2013 Hyundai Veloster W/gray Int on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Hyundai Elantra GT N Line expands N performance lineup with mild upgrades

Down with the Hyundai Elantra GT Sport, long live the Elantra GT N Line! For 2019, Hyundai is ditching the Sport moniker for its Elantra hatchback in order to align with the naming for its new N performance kingdom. So, technically, the GT Sport isn't going anywhere, as it's essentially the same model. With slight aesthetic, powertrain, and chassis upgrades, the GT N Line marks history for the Hyundai as the introduction of the mildly spicy N Line trim to the U.S. market. Hyundai sees itself as having five different tiers of vehicles. It starts with the base models, the next-highest are the N Line vehicles, and N performance automobiles are above that. Atop all three of these vehicles will be a halo car that Hyundai considers a "brand shaper," with motorsport cars representing the top-level pinnacle of development. An option for custom N features will also be available across the base, N Line, and N vehicles. In theory, the structuring is roughly similar to that seen on some Volkswagen vehicles. VW only offers an R high-performance model on the Golf. Several other vehicles in the lineup, however, are available in R-Line trims, which option the models with more attitude. Now that Hyundai has introduced the Veloster N high-performance model, Hyundai will offer the lower-tier N Line trim on multiple vehicles. The Elantra GT N Line is sensibly the first. Make no mistake assuming Hyundai stopped at simply changing the name of the car. Using the 2018 Elantra GT Sport as the bar, Hyundai claims it has increased the engine mount stiffness by 6.3 percent, trans mount stiffness by 24 percent, and the "rollroad" mount stiffness by 37.1 percent. The springs were also stiffened up 14.3 percent in front and 21.9 percent in the rear. The stability bar diameter drops from 24 mm to 23 mm in the front but increases from 14 mm to 17 mm in the rear. The shocks and steering also received fresh tunes, but Hyundai does not list the car's increase in overall rigidity. The cherries on top are new 18-inch Michelin Pilot Sport 4 summer tires on the manual model that replace the old GT Sport's old 18-inch Hankook all-seasons. The car's performance remains the same. It carries over the 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that makes 201 horsepower and 195 lb-ft of torque. It is offered with a six-speed manual transmission for $24,185 or a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with paddle shifters for $25,285.

Sonata, Elantra driving down Hyundai quality scores

Hyundai was the butt of many jokes in the auto industry when it first entered the US market, but since then, it has forged ahead and built cars that stand with the best in their respective segments. The 2011 Sonata and 2011 Elantra were seen as the apotheosis of the brand's forward progress when they were introduced, but falling J.D. Power and Associates Dependability Study results may actually cause them to hurt the company's hard-earned reputation.
J.D Power's study examines three-year-old vehicles for problems per 100 vehicles. Since the 2011 study for 2008 model year cars, Hyundai has fallen from 10th overall with 132 problems to 27th in the 2014 survey of 2011 model year vehicles with 169 problems. It was also Hyundai's second consecutive year of an increase in reported problems. According to Automotive News, many of these problems are due to faults with the Sonata and Elantra, but J.D. Power didn't identify specifically what issues caused Hyundai's dependability to tumble so far down the list. However, the study found that, on average, reliability fell throughout the industry for the first time since 1998.
Getting the Sonata and Elantra right are vital to Hyundai. In 2013, they were the company's best-selling cars. "We'll be closely going through the data to see where improvements need to be made. Hyundai's goal is nothing short of quality leadership, and the report shows we have work to do," Hyundai spokesperson Jim Trainor said in an email to Autoblog.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.