My, what a lovely little car this is. Despite being technically a compact, it’s roomy as hell. Comfortable. Looks great outside and, most importantly, inside. Nice performance, nice handling, nice feel on the brake. Has every safety feature. Great fuel economy.
I drove 40,000 KM a year, so an affordable, fuel efficient but nice car is a big deal to me, and this is a damned nice car. And the price was very, very right.
If you need a car, I recommend the 2012 Elantra without hesitation.
Did you get the red one? Because only people with the red one are cool!
My husband bought one this summer. The one problem he had was that the ‘leather’ on the steering wheel started falling apart and got all gummy. Hyundai was already aware of the problem and replaced it with a new one wrapped in different material. A trivial thing, really.
I love the Elantra, but when I get around to replacing my ancient Tercel I think I want a Veloster! That car is so freaking cute!
Good to know- I’ve been admiring the Elantra and my wife will need a new car this year. She’s downgrading from a minivan to something smaller and more economical. I was unimpressed with Hyundai for years, but I think they got their shit together and are now a player. Will definitely check out the Elantra.
You’re damn straight I got red.
It was my kid’s choice but I approved. When I went to the dealer, I had to bring the Small One; thinking it would help her stay engaged through a process that can be agonizingly tedious , I told her it was her job to select the colour. Elantras only come in one colour - red - plus six paints that are not actually a colour:
Black
White
Grey
Another kind of grey
Something they say is a type of “bronze,” but it’s grey
Something they call “indigo night” but it’s just black with a hint of blue
I’ve had two grey cars and a white car before so I was determined to get a car that actually came in a colour. Red, sure, but if they’d had a real blue or a classy green I’d have considered them too. But I knew the Small One would pick red.
So I tell her it’s her job to pick the colour, but before I can show her the colours she says to the salesman, with total seriousness, “Well… Purple isn’t my favourite colour anymore, so I think we should get tutti-frutti.”
Thankfully, they had no tutti-frutti in stock, and she settled for red.
It’s not a Miata.
If/when the time comes to pass that car on to the Small One when she learns to drive, make sure you repaint it for her…!
I think the Elantra is really nice in black as well, but the red just looks so freaking cool. I am, in fact, jealous of my husband’s car. He takes it to work every day, so I never have access to it unless we go somewhere together, and he always drives (we no longer use my car for this purpose!)
And thank Tebow for that. I really don’t like the look of the Miata - it’s too…lumpy…and the headlights are ugly.
I never understand why people reply to “yay! I got a practical, toting the family around sort of car! And I couldn’t be happier!” by saying “its not a sports car.”
Well, duh. Awesome insight there, bro.
And rather more relevantly to the OP, there is no place to secure a child seat that is not the front seat.
By chance, did you look at the Sonata also? From the outside, the Elantra looks like a scaled down Sonata, and I wondered how they compare. We’ll be shopping to replace 2 of our vehicles with one comfy sedan (goodbye Scion xA and Miata…) and the Sonata is a strong contender based on parking next to one and admiring the interior. The main criterion is comfort, with strong emphasis on reliability, and our mechanic said many nice things about Hyundais these days, so I think we can concentrate on comfort.
I dread the whole car-buying game, but I look forward to having a nicer, more comfy vehicle.
My Elantra is a 2009 model, but I love the look of the new ones. Mine is one above the base model, so it comes with heated seats, air conditioning, and cruise control. It wasn’t till after I drove it for a few weeks that I realized it didn’t have anti-lock brakes. I would have thought that was standard in all models by now.
Does yours have anti-lock brakes Rick?
We tried a couple of times to buy an Elantra back when I got the Corolla (2005), but the dealerships in Calgary are beyond idiotic. I’m happy with my Corolla, but I really, really liked those Elantras. Oh well.
I own a 2011 Sonata GLS - standard six-speed transmission, Pacific Blue Pearl paint.
I have been very happy with this car, and can answer questions about it.
The cost put the Sonata out of contention for us, and we did feel it was a much bigger car than we needed, so we didn’t consider it seriously. The Elantra really does feel like a massive car (though I should state that our reference frame from our previous cars were a Tercel and a New Beetle, so pretty much anything seems bigger in comparison!).
The Sonata is gorgeous, though. I really like the entire lineup of new Hyundai designs in terms of appearance; even the Accent is cute and relatively sporty-looking for a cheap four-banger. The features you get - either as standard or one level up - you can’t get on other cars for a similar price. They did a great job designing these cars…their sales numbers seem to show it. I’m really beginning to spot a lot of new Hyundais around here (the Yaris, Matrix and Mazda 3 are probably the most common cars in my area, based on my own observation).
I have a Hyundai I30 diesel. I got it last September and have driven 54000 km in it now and couldn’t be happier. There hasn’t been a single problem with it in that time.
I think the Elantra is called I40 sedan over here. Beautiful car, congrats!
All Hyundai cars have ABS now, as well as traction control. It’s standard on every trim level. This was a major sales point for me. ABS is as important a safety feature as seat belts.
As to the Sonata, FairyChatMom, I did drive one but I agree with mnemosyne; it’s a nicer car than the Elantra, but not by nearly as much as the price difference. For my dollar it wasn’t worth moving up for the minor gains. I could see maybe if you had a big family or something, but then maybe you’d be looking at a mini SUV or van, not a sedan at all, and if you just have money to burn you’d either be buying a Genesis or you wouldn’t be at the Hyundai dealer at all.
By comparison, though, the difference between the Accent and Elantra is far, far more than the difference in price; the Accent’s a nice little car but is blown away by the Elantra, so the fairly modest price difference makes it worth the upgrade. (Indeed, I read an article suggesting that the Elantra is taking sales away from the Sonata line, which is probably not what they were hoping for.)
ETA: I will say the Accent’s a lot nicer than it used to be, with more safety features and more power tha nthey used to have, so I could see the logic in buying it if your needs were such that you planned on doing less driving and a lot of city driving. For my highway-heavy frequent driving, it was just a tad too small and missing in a few comforts.
Red wuns go fasta!
Congrats on the purchase. Buying a car is so exciting! Paint color really matters to some people (including me). I mean, the first few cars I had, I didn’t get to choose. When I finally could afford to buy a car, it *had *to be blue, dammit!
What color is tutti frutti anyway? 
I don’t care that much about car colour, but my silver car is a little bit pedestrian - I had to decorate it so I could pick out which small silver car was mine in the parking lot. Next car - violet!
What sort of MPG are you getting?
My Tercel is green…as is pretty much every remaining Tercel in Montreal. I swear 90+% of them are green, with a few blue and grey ones remaining. I either have to recognize the plates/contents of the car, or identify my car by it’s rust spots 
One thing we love about the Elantra (ours is a GLS) is the rear heated seats. Our friends love it when it’s our turn to drive the group around!
all 2012MY cars are mandated to have ESC (electronic stability control) which basically requires ABS, so it’s no longer a “selling point” 
I’m clinging to my 2005 Elantra; it is probably the last car I will own and I don’t think I could have picked a better one. Mine has 112K miles on it with never a problem.
