[mmxylorider]

Background - Well, the family (of 4) was coming to the point where one of the kids would join the workforce in few months. She was considering a full time job for an year while next steps on further education was being mulled upon and this required an independent transport solution aka "own car". My son who is away at college has the Accord (our first car) as his beater and she needed something that was reliable, lower footprint for city based driving and the right (desired) internal accessories for Gen Z. The Prius fit that requirement quite well, with Bluetooth, rear camera and keyless entry/button start. Pretty much buttons for everything. She is one happy human. Except - it was MY car. What do I do?

Solution - Buy a new vehicle for myself. But which one? There are so many choices here that I needed a starting point that eliminated a good percentage of options. Based on my driving pattern and the fact that we are in Texas (everything here is huge, including driving distances) - Hybrid was the first filter. Second was price point (<30K) and third one was others which includes HP, MPG, Make, features etc. There was the factor of the tariffs increase that was playing in my mind. If I have to buy, might as well now than later!

Contenders -
Based on the above filters, I was able to get the field narrowed down to following (and in order of 'take a look')
1. Toyota Prius
2. Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid
3. Hyundai Elantra
4. Kia Niro

A brief mention that the Prius Prime (plug in variant) was being considered but the extra cost compared with my daily driving and pure electric range of about 30 miles (in real world) was not worth it and it made a graceful exit. But the car itself is fantastic in physical form. There was another late entrant that I will bring in later.

[mmxylorider]

Week 1 - Test Drive Day
Armed with whatever info I could gather and stats, one fine saturday morning we made our way to North Austin where showrooms for the above vehicles are within a half km linear distance.
First Stop - Toyota : Post the initial small talk and fact finding mission from the sales guy, the Prius was brought in. THe top trim at that with all the bells and whistles. Sat in with the sales person trying to get in the rear and struggling big time. THe rear head space is a luxury to someone who is 5'4". The sales person at close to 6' gave up and so did we. Not because of the rear head space but the interiors were very 'busy' with buttons for everything and making me feel boxed in. The new Prius is very stylish on the outside but not my cuppa tea.
Next up was the Corolla Cross Hybrid. Now this was an interesting candidate. Ticked all the right boxes and is a Toyota with it's reliabilty. Driving experience was good but the refinement felt off, Both wife and I shortlisted this.
Next up Hyundai. We met with the sales person who worked with us on the Tucson 2 years ago and quickly got the test drive set up. Now the Elantra was competing with the Corolla Cross. Two different segments but the Elantra had some good things going for it. It was more stylish, better features, smoother ride.
Off to Kia we went. It was the Niro hybrid we were looking at. Did the test drive and it completely blew the Corolla cross on pretty much everything except the combined horse power. Hmm things were getting interesting.

Decided to leave and sleep on this. Decision point couple of days later was
1. Niro was out - While seemingly good on all fronts, just did not see a lot of them on the roads. That was the primary factor of leaving it out.
2. Prius was out - THe new model is gorgeous on the outside but the insides are a little tight.
3. Since it was now the Elantra and the Corolla cross, decided to test drive the Corolla Sedan hybrid to make it a sedan to sedan comparison.

[mmxylorider]

Week 2 - Test drive day.
It was a pointed agenda. Test drive the Corolla Cross and the Sedan models. This time with my daughter for company. THe Sedan test drive was very bland as the car itself was looking plain. The only thing going for the Corolla was the brand name of Toyota and the mileage. The Cross was a better vehicle at this time. Went by Hyundai again for my daughter to drive the Elantra. Contenders now were
1. Elantra HYbrid
2. Corolla Cross Hybrid.

Week 3 was spent researching the trims and calling up other dealerships for their quotes and inventory matches. Found a promising deal with a Hyundai dealership at my Son's college town. Drove down and went to the dealer with my son. He also got the opportunity to drive the Elantra. At that time - all of us had an chance at the wheel of multiple cars and the Elantra for sure. The choice was pretty much made. Got a price quote from that dealer which was ok.

Week 4 - THe idea was to go the local dealer, work out some financials, put down some holding money and take delivery later that week. Things transpired differently and with the sales person stacking on some really good offers, I put down the final sign 90 minutes after walking in. I was now the owner of a Brand new Hyundai Elantra Hybrid (Blue Trim) with White exterior and grey interiors.

It's exactly a week since the car came home and I pushed posting this out as I had plans for a Houston trip on Thursday. So 1 week of ownership and theres about 500 miles on the clock.

Pictures and Trip experience, features etc in next post tomorrow. Stay Tuned!

[mmxylorider]

It's been about a month since the purchase and it has been a busy month with the end of the quarter and Indian fiscal calendar. But as mentioned in the last post, here are some pics of the car from multiple angles.

