What It's Like to Live with a 2024 Hyundai Elantra N DCT (POV)

Hey crew! I've got the key to this 24 Hyundai Elantra N and today we're going to see what it's like to live with. Starting with the spacing in my driveway which is 16 feet wide by 19 and a half feet long. I've got the car parked a couple inches in from the edge sitting next to a big hulking Toyota Sequoia that my wife is reviewing. If you want to check out her content it's at mobilemama on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. She's got that one parked just an inch from the edge and with that spacing there is plenty of room to walk between the vehicles and even wheel a double stroller through. The nose of the Elantra N is right there at the beginning of the driveway and at the back of the vehicle there's still lots of space enough to walk on the path to my front door. And before I hop in I might as well give you a quick demo of the remote start feature which not only gets the car warm or the climate going but it also allows us to hear the idle which is a resonant trumpet from the turbo four-cylinder. Now first hopping inside with the key fob in my pocket I can just put my hand on that handle that will unlock the doors and this is one door notch opening. We'll see if I can go two. I can. I can't swing all the way out but that is just as far as I need to easily access this cabin and it's a pretty low sedan so getting down I do have to bend those knees but it's not bad. Hey cabin crew thanks for joining for this day in the life in the Hyundai Elantra N. Now in this video I want to see if this performance enhanced compact sedan is too aggressive for daily life. I'll begin by showing you where I stashed the items I bring with me. My smartphone is sitting on the wireless charging pad. Sunglasses are just to the right of that. Key fob is chilling in the cup holder inside the console. There is enough room for my race box zero to 60 timer, a granola bar, and my wallet. Unfortunately there's no cubby big enough in this cabin to hold my large water bottle so I just have a plastic single-use bottle here in the door pocket and my GoPro accessories also don't have enough space anywhere so they're in the passenger footwell. If it were a chillier morning I would have the seat heaters going but alas we're now in summer so I don't need that. The handbrake's going down into drive and as I roll forward I do have those curb ramps helping me with the gutter in front of my driveway in terms of clearance but I don't think the Elantra N would really need them anyway and away we go. On my way to grab some coffee this morning we can talk about the around town ability of the Elantra N. So one thing this vehicle has that not a lot of compact sedans have is a dual clutch transmission and what that means is it is going to be a little bit clunkier than a torque converter automatic in terms of the gear changes but as far as dual clutches go this one isn't all that abrupt in the gear changes certainly not at speed but even as you go to the brakes and start slowing typically when you get to like five miles per hour and it's going from second to first gear it does start to be a little more jolty but I really don't feel much of that at all in the Elantra and also the brakes are very easy to just smoothly come up to that stop and then when it's time to roll forward again it's smooth here too now here's a chance to listen for the turn signal sound which is so very gentle I like that noise what about the turning radius how's that yeah it's a front drive car and so the front tires are pushed out as you apply throttle but it's an acceptable turning radius and let's say someone cuts me off in the Elantra N what does the horn sound like oh oh someone hurt this horn listen to this oh sorry on a more uplifting note the last time I was in the Elantra N I noted the ride quality was really firm around town but the updated suspension bushings they have in this 24 model has really affected the ride positively so that it feels more subdued over just little undulations and harsher impacts you're not going to get away from the fact that it does move around on the road more so than a non-performance sedan but that's kind of what you're expecting buying the sporty sedan however I'm at least not punished in these seats which are pretty comfortable at that they don't have a whole lot of adjustability I can just kind of lower or raise them but the shape of the buckets hold my body well in place not necessarily everyone is going to fit easily in them but I do and at six feet tall I still have headroom not a lot of it but there's some and then in this normal drive mode it doesn't just throw all the power at you it builds in a gentle way and there are of course two reasons for that one it is a turbocharged motor so it has to build up the boost but two it's just not throttle mapped in a way that wants to bite your head off all the time so then along with the 24 model years more mature styling you're getting a car that at least knows how to act mature in the right context it's just about time for coffee now and I have arrived here at White Sparrow and there's a parking space that has just emerged for me they must have known I was coming backup camera isn't the highest resolution but it shows me enough of what I need to see to secure a decent parking job all right got my decaf latte and this looks like a good opportunity to do a high curb test in the Elantra N is it going to clear yes thankfully it does so you can get in it's not too low of a sedan now why on