It's funny what pops into my head sometimes.
My wife says it is a wonder I manage to function at all with all the stupid things going on inside my cranium, but it is better than having nothing at all going on in there.
So it was once again this week that something a little weird popped into my head when I took the all-new Hyundai Elantra for a drive.
On the outside the Elantra looks like a very good little sports sedan and the inside offers more room than the outside would have you believe. Once I got in I noticed the perforated leather covering the seats and the nice layout of the dials and controls. Everything was as it should be and everything felt good. Then off I went for the drive. It was only when I turned on the window wipers to clear some of the melting snow that my brain started to go all wonky. You see, one of the wipers - on the driver's side - is huge, while the one on the passenger side is quite small. I was taken aback for a minute as it almost looked like someone had put these odd-sized wipers on for a bit of a joke. Then the movie Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo popped into my head when the movie's main character went on a date with the woman that was so tall the top half of her body never appeared on screen. People kept referring to her as a "huge b****." I know it's not politically correct but that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the wiper. "That's a huge b****."
Anyway, I'm sure there will be others that will only look at the small wiper and think "ooh it's so cute." But when I thought about it I realized that the big wiper cleared so much of the window it was actually better for the driver's forward vision on rainy or snowy days. If the passenger wiper gets worn or bunged up with snow and ice it doesn't matter, you would still have a monster clearing the elements from the driver's side.
Anyway, the Elantra is quite the surprise, especially for someone who hasn't driven one before. The looks are good, the styling is good, the interior features are very good, but when you get down to the options and gas mileage it is quite excellent.
Hyundai didn't want to aim for the leaders in the group when they redesigned the Elantra, they wanted to go a step higher and so they dropped the steel engine from the Elantra and put in a new continuously variable vale timing aluminum engine that not only saves on weight, it, along with the six speed transmission, provides a whopping 41 mpg in the city and 58 on the highway while providing 148 horsepower for when you need to get moving. Now these are some serious numbers on par with diesel and hybrid vehicles.
The seats are quite comfortable and the tilt/telescoping wheel helps me get the perfect driving position. After I have done this, and turned the wipers off because I really needed to get the movie out of my head, I started to notice just how much Hyundai had packed into the Elantra.
Both driver and front seat passenger get heated seats, but because I drove the Elantra on Tuesday after the first dump of snow this year, and because it didn't have winter tires on, I decided to stay off the highway and motor around town, which the Elantra did with aplomb even on side streets.
Hyundai packed the Elantra with so many goodies you will wonder why it doesn't cost much more. Although this was the Limited version costing 26 grand you can get into the base version for less than 16.
I know there are some real good bargains out there but this new Elantra is right at the top.
The steering wheel has controls for the trip odometer, cruise, satallite stereo, and Bluetooth hands free phone. You get the ABS, EBD, TCS, ESC, height adjustable seat, manumatic transmission, USB and AUX inputs, side and curtain airbags, Homelink garage door opener, and more.
I thought this was a real good deal until I got in the back and realized that the seats here were heated as well.
The knee room in the back is also quite good considering there have been a number of vehicles this size that are only two plus twos. This means you have enough room for two passengers in the front and two bags of groceries in the back.
The Elantra is a very nice little sedan that surprises on several levels, including trim, interior room, options and gas mileage. However because I have already warned you about the huge wiper I know it won't come as a surprise when you go for your test drive.
Hyundai Elantra
4-door sedan
6-speed manumatic
1.8 litre four cylinder
Horsepower 148 @ 6,500
Torque 131 @ 4,700
Mileage: 6.9 l/100 km 41 mpg City 4.9 l/100km 58 mpg Hwy
Price $26,094