1. Rear Quarter view - My favorite



2. Front view



3. Front quarter



4. Front quarter - driver side



5. Side view



6. Driver cockpit



7. Rear Seats



8. Two USB-C charging ports for the rear seat occupants



9. Boot space - the crate is my solution to keeping trunk contents from moving around as well as a convenient way to get shopping bags into the home at one shot. Bungee cords keep the crate anchored inside properly.



10. Main entertainment screen - decent in size and in right proportion to the dashboard size. Comes with knobs for volume etc (as opposed to touch buttons)



11. Trip Meter 1 - Reset to zero for each ride. A convenient way to know how much distance is remaining without looking at maps.



12. Trip Meter 2 - Reset when you refuel. Useful to compare with the full tank to full tank method



13. Trip Meter 3 - This is your choice. Right now it's set to the time the car was purchased. However, I set the second one in all my cars to the last time it was serviced. The second number on each trip is the time in HH/MM for that trip. In essence, X hrs and Y mins since it was refueled or last serviced. The odo as of today is close to 1300 miles with about 35 hrs spent in the car. That's 5 % of the time since purchased. 95% of the time it's parked !!



14. Wireless Car play connected. That's one convenient technology



15. Media options



16. Car gets a digital temp gauge



17. With Autohold on, one gets this message and a warning chime when the car in front starts moving. In India, the audible warning would the car behind honking!

[mmxylorider]

Some observations:
1. There is an audible warning as you shift into reverse. This is for safety of pedestrians as the car might in EV mode without any engine noise. I believe this is mandatory for all EV/hybrid vehicles
2. The car takes a sufficient amount of time to warm up before the benefits of hybrid power train kicks in. After a break journey of under 10 mins, the MPG numbers can reach 3 digit mark for city driving.
3. Unlike the Prius (other hybrid I own), the Elantra goes into EV mode even at higher speed to use up the charge. It's quite interesting to be at 60+ speed and the ICE cuts off and the noise levels reduce.
4. As is the norm these days, no spare tire provided however there is space to procure and store a spare tire (at-least the donut). Of course, one needs to buy the jack and handle!

There are more but the ones above caught my attention the most

Top Likes
1. Very sleek looking car. The tail light arrangement is very eye-catching, especially at night
2. The mileage of course. So far, since purchase, it's about 49 MPG.
3. Spacious rear seat. Was in the back-seat for a 100 mile run few days ago and it was not at all cramped.
4. Very planted. Being a sedan, that's always the case, but in this case despite being lighter (than the accord), cornering at higher speeds was not a problem
5. Used the lane centering and lane keeping option during the Houston trip. Had it engaged for about 20+ miles where I knew there were straight stretches and soft curves. Only for the required hand on the steering reminder, the system worked flawlessly. Speed was controlled by buttons for cruise control since the base model does not come with Adaptive Cruise control.
6. Regular cruise control - Personally I like this over adaptive since you tend to come close to vehicle in front, there is a high likelihood that person will shift lanes allowing you to pass. In ACS, you might get stuck behind matching the speed which you have to sense and then take action.
7. Blind spot warning is accompanied with a vibration of the steering wheel. That definitely gets your attention

Not dislikes but rather surprises...
1. No cup holder for rear occupants and no behind the seat storage available.
2. Deep cupholders for the front occupant. A standard cup will not rest at the bottom risking the lid to pry open. My solution is to keep a filler item on which the beverage cup can rest.


I am still getting accustomed to some other features and niggles and will keep updating as and when I get more details and experiences on those.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[yedukrishnan199]

Congratulations on the new car. The Elantra Hybrid is a compelling choice for a hybrid sedan with fantastic fuel economy, a spacious interior, a comfortable ride and a generous list of safety and tech features as standard. The competitive pricing and overall package make it an excellent car for the money. Wishing you a hassle-free and wonderful ownership experience!

[Carpainter]

With the advent of hybrid powertrains, I wonder if C and D segment sedans can make a comeback in India if manufacturers are a bit optimistic in offering one in our market. We have only City at the moment which is not selling well partly because of the higher price and partly because there is not marketing for it. Hybrid sedans should be much more fuel efficient than hybrid suvs. OEMs should give it a thought no!

[carhead]

Originally Posted by mmxylorider

Contenders -
Based on the above filters, I was able to get the field narrowed down to following (and in order of 'take a look')
1. Toyota Prius
2. Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid
3. Hyundai Elantra
4. Kia Niro

Any reason for excluding Hybrid Accord?

[mmxylorider]

Originally Posted by carhead

Any reason for excluding Hybrid Accord?

It was beyond the budget planned, which ruled out the Camry as well. Both are great cars.