earth would I get decaf coffee well this video is a perfect metaphor decaf coffee is like coffee without the caffeine edge and I'm trying to see if the Elantra N has a softer edge when you're daily driving it oh look at this cup holder situation so you've got a bigger cup holder here a smaller one and then an insert now the insert is going to raise up the level of coffee so you can grab it more easily or I guess we've got a longer cylinder thing then it can go down deeper into the hole good thinking Hyundai there is just one small problem with this design and that's that if the cup fits perfectly in the insert takes the insert with it stage two of livability is a highway commute and I happen to have one on the way to a good driving road and as I'm getting up to speed here I might want to use the end grin shift feature which automatically gives me 10 extra horsepower and downshifts me so that I have all the passing power I would ever need oh and some overrun which I just want now as I'm making those passes I am going to need to be able to see around me and so how is the visibility in this Elantra out over the hood no issues there the hood's actually pretty downturned so I can see the road in front of me very clearly the door mirrors are large enough and there is blind spot monitoring as standard the side glass well it's got this concave nature to the belt line so it actually decreases the height of the glass but it's still tall enough but there is a bigger blind spot at that back pillar so I am thankful again for the blind spot monitoring and the view of the back is decent so I'm going to say visibility is a b in the Elantra and then the cabin volume at these highway speeds there's a good deal of noise in here wind noise tire noise both on quieter tarmac and then louder road surfaces I hear a lot of that now this is a $36,000 vehicle it's not going to bridge into the luxury segment at all but you are going to be talking loudly to get your message across to fellow passengers now if you can get over the noise level then you are going to be thankful for at least a couple things when cruising on the highway for one the steering doesn't require a whole lot of input to just track straight and two you do have a lane centering assist you don't get adaptive cruise control interestingly enough those two are typically paired together so if you set the cruise control you are going to have to monitor how far you are from the vehicles in front of you but at the very least you will have the centering assist to help so here's a curve and we can just watch it follow the trajectory while not having input from my hands now it's not really a hands-free system I'm just using this to demonstrate but it does help reduce some driving fatigue on longer commutes I really wish there was adaptive cruise and let's see if the sound system can't block out some of the ambient volume in this cabin there is Apple CarPlay and Android Auto but it's not wireless so you need to carry around a USB-A cord with you just leave in the car I guess and plug that in every time you want to use the system find some music get the tunes going adequate it's not great certainly as you raise the volume there's definite distortion but the and the bass the bass is also pretty weak but it makes noise and it might in a small way distract you from all the road volume I do appreciate that when you're not sitting in traffic and therefore don't have all the time in the world to look away from the road to figure out how to change the climate control system when it's baked into the touchscreen like some new cars the Elantra N allows you to keep your eyes on the road and just find the dial quickly and crank it up or down to adjust the temperature and press a button to increase or decrease the fan speed it's just safer and when you are using the touchscreen that's really quick responding and everything is laid out in a logical way and however long the commute may be at least you're comfortable seats are great and finally I made it to a good driving road which means it's time for a real world zero to sixty test I've got my race box set up to record here and I'd love to tell you we're going to do launch control now because the Elantra N does have launch control but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work in this vehicle and I've spent a half hour on the forums following all the steps I'm supposed to do to get launch control to initiate but alas there's at least a couple people like me who tried everything perfectly ultimately they had to take the cars into the dealership have the dealership update the software and it worked so I guess I'm in that situation so I am still in the N mode I have ESC in sport just for funsies I'll activate launch control I have to go 100% on the brake pressure as I'll do now go quick to the throttle fully and it should be banging off at 3000 rpm but it's just building up to 2000 I'm letting go of the brake and there's 60 in 5.49 seconds it's torturing the front tires to make me happy but what about NGS you say let's find out if it's any quicker got that activated now full on brake full throttle building up slowly getting it ready let's go and there's 60 in 5.50 seconds precisely the same but launch control or not NGS or not five and a half seconds to 60 is quick and it comes with some drama too because the integrated drive shaft in this Elantra N shudders violently off the line and yet doesn't seem to affect how it gets the power just to the front tires with the aid of the electronic limited slip