My experience owning a used 2013 Hyundai Elantra diesel AT

This car came home precisely 2 years ago, when the odometer read 28,000 km. It was perfect.

BHPian TechSavvy recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I'm writing about my pre-owned gem, the 2013 Hyundai Elantra 1.6 CRDi automatic.

This car came home precisely 2 years ago, when the odometer read 28,000 km. It was perfect. It was an absolute looker with the fluidic design and it was rare on the roads of Kolkata. The interiors were super comfortable.

Little background on what I used to drive before:

At home, I have a 2015 EcoSport 1.5 diesel and a 2014 Swift VDi (bought used at 6 months of age and 6,000 km driven; sold off to make way for the Elantra).

Jumping up to an Elantra - a premium car, from economy cars is whole new experience.

Let me start with the problems this car came with:

The suspension setup and the steering column required some good work. This car had next to no scratches for something 6 years old, just some minor scratches on the rear bumper and a small dent on the boot (funny place for a dent).

What this top-of-the-line variant offers:

This car comes with a good 1.6 CRDi engine, which produces 126 bhp and 260 Nm of torque. It came with auto headlamps (they are slow to shut off), ESP with traction control off button, hefty rear armrest with media controls, start/stop button, dual-zone automatic climate control with ventilated seats, rear A/C vents, a smooth automatic, auto-dimming rear view mirrors, 4 wheel disc brakes, 4 alloy wheels, infotainment control buttons on the steering wheel, bright fancy-looking instrument cluster and decent speakers (at least to my ears).

The problems I fixed at the first service in about 500 km of owning the car:

I asked the dealer who sold me the car and he recommended that I should go to Alok Automobiles - a very renowned service centre in Kolkata.

So I did and the car went in for only dealing with the problems and not any service. I had asked to fix the steering column, the suspension and any other faults they find. I was unhappy with the ride quality of the car initially. Don't get me wrong, the ride quality itself was fine, but the city of Kolkata has so many potholes and undulated surfaces, that it was mentally disturbing every time I bumped into one. I already drive like a maniac dodging all the potholes going left and right and slowing down to 10 km/h sometimes just to make sure the road's fine (side note: the traffic behind isn't generally disturbed, but perhaps just taken aback when I'm not driving straight and when I slow down they should technically too).

So what I wanted from the car after the service was that it becomes like a Mercedes with air suspension and that whenever it hits a pothole, I will not feel it through my steering wheel (Hey! a man can hope).

After a few days I received the car and boy oh boy was the difference like night and day! I felt the comfort which the car was meant to offer. At the service, I don't remember much, but they didn't change any major parts. I guess it still had the factory steering column and suspensions, but everything was oiled properly and God knows what happened. At that time, I wasn't very keen on knowing either.

This costed me about Rs. 24,000 and I'm not sure if it included coolant change or any A/C filter work, but the work was done so well that now when the car hit a pothole, I didn't feel anything on the steering wheel.

Moving on, the tires had already lived their lives, but I still went on with them for almost two years, because at that time, I didn't understand the value of excellent tires.

The car now was perfect. I didn't do anything else for 6 months before sending it for a regular service when the oil change happened and the air filter was changed. This made the engine feel very refined at idle rpms and low speeds.

Let's talk about the driving experience. I always felt like the brakes were weak. I thought, in times of emergency braking, I would surely smash into something. But guess what? I was wrong. I've had bad cases of intense braking and these brakes have never failed to comply (during one of the services, the brake pads were changed).

What about the engine performance and automatic gearbox you ask?

Simply perfect - you can't ask for anything more. The gears shift perfectly, doesn't hesitate to downshift and are seamless in upshifting. All of this is understood when you go for the manual mode during spirited driving. The car feels a little underpowered in 1st gear under 2,000 rpms because it moves very slowly and makes a lot of noise (perhaps all cars do). I hate driving any car in first gear for more than 1,500 rpm. In auto mode it automatically shifts to 2nd around that mark, but in manual mode, if you’re fast upshifting from 1st gear, it'' s totally fine.

