Let’s face it. It’s pretty hard to find a car that could beat the Honda Civic Si when it comes to getting an affordable compact sports car with a manual shifter. A couple of years ago, Hyundai brought to the market a piece of that cake that was a little too hard to resist - the Hyundai Elantra Sport. Sofyan Bey of Redline Reviews checked out the South Korean compact sports car that’s been giving Honda a run for its money.
The Elantra Sport was an enticing proposition for a market that the Honda Civic had hugely dominated. Hyundai simply upgraded the standard Elantra with a sportier suspension, more horsepower, and a manual transmission.
The Hyundai Elantra got a complete makeover moving into its 7th generation. It comes with a completely new exterior and interior styling, and the 2022 N Line replaces the Sport in the Elantra family.
Like the Hyundai Elantra Sport, the 2022 Hyundai Elantra N Line has a GDI 1.6-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine paired to a standard 6-speed manual transmission and an upgraded suspension. It runs on a front-wheel-drive setup and can do the 0 to 60 mph (97 kph) in 7.1 seconds. It makes 201 HP and 264 Nm of torque.
Perhaps the biggest fault of the Elantra N Line is that it doesn’t come with a limited-slip differential like the Honda Civic Si. Due to this, it has a little trouble putting down the power. However, if you are looking to get a high-power, low-consumption compact car, the Elantra N Line makes for a perfect choice, with a starting price of around $20,000 in the U.S.
Behind the wheel, the Elantra N Line is hard to launch due to the lack of a limited-slip differential. Off the line, you’ll feel the wheels scrambling for traction and it has a little bit of wheel hop as well.
Its 1.6-liter Direct Injection engine isn’t new, but Hyundai keeps updating it yearly. According to Bey, there’s a noticeable turbo lag below 3,000 rpm, but once you hit above that mark, there are gobs of torque at your disposal.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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