Hyundai Elantra vs Honda Accord

What's the difference?

The Elantra might be overlooked compared to its famous i30 stablemate, but it shouldn’t be. It’s every bit as entertaining to drive and just as well equipped.

It’s a shame active safety is on the option list for lower trim levels, and there’s no radar features on higher ones, and the unnecessary styling changes might polarise buyers. But the Elantra is otherwise a well-equipped and rewarding-to-drive package across the range.

I know the market has well and truly moved on from sedans but it’s a shame the Accord won’t sell in huge numbers. Those who do favour a sedan will find a lot to like in this new-gen Accord. 

There are definitely areas of improvement and a few negatives, but it’s spacious, frugal, stylish and generously equipped. And it’s a lot more fun to drive than a Camry hybrid. Absolutely worth considering instead of an SUV.

Despite being a facelift of the rather good looking 2016 Elantra, the 2019 car has taken a hard turn into the domain of triangles and right-angles.

The new styling has proved controversial in the CarsGuide office. The Go and Active seem to have largely abandoned many of the styling points which Hyundai has invested in over the past few years, with their vertically lined grilles and abundance of triangle light fittings.

All the extra space on the big, flat rear is taken up by the big-font ‘Elantra’ text and Hyundai logo, which is '90s-style in design.

The Sport and identical-from-the-outside Sport Premium are angry looking cars, with frowning LED light fittings, giant alloys and an abundance of angular black highlights.

The side skirts, rear diffuser and spindle grille give the Sport variants an impressive amount of presence on the road. There’s no spoiler to be found, though.

Inside, the Go and Active are a fairly basic offering, with the Active scoring a leather wheel and some extra niceties. The dash is a sea of grey, however, and the nice touchscreen is humbled by its old-school in-dash positioning.

The Sport grades add some more sophisticated touches, with sporty leather-trimmed seats, a flat-bottomed steering wheel and a more subtle climate-control console rather than the clunky air-conditioning one used in lesser variants.

All cars have a sensible trip computer and simple gauges in the instrument cluster.

Missing from any variant is a digital dashboard as seen in the Honda Civic. There’s also the argument that the Elantra’s cousin, the Kia Cerato, has a more forward-thinking cabin design.

The Accord has evolved so much over the years. From the three-door liftback from 1977 to a full-size four-door sedan. Not only is this new version bigger than the previous model, it’s longer than the sizeable Skoda Superb.

Design-wise, there is a definite connection to the previous-gen Accord, but Honda has sharpened and elevated the design.

As with other current Honda models like the Civic and HR-V, the Accord adopts a pared back exterior design, eschewing busy lines and creases in favour of a cleaner approach. 

The long, low bonnet emphasises the size of the car, and in profile it looks like a liftback. Up front it has cool slimline LED headlights and an edgy new grille design.

The Accord features a sporty RS body kit and that means black side skirts all around, black mirror caps and a black spoiler. This looks fine with the black or dark grey body colours, but it is quite bold when paired with the white paint of our test car. 

The interior will be familiar to anyone that’s been in a modern Honda, like the current Civic or CR-V. 

There’s the same horizontal theme with the meshed air vents along the dash, but the Accord gains soft-touch premium dash materials. 

You won’t find too many buttons as most of the functions, including air-con, are housed in the multimedia screen.

The three-spoke steering wheel is visually appealing and feels nice, too. The leather-appointed front seats are comfortable and supportive but don’t look particularly premium.

It’s definitely a more high-end cabin than a Camry, but maybe not quite Lexus levels of luxury.

Up front, the Elantra offers decent room. The Cabin feels a smidge more spacious than its i30 hatch sibling, and there’s plenty of leg and headroom on offer in every variant - except for the sport premium, which has a cropped roofline due to the sunroof. While there’s a decent centre console box, the door lacks a bit of padded trim for your elbow.

Like the rest of Hyundai’s range, the Elantra has a slew of generous cubbys and cupholders throughout the cabin. Underneath the air-con console is a deep trench which houses a 12v output, USB port and, in the Sport Premium variant, the Qi wireless phone charging pad.