Let's talk about the pull from 1,500 rpm in 2nd gear. It pulls from 1,500 rpm to 4,500 rpm really fast with a little torque steer (the low end isn’t the worst in 2nd gear, but it surely could have been better). The pull is 3rd gear is my favourite, especially if you're doing it from low rpms - how it builds pace and how it keeps on pulling. Unlike the lower gears, the speed increases really fast and once you're at 4,500 rpm mark, you're already doing 90-100 km/h (I reckon the 0-100 timing of this cars about 11 seconds).

In auto mode, while braking, I don't believe it downshifts. But in manual mode, the downshifts are superb - nothing sporty, I want to make clear, but there's nothing wrong with them. Everything is comfortable (the transmission is the only thing in this car which feels really electrical, while all the other components are a mix of both mechanical and electrical).

Now, when I'm on my spirited drives, I do downshift while braking and my favourite downshifts are from 3rd to 2nd because the car stops instantly then, which just goes to show how the gear ratios are set in 1st and 2nd gear.

Lastly, the handling:

I mean, how do I explain this? When I had the Swift, which had powered steering and I went from driving that to driving my EcoSport, I always thought, "Wow! What a steering! It's effortless and guess what? Once, after driving only my Elantra for weeks, when I went back to the EcoSport, I went out and the first turn outside my house I understeered and was about to crash if I hadn't used my other hand to steer more (of course, I wouldn't have actually crashed, but you get the point?).

The steering is adequately light at low speeds. It's a good handler at high speeds and around corners. I'm biased, but it sure does well for a massive car like this. I was once cornering at 80 km/h and the steering didn't give me confidence. So, you can get the gist - I went around that corner and the car was perfectly stable and held its line, but I could understand the limitations and I never crossed it. One more thing I'd like to point out here is this car is not meant to be fast, so it does what it's meant to do - that is cruise comfortably. But when you drive it fast, it picks up the pace well and the diesel torque keeps you happy.

Let's talk about the magic numbers - fuel economy and purchase price:

I get 9 km/l on a good day (that's when my dad drives) and on average, around 7 to 8 km/l. I have a bad habit of revving the car for no reason to 3,500 rpm multiple times during every drive, but now that I have limited that, I have manage to get 8 km/l in the city and 12 km/l on highway runs, which I believe is horrible since I hear that now the German 2 litre diesel engine gives 10 km/l easily. (Funny story - each fill up is for Rs. 2,000. When I had gotten the car 2 years ago, I used to get 30 litres, 7 months ago I got 26 litres and now I get 23-24litres. That's almost 60 km short per fill up compared to two years ago for the same amount).

I had bought the car for 6 lakhs then and with it driven only 28,000 km. It had staggering comfort and loads of features which cars today won’t offer for 15 lakhs. Even if they do, this seems a better proposition, but more on that later.

The automatic conditioning works well and cools the cabin in no time. So no complaints there. Although now, while writing this article I recently think its performance has deteriorated a tad bit. Earlier, when the engine was started, it used to throw out cold air, but now it throws out warm air for 2-3 minutes, which is unbearable in this city's heat and humidity. Will get that fixed later.

This car has an eco-mode and after my testing, I don’t believe there's much difference in fuel economy. But let me tell you how it works. It dulls the throttle response, upshifts really early and makes the gearshift slow too. I guess because I notice these gearshifts sometimes which I didn't earlier. Although, if you were to floor the pedal, the eco light will go away.

What else?

After 1.5 years of driving and having about 14,000 km more on the odometer, I was getting tired of the ride quality. Let me explain. Whenever I'm driving my EcoSport I'm already at discomfort with the upright seating posture or no armrest and this aged car has rattling doors.

My Elantra, on the other hand, had no noise coming inside the cabin. The doors and windows didn't squeak or rattle, but with time, I guess they did. When you drive with something like that, the little bit of discomfort gets to you. So I went to this random person who works on car paints and bumpers who was recommended to me by the dealer to work on the car doors.

I went to this shady, small lane where he had his garage, pissed off of about what was going to happen to my car, but I was surprised. He opened all the door pads and oiled them and oiled the channel that the power windows are running on - hammered down the door latches and oiled the boot parts too. After driving out, everything became silent and that doesn't mean the suspension performed better, but it was just that I couldn't hear noises and that's a big thing. I believe he had charged me only Rs. 2,500.

