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Hyundai car models 20022/29/2024 ![]() The five forward ratios seemed apt, and the final drive cog was 3.65:1, giving the Elantra plenty of mechanical advantage. The power was sufficient to make this 2,635-pound car feel peppy, and it ran from 0-60 in just under nine seconds, with deft clutch engagement and plenty of revs. The clutch was fairly light and easily feathered. The 5-speed was quite acceptable for this price class, neither a delight to operate nor an impediment to wringing the engine. The car I tested was equipped with the standard 5-speed manual transmission, which I daresay would be a better match for this peaky powerplant than the available four-speed automatic. Lacking such trickery as multiple intake paths or variable valve-and-camshaft timing, the engine shows considerably more enthusiasm around 5,000 rpm than it does farther down, but it slogged at 2,500 without undue complaining or bucking. Nothing too trick here, but with 16 valves it makes a respectable 140 hp at 6,000 rpm, 133 foot-pounds of torque at 4,800. The Elantra is propelled by a 2-liter aluminum-and-cast-iron four-banger. Three small kids would look as cute back there as anchovies in the can. With such giving people in front, a couple of adults could manage in the rear for club-hopping, but they wouldn’t want to make a Grand Tour. Settling a frame designed for large cars into position behind the wheel of the Elantra, I did not feel unduly constrained, after some fiddling with the six-way manually adjustable driver’s seat, which I found I did not need to push fully rearward. Passenger volume remains the same, 94 cubic feet, which puts the Elantra GT squarely in the Environmental Protection Agency’s compact territory. the 12.9 afforded by the trunk of the sedan. With the new configuration, you get 28.3 cubic feet of cargo volume vs. Most importantly, perhaps, in a right-brain sort of way, it gets you a fifth door, in the form of a hatch, once the hallmark of econoboxes but now making a comeback as a desirable extra. It also has leather seating (you read right!), air conditioning, power steering, windows and door locks, AM-FM-CD stereo and fog lamps, as well as new side air bags. If logic were the persuasive force in auto buying decisions, the sedans would languish on dealer lots, now that the new series is available.įor a bit more than a thousand-dollar premium, selecting the GT gets you many advantages over the sedan: a “European” suspension with gas-filled shocks and larger anti-roll bars front and rear, a new power steering pump for the rack-and-pinion aiming mechanism, and Michelin tires on alloy wheels. But instead of being a mere cosmetic variant, it is a fundamentally different model. Introduced for the 2002 model year, the Elantra GT is based on the same platform used to support the sedan GLS, introduced at the turn of the millennium. Given its price point and execution, it is truly one which exceeds expectations, in all but one crucial area. The Elantra GT is hardly a vehicle in which you’d want to spend a great deal of time devouring long distances.īut it is a car which should strike fear in the hearts of competitors, not so much for what it is, but for what it augurs about the major Korean manufacturer’s ability to contain costs while producing a desirable product. ![]() Few of the cars which have had a GT label applied to them have really been Grand Touring machines, so I can’t kvetch too much about Hyundai misappropriating the designator – big time.
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