Rear passengers are granted great legroom and decently sized cupholders in the doors, as well as a drop-down arm rest with two more cupholders.

The Active and Go lack rear air vents, whereas the Sport and Sport Premium offer two for back-seat passengers.

The available boot space should serve as a reminder why sedans shouldn’t be overlooked for practicality reasons, with 458 litres VDA on offer. Still, it is bested in this segment by the luggage capacity of the Cerato (520L), Civic (517L), and Impreza (460L). A rubber cargo liner and fabric bumper protector are available as genuine accessories.

In an annoying niggle, the Sport variants ride quite low around their midsections due to the flared bodykit bits. I found these would quite easily scrape if you weren’t careful over speedbumps or shopping centre ramps. Go and Active variants were fine in terms of clearance.

It might be longer than the previous Accord, but the new-gen model has the same wheelbase. It’s still a super spacious cabin, though.

There’s ample room between the two front passengers and plenty of headroom, in the front seats at least. Those comfy seats are eight-way power adjustable on both sides.

A sedan might not be as practical as something like a CR-V, but the Accord has a good level of storage. The glove box only fits the vehicle manual, but a big central bin will fit a lot more.

There are two big cupholders in the centre console and large 1.5-2.0L bottles will just fit in the door bins.

You also get a pair of USB-C ports and a wireless charger, however the pad in our test car did not work at any point during our loan. And yes, we pressed the 'on' button.

The Accord debuts built-in Google for Honda and for the most part it’s a solid system. Google Assistant responds to voice commands and when we asked the system to ‘turn up the heat’, it promptly did just that. It got confused with some commands but it can’t operate everything. 

The built-in Google Maps work well but make sure you have location services turned on, and it might be best to log in to your personal Google account to get the best out of it.

If you have Google Nest connected at home, you can sync all of this up. In theory, you could be driving home and ask the system in your car to ‘turn on the lounge room lights’ at home, and Google will action it. It’s equal parts cool and scary.

In terms of the 12.3-inch multimedia screen, it’s a solid set-up with an easy menu structure. Apple CarPlay is quick to connect, however I had to reconnect my phone several times, even though it was the ‘favourite' device. 

In the second row, the seats are well cushioned for comfort. There is ample legroom, but if you need more you can shift the front passenger seat forward from a little switch on the side of the chair.

Space across the rear pew is also generous and as well as three top tether points you’ll find ISOFIX anchors on the outboard seats.

What you won’t find is a huge amount of headroom. I am just over six foot (183cm) and my noggin scrapes the roofliner. If you’re shorter, or if you sink into the seats it’s fine. But that swoopy silhouette, and the intrusive sunroof, impact rear headroom. 

You get two more USB-C ports, map pockets, more door bottle room than the front seats and a fold-down centre armrest with cupholders, but beware - the cupholder cover has a tendency to pinch when you open it. There's a ski port behind the armrest, too.

Rather than a split-fold rear seat, the Accord backrest folds down as one whole unit. What’s more odd, you have to use a lever in the boot to lower the backrest. But it doesn’t force the backrest down - you still have to open the rear door and manually lower it yourself. It’s a quirk from the previous Accord I still don’t get.

That boot, however, is massive. It swallows 570 litres with all seats in place. It’s not as much as the Skoda Superb liftback (625L), but it’s more than the Lexus ES300h’s 454L. But there's a reason for that.

The Lexus comes with a space-saver spare wheel, but the Accord comes with a tyre repair kit. It’s the same deal on all other Honda hybrids. 

Honda says some people prefer the kit over a spare as they would rather just slap on the goo and drive somewhere to get a new tyre, rather than fuss around with changing a wheel on the side of a road. But I am sure a fair few people would disagree with that.

Honda is keeping it very simple with the 11th-gen Accord. One grade and that’s it. There are more variants offered in other markets but they are probably never going to come here.

So, we get the e:HEV RS, which is a hybrid with a sporty body kit that's priced at $64,900, which is $3000 more expensive than the previous-generation hybrid grade. That is expensive for what has traditionally been a Toyota Camry rival, but there's more to the story.

