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Walkaround
The 2007 Elantra was designed by Americans in Hyundai's California Studio, and its styling is totally new, and radically different. It's vastly better looking than before; the Elantra no longer announces that it's for old folks. It's 2.2 inches taller, 2.0 inches wider, and 1.6 inches longer in wheelbase than the previous-generation Elantra. Still, with all the aggressive designs on the road nowadays, a compact car like the Elantra, clean as it is, won't catch many eyes.The new Elantra has received a lot of careful work, and could pass for being seamless. At the front and rear fascia, the seams are so tight that the body appears to be one piece, until you look very closely. That quality fitting also reveals itself in the smooth opening and closing of the doors. The Elantra's good looks move this Korean compact car toward the world of the stylish. Its sculpture is clean, with a high beltline running along at the body-colored door handles. It's got a subtle face, with trapezoidal headlamps having rounded edges, leading down and in to a cup-shaped grille with three simple chrome bars. At the bottom of the fascia is a long, slim air intake with two bars. It lacks definitive fender flares because it doesn't need them; the Elantra doesn't shout to be seen. The wheel covers, which are silver plastic on the GLS, look good from a distance.
Interior Features
The redesigned Hyundai Elantra is larger for 2007, making for a roomier car than the Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic. The added width and height increase the Elantra's cabin volume to 112.1 cubic feet, tops in the compact class; the Nissan Sentra is a close second with 110.8, but the Toyota Corolla with 103.9 and Honda Civic with 102.9 are far behind. The Elantra's interior space actually meets the government's standard for mid-size.The front seats are quite comfortable, with good bolstering, and the standard beige cloth is smooth but decidedly un-hip, unlike, say, the material in the Mazda3. There's an especially large dead pedal, although one wonders why, because the Elantra is not meant for hard cornering so the driver's left foot doesn't need the support. The blue backlighting of the gauges has a youthful spirit, and makes the driver feel like it's a cool car. The arcs of the speedo and tach are a thin blue line, with red needles pointing the way. The radio control knobs are blessedly simple, like radio knobs used to be. Hooray, we say. But we didn't care for the trim on the dash; imagine a silver plastic golf ball. In the rear, the 35 inches of leg room is a half-inch more than the Civic and Sentra, and a half-inch less than the Corolla, give or take a tenth. But the Elantra has the most hip room. It also has the largest trunk, by a significant amount. For carrying cargo, the rear seatbacks fold down to allow a pass-through into the trunk. However, the opening isn't vast like the Nissan Sentra's. Storage compartments are abundant. There's a neat box inside the top of the dash, and a sunglasses container in the headliner. The fixed door pockets have built-in bottle holders. Below the three climate control knobs there's a small companion to the glovebox, and below that, forward of the shift lever, there's also an open storage area. There are two cupholders behind that, and a double console under the driver's elbow. Generally, the interior is notably quiet, for a compact car. Then the wind picked up, and as we watched the dust devils ahead of us on the road, we listened to the whooshing against the glass.
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