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Hyundai Elantra MD - Design and Driven Review (+gallery)

Posted: 04 Apr 2012 09:30 AM PDT



Hyundai new Elantra is the successor to the outgoing Avante compact sedan for Malaysian market. This time around Hyundai-Sime Darby Motors has made a commanding decision to assemble the car in Malaysia to make it more competitively-priced against other establishment in compact sedan market, namely Kia Forte, Honda City and Toyota Vios, as well as the C Segment stalwart like Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla Altis.

As per other CKD-ed Hyundai, the new Elantra wears the Inokom badge on the outside, while the badging on the interior has retained the italic "H". For Malaysian market, 4 variants are up for offer namely 1.6L in Standard trim (6 speed manual or 6 speed automatic) and High Spec (automatic only) and the 1.8L in High Spec (Auto only). Price for each model are RM86,888, RM91,888, RM96,888 and RM111,888 respectively.

Exterior
The new Elantra is skinned with the latest evolution of Hyundai's fluidic sculpture design concept. Fluidic Sculpture concept emphasize the fusion of the wind and rigid surface to create the illusion of dynamism. This can be seen in the strong flowing lines present on the body surface. The front end of the new Elantra is dominated by the new Hyundai corporate grille design, the hexagonal outlay flanked by the heavily swept back headlamp. Overall the design presence is less intense than the sharp flamboyant lines on the Sonata, and the fussiness of the Tuscon. The new body styling is less draggy too, with drag coefficient stands at 0.28, among the lowest among the mass-produced 4 door sedan compact car.
As can be seen above, the snout of the Elantra is not as attention-demanding as the Sonata. The soft radii lends a more cohesive and pleasing look, not to mention more relaxing to the eye too. The chromed slats you see on the car here is exclusive to the 1.8L version, with the 1.6L make do with blackened slats.
The white 1.8L here wears non-standard skirting and alloy wheel. The standard alloy wheels are 16" for the 1.6L wrapped with 205/55 R16, while the 1.8L is shod with 215/45 R17 tyres.
The side profile of the new Elantra is nice wedge shape, with flowing theme continues with the strong belt line character crease that melt into the wrap-around rear tail light. The rear door trailing edge window line kick upwards, ending with sharp delta panel. Note that the extra delta is no longer part of the door, instead is a stylistic element added to the C-pillar. More and more details (+gallery) after the jump.
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