New Elantra Tested in KL

Our test car comes with a body kit that is still under development and is currently not yet available to the public.

Most industrial designs, including cars, are constrained by the same trio of design evils, material and manufacturing cost, regulations and user habits.

Surmounting these is not difficult. There is always one optimal design that two engineers working separately will eventually develop.
But following this mantra of 'form follows function' also means all cars will look very similar to one another. In fact, in the eyes of a regular person, many of today's cars already look too similar.
Marrying these conflicting ideals of achieving an optimal engineering design while maintaining sufficient product differentiation has always been a challenge for car makers.
At the same time, harmonising the two also implies a radically different design that consumers may not be ready to accept. The first generation three door Honda Insight is one such example. More than ten years later it is still one of the most fuel efficient cars. But the controversial wind cheating shape, though highly efficient, sealed its commercial fate.
In the 1930s, American industrial designer Raymond Loewy was one of the first non-coach builder to provide design consultancy services to car companies.
Loewy first coined the term Maya, short for 'Most Advanced Yet Acceptable.'
Which brings us to Hyundai's latest C-segment sedan, the Elantra.
Older readers may associate the Elantra nameplate with cars that are as interesting as a spinning washing machine.
With this Elantra however, it is the heads of passersby that will be spinning. Like all radical designs, it will polarize opinions.
You may like it or dislike it, but one thing you can't do is to ignore it, for it looks like nothing else on the road.
This Elantra just screams for attention. It's a rolling Korean pop artist on wheels.
Against the sea of drab looking econo-boxes on our roads, our test car painted Creamy White, looks as if it's chiselled by the goddess of wind herself.
With its coupe-like silhouette and a one-piece side window that does away with a conventional rear three quarter window, it can almost be passed off as a poor man's CLS or CC.

The Elantra's radical design treatment continues inside.
Highlight of the cabin is a beautifully contoured dashboard. The centre cluster has a feminine like form to it and is flanked by a pair of faux aluminium-like trimmings, almost appearing like a heavenly being with outstretched arms.
Our test model is of the 1.8 Premium variant, so it comes with black nappa leather seats, dual zone climate control, GPS navigation with reverse camera and sunroof.
Fire up the engine by hitting the push-start button, the cabin comes alive with soothing electric blue backlit instruments.
If you are in the mood for some natural lighting, push the roof mounted sunroof control switch to either tilt open the sunroof or retract it fully.

Slot the transmission into Drive, the Elantra pulls away smoothly. Power comes from a 148 hp (at 6,500 rpm) and 178 Nm (at 4,700 rpm) 1.8-litre D-CVVT Nu engine.
90 per cent of torque is available from 2,500 onwards so in-gear acceleration is more than sufficient. However, compared to its Japanese competitors, the Elantra's engine sounded less refined at higher speeds, which is a shame because ride comfort is excellent.
If not for the engine noise, it would have been a very capable highway companion.
Hyundai's dedicated a full page of its brochure expressing virtues of the Elantra's low NVH (noise, vibration, harshness), but frankly, we find a similarly price but bland looking Nissan Sylphy more than matches the Elantra's quiet cabin.
While the Hyundai in-house developed six-speed automatic may keep fuel consumption low, the transmission is not smoothest in the daily traffic grind.
When coasting to a stop or feathering the throttle, occasionally there may be a slight shift-shock like jerk when the transmission shifts down. However, it is smoother than some European dual clutch transmissions we've sampled in the past.
It's only a minor irritation that will not bother all but the most fussy drivers.
The Elantra's low slung silhouette also means that some headroom were traded off for better looks. One of our rear passenger actually knocked her head against the roof line while exiting, just before we could tell her to watch her head.
Our main gripe has less to do with how the Elantra ride or drives but rather it is regarding the car's human-machine interface (HMI) and ergonomics.
Right at the top of our complain list is the touch screen audio visual navigator. The centre cluster's sweeping lines may look good but they also meant that some basic ergonomics for the touch screen were sacrificed in the name of fashion.
Rather than positioned upright for easy reach, the screen is angled upwards, directly under the sun. Half of the time while driving in the daytime, we could hardly read the screen, rendering functions like reverse camera and GPS navigation redundant.
The GPS unit was also very slow to receive inputs. The turn by turn voice direction was also tied to the radio, so you can't turn down the radio if you want to use the GPS.
Eventually, we resorted to the 'traditional' Google Maps on a smartphone/tablet solution.
Second has to do with the Elantra's air-conditioning vent's knee level placement. Personally, this author has little problem as he usually drives with vents pointed away.
However two of our passengers said they felt uncomfortable. One of our passengers said she couldn't feel any air blowing to her side.
This doesn't mean the Elantra's air-conditioning is not up to par. Far from it, the air-conditioning is more than up to task to deal with our hot climate. But occupants who need to feel cool air blowing directly at them will not like the current layout.
Curiously, the European market i30, which is essentially an Elantra hatchback designed in Germany, has a slightly different centre cluster with conventional top mounted air-conditioning vents.
The fact that Hyundai's design staff in Russelheim, Germany, is able to justify putting in additional resources to re-design the Elantra's American penned layout says something.
The Elantra sedan is designed in Hyundai's North American Design Center in Irvine, California.
The Elantra is best suited for young families looking for something more stylish than the usual run of the mill sedans driven by their fathers.
If you are carrying young children rather than full size adults most of the time, rear headroom isn't an issue. Plus, the Elantra comes with childseat friendly ISOFIX hooks.
Its 420-litre will do well to serve most young families.
Around a mix of highway and city driving, the Elantra consumed around 9 litres of RON95 petrol per 100 km.