2020 Hyundai Elantra GT N-Line

MSRP: $25,000

Specs: 1.6 Turbo 4. 6 Speed Manual (so good)

201 hp / 195 torque

30 MPG as observed in mixed driving

0-60: 7.2

—

Guy who did stuff: Yousef Alvi

Shoutout to Autostorhaus for the superb facility for the shoot! Check them out at www.autostorhaus.com or 404.867.PARK

We are going to start something new with this review.  Before (depending on the car) I would do a ‘good, bad and the ugly’ breakdown.  I realized that only left one area for a positive aspect and two areas for negative…which is quite unfair in the grand scheme of things. So in an effort to be as succinct as possible…see below:

The Great

The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

…and the uhhh overall?

Hopefully this will help you quickly digest the information and have some anchor points throughout the review.

Okay let’s talk about this Elantra.  This is Hyundai’s swing at the compact car market. It is made to go against such benchmarks as the Civic, Corolla and the Golf.  The GT N-Line spec is a new addition and it’s unfortunately a mixed bag.  So let’s see why:

The Great:

This gearbox is one of the best manual transmissions on the road today.  Yes.  In a Hyundai Elantra.  It’s full of snickety goodness that reminds me of a Miata.  The action is direct, precise and it just glides into gear effortlessly.  The clutch is light, linear and perfectly weighted.  The combination of those two…make this one of the easiest manuals to master on the road today.  Just bloody amazing.  

Along with the gearbox….we have it’s looks.  This is the best looking compact car that is on sale today.  It’s exterior design is fluid, fresh and graceful.  There are no awkward angles, gills, grilles, random plastic pieces strewn about.  It’s just a good looking car.  

The Good:

The interior is as simple as it is easy to use.  There is no learning curve.  No whipping out of the manual and silently cursing under your breath as you figure out how to set the A/C.  It’s intuitive, simply laid out and put together well.  

The same goes for the infotainment system.  The woefully underrated Hyundai Blue Link system is rendered beautifully, quick and easy to learn.  

All in all the interior is everything you expect a modern car to be…nothing more and nothing else.  

The Bad:  

The seats, while looking nice, do not offer the support that goes with a ’N-Line’ Badge.  Sorely lacking thigh support, more adjustability and lateral support…the Elantra gets whupped by the Civic Si and the GTI’s seating category.  

The brakes will stop you.  Don’t get me wrong.  But they are not necessarily what I’d call performance oriented.  After repeated hard stops, the pedal tends to go a bit soft and it lacks the confidence found in the Si and the GTI.  

The Ugly:

It just doesn’t feel like a sporty compact to me.  The Michelin PS4S tires on our tester, does an admirable job of trying to tame the soft suspension but it can only do so much.  Push the Elantra through a corner and it well…pushes.  Push it’s competitors through a corner and they’ll respond with tenacious grip.  

The engine is a fine.  It’s okay.  It gets the job done.  But it’s lacking the excitement factor that makes you want to rev the snot out of it.  Whereas the Si is supposedly making around the same advertised power….the way the power is delivered is outstanding.  It boils down to the fact that the Si while claiming to be making 200 horsepower…is making that the power to the wheels. Crank numbers…this sucker is closer to 230. The Elantra (as far as I can Google) is making the exact 200ish as advertised. 

The Overall:

Maybe it is just a simple issue of nomenclature.  When I see the N-Line badge, my brain flashes back to the Veloster N and want the Elantra to feel like that car.  Unfortunately it does not.  The Veloster N is a raw, hilarious, sensory overload of a car.  That is also easy to drive, comfortable and civil.  It’s just about perfect.  

The Elantra just does the latter.  It’s easy to drive, comfortable and civil.  It doesn’t light my soul on fire but with a beautifully engineered manual it does make it a bit fun.  My advice to Hyundai is just ditch the ’N-Line’ moniker.  It’s unfair to the car.  It’s akin to rebadging a Civic Si to a  Civic Type R Line.  The Si is a great car…but the second you attach the Type R moniker…you are playing in a different field.