Hyundai Elantra (US) review

The interior of the Elantra follows the standard conventions of contemporary cars, in that it has an aesthetic, but you’ll need to speak to a designer to find out exactly what kind. Whatever you call it, it works, giving the cabin a modern feel without being particularly busy.

Ask us again what we think of it in ten years, though. If any part is busy, it’s the center console that does its best to consolidate every conceivable function into one area, and does a decent job of it, rarely making anyone searching long for a specific utility. 

In terms of function, it's roomy in both the front and back, with the visibility being a notable standout attribute from the driver’s seat. Which speaks volumes, right?
What’s going on with the tech?

Go for the base model and you’ll have a familiar analogue set of gauges and an eight-inch touchscreen for infotainment functions, though most trims include a 10.3-inch digital info screen and another 10.3-inch touchscreen alongside it. There’s also an element of the glass on the left side of the gauge cluster that looks like it does something, but it doesn’t. Seriously, it’s not a placeholder or anything, it’s just an extra bit of plastic.

This perhaps doesn’t sound like the praise it's meant to be, but the tech is fairly innocuous and works without much fanfare. That’s a good thing in terms of seamlessly doing its job without fuss or detraction. The larger screen makes life easier with its extra real estate, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard across the board. Meanwhile, working underneath the skin are a number of standard safety features like emergency auto-braking with pedestrian detection.

How’s the N version different?

The inside of the Elantra N looks like all of the above bedazzled with BMW M parts. Hey, if you’re going to copy over someone’s shoulder, why not someone from the head of the class? If they are cribbing from Bimmer, they’re not hiding it well, certainly not by calling it “N” for goodness sake.

Joking aside, the similarities are more than skin deep. Like Bimmer’s M buttons, the steering wheel-mounted N switches are hotkeys to custom configurations of a number of systems like throttle response, stability control, suspension behavior and so on. For the Elantras with the manual gearbox, rev-matching is included but off by default, though a big red “rev” button on the steering wheel allows you to switch it on or off at any time.