I did, during raya holiday. Waiting for loan approval. Been looking for a more powerful compact sedan, almost book the Civic early this year and accidentally came across the news about Elantra Sport and decided to wait. Test drive once and book immediately.

The key differentiators for me vs Civic are not what most people look at, and not related to performance at all. I think power wise both cars are more than adequate and well above the class standard. Handling wise I'm leaning toward Elantra Sport firm continental like setup. After so many years of highway car sick in Toyota.

Ok, first is the driving position. I like to hold the steering at 4 and 8 o'clock position and rest the elbows on the car seat. As you can imagine, this is impossible in Civic unless I move the car seat so close to the steering wheel that I have not leg room. In Elantra Sport, I found my preference position within seconds. The thick side of the semi bucket seat is perfect for my elbows rest. LOL. Also my wife also complains the Civic low hip point seat will give her difficulty when she pregnant, what can I say as a good husband?

Second is my master brake pump phobia in the old Toyota. I have numerous experience both as passenger and driver. Everytime, the good old school mechanical handbrake come to rescue. So I try to avoid electronic parking brake. Sadly, from market trend, handbrake will be gone in my next car change.

Third is I can not stand the sluggish HU in Civic. Elantra Sport is way smoother, close to Mazda3 smoothness. Although both Elantra Sport and Madza3 are no where near the Galaxy S8/iPhone 7 silky smooth. If any HU at that level, it would be a dream to use. HU with Snapdragon 835 maybe? Then Civic HU is deeply integrated to the car climate control, upgrade option is limited. Elantra Sport is HU is relatively simple, no build in GPS, just media player, bluetooth, USB. Maybe due to the light (or lack of?) features, it need less powerful processor. You will need Android Auto/Apple Carplay. But plenty of aftermarket options.

Fourth, the DCT is surprising smooth. No jerk at all, passenger won't notice it is a DCT in a blind test. I think it is due to extremely short first gear, max 45km/h at 6000rpm. So if you in stop go traffic ant 10'ish or maybe 20km/h, you are looking at 1500-2000 rpm. This is well above engine stall speed, and DCT clutch can be fully engaged even at slow speed. I think cleverly design gear ratio, with some scarification of the fuel economy.

Fifth, I hate the red seat, but my wife love it. All my 70's/early 80's friends hate it, all my late 80's/90's friend cool with it. Maybe really millennial generation gap. Decided to let the red seat be.

This post has been edited by constant_weight: Jul 1 2017, 11:40 AM

Bought from One Auto, dealer. They have ready cars at their 7 branches throughout Malaysia, might need to move around depends on color. Thank you for your question which indirectly reminded me. I just called the SA, I don't want to see 200-300km on the Odo, make sure they don't drive long distance. No more than 50km.

Who knows what those uncle going to do with the car before the 1000km break in.

Go test drive and make up your mind! Experience yourself, test drive is FOC and also fun.

Try a few cars in the same segment, especially Madza3 the pinnacle of the body control and handling, Civic the superstar. You judge the value of Elantra Sport yourself.

Lol, good luck. You might get 5% chance if you offer to pay for the petrol yourself.

Yes, no gear hold and rev quickly. Almost too fast for the uncle reflex to keep up. For non special trained driver like me, can utilize the power at straight line or long high speed corner only, no way I capable of using the full power at winding road.

To add on: top speed at gear 1 (~45kph), 2 (~80kph), 3 (~120kph). So gear 1,2,3 are aggressive which give the good 0-100 time. Gear 4 is almost 1:1 ratio, and gear 5,6,7 are overdrive. Cruising at 80kph, the car select gear 5 only. Probably rarely use gear 7 in Malaysia's road.

I'm going to disappoint those thinking to smoke Civic here, don't try and it is not safe to do street racing. The advantage really at 0-100 when in gear 1,2,3, the kick ass acceleration gone once go into gear 4. Both car will be at even ground in the open road, whoever prepared at the right gear and rev will win. Be safe driver and enjoy driving guys.