The next bit of work done on the car was just fitting a 9-inch Android head-unit by Foxfire, custom built for Elantra. You can see pictures below. After getting the head-unit installed, when the staff played some music, I was taken aback since the sound quality had dropped. I was wondering what I had done - wasted 20k and ruined my audio experience. But later on, when I tweaked the DSP settings and switched the surround sound on and messed with the bass and equaliser, everything changed. The problem with the stock system was that the music was good and really clear, but it was flat even when the treble and bass was adjusted. With this system, I'm dancing to the bass-filled music. I do miss that clarity for sure, but if you’re not an audiophile, you perhaps won't even notice. Would I still use this system? YES!! I did want the CarPlay dongle with it but Rs. 4,000 for it didn't seem worth it and installing a Pioneer system with inbuilt CarPlay also didn't seem worth it because of the good finish of this system, since its custom built and the bigger 9 inch screen.

This system has apps which can be downloaded from Play Store to show car readings from an OBD scanner. It has built in GPS and 2 GB RAM.

Few downsides of this system:

It doesn't work with the media buttons in the rear armrest. Its microphone although clear, isn't very loud (does anyone know how to fix this?), the previously mentioned slight sound quality drop and the angle at which the screen is mounted. This panel is not a very high-quality one obviously and it's perfect if it was mounted at 90 degrees, but the bend disrupts the viewing angles and makes the display look a little cheap. This is where a Pioneer system would not have failed, since you can barely see this screen in daylight. At night, it’s beautiful.

The above system is the factory fitted one.

The sad thing was, as soon as I put this last year, the lockdown was declared and I couldn't use it. I used to go fidgeting with the settings and listening to music twice or thrice. Then I don't know what happened, but at that time, I thought the battery died. So we got it jump started. It didn't work on 4 tries and later when it did work, as soon as I left the accelerator pedal, the car died. I remember holding the car in neutral for 30 minutes at 3,000 rpm because we had no other option to charge the battery cause everything was shut. Perhaps the stupidest thing I've done to the car, but I was instructed by someone else and I hated every minute of it. I was reading all these posts about how it's bad for the engine because it cannot dissipate heat or how your engine parts are strained as you are driving at 3,000 rpm for 30 minutes. But I can assure you, one year later, my car is still more than fine.

So then, the next day, when I went for a drive nearby, I had a bad experience because the battery started to die as soon as I lifted off the accelerator pedal and being an auto, it's not like you can press the clutch and rev. So, the problem was that the electric power steering didn't work and all the lights started to flash, the brakes became really, really hard and bad.... really bad. However, I came back safely and didn't drive the car again until the lockdown was lifted and went straight to Alok. He couldn't identify the problems in the beginning because everything seemed fine, but later found out that the fuse box of the battery had a problem. One terminal couldn't take the load and was becoming excessively hot, so there was a little smoke coming out of the terminal on inspection. I don’t know how this problem came up. Perhaps while installing the infotainment system and not disconnecting the battery or when jump starting the car, the person must have connected the wrong terminals. I believe this had caused some problems in the alternator too. So after a thorough inspection, the people at Alok Automobiles did some custom fuse wiring and got the existing alternator repaired, although it did take them close to 3-4 weeks. But they got it done and after 10 months, everything still works fine. The battery hasn't been replaced. It was only charged then and the alternator also wasn’t replaced, but the existing one was fixed.

Disclaimer: I'm not associated with Alok Automobles in any way, but I'm just satisfied by the work they have been doing on my car. If i would have taken this problem to the Hyundai service centre, their general answer to any problem is replace everything and for no rhyme or reason, get the bill up.

In January this year, when I was away, my dad surprised me with new tyres for the car (yes, he's as passionate about cars as I am. Maybe lesser with time, but whatever), I had come back home from the airport and changed only to go for a drive in my car. It was night time, that's why I couldn't see the new tires. But I had driven just 200 m and I knew something was new in my car and these were not my tyres. I reversed, rushed into my house and my looked at my dad with the most surprising look. He burst into laughter and mom passed by saying, "Oh, you finely noticed." He apparently had got it done just 2 days before I had come. We were discussing it for days and months before, because my dad said that putting new tyres will change the ride quality and I didn't believe him. That time they were charging 20k for OEM tires and 30k for premium quality tyres. I thought. "Well, it's not worth it for no increase in performance. Bunk it". I stand corrected. It's totally worth it. The car becomes so much better. The harsh vibrations which came into the cabin when the car went over potholes were converted to soft jumps on a pillow (I have a tendency for lame exaggerations). The handling became better and the acceleration seemed better.

