You’re an old fart. Or at least you think like one. You want a simply designed car that’s easy to see out of, capable of toting a bunch of stuff, solidly constructed, and fun to drive. Meanwhile, cars keep going in the opposite direction, with sci-fi styling, shrunken windows, oversized and overcomplicated instrument panels, cramped rear seats, and marshmallow suspension tuning (e.g. the Honda Civic reviewed a few days ago). But before giving up hope you might want to check out the Hyundai Elantra Touring SE.
Auto makers forget at their own peril that competitors are also working on better cars, and that customer expectations are consequently a moving target. When developing a new car, you can’t just aim to be better than today’s leaders. Case in point: the Hyundai Elantra. The 2007-2010 Elantra was so forgettable that I never remembered to drive one. One look at the new 2011 Elantra, on the other hand, suggests that it will upend the compact sedan status quo the way the Sonata has the midsize segment.
Our Korea-based contributor Walter Foreman already suspected that the new Hyundai Avante might be one of the world’s first mass-market compact car with a self-parking feature (similar systems are offered on the Toyota Prius and Euro-market VW Golf), and this video proves that he was dead right. What’s still not clear is whether self-parking is standard on the new Avante (launching August 2 in Korea), or whether it will be offered when it comes stateside as either the 2011 or 2012 Elantra. This would be the ultimate challenge for such technology, as legal concerns allegedly kept Volkswagen’s pioneering system out of the US. Still, Hyundai had the cojones to equip its mass-market C-segment car with technology that just a few years ago was available only on the Lexus LS. That’s exactly the kind of decision that has Hyundai raising eyebrows across the industry.
No, this has nothing to do with a Hollywood blockbuster… we think the new Avante/Elantra could be the first self-parking mass-market compact car. Take a closer look at the now infamous video clip of men in suits trying to park the next-generation Hyundai Avante. The first 20 seconds clearly show the driver’s hands on the steering wheel. After that however, the audience never gets a clear view of the cockpit. Someone is either obstructing the camera or the scene cuts away. When we do happen to catch a glimpse of the steering wheel (at 00:25 for example), it appears to move on its own. Granted, the driver could be grasping the wheel at the six o’clock position, out of view of the camera, but I think there’s something more to the situation than that.
Our Korean contributor Walter Foreman hipped us to this, one of the first videos of the 2012 Hyundai Elantra taking to the streets [via DaumTV]. Of course, in Korean spec it’s called the Avante, but when it finally gets sold stateside, it’s sure to be known as the “baby Sonata.” Or perhaps “that car that makes the Cruze look so deathly boring by comparison.” Or possibly, “a precisely scaled execution of Hyundai’s fluidic sculpture design language.” Or, if Hyundai’s really successful over the next year or so, people will refer to it as “just the new Hyundai.” It’s amazing how much change people can become accustomed to.
Hyundai continues its “fluidic sculpture” makeover with the debut of the new Elantra (Avante in other markets) at the Busan auto show in Korea. Expect a North American debut sometime next year.
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