2013 Elantra

Jan 04, 2016 3 Replies

For what it's worth, I bought a new Elantra in 2013 and so far here are my opinions of it.



Pro



Great gas mileage, I'm getting about 38 mpg per tank with mostly rural off-highway driving. On the interstate I get about 40 mpg. This is with an auto transmission. It the first auto I've ever owned in 50 years of driving and I like it. They did a good job on it.



Cons



Low-profile tires. I never had low profiles before, and the ride seems very harsh to me. Perhaps it's the way the suspension was designed? I've got 34k miles on the car and the rear tires are not doing well. The tire guy says they have some slight bulges which are very audible at lower speeds.



There was no spare tire with this car. Not even one of those "donuts". All it has is a 12v compressor with a can of Hundai's version of Fix-A-Flat (someone told me it costs $80 to replace??). I didn't think to check for a tire or donut as I would never have imagined a new car without one or the other. My mistake. BTW, any suggestions on where I can get an inexpensive wheel that I can use with one of the old tires as a spare?


Low profile looks good but don't take the bumps as well. If you replace all 4 at the same time you should be able to go up a notch on the profile. I did that on one of my Sonata and it had a smoother ride. OEM tires are "acceptable" but not the best available.

The trend in many small cars is to eliminate the spare to save weight to meet MPG requirements. You can get a real spare from the dealer but it is probably not the best price. Not sure if this is your model but it may be. You can also check the junk yards. May even get a decent spare tire on it.

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I like my 2014 a lot. I don't really know the differences from 2013, mine is a GT. I don't find the tires too low profile. Mine has a 2.0 engine, I'm thinking maybe the 2013 has the 1.8? Mine is also automatic. I don't get anywhere near the mileage you get, but I still consider it good. Oh, and mine has a doughnut spare, I honestly looked into that before buying because I alree no spare sucks! I suggest you check your tire pressure, and possible considering lowering it a little...of course that depends on what it is.

On Tue, 05 Jan 2016 12:32:04 -0500, jtees4 wrote in

Thanks Ed and jtees4 for the comments.

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