2022 Hyundai Elantra N Review - Still the best sports-sedan value

When you think performance sedans for around $30,000, you might look at the used car section, maybe a BMW M3, an Audi S4. But what if you get a brand new car with a lot of speed, track-bred performance, and a really good warranty? This right here, Hyundai Elantra N. There's a reason that this car has festooned with red markings and big wheels and very aggressive faces. It's a real performance car, and I'm going to take it out today, and I will show you exactly how well it does. Before you buy an Elantra N, you should sell your car in CarGurus. In minutes, you can get a cash offer from dealers nationwide. They'll pick up your car, and they pay you. If you can get over how weird this car looks, when you look closer at all the details, they're pretty impressive. The front brakes are 14.2 inches wide. That's really big. There's a limited-slip differential here, adaptive dampers, aluminum steering knuckles, and two different types of compound bushings underneath here. Hyundai went through everything to give the Elantra N the performance it talks about. The Elantra N, just like the regular Elantra, I wouldn't call it a beautiful car or even a good looking car. There's a lot of stuff happening here, and it's not all for the better. Creases going this way, that way, all up and down. If you see this car, especially from a distance, you walk up to it, you think it's been hit. I honestly feel like it's dented right now, and I didn't do anything, I swear. This is just how it comes from the factory. But when you get past that, it is a very aggressive car. It's very different looking. Hyundais from years ago, they were indistinguishable from other cars. They copied other car designs that were very distinguishable, like that was a BMW or, say, Lexus. But Hyundai's design now is so different. Big honeycomb texture grill. You get all these really nice LED accent lighting. It looks very unique, especially on these wheels. 19 inches. This is the best feature of the whole car, I think. And these red brake calipers that say N. Capital N is a big deal with this car, and the more you look around it, the more you realize it means something. Everything on this car looks like it came from the aftermarket, but this is actually a factory kit. The spoiler, the exhaust, the diffuser, it was all racetrack designed on a car that wasn't ever meant to be on the racetrack. The Elantra is interesting to look at. I think it's a little bit better back here than it is from the side, but you still get all of these angles. It almost looks like a Lamborghini Aventador from some angles if you really squint hard enough, but that's kind of the inspiration. There's nothing smooth. There's nothing curvaceous about this car. It's just in your face. There's red everywhere you look on the Elantra N, including inside the trunk. All that back there is cross-bracing to make the chassis really stiff. The seats still fold down in this 14 cubic feet of space here, which is pretty big, but with those bars there, you're not going to be going to Home Depot. Ordinarily, I wouldn't stand under the hood of an Elantra because there's nothing to show, but here there is. 276 horsepower and 289 pound-feet of torque from this two-liter engine. A lot of turbocharged pressure going in here, and there's a lot of things that you cannot see. Stiffer engine mounts, that helps the engine and the transmission brace to the chassis better so they don't move around when you're actually turning. Keeps things a lot stiffer. There's special compounds for the bushings. Also, the wheel axle, the hub, and the bearing are all integrated as one unit, just like you'll find in a WRC rally car. All of these changes make the Elantra N so enjoyable to drive. And when you look at it here, sure, it's got a nice little engine cover, but there's a lot more happening, and you can tell all your friends. Most Elantras don't really sound like much, but when you start the Elantra N, you hear a lot out of these exhaust pipes. Now, right now, the valves are closed, so even when you rev the engine, that sounds pretty loud, right? Hit the N mode button on the steering wheel, that valve opens all the way, basically straight piping it, and you get a lot of cracks and bangs. It's really going to piss off your neighbors. If you're looking at the Elantra N, you're not looking at a regular Elantra. This one has speed, it's got style, and most of all, it's got the sound. This is the Elantra N. It's a race car experience that you would never expect from a brand like Hyundai. Never in a million years. Everything is customizable on this car, from the suspension damping to the limited slip diff to the way the rev matching behaves, even how aggressive that is. There's so many different modes on here, and it's all accessible with just two buttons here. The great thing is that even in the stiffest setting, it never unsettles you too much. You always are aware of how stiff the car is. There's extra bracing right behind the back seat. This car is lowered. It's sitting very squat on these tires, and then you can change the character with just a few taps of the screen. Now, ordinarily, the Elantra is a very basic car. Starts just over 20 grand. It's got a little four-cylinder engine, no turbo. It even comes as a hybrid, and compared to that hybrid, the Elantra N consumes twice the amount of fuel, but it gives you twice the amount of power. And my logic, because I like performance cars and I see the way we're all transitioning to battery electric vehicles, is use all the dinosaur juice you possibly can while you still can. It even rev matches down to first gear. That's excellent. So say you're in your Elantra N, and you've got beach traffic going on, and you can't really drive it the way you want it. Well, you just put it back into the normal mode. Everything settles. The exhaust quiets down. The suspension is notably softer. The steering effort, lighter. This could be a regular Elantra, and no one would know the