No matter what you think of the car’s styling or the Hyundai brand itself, you gotta give credit where it’s due: the Hyundai Elantra N is fantastic. For its fourth model year on the market, Hyundai has tweaked the sport compact with new styling and slight performance enhancements. In this case, minor changes are totally fine, as what Hyundai’s engineers have done with this compact car platform is a case study in excellence. Albert Biermann really helped Hyundai make a BMW M3 for the masses.
Full Disclosure: Hyundai lent me the Elantra N for a week. I nearly asked them if I could keep it for a month and hated it when it had to leave.
The standard Hyundai Elantra is nothing special. That isn’t to say it’s a bad car; it’s a solid offering if you don’t want a Toyota Corolla or a Honda Civic. When Hyundai’s N division — lead by Biermann, former vice president of engineering at BMW M — got its hands on the Elantra, something truly special was created. Slapping a turbocharger onto a 2.0-liter inline-4 results in 276 horsepower and 289 pound-feet of torque. You can pair that engine with either a six-speed manual or an eight-speed wet dual-clutch transmission, the former of which has a rev-matching feature while the latter has an overboost function that gives 10 extra horsepower for 20 seconds.
For 2024, the Elantra N gets a slight styling refresh. The new front fascia has slimmer LED headlights and larger intakes, while around back there are new taillights and a redesigned rear diffuser. New wheels and a new exterior color called Ultimate Red round out the changes you can see. The bigger changes are under the skin.
Hyundai’s N division enhanced the Elantra N’s already stellar ride and handling. We’re not talking about new suspension designs or anything like that, but little details that some enthusiasts wouldn’t even think about. The insulator on the rear suspension has been changed from rubber to urethane that Hyundai says improves yaw response and damping. G bushing reinforcement further improves yaw response and steering precision, and the steering is also enhanced with universal joint friction reduction. The engine mounts have been reinforced, and front and rear tire pressures have been increased by one psi for optimization of the front axle load.
Luckily the Elantra N still doesn’t break the bank. Including destination charges, pricing starts at $34,850 for the six-speed manual version. The Elantra N I had was equipped with the DCT, which adds on another $1,500. With everything, my Elantra N tester rang in at $36,350. Given the performance and standard features the Elantra comes with, it makes spending over $40,000 on competitors like the Honda Civic Type R and Volkswagen Golf R seem like a fool’s errand.
Before I get into how the Elantra N drives, I need to be honest. One thing I always do when I review a car is to come at it from an unbiased, objective perspective. Reviewing the Elantra N stirred real emotions in me, though. This is an actually attainable car that I’ve been trying to buy for over a year now. It’s one thing to get excited about something like an Aston Martin or Porsche, but it’s something else to get excited about a car you’re driving that offers awesome performance and you can actually afford it.
Some might think it’s ridiculous to say that the Elantra N is a cheap BMW M3, but M3 owners would be impressed by how much the Elantra N rips. Prepping the standard launch control function and using the on-board timer, without even trying I was able to hit 60 mph in just 4.9 seconds, and I managed to shave a tenth off that time using the N Grin Shift boost mode. A bright red button labeled “NGS” on the steering wheel gives a 20 second burst of 10 extra horsepower, and you can actually feel a difference. Just to put that performance in perspective, it’s a tenth of a second quicker than the Honda Civic Type R and neck and neck with the Toyota GR Corolla. This thing isn’t just about straight line speed, though.
I took the Elantra N to some of my favorite local canyon roads and I can confidently say that it’s one of the most capable cars on the market. Nothing that Hyundai’s N engineers did here is a gimmick. Take the electronic limited-slip differential, which Hyundai calls the N Corner Carving Differential. When you’re powering out of a curve, you can actually feel it working, helping you use the engine’s power to pull out of the curve. It’s so good that it’ll almost fool you into believing that the Elantra N has all-wheel drive in some cornering situations. Its handling is enhanced by high-performance brakes and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires. The Elantra N’s eight-speed dual-clutch transmission’s lightning-fast shifts won’t make you miss the manual, either. The cherry on top of this performance sundae is hearing the pops and crackles of the Elantra N’s variable exhaust system echoing off the canyon walls. It’s one of the best sounding stock exhausts on the market.