Many people said cheap plastics, my opinion differ a bit. Like you said the assembly very neat. I actually think the plastic visually and touch feels premium. But once you knock potong steam, plastic thin , thinner than forte/older MD elantra, maybe like vios/city b segment level. Ok lah, in the end still a bit cheap, don't purposely knock knock knock, good enough for me.

Do you read Korean, where you google the Elantra Sport mod info?

I did a lot of reading before buying Elantra Sport, all I can found from US are cold air intake and muffler delete, easy stuff. As far as I'm aware US folks still trying to reverse engineer the ECU. The only major mod I found was some Korean made 280hp on dyno, but can't understand Korean no idea what they did.

Don't actually plan to mod, saja reading.

If stay in gear 5, what do you expect from an OD gear? It does give you ample and constant torque throughout the rpm, something you won't get from say a 2.0L, certainly not pushing your back at this gear.

Lol, downshift to gear 4 at least to overtake. If you crazy about the kick ass acceleration, down to 3 rev to 6000rpm ~120kph, it force to upshift to 4 won't let you hold the gear to protect the engine. Then gear 4 up to what speed I don't know liao, didn't try.

That's why I said, enjoy the driving it is a very nice car to drive. Very matured tuning throughout. Please go test drive, it is free.

This post has been edited by constant_weight: Jul 5 2017, 10:12 PM

Both the Elantra and Civic compered here are terrible options to mod with the limited tiny turbo engines.

Want a faster car, go buy a faster car. Last gen WRX STi very cheap on mudah easily 300hp+, recond BRZ/86 MT also below 150K now, AT cheaper. Redline 9000+ RPM, extra 3000 rev per gear shift, better kaki sprint mod potential.

Don't worry, low speed is really smooth. Hyundai play around with the gear 1 ratio, max ~45kph at 6000rpm.

All low speed 10-20, if you monitor the rpm closely, rpm are above stall speed, clutch fully engaged most of the time.

Kesian Altis. It is my family default go to car, see the accessory spec only, no need test drive already confirm best.
I'm the second rogue in the family, first one bought Mazda 3.

BTW, how about 208 GTi? 6 speed manual!

Why kastam isu? Isn't this CKD, what else to be cleared? SA told me have to wait 2 weeks.

Unless I take the blue ready car which only 90's dare to drive or test drive car with 200K+ on it. I chosen to wait.

To qualify for EEV, it must be CKD right?

Looks like car enthusiast friends out for some fun drive, not street racing.
Still crazy felles, dangerous on public road, but it is interesting to see what the car can do.

First car Z3, second car Elantra Sport, camera car Genesis Coupe 3.8L V6.



Same drive, but from Elantra Sport dash cam.


This post has been edited by constant_weight: Jul 12 2017, 11:28 PM

Car in the dealership!!! Done the pre-delivery inspection, waiting for JPJ paper work to drive the car home.

Probably second car in the area. The Raytech shop I went just tinted one 2 days ago.

LOL, not exactly 110 driver. Just my philosophy is better for everyone to friend friend, don't mind to join Civic kaki to have fun together. No bully nonsense.

1) I decoded my VIN, the chassis is made in Ulsan, Korea. Looks like someone is right about the SKD. We have 17 digits VIN, didn't show the month.

First 3 = KMH, 10 = H, 11 = U

https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Vehicle_Ide...undai/VIN_Codes

2) Car need 4.5L engine oil. Isn't this uncommon for such a small engine. Free service is part + labour, written in the voucher.

3) Annoying, we have the generic owner's manual. It is PITA to read, so many if conditions. The US folks have one specifically for their variant.

This post has been edited by constant_weight: Jul 17 2017, 08:02 PM

Chassis is made in Korea, don't think you able to trace this way. Last 6 digits, 400K+.

This post has been edited by constant_weight: Jul 17 2017, 09:30 PM

Fixed every 10KM.

Change topic to something more happy.

Surprise! This is not in the spec sheet anywhere.