difference, including your passengers. That's the great thing about the Elantra N, because it's not an all-or-nothing machine. Certain really fast economy cars, think of the Subaru WRX STI, those never quite settle down, and to me, they're not really all that comfortable if you're just commuting. They get annoying after a while. But the Elantra N drives like a regular car. You could drive this all year round, put a different set of tires on it, and be fine. You really would. But when you've got an open road, and you see the N on the steering wheel, this is a really fun car. It's tight. It's predictable. It's secure. You'll still find some axle hop off the line. Sometimes you do struggle for traction, even though these are 245 width tires all around. That's very big for an economy sedan, really for any type of car. This, yeah, they've done their homework. They really have. I was driving Hyundais when they really first started to come out with some decent ones. Remember the first Hyundai Genesis, the R-spec? It had a V8. That was a sport-tuned car. It meant more on the luxury side of things. Well, you know, it was a one-trick car. It was good in a fast line, and it was good around a few corners. The steering was bad. You know, Hyundai really hadn't figured it out until recently, the last few years, when they dedicated themselves to hiring engineers from BMW, from other established car companies, people with long track records, actual time on the track. They've turned the company's products into something really spectacular. And that's not just trying to praise something for the sake of doing it. When you drive this car, yeah, it's really childish. It's kind of goofy looking, the wings, the splitters. It's like, yeah, it tries a little too hard in some ways. But when you forget all that and you just get behind the wheel, it's really rewarding. That's what a car should be, especially if you're spending this kind of money. Brake pedal feel is also excellent. The pedal travel is this race car perfect. Compared to other Elantras, you won't find a sunroof. You won't find any power adjustments on the seat, no adaptive cruise control. That's to save money so you can get all of this stuff, buttons that really make this car loud and quick. And these seats, they're very, very snug. These front bucket seats are the best part of the interior. They're very comfortable, very supportive, fully manual. But you won't care about that because once it's adjusted, it's perfect. I love these light up and logos here in the backrest, and the quality of the stitching and the leather is pretty good, including the steering wheel and the shifter. Now, the steering wheel just looks cool with this red button. Makes you think like you're driving a Ferrari. Even the grab handle here in the center console, it really separates driver from passenger. The screens look really good. Really, the whole car is a really nice look to it. However, if you touch on some other pieces of this interior, you'll find they're not as well made. They're really hard and even sometimes brittle plastic. But when you realize what else you're getting on this car, it's not a bad compromise. The Elantra N comes one way with this larger ten point three inch display. It's pretty quick. It's clear. These icons are all kind of too similarly sized and the graphics kind of look the same. But the only one you really want to press is the N mode. Now, this one shows you all the information at a glance, including the revs, what gear you're in. You can even put in the circuit Lime Rock Park. That's my local track. It'll even optimize the car for that if you so choose. And here's where it really gets interesting. All the customization for the engine to the steering, to the suspension, to the way the limited slip differential handles, even the way the different rev matching works. All the exhaust sounds from normal to just obnoxious. There's even a launch control function on the manual transmission. And doing that, well, I really wouldn't recommend it. But why not? There's also active sound design, which I don't think really makes a difference because the regular exhaust is just so damn loud. But in here, if you want, you can even go in and make the car sound like a TCR race car that Hyundai puts out. If you go into the personal mode, you can change the base, the throat and the wine on this graph here. I've never seen a car have so many adjustments for fake sound. But if you want it, it's here. But listen to this. You don't need it. It's all real. The digital instrument panel is just like you'll find in other Hyundai's with this feature. It's really clear. It gives you lots of interesting information. But the end includes all of this other cool stuff, the track stuff. When you press the end button, then you get a central tachometer and you see even more information at a glance. Plus, you see everything from the engine to the steering, the suspension as you change it. You press these other buttons and it loads custom settings. Sure, there's competition, the Honda Civic Type R, the Mini Cooper JCW or the Volkswagen Jetta GLI. But all these cars have caveats. They're either more expensive, they're either not as quick or they don't have the five year, 60,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty. There's a lot of value baked into the Elantra N. The Elantra N is progress. When I went to 20 years ago, my first car there was a 2003 Elantra. This one, about 5,000 times better, if I'm to quantify it. That's because everything on this car is actually all about performance. It's all about value. And it actually does what it says it's going to do. What it looks like is how it drives. And for just over $33,000 fully loaded with the destination charge, there really isn't much choice out there except this. It's pure driving fun and it's gasoline. So you should get it while it's still hot. So what do you think? Do you like this car or any of its competitors? Keep watching CarGurus, subscribe to the YouTube channel and we'll see you next time.