That pricing is drive-away, so all additional dealer and delivery costs are included. There’s also an exceptional servicing offer I will get to later in the review. And this Accord is fairly well stacked with standard gear.

When it comes to rivals, it’s now occupying a unique space somewhere between models like the higher-grade Toyota Camry SL hybrid ($51,417, before on-road costs), and more premium sedans like the Lexus ES300h Luxury hybrid ($65,540). There is a new-gen Camry on the horizon however and that is expected to go up in price.

The Skoda Superb ($69,990, drive-away) is also an alternative to the Accord, but it is petrol only, and there’s also the Peugeot 508 GT Fastback plug-in hybrid, but that’s $81,610.

Standard gear includes a panoramic sunroof, dual-zone climate control, a wireless charger, black leather-appointed seats with red stitching, eight-way power adjustable front seats with memory function for the driver, ambient lighting, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, remote engine start, keyless entry and start and alloy sports pedals.

Tech-wise, it comes with a 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster, an 11.5-inch head-up display, a 12-speaker Bose audio system and a 12.3-inch multimedia set-up with built-in Google Assistant, Maps and Play. That also includes wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, digital radio and over-the-air updates.

You will also get five years free access to 'Honda Connect', which is essentially a phone app that allows the user to remotely control the cabin climate, lock and unlock the car, activate the horn or immobilise the engine. You can also locate your car with the app (if you lose it in a busy car park).

But there are some odd omissions from the standard features list. For example, it doesn’t have heated front or rear seats, which is a bit odd for this price.

There are two engines in the Elantra range. A dated 2.0-litre non-turbo engine which has hung around for a long time in Hyundai’s stable, and a much newer 1.6-litre turbo engine in higher variants.

Unlike the i30, there’s no option for a 1.6-litre turbo-diesel. Any EV and plug-in hybrid versions are still beyond the horizon (perhaps pending the success of the Ioniq).

The Go and Active variants share the 2.0-litre engine which produces 112kW/192Nm. The Go is available as either a six-speed manual or a six-speed traditional torque converter automatic. The Active is six-speed auto only.

The Sport and Sport Premium are powered by the excellent 150kW/256Nm 1.6-litre turbo. Aside from the Kia Cerato GT, which shares the same engine, the next closest competitor at this price point is the outgoing Mazda3 SP25 (139kW/252Nm).

The Sport and Sport Premium can either be had with a six-speed manual gearbox or a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, and can cycle between ‘normal’, ‘sport’ and ‘eco’ drive modes.

The Elantra range is a strictly front-wheel-drive affair, as there’s no option for all-wheel drive.

The previous-gen Accord was offered as a hybrid, but it was also available as a second variant powered by Honda’s excellent 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine.

This time around it’s hybrid-only and the powertrain is essentially the same system found in the CR-V SUV.

It is made up of a revised version of Honda’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine paired with a two-motor hybrid arrangement. The total system output is 135kW of power and 335Nm of torque.

The Accord is front-wheel drive and uses an electrically-controlled continuously variable transmission (CVT).

All 2.0-litre Elantras have claimed/combined fuel usage figures of 7.4L/100km. Against this claim I scored a very reasonable 8.0L/100km in my road test of the Active.

The 1.6-litre variants have a marginally better claimed consumption figure of 7.0L/100km against which I scored 9.0L/100km in my test of the Sport. If you’re having fun, expect at least 9.0L or above. That’s a compliment.

All Elantra variants happily consume regular 91RON unleaded and have 50-litre tanks. Good stuff.

The Accord e:HEV RS sips just 4.3 litres of fuel (91 RON) per 100 kilometres on the combined cycle.

That’s exactly the same figure as its predecessor. It’s also more frugal than the Lexus ES300h (4.8L) and Toyota Camry hybrid (4.5L). It emits 98g/km of CO2.

At the conclusion of my test, that mostly included urban and freeway driving, I saw a figure of 5.1L/100km.

All Elantra variants are great to drive. They share excellent suspension and steering characteristics, lending them a rewarding experience in the corners while not being too stiff or too soft over bumps.

The 2.0 litre variants offer, well, acceptable power, even if they're a little on the thrashy side, and their ride comfort is boosted by sensibly sized alloy wheels and soft rubber.

