2022 Hyundai Elantra N

ProDarwin said:

Maxdriver said:

I bought a new Civic SI a month ago. Absolutely love it. Great gear box and plenty of power for around town.

I test drove a manual EN last week. I liked basically everything about it except for the manual transmission. I stalled it out 3 times and I've been driving manuals for 40 years. I eventually got the hang of it, but it doesn't compare to the SI transmission, which is so easy to use.

See my post above regarding throttle programming.  

The point still stands though, Kia/Hyundai somehow really drop the ball on this part :(

I just drove the Elantra N this weekend at a dealer who let me be more rompy than I would have thought (it was a CPO car, so I wasn't really considering this particular car, but needed to drive one before the real hunt begins). I didn't have an issue with the clutch in particular. I drove the new '23 WRX, '23 Civic Si, '22 EN, and '23 Integra A-spec (MT) all in the same day and the EN was the clear winner, but the Honda products and the Hyundai had essentially the same exact clutch feel to me.

I did a quick setup on the custom N mode with the engine all the way up and rev matching off—then kicked back to normal driving mid-test to feel out the suspension. The clutch was a non-issue but the throttle mapping was better in the higher engine mode(s). I see no reason with all the customization to ever not have the engine up purely for the throttle mapping... you can always kick it down on the freeway with the steering wheel buttons for fuel economy if you feel like you need to.

For reference, my manual car experience has been: 

• 1972 Datsun 510, stock clutch
  • Datsun 510, 280ZX transmission and clutch
  • Datsun 510, custom clutch
  • Datsun 510, back to 280ZX clutch
• 1992 Nissan Sentra SE-R, stock clutch
  • Sentra SE-R, JWR clutch (this was a mistake)
• 2006 Infiniti G35, JWT clutch + Fidanza aluminum flywheel (miss this car)
• 2016 Subaru BRZ, stock clutch (weirdly the least forgiving transmission/clutch I've ever driven aside from my wife's Berlina)
• 2019 Ford Fiesta ST, stock clutch — the softest and most comparable to the EN and Civic Si I've driven

In reply to mtdatsun :

The Forte GT is similar. Throttle maps feel most normal in Sport and first layer of TCS off.  No hit to economy if you keep your foot out of it that I can tell. 

I have almost 60,000km's (37,000 miles) on N-Line Elantra.  It is the 6spd manual transmission and it is one of the easiest cars to get off the line.  I went from a 2007 Mini Cooper S to this car and the Mini was harder to be smooth with off the line.  I have to say that if I could afford the full N package I would probably buy it, but I cannot see the need for my Daily Driver to have 300 HP. 

With the lack of available used cars, I keep getting bugged by the dealer to trade my 2019 N-Line in for something newer, but I just am not a fan of the new look.  I like my Hatchback.

In reply to bobzilla :

Yes, I second this. On my Forte GT, the throttle is lethargic in Normal mode. In Sport mode, it's as snappy as anything else I've driven. 

My car doesn't have Sport or Normal modes.  It is always on I guess, but I don't find it sluggish. 

In reply to Mike924 :

What year? Being Canadian I have to guess it's still the 1.6T that we got down here but sometimes y'all got some weird combos. I know the older Forte 1.6T did not have modes either. 

In reply to bobzilla :

It's a 2019 model year.  Yes the 1.6 Turbo, but the manual trans makes it fun.  Some people don't like how I take the round-abouts here, but they are just uneducated drivers!  LOL  :P

In reply to livinon2wheels :

Manual does amazing when driving around and at WOT. But yes, from a stand still it can be troublesome and I have killed it a handful of times. Can't really feel the clutch bite point. Mainly happens in Normal or Eco mode. But I just give it a bit more gas and it seems to be fine in those modes. Glad I found this post and it wasn't just me. The car also has a feature where it will not roll back when the clutch is pushed in on an incline. No way to turn that off though.

"It's got electronic throttle input to get you moving from a stop..this is its downfall as it will drop the revs right at bite point. Making feathering hard you will have to add more revs to combat this and waste a bit of clutch"

In reply to El3antraN :

I have the "Auto-Hold" option as well on my N-Line.  I do have the button to disable that mode.  It is behind the handbrake button.  I wish I had a real hand brake though.  That is one of my negatives about the car.