differential just no waste of power to a tire that doesn't have grip this thing hurdles down the roadway it sounds good doing it a good melody from the turbo four-cylinder excellent grip and stability the dual clutch in automatic mode is working really well here and more than anything I'm just pleased with the steering feel the way it builds resistance through the corner tells me everything I need to know about the grip threshold the brakes respond beautifully excellent initial bite and then strong power to haul this vehicle down all right I gotta try manual mode now see what the dual clutch does here excellent speed to the shift down and up like the visuals of the shift light indication and that acoustic chime so if I had my eyes up on the road as it should be I can just hear that it's time to shift and I don't have to look down and for your passengers not really for you there are other visuals on the infotainment screen throttle percentage brake pressure what gear you're in oh what a fun car you can get a little rotation from it too play with the throttle and the lift off get the back end to scoot around and then tuck it back in this thing is seriously quick 276 horsepower when not using NGS and then when using it 286 and all the while 289 pound-feet of torque it's plenty obviously if you buy a car like this it's primarily because you love driving and the Elantra N is so equipped to satisfy that you owe it to yourself to at least every once in a while take it to a road like this and really indulge instead of just scooting around town but scooting around town is how you'll spend most of your time so let's get back to this and here's a nifty around town feature let's say you're distracted while at a stoplight you're reaching down here for your sunglasses or whatever and the cyber truck starts to drive away well you'll hear a chime and that means you need to be paying attention and going when everyone else is i am hungry now and the smell wafting over from in and out is just too much to resist good afternoon how are you hope you don't mind i'm just making a youtube video here i love this setup brother nice that's cool can i please have a three by one with onions with chopped chilies and no tomato and then an order of fries thanks don't you do you know for long drive-through lines like in and out an auto hold feature would be really nice but i have to go into park if i want to take my foot off that brake thanks very much and i think i'll enjoy my three by one and fries in the back of the elantra end so i can tell you about the accommodations like all of this leg room behind my own seat at six feet tall my head doesn't clear the roof though so i gotta slouch forward which is fine for now but not for long distance journeys there are two usb c ports down there but you know air vents none of them that would be very nice and also if i had a drink i'd have no place to put it because there isn't an armrest that comes down thankfully in and out makes up for all of the lack of convenience features with deliciousness so good now we need to get groceries and i'll do that here at sprouts well it's not a big grocery run but it does give me a chance to see about the trunk capacity of this elantra n and the release button is right here i really wish the trunk lid popped up more and also i wish it stayed up because it just comes right back down unless you get it all the way past the point and make sure it stays there now inside the trunk there's a good amount of room but because of the bracing there you're not going to fold the seats flat and get anything through not an issue for groceries but what is an issue is the fact that there aren't any grocery hooks in this trunk so the stuff's just going to fly all over the place if i drive this car enthusiastically like i really want to and i think that's going to about do it for today i will see you guys tomorrow when mobile mama joins me to talk about the family friendliness of this elantra and mobile mama what you always yell at me and yell welcome right here it's a small well no this is it this is your favorite type of vehicle i know it is a compact sporty and therefore less comfortable sedan that's just my favorite yes there's nothing wrong with it it's just not my cup of tea yeah but okay let's say let's say okay let's say you had a daily driver honda crv rav4 ish thing and this was mine and we're together and we've got kids it's hypothetical right like we don't have kids i don't know what that's like but what are you saying so you're going separately in this vehicle no it's just my car like say this is my car you've got your rav4 you already have a car that's really powerful that we don't write in go with me on this okay all right all right what do you think of it could this be your second family car and you would like tolerate being in that seat and have the kids with us yeah i mean we'd have to see how the car seats fit but we will this is fine i have lots of leg right i have lots of leg room that's nice i get this little grab handle as a rest for my leg that's how you think of that yeah because i'm not gonna really be grabbing are you sure i can make you need to what i i don't know what scenario i would need to do this yeah when i tear off yeah um the seats are sporty but actually comfortable didn't gear up for that they just are that good these are great seats they are good for this segment for this price do they have some lumbar support no no they don't have those things but um and they don't adjust very much oh but you know the back angle and