2023 Hyundai Elantra Reviews, Pricing & Specs

With the 2023 Elantra compact sedan, Hyundai offers something for almost everyone. The base Elantra Essential costs roughly half the average for a new car in Canada, and if you have more room in your budget you can upgrade to the Preferred or Luxury trim levels, the latter looking and feeling more upscale than its price tag suggests.

The Elantra Hybrid is a $2,500 option on the Luxury trim and consumes 4.7 litres per 100 kilometres in combined driving. And it looks exactly the same as a standard Elantra except for a discreet “Hybrid” badge.

If you like to drive, the sporty turbo Elantra N Line Ultimate might be right for you. Or you can upgrade to the performance-tuned, 276-horsepower Elantra N, the “N” standing for Germany’s fabled Nürburgring racing track, where Hyundai performed much of the car’s development work, as well as Namyang, South Korea, home of Hyundai’s global R&D centre. It is legit.

Across the lineup, from the Elantra Essential to the Elantra N, prices range from $20,449 to $39,299, not including a $1,775 destination charge. Our test vehicle is the U.S. equivalent of the Elantra Luxury.

For the 2023 model year, changes are few and far between. The Luxury and N Line models get a 10.25-inch digital instrumentation panel paired with a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system. The N Line is no longer available with a six-speed manual transmission, making the Elantra N your only choice if you want to row your own gears.

Now, as far as the Elantra’s look and feel are concerned, the exterior styling is somewhat controversial. We like it, but recognize that the design isn’t appealing to everyone. These days, that seems to be the way at Hyundai.

The same is not true of our test car’s interior. Decked out in light grey leather, the seats and interior panels offered sharp contrast against the otherwise black cabin. Add the test car’s undeniably original style, classy nighttime illumination and ambient lighting, and high-tech displays, and a 2023 Elantra Luxury’s cabin is anything but entry-level. Well, except for the unfortunate hard plastic coating the upper door panels, which is the only disappointment in an otherwise sensational cabin for the price.

Review the Hyundai Elantra Luxury’s spec chart, and you’ll come away unimpressed. Nobody gets excited about a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine making 147 horsepower at 6,200 rpm and 132 lb-ft of torque at 4,500 rpm. Add the standard continuously variable transmission (CVT), which Hyundai calls an Intelligent Variable Transmission (IVT), front-wheel drive (FWD), and the torsion-beam rear axle suspension, and people who know cars will fall asleep before they finish reading this sentence.

Surprisingly, the Elantra Luxury’s driving dynamics defy expectations. Obviously, this Hyundai is not fast. Or even quick. But it is peppy, and the CVT/IVT is the best one in the compact car class. Plus, despite exploring its handling qualities on our mountainous testing loop, the Elantra Luxury averaged 7.1 L/100 km during the evaluation drive, coming close enough to the official NRCan fuel economy rating of 6.7 L/100 km to call it good.

If you want a dual-clutch transmission (DCT) and an independent multi-link rear suspension instead of the test car’s torsion-beam rear axle setup, pick the N Line Ultimate, the Elantra Hybrid, or the Elantra N. However, before you spend the extra money, we’ll say that most people won’t care about the cost-effective standard underpinnings. Based on our evaluation, it doesn’t compromise the ride and handling to a noticeable degree.

In city and suburban driving, the Elantra Luxury offers a communicative yet compliant ride, a properly calibrated brake pedal, and suitable steering effort levels. On the highway, the car is remarkably quiet for the segment.

On our enthusiastic test drive through the mountains, the Elantra Luxury displayed remarkable composure. The car isn’t outright fun to drive like the Elantra N Line Ultimate or, especially, the fantastic Hyundai Elantra N. But it delivers consistent and repeatable handling qualities that engender trust in its driver.

Undoubtedly, the 17-inch alloy wheels and 225/45 tires assist in this endeavour, but the suspension also attenuates excess motion almost immediately without feeling too firm or stiff. The car demonstrates a flat cornering attitude, the rubber rarely squeals, the stability control doesn’t freak out, and over rumpled sections of road the Elantra remains stable and predictable.

If there’s anything holding the Elantra Luxury back, aside from outright power, it’s steering that doesn’t feel particularly quick or sharp on twisty pavement and doesn’t produce much feel for the road. Also, the test car’s brakes did heat up and start to shudder a little bit, but they didn’t fade.

Overall, we find that the Elantra Luxury’s driving dynamics amount to more than the sum of its specs chart, making for an unexpected but pleasant surprise.

Though the 2023 Elantra exudes style, it doesn’t come at the expense of practicality and utility. This is a roomy compact car that can easily serve a family of four.

