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" La Jolla, Calif.\u2014The surprisingly well-executed Equus proved Hyundai&amp;#039;s competence in the high-end sedan market, and their push to introduce seven new or redesigned models in 24 months has yielded several fresh-faced offerings, including the midsize Sonata.  But lower price points are still the company&amp;#039;s bread and butter, making the all-new Elantra a crucial component of the manufacturer&amp;#039;s ambitious plan for new product. How does this four-door perform in the real world? We spent time traversing north San Diego County and Southern California highways to find out if it lives up to its lofty fuel-economy claims. The Specs Most new car updates take an incremental approach to improvement, but the Hyundai Elantra addresses its shortcomings with an aggressive eye toward performance, weight savings and fuel economy. The last point is a particularly salient one for the brand, since Hyundai plans on attaining a corporate average fuel economy of 50 mpg by 2025\u2014a figure directly in line with the U.S. government&amp;#039;s estimated 47-to-62-mpg mandates by that year. But this is no hybrid wannabe. Wearing slick new bodywork that typifies Hyundai&amp;#039;s so-called fluidic-sculpture design language, the Elantra grows 1 inch in overall length and its wheelbase expands 2 inches, while its interior volume figure of 95.6 cubic feet actually qualifies it as a midsize car, according to the EPA. But despite its larger footprint, the Elantra sheds 62 pounds of mass for a curb weight ranging from 2661 pounds for a base, manual-transmission version, to 2877 pounds for a fully equipped automatic. Official fuel-economy figures of 29 mpg city and 40 mpg highway are achieved through a number of measures, most notably a new aluminum-block 1.8-liter Nu powerplant, which replaces the outgoing iron-block 2.0-liter Beta lump. The mill incorporates dual continuously variable valve timing, producing 148 horsepower at 6500 rpm and 131 lb-ft of torque at 4700 rpm; a PZEV version cuts 3 horsepower and 1 lb-ft of torque. Not only is it more powerful, the Nu engine boasts a 7.4 percent improvement in fuel economy. A six-speed transmission, built in-house by Hyundai, is responsible for 4.1 percent of the fuel-economy improvement, and a smart alternator shaves an additional 2.5 percent. Weight loss adds a 1.8 percent improvement, while low rolling resistance reduces inefficiency by another 1.4 percent, aiding the car&amp;#039;s claims of best-in-class fuel economy. Hyundai is also quick to point out that the only competitors that meet or exceed Elantra&amp;#039;s 40 mpg highway claim are the 40-mpg Ford Fiesta equipped with the Super Fuel Economy Package\u2014which runs a $2,765 premium over a comparably priced Elantra\u2014and the 42-mpg Chevrolet Cruze Eco, which is $1,900 pricier.  A manual-transmission Elantra GLS Standard starts at $15,550, while an automatic transmission GLS Popular runs $17,800. The Elantra GLS Preferred ($18,350) adds Bluetooth, steering-wheel audio controls, cloth door inserts and a few other niceties, while a GLS Navigation ($20,100) includes a 7-inch touchscreen navigation system, a rearview camera, a 360-watt sound system and automatic headlights. Added features on the Limited version ($20,700) include leather seats with front- and rear-seat heaters, a sunroof and 17-inch alloy wheels. The top-level Limited Premium adds a nav system with rearview camera, 360-watt stereo, automatic headlamps and a proximity key with start/stop button ignition for $22,700. &amp;amp;gt;  The Drive The Elantra&amp;#039;s cabin is a vastly improved space that&amp;#039;s accented with a wave-patterned dashboard, best-in-class front legroom, and roomy rear seats whose only dimensional limitation is the headroom for those taller than six feet or so, thanks to its coupe-like silhouette. We first sampled the base, six-speed manual-transmission-equipped GLS model with a Popular equipment package. At $16,800, our tester came with steel wheels, cloth seats and basic necessities like air conditioning and cruise control. But the interior presents itself well, with tasteful color combinations and textured-finish plastic surfaces that look softer than they feel. The six-speed transmission shifts easily enough with a low-effort clutch, though the engine begs to be revved high to extract more power. An Eco mode on the trip-computer cluster suggests when to upshift, though the system is not load sensitive and therefore best ignored on uphill stretches of road. Cruising in sixth gear at around 80 mph with light throttle yields an impressive indicated average fuel economy of around 50 mpg\u2014helped, in part, by a tall top-gear ratio of 0.633. More erratic driving at lower speeds lowered our average to just below 30 mpg\u2014spot on with the EPA city estimate of 29 mpg. While driving across big interstates, the base Elantra&amp;#039;s steering felt a bit uncertain on-center, and midcorner corrections were necessary on the winding roads that snake just north of the Mexican border; the combination of electrically assisted steering and low-rolling-resistance 65-series tires are partially responsible for those vagaries. While the Elantra exhibits good overall grip, transitional handling can feel a bit unsettled as weight is transferred in turns. By the seat of our pants, it seems that some transient responsiveness has been sacrificed for comfortable, straight-line ride quality, and some bounciness over uneven surfaces reinforces our impression that more body control would yield a more confidence-inspiring ride when the car is driven at spirited speeds. After spending the morning in the base model, we climbed into a Limited Premium version. The pricier variant offers equally impressive interior surface treatments, and its leather seats\u2014with wave-like perforations that echo the shape of the dashboard\u2014look more upscale than you would expect for the segment. A few other nicely tied-together design details round out the interior, including wedge-shaped inserts on the door and steering wheel that are mimicked in the center stack. On the road, the Limited Premium feels a bit more sure-footed than the base model, though there&amp;#039;s some residual imprecision to the steering feel. Its six-speed automatic transmission shifts smoothly, with appropriately timed kickdowns when provoked; the engine feels a bit more willing when mated to a automatic gearbox, and though we typically prefer to row through gears ourselves, we&amp;#039;d likely opt for the automatic gearbox over the manual if we were ticking off our checklist. Incidentally, Hyundai estimates that 93 percent of buyers will choose the two-pedal version. Further seat time in the top-end model revealed some tire noise creeping into the otherwise quiet cabin at highway speeds. While cruising at 70 mph in top gear, the rpms rest at a relatively mellow 2250. With one passenger and a trunk full of luggage, a combination of highway cruising at around 80 mph and some city driving drew 4.073 gallons of gas over the course of 125.1 miles\u2014or 30.7 miles per gallon. Based on the onboard display, we couldn&amp;#039;t quite kiss the claimed average of 40 mpg highway (probably due in part to the added weight and the need to keep up with fast-moving interstate traffic), but over several hundred miles of fairly aggressive highway and city driving, an observed average of 34.2 mpg suggested that the 40 mpg claim should indeed be reproducible under the proper circumstances.  The Bottom line Claiming $1,505 in savings over a comparable Honda Civic LX and a $1,620 advantage over a similarly equipped Chevrolet Cruze 1LT, the Elantra offers strong value within the compact segment that Hyundai says has seen 47 percent of buyers downsizing to in order to seek improvements in fuel efficiency.  And while we happened to experience better fuel economy in the manual-transmission version, we were impressed with our time behind the wheel of the Limited Premium model. In fact, we couldn&amp;#039;t help but suspect that its perceived shortcomings in the area of handling felt more pronounced because the level of interior polish was so high; perhaps the interior set the bar so high that we expected a more premium driving dynamic. Despite its uncertain steering feel and soft suspension, we found the Elantra possesses a compelling combination of attributes: It offers impressive fuel economy, a pleasant cabin and enough available amenities to challenge more upscale models. If the new Elantra is a sign of things to come, we see an even brighter future for Hyundai&amp;#039;s already rising star. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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