In my previous post, I detailed the somewhat painful, somewhat humorous journey that finally led us to the Hyundai dealer that had exactly the car my daughter was we were looking for at a fair price, the 2023 Elantra that got mentioned at the end of that entry.
Understand, this is not the world my wife and I grew up in. Nobody bought us cars or offered us theirs to keep. When my wife turned 16, she was informed by her stepfather that she would be taking a bank loan to purchase her mother’s 1980 Corolla – at full Blue Book – since they were purchasing a new one. I had been doing work for my self-employed mother for years and fortunately had saved enough money to purchase my first car at 16 without taking a loan. I’d also observed classmates whose parents bought them cars treat them in a way that demonstrated that they did not appreciate the generosity. Entitlement is not an attractive trait, and I did not want to see it in my own children.
However, I conceded that times, as well as my children, are different. My son’s ADHD made it very difficult for him to manage his homework even with medication, so an after-school job was never an option, and he wasn’t interested in driving anyway. I had to force him to get his learner’s permit during the summer between his sophomore and junior year, and he held onto it until it nearly expired two years later. In a desperate move half-way through his senior year, I offered him my Sonic if he could maintain his straight-A average through graduation.
Having walked through that door, it seemed only fair to make a similar offer to my daughter. Unlike my son, however, she knocks out her homework quickly so she can move on to more fun endeavors. If she could have gotten a job prior to age 16, she would have, but that’s next to impossible where we live. It was already becoming difficult to drive her to her various after-school activities when she informed us that she had stumbled into a job that would begin – daily – just after her 16th birthday. To maintain our sanity, she needed to receive this car as soon as she obtained her license.
It’s time to address the elephant in the COAL: If we were the ones buying the car, why was she able to have so much influence over the decision? Good question. For many people a car is an emotional purchase, and the level of the emotional bond generally dictates how well that car is cared for. I’d seen this play out first hand, very badly, when my parents bought my sister a Gremlin with her own money. As my daughter and sister have somