Elantra Touring

I once or twice also considered the Elantra Touring....then I saw the Kia Forte 5 door. The Kia looks soooo much better than the Hyundai. (In Europe, the car we call the Forte is called the ceed. Dumb name, but it would have made for some interesting advertisements.) The Forte/ceed is a favorite of sorts at CAR magazine, so I consider that to be a pretty good endorsement. Unfortunately, either the roads in the U.S. are vastly different from those in the U.K. or the suspension settings on the ceed are vastly different between these markets as I haven't read many(any?) ringing endorsements of the Forte's handling in any U.S. car mags.

I imagine that the Forte 5-door is the same as the European C'eed...and similar to the Euro Hyundai I30. The US spec ET is the same as the Euro I30CW, and has a much bigger rear hatch area...it has as much space inside as a Tuscon...and the rear seats have a mile of legroom. I am 6'6" and there is enough space for me to sit behind myself. For a 'small' car, that is very impressive. The big advantage of the US Kia is that it offers the 2.4 Theta engine, whereas the ET only gets the 2.0 Beta. Had the Kia been availible in October, I may have considered it, as the extra power would have been appealing...but the back seat room and rear storage was more important to me than power, and that is where the ET shines. It also has a pretty dynamic chassis, which I imagine is similar if not the the same as the Kia...and quite honestly, the power of the 2.0 is adequate. It also comes with a B&M shifter...so it is fun to row the gears.

Either way, these both are nice cars with great warranties and a tremendous bang-for-the-buck (loaded for $20K MSRP).

STS-ZX2:

I looked at local inventory for the Hyundai and Kia last night. I can only find the Elantra Touring in my area with automatic (BOO). While nearly every Kia is automatic (I did manage to find one Forte 5 door with the manual transmission...a white one (smaller boo).

Bringing this back from the dead but I found a 12 Elantra Touring for sale somewhat locally. Anything to look out for? How are these on the highway? It's a GLS stick shift with 66k miles on the clock for $9995.

I ended up buying an '11 Elantra Touring, SE trim, stick shift and absolutely love it. It has a B&M shifter but I don't know if the GLS has the same. I've just turned 69k miles. I get 38 mpg on the highway at 75-80 mph. It's really buzzing at that speed but the car's so quiet, you never know how high its revving or how fast its going unless you look at the gauges.

I'm not sure what to look out for because mine's been really trouble free.

I had to change tires at 35k miles and the new set is looking like the same life span. And I'm not hard on this car at all; always watching tire pressures and alignment.

Maybe some of the tech guys who work on these things will chime in.

I believe the '12 Elantra sedan was an all new generation and the '12 Touring was on the "old" platform from '11 and back. I have a '13 Coupe with 6spd, which I think is the same powertrain as in the '12. It's definitely not fast, but is 100% competent for 125+ miles per day abuse that I put my cars through. Even with a good amount of Atlanta rush hour traffic, I can still get 36-38mpg if I hypermile it a little and 35 if I don't. It's a very quiet cruiser at 80mph and is a really comfy ride. Definitely soft springs and shocks, but considering 95% of my driving is in a straight line, I never really notice.

Keep in mind the Touring is a timing belt car that recomends the belt changed at 60k. It's a fairly simple job but if you're buying one over that mileage, make sure its been done or budget the cost up front. Anyone in the Central Indy area, I can knock these out in about 2 hours... cheap.

I keep wanting one of these.

I was going to buy an old 2012 that was still on the lot in early 2013. Just couldn't make it work at the time. Still keep my eyes on them.

Good to hear an opinion that it is quiet as that was one element that I wasn't sure about.