My little auto adventure: Hyundai Elantra

Well, it took a while since my last test drive to find a car dealer that would let me take a car on an extended drive as I do my car shopping and blog. Tony Auto Group’s Allan Capello was one of the first in the complex to respond to me, and pretty quickly, too.

I am taking my time in this shopping process, and now that I’ve had two very different cars in my life, I have a pretty good idea of what my next car should be. (You can see my parameters in my last post, here.) Since I never go car shopping, it’s interesting to see how far cars have come since the last time I looked.

When Hyundai first came to the United States, I remember it as a car for the budget-conscious, but with a reputation for being basic and having an exterior that wasn’t too solid. After that, I didn’t really pay much attention to them. Until now. Capello had me drive their most popular car, the Hyundai Elantra. At first glance, I thought it might be in the same class as the Camry (remember, I didn’t know anything about Hyundais), but was told it was more in line with a Honda Civic.

First impression: a lot roomier than it looks. Hyundai apparently maximizes the interior so you have more space. I picked up my friends Sean and Lena Morris, who drive a minivan, and they were surprised at how much room they had to stretch. The seats are also very comfortable. The seats, in fact, are equipped with a heating system; I thought it was silly for Hawaii, but they said it was good for people who need a heating pad for their backs. One of the salesmen said he uses the passenger seat heater to keep his pizza warm on the way home.

My next surprise was looking around the dash — with all the bells and whistles, you would have thought it was a fully loaded car, but this was the Limited edition, which means it was loaded with popular items (based on customer requests), but not everything. I don’t know what was missing, but there was a touch-screen media display for radio, GPS, rearview camera, and phone. The steering wheel area, as you can see in the photo, had buttons for just about everything I would need, if I had thought about it. And for those of you who know how much I love jaywalkers, the horn is strong and direct but not annoying!

This car was easy to drive and I’d say it’s good for very practical uses. It’s not super powerful, but for someone like me, that’s not important. Gas mileage on this car is 27 city, 37 highway, so I drove from Waipio to town and back and didn’t make a dent in the gas gauge.

I didn’t find the Hyundai Elantra too much different from other cars in its class, but the big selling point that sets it apart is its warranty: Five years or 60,000 miles, compared to other dealers whose warranty expires at three years or 30,000 miles. (My car is eight years old and has 42,000 miles so I’d be a good customer.) Another really cool feature is its Blue Link service, which adds security for you and your car. If the car is stolen, the technology can immobilize it. If you get into an accident, the car dispatches a signal and Hyundai’s team immediately calls to see if you’re okay; if you don’t answer, they call for help.

Oh, and the price tag for all these features? MSRP is $22,000. Pretty good, right? Capello said They’re having their semi-annual sale until the end of September, where you can get cars at employee prices.

As with the last car, I was sold on it, but for different reasons. I know I need to look at a couple more cars before I make a decision, though.

What do you think? What should I drive next?