Remember that at 80 km/h turn I was talking about earlier on which the car didn't give me confidence, well now I took it even at 90 km/h. It blew my mind.

We did upsize the tyres and I remember reading how upsizing can make the odometer reading off and sometimes the ABS won't work. I haven't had problems like that. The stock tires were 205/60 R16 I got 215/60 R16, which means more rubber. These are Continental UltraContacts 6 (UC6) and I have no complaints. Look at the picture below, where I foolishly painted the word "Continental" with whitener, which didn't last more than 10 days before fading away.

Below are some POV videos of me driving randomly (They were shot when either I put the infotainment system or when I had put the footwell lighting).

• Video 1
• Video 2
• Video 3

Just last week, I read about this superchips company coming to the city and I thought of getting an ECU remap. I spoke to the guy and he told me my 126 BHP would be pump up to 160 BHP and 260 Nm would be pumped up to 320 Nm. I still haven't made up my mind about that because on the next day of trying to visit the place, a lockdown was announced here in West Bengal. Also the person did tell me if I have an automatic, the tune is actually 155 BHP and 300 Nm to avoid harm to the gearbox because he believed this car comes with a CVT and I'm sure this gearbox doesn't feel like one. Reading online, I think I've only read about it being normal torque converter. Do tell me what do you guys think?

On to why buying this car at 6 lakhs has become a problem. Now my 2015 EcoSport (bought new unfortunately) has run 60k km and it's still perfectly fine. But, to get comfort with all the rattles, it's going to cost a hell lot of money. Also, I think it's worthy of change since it's worn out, but that car is still beautiful and giving us trouble free ownership.

Now, I have to change the EcoSport and everything seems overpriced. Let's say I want to buy a Kia Seltos diesel automatic (same power as the Elantra). It's going to offer me not much more "car" for 18-19 lakhs on road and the seats of my Elantra seats would still be more comfortable. One of the other appealing factors is that the Elantra is rare and gorgeous with that sloping roofline. So, out goes the idea of buying a new car. Let's go the used way. I had got a beautifully maintained W204 C-Class from 2013 or 2015 for about 13 lakhs in front of me which is really appealing, but then, I was glad to come across a 2013 Passat 2.0 TDI automatic Highline variant with a DSG gearbox for 7 lakhs, driven under 30k km. But unfortunately, it got sold out.

That Passat is so appealing with its features and power it will easily put those c class or 3 series or seltos' to shame especially for that price. I know you guys would think that it has a lot of problems but even after solving them, the car would still be cheaper and more premium than others.

For example, this Elantra in 2 years with all its upgraded tyres and infotainment system, plus all services has cost me 85k, which is essential to fix an old car like this and still it seems a better proposition.

So, if you guys know of someone in Kolkata who wants to sell their Passat as per my requirements, do hook us up, please. Next option is the E90 320d, which I might be able to find under 10 lakhs, but it's a driver's car and nothing more. Not to mention, it should be considered a 2 seater.

What I plan to do next on the car:

• Either oil up the suspension setup or change it completely because the car's moving a lot and after bumping into potholes, it's getting uncomfortable.
• Paint the alloys. This I’d like to do myself since there’s a lockdown here and I have some time on my hands. Although, I’m not sure if I should spray paint them because I’m worried about the finishing. What do you guys think about this DIY spray paint or should I get powder coating done. I’ll keep the original silver colour alloys because just a fresh coat will give them a shine which changes the whole car's appearance.
• Lastly, get the stage 1 tune mentioned earlier mainly to improve the low end and also because it gives me an idea for the future.

That's it folks. I'm wrapping up. Thank you for staying tuned for these 3,000 words. GTO's post about used cars being better value did inspire me more to write this article. After two years of my ownership of this car with 18,000 km added to the odometer, it is solid and feels like it can easily go on for many more years!

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.