These innocents have no reference point for the visual and mechanical calamities of yore. Names like Pacer and Escort, Omni and Citation, will be met with blank looks, as will tales of hardier generations sanding away rust or trudging through snow when another tiny junker died in the breakdown lane.
Coming from Hyundai, whose own small cars once seemed as disposable as butane lighters, the redesigned 2012 Elantra shows how thoroughly things have changed. As more Americans embrace small cars as a hedge against fuel prices, automakers are returning the hug with compacts that perform believable impressions of larger, pricier machines.
They’re typically a tad slower and their 4-cylinder engines a bit louder; a passenger may suffer the indignity of having to manually adjust a seat. But details aside, these cars have really grown up.
They’ve become larger and stronger, with remarkable levels of technology, equipment and crash protection. And while the Elantra doesn’t shake up its class as thoroughly as the midsize Hyundai Sonata did last year, it challenges the leaders for the first time.
Without a doubt, and despite some flaws, the Elantra delivers the most adventurous styling, a leading warranty and the most features for the price.
Hyundai intends to fully redesign the Elantra every four years, illustrating the Darwinian competition among small cars. In the last year, four other all-new compact cars have come to market: the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, Volkswagen Jetta and Honda Civic, and the 2012 Ford Focus.
The Toyota Corolla remains a quiet stalwart. For all-wheel-drive fans, a redesigned Subaru Impreza is about to pull into showrooms. And this fall, the Focus’s sporty cousin, the Mazda 3, adds a slick Skyactiv engine that will lift its highway mileage to 40 m.p.g.
Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/automobiles/autoreviews/hyundai-throws-a-new-curve-at-small-car-shoppers.html?pagewanted=all
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