Hyundai Elantra runs cheap, feels cheap

Some things just feel instantly comfortable - an old pair of jeans, a fat roll of $100 bills in your hand, the driver's seat of a Ferrari.

Then there's the new Hyundai Elantra.

From the very first minute, this car like wearing socks with sandals.

The seats are flat rather than flattering, the steering wheel has all the tactile feel of a garden hose and as you attempt to drive off you find the accelerator pedal is touchier than a domino expert at the end of a long day.

The instantaneous thrustiness gives a misleading impression that this is something of a jackrabbit in the acceleration department.

Obviously, the Elantra is a budget mid-sizer, not a sports car, but while it boasts an engine size advantage over some of its 1.8-litre competitors, the 2.0-litre powerplant produces just 105kW and 186Nm.

Hyundai claims a 0 to 100km/h time of 8.9 seconds, but they must have had a cyclonic tail wind of when they recorded that time. It's also noisy and rough sounding.

Then there's the steering, which is about as talkative as Humphrey B Bear. The lack of feel would be mildly annoying, but it's actually worse than that. There seems to be a disconnect between the steering-wheel position and the reaction of the wheels.

In fact, it gives new meaning to understeer. Not only does it exhibit this tendency in the traditional sense, it actually is literally under steered.

Throw in the generous amount of bodyroll and you've got a car that doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

When my colleague and I swapped places I discovered that these feelings weren't entirely my own as she apologised for wandering around the road like a drunken wombat. She couldn't get to grips with the Playstation-like steering either.

To be fair, on smooth freeways the Elantra's ride, with its new rear suspension, is reasonably supple and indeed, amid the mundanity of everyday driving, the car's failings would hardly be noticeable.

It's roomy, with a decent back seat, it's got a sheen of classiness and the exterior styling, with the “curvaceous character line” along its waist will no doubt turn heads.

As will the pricing. The base SX model of what Hyundai calls its “very big small car” is $19,990.

But at that price you miss out on some things - like steering-wheel adjustment, side-impact airbags, curtain airbags and buttons on the wheel for the stereo.

The rest of the range, which tops out at $28,990, gets all that and more, including a very capable ESP (Electronic Stability Program) system.

Buyers of the SX, who will make up the vast majority of customers, have the option of paying for a Protectz Pack, for $1790, which adds ESP, traction control and the curtain and side airbags. While this option is a potential life saver, safety just isn't sexy and realistically people are more likely to shell out for alloy wheels.

Hyundai already offers a similar pack for its Getz and out of the 1800 units it sells a month, only 10 to 15 buyers have chosen to Protectz themselves.

The company tips a similar take-up rate for the Elantra, which it expects to sell between 750 and 800 a month when it goes on sale in October.

It's a real shame Hyundai couldn't have made ESP standard across the range, but a sub-$20K price is a far better selling point.

The other attraction for buyers will be the claimed fuel consumption of just 7.4 litres per 100km (7.8 in the auto). Strangely, though, our car on the launch drive returned a less impressive average of 8.7 litres per 100km.

Even so, at least drivers will get a good feeling from the Elantra when they get out of it to approach the bowsers.