Our test vehicle had proximity-sensing keyless entry, which means you don’t need to take the fob out and press a button to unlock the doors. Instead, the car recognizes the key fob is present, and allows the driver to enter the vehicle.

Get behind the steering wheel, which has two lower bars that serve as perfect hand rests for long trips, and you’ll find the Luxury model’s leather-wrapped driver’s seat to be quite comfortable. (In Canada, the Luxury model comes with manual adjustments rather than the power adjustments seen in our test car. Power adjustments are exclusive to the N Line Ultimate trim.) In addition, the test car had dual-zone automatic climate control and heated front seats. In Canada, ventilated front seats are not available.

Our test vehicle includes a manual seat-height adjuster for the front passenger, but rear-seat occupants may not find the Elantra as satisfying a place to spend time. The backrest is too reclined, forcing a slouched seating position. Also, the Elantra lacks rear air conditioning vents and USB charging ports. Taller people won’t like the hard plastic panels on the front seatbacks, either.

A hands-free trunk release feature is standard on some Elantra models, or you can use the deftly integrated trunk release button on the lid. The trunk offers 402 litres of cargo space, and you can stow full-size suitcases on their sides, helping creative packers to make the most of the space. In addition, the Luxury model’s 60/40-split folding back seat expands utility when necessary.

This year, Hyundai broadens availability of the Elantra’s 10.25-inch digital instrumentation and infotainment displays. Now you can get them in the Luxury, Hybrid, and N Line Ultimate trims and as part of a package on the Preferred trim.

These screens are terrific. You don’t expect this kind of technology in a compact car from a mainstream brand, so it elevates the Hyundai the moment you press the engine start button and they come to life.

With this setup, standard infotainment features include Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, satellite radio, activation of connected services, dynamic voice recognition, a navigation system, and a wireless charging pad (the latter is not part of the Preferred package, but a power sunroof is). Unfortunately, only the Bluetooth supports a wireless connection. To use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, you’ll need to connect to a USB port.

We find this system easy to set up and use, and the voice recognition feature passed most of our tests. But when telling the system we wanted to listen to reggae music, it was unable to comply. Directing it to tune to the Bob Marley channel on SiriusXM produced success.

You’re also supposed to be able to control the climate system using voice commands, but in this case, the tech failed. After asking the digital assistant to change the temperature to 22 degrees, the car instead cranked the heat to the highest level and turned the seat heaters on to their highest setting. That’s not what we wanted.

Hyundai equips the Elantra Luxury with a Bose premium audio system, but it doesn’t sound as good as it should. Bose components in some of the Elantra’s rivals, such as the Honda Civic and the Mazda Mazda3, produce appealing sound quality. That’s not the case here.

Our test vehicle also had Digital Key technology that transforms a compatible smartphone into the vehicle’s key.

If it sounds like the 2023 Hyundai Elantra is hard to fault, you’re not going to find any reason for it when it comes to safety. The generous package of standard safety features includes automatic high-beam headlights, forward-collision warning with pedestrian detection, automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning, lane-keeping assist, lane-centring assist, a full complement of airbags, and antilock brakes (ABS) with electronic brake force distribution. Other standard features include a driver monitoring system and a rear-seat reminder system.

Our Elantra Luxury test car built on this foundation with a safe exit warning system, cyclist detection, an intersection turning assist system, blind-spot monitoring, rear parking sensors, adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go capability, and Highway Driving Assist, which marries the adaptive cruise control with the lane-centring assist for highway driving.

We tested the Elantra’s driving assist systems on a two-lane highway and a busy urban highway, and it worked beautifully. All systems were go except for when the car encountered some mud-obscured road markings on a rural two-lane road.

The difference here is how smooth and subtle the driving aids are. For example, you can feel the lane-centring assist adding small steering inputs, but they’re barely evident rather than sudden or abrupt. It’s hard to trust technology that doesn’t seem sure of what it’s doing, but the Elantra’s Highway Driving Assist system is nothing but calm, cool, and collected. Better, you rarely feel like you need to override the tech’s inputs, and when you do, it’s easy rather than a struggle.

The 2023 Elantra earned a Top Safety Pick rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gives the 2023 Elantra a five-star overall rating, as well as five stars in all crash-test categories except frontal crash protection, where it received four stars.

Affordable by modern standards, the 2023 Hyundai Elantra is a cost-effective choice in a compact car.

Every new Hyundai gets the automaker’s 5-year, 100,000-kilometre bumper-to-bumper warranty work at your local dealerships, along with roadside assistance. Blue Link connected services are also available on most models.

In short, no matter if you’re buying the entry-level model, the fuel-efficient Elantra Hybrid, or the downright thrilling Elantra N, this Hyundai is one of the best deals on wheels.

Note: Images show a US model.