Sport variants are genuinely a blast to drive. The 1.6-litre turbo has small amounts of lag, but is otherwise strong through 1500-4500rpm. Torque steer is present but manageable, and even adds a little to the excitement.

Thick (and pricey) Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres (225/40R18s) help keep the Elantra Sport planted and surprisingly grippy through the corners.

Road noise is acceptable but not stellar across the range. The same goes for the 10.6-meter turning circle.

Truly gone are the days where you should question whether Korean cars can be fun; the Sport and Sport premium do a better job of channeling the characteristics of Japanese sports sedans of the '90s and '00s better than most current Japanese nameplates.

On the downside, the silly flared body kit on the Sport variants limit ground clearance on ramps or speedbumps and can be prone to bottoming out. This combines with the easily scratched giant wheels to make for some nervous driving.

One of the best cars I have driven in the past couple of years is the Honda Civic e:HEV hybrid. It is an exceptional car in virtually every area - although it is pricey - and feels like it’s almost in hot hatch territory.

It’s unfair to expect the same of the Accord hybrid, given its size and heft, but it has enough playfulness to ensure an engaging drive experience.

Being a low-slung sedan the driving position ensures you feel connected with the road - something you can’t say about a lot of SUVs of this size. Despite the sloping rear roofline, visibility front and rear is not bad.

In ‘normal’ mode the Accord is responsive from a standing start, but can’t match the Civic hybrid. It would, however, give the Camry and Lexus ES a run for their money.

There is instant urge if you need to overtake quickly at speed.

‘Sport’ mode is definitely noisier, and while the engine sounds good, it’s fake. It feels a little more responsive in Sport, but it doesn’t transform the Accord into a sports car.

It will drive in EV mode in low-speed conditions like sub-40km/h zones and car parks. The transition from electric to petrol power is super smooth, as it is in the CR-V.

I tested the Accord on my usual route which includes some fast corners and sweeping uphill bends, and the big sedan seems to love being pushed. There’s a confidence to the way it sticks to the road, and there isn’t a hint of body roll.

The ride quality is mostly fine and the car feels well balanced, but you occasionally notice some road imperfections despite the high side wall of the 18-inch Michelin tyres.

The electric CVT doesn’t drone like some can, and seems to have fake gearing engineered in as it sounds like it's changing gears.

More generally, the Accord has an excellent head-up display that doesn’t distract and a solid digital instrument cluster. The indicator stalk is damped in a harsh way and feels and sounds a bit cheap.

For such a large car, the turning circle feels quite compact, so parking isn't as traumatising as it can be in such a big car. 

Honda said a lot of work went into improving noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) levels and as a result, the cabin is well insulated from things like wind and road noise.

The Accord has not been tested by ANCAP, and the previous model wasn’t tested either. Given the low volumes, it may not get a rating at all.

It does, however, come with an extensive standard safety features list under the 'Honda Sensing' driver assistance suite, which includes a forward collision warning, auto emergency braking, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control with low-speed follow, road departure mitigation and traffic jam assist.

It also gets eight airbags and a tyre pressure monitor.

While the forward collision warning seems a touch too sensitive, the lane keeping aid is excellent. It centres the vehicle in the lane and avoids bouncing between line markings. Very smooth.

Hyundai covers its range with an on-par five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty promise offered by most of the competition. It is outdone by its mechanical twin, the Kia Cerato,with its seven-year warranty.

Hyundai’s fixed service program is one of its strong suits, with service pricing on turbo Elantra models locked between reasonable $273 to $460 costs per visit, locked all the way out to 168 months/210,000 kilometres. And even beyond that there's the optional pre-paid ‘iCare’ packages. Costs are slightly less for 2.0-litre cars.

The Accord is covered by a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty and it includes five years of roadside assist. 

Honda has an exceptional service offer on all its models, including the Accord. It’s a five-year capped-price program and you will only pay $199 per service for those first five years. 

The servicing schedule is every 12 months or 10,000 kilometres, whichever comes first. The industry standard is 15,000km, so that’s a little disappointing, but the overall service offer is still solid in my books.