If you’re into tech like I am, you’ll be in heaven with the amount of digital performance adjustments that can be made in the Elantra N. While plenty of performance cars on the market have some level of customization through things like pre-set drive modes, the Elantra N takes it all to another level. Everything from the engine response to the steering, suspension and exhaust can be customized. Don’t want a stiff ride but still want to blast through traffic? You can do that by having the suspension in Comfort and everything else in Sport+. Want to cruise around but have a cool sounding exhaust? Just set everything to Comfort except the exhaust.
You can even customize a built-in shift light. If you’re on the track, you can use N Track Sense Shift, which detects things like g-forces and steering angle to make sure the transmission has optimal shifting while maintaining a high engine rpm. This really is a sport compact for the 21st century.
When the Elantra N isn’t tearing up the hills or backroads, it’s simply an Elantra with a nice and surprisingly comfortable driving experience. It’s loaded with much more stuff than the highest trim of a regular Elantra, too. Fantastic looking and heavily bolstered heated leather and Alcantara sport seats have trick illuminated N logos, and they feel great. You get standard features like a sunroof (as long as you choose the eight-speed transmission; a sunroof isn’t available with the six-speed manual), a Bose premium audio system, 64-color ambient lighting, a suite of driver safety aids and 20.5 inches of screens. Well, it’s really two 10.25-inch screens, but it looks like one long screen.
There’s not too much pain at the pump, either. Though the Elantra N has a relatively small tank that has to be filled with premium fuel — a full tank is just shy of 300 miles — you can expect to get 20 mpg city, 30 mpg highway and 23 mpg combined from its turbocharged engine, according to the EPA. I averaged just over 21 mpg in mixed, mostly city driving.
There are some downsides. The aforementioned small gas tank size sort of sucks, especially when you’re like me and are used to a full tank of gas getting you over 500 miles of range. Material quality in the interior isn’t so hot, either. More than a few surfaces remind you that it has economy car bones, but that’s also not something that’s exclusive to the Elantra N. I’m looking at you, Toyota GR Corolla.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in the sparse backseat, where the U.S-spec Elantra has undergone confusing cost-cutting. There’s not one cupholder, air vent or armrest to be found, something that’s bugged me about buying one personally. The only update for the 2024 refresh is the addition of a single USB-C charging port in the rear. Meanwhile, Korean-market Elantra Ns not only get a rear armrest with cupholders, but there are also air vents and heated rear seats. Regular U.S.-spec Elantras get the armrest on Limited trims, as does the updated Elantra N-Line. Make it make sense, Hyundai! I can understand if this is all for weight savings, but the availability of a sunroof and rear comfort features in other markets throws that excuse out the window.
Lastly, while it’s a cool feature to have a car equipped with a trunk-mounted rear crossbar, it impedes cargo space. The purpose is for extra chassis rigidity. This also allows for things like lift-off oversteer, making it easy to get sideways in a corner. For everyday use the rear seats do fold for extra room, but you’re going to be stuck with trying to fit longer items through the crossbar’s open spaces. The bar can be removed, but it requires watching YouTube videos and using some tools that you’ll probably have to borrow, though it’s said that removing it only requires undoing four bolts.
Despite those few downsides, what we have here is one of the best performance cars on the market, hands down. Sure, there are those that are going to yell about the Civic Type R, GR Corolla and Acura Integra Type S at the top of their lungs, but consider the facts. This is a car that is in a wonderfully strange gray area where it outpowers and outperforms similarly priced cars like the Subaru WRX, Honda Civic Si and VW GLI while simultaneously having performance that matches the more expensive Civic Type R and GR Corolla, and bests them in the fun-to-drive category.
Then it starts to dawn on you that the Elantra N is really a much more affordable alternative to the BMW M3, front-wheel drive be damned. Don’t believe me? All the similarities are there. The sport seats with the illuminated emblems, the high degree of customization via a large touch screen, the aggressive styling and loud exhaust note — all reminiscent of the M3. Even the way it drives will remind you of BMWs of yore. Unless you simply hate Hyundai or just have to have one of those other sport compacts, the Hyundai Elantra N is one of the best performance buys on the market today.
