It's laid out in a intuitive fashion, I guess.
08:02I've got my all menus tab, which gives me radio, what type of music I want, what media
08:07I need.
08:08I have a button, an individual button for each of those, so not everything is put in
08:13the menu system, which is good.
08:14I've got a button for map, phone, SiriusXM, Seek, FM, AM.
08:20It clutters the visuals of the dashboard a little bit, but you will never hear me complain
08:24about that, because I am always one to have a good, solid, physical button to get me to
08:30my phone, or to get me to the map.
08:33That's good.
08:34Controls in the steering wheel are, at first, a little bit confusing, if I'm honest.
08:38I've got some up and down buttons, and I've got a button that toggles through the different
08:42screens on my gauges in the center, and I've got my phone buttons and volume on the side.
08:48Hyundai is putting heated steering wheels in a lot of their cars.
08:50So is Kia, okay?
08:52Heated steering wheels, well, right now, it's 23 degrees out, Celsius, so it doesn't matter,
08:56but in the wintertime, a heated steering wheel changes your life.
08:59It honestly does.
09:00If you live in Canada, you know what I'm talking about.
09:01If you've never driven a car with a heated steering wheel, you haven't lived, basically.
09:05So this door panel here doesn't look awesome.
09:09That's probably my biggest gripe with the interior.
09:11Like, there could be some nice trim where the handles are, but other than that, it looks
09:17good in here.
09:18We've got red stitching.
09:19Sport is on the seat there.
09:21That's good.
09:22You can see the legroom in the back.
09:23It's a four-door sedan.
09:24It's an economy car.
09:26There's nothing wrong with it.
09:27Good-sized trunk.
09:28It's a practical vehicle that is still fun to drive.
09:32Considering this is supposed to go up against the Honda Civic Si, they probably should have
09:39put a limited-slip differential in the front of this car.
09:42That would make this lose, probably, to an Si in autocross in the right hands, because
09:50the limited-slip differential in the front.
09:52When you're in a really tight corner, you don't notice the lack of LSD any other time.
09:56But when you're in a tight corner and you put the power down, you'll hear that inside
09:59wheel spin.
10:00And there's nothing that you can really do about it.
10:02Yeah, now I'm going to go a little bit slower now on this twisty road, the same one that
10:07I was blasting it down a second ago.
10:10And the car becomes comfortable, okay?
10:14There's a little bit of an annoying hum from the drivetrain.
10:18The exhaust could definitely be better tuned, without a question.
10:23The car doesn't sound very good.
10:25It's definitely lacking in that department.
10:27There's a little bit of, I wouldn't call it drone, but if you're above 3,500-4,000 RPM,
10:33if you hold it there for any length of time, it's like a buzz coming from the drivetrain.
10:36It's not that awesome.
10:38But for the most part, it's fairly quiet.
10:41I'm hearing some tire noise around here, but it's not the end of the world.
10:46There are louder cars, definitely, out there, but I would say that we could have a little
10:51bit more insulation, although when you add insulation, you add weight.
10:55And I'm all for cars being light and fun, so you know what?
10:59I'm going to stop complaining about road noise.
11:01Has it earned its sport badge?
11:04Yeah.
11:05I would say that it has earned a badge on the back that you could say sport.
11:09It's not particularly sporty overall as a car, but it has some sporting qualities that
11:15I would say are leading it in the right direction.
11:18So all things considered, this is a great little car that is first and foremost a daily commuter.
11:23I even manage 9.8 liters per 100 kilometers in mostly city driving.
11:28But there is no denying that when you spend some time on a back road or if you took the
11:31Elantra Sport to the autocross course, you would find yourself having a good time.
11:36And with a price under 30 grand, you can't really argue with that.
11:40My name is Thomas Holland, and you've been watching a Throttle House Road Test.
11:43Make sure you subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss any reviews like this
11:47or any of my build videos, my time attack videos, or my track tests.
11:52Tune in.
11:53I'll see you in the next video.