the slide you got that yeah i like the suede here it is a nice little feel yeah i like that this gives it a little elevated touch yeah because otherwise i mean they're plastic yeah lots of plastics and then you know you just get a strip of ambient lighting just a thin strip it's more than some cars have and for 36k i think that's pretty good use the grab handle i am going this way yeah but you still still need it no i'm good now that i've settled down um do you think it it rides comfortably enough yeah i mean you feel the bumps and everything but it's not like jarring you'll probably like the motion a little less even after we eat lunch oh definitely which here we are we made it to our lunch spot here we are make a good impression oh szechuan impression yeah we're trying something new today we never do this we always find this go to the same spots but today look everyone's backed in should i back in like they are yeah or just go against the green now i'm gonna i'm gonna conform okay i'm gonna conform here we go but you didn't finish your thought we're trying something new yeah we never do new things and i'm also just like everyone else but i chose the sporty offering not the civic okay so we got the schoolyard hot pot noodle the kung pao chicken and some rice looks good to me what do you think let's try it let's go wow that was a lot of cool meter cool notice how my mood changes it does it does and especially when it's good food and that was very good food positive impression and you got boba along seriously yeah why is that in there you got that along with your from one of our favorite spots here ding tea and now we should go install some car seats gosh darn it you can get there so good hey oh no all right we've got our car seats the rear-facing one and this forward-facing one let's put them in our car yeah that's a great idea anyway how many lower latch anchors and top tethers do we have the usual two sets of lower latch anchors and three three tethers okay let's first try to see how easy or difficult it is to get these bad boys in here the doors easy for me yeah the doors have been pretty wide let's swing it on in okay that was simple can i start is that all right by all means no i know i know you really want to jump in because you live and breathe this stuff is all you want to talk about i think you're more excited go for it i am i really am excited because not only was it easy to get the seat in there but then the fact that the headrest actually lifts up that adjusts which you don't always get in these economy vehicles right i mean you don't you don't get air vents oh that's sort of a bummer oh that's a big negative and yeah for kids they're really gonna want the air so that's just that's a huge problem for me but the headrest come up so i can get the tether in through and then cinch it down nice and tight and yeah and we're good what about you what's going on with you it was real easy i didn't have to move my seat at all and i just plopped it in and clicked it so we know we're gonna fit so can we officially say this one is family approved they said i was more excited what's going on okay you ready to go to the park tolly all right can you get in pretty easy looks like it nice are you warm back there tell you or is it is it okay you're warm no air vents gotta crank the ac up here what do you think of this car wow or good good is it bumpy riding or smooth riding bumpy tolly do you know this car has a button just for smiling it's a button that makes you smile it's called n grin shift and grinning is smiling you want to smile okay so you want to blast off okay let's do it three two one do you like the noises yeah the rumbling the pops yep me too so you think it looks really fast like it's gonna be fast yeah yeah okay and when i did the blast off did it feel fast enough yeah okay do you want to do another one yeah okay here we go three two one that was fast enough i agree a lot of cars here yeah but we made it we made it to the park wait what were you just saying about this car it's really low so you can step in and out easily that makes a lot of sense hey another benefit of a sports sedan it's lowered which makes it easy for kids to get in and out oh that fuel gauge is looking awfully low it's time to fill this 12.4 gallon tank and the epa rates the elantra n at 20 mpg city 27 on the highway and 23 combined and if i saw that 23 combined then i'd have a fuel range of 285 miles but i've been seeing 17.3 miles per gallon and at current fuel prices of five dollars and 17 cents for 91 octane fuel that is required in the elantra n it's gonna cost me 64 bucks to fill this tank and there isn't capless fueling well crew at the beginning of this video i pondered whether the performance focused elantra n could take it easy on owners when not carving corners and after spending some quality time with it i can attest to a number of ways it proves pleasant a bouncy but not harsh ride accompanies supremely comfortable bucket seats some nice features like remote start and wireless phone charging add convenience and the car seat accommodations are great but there are some gaps in livability like the lack of rear air vents that's tough for passengers young and old no trunk bag hooks and a heavy unassisted lid isn't well designed and the cabin volume gets elevated on the highway the driving dynamics are so good and the baseline comforts are solid enough that the elantra n does make a good candidate for ownership i hope you guys have enjoyed this day in the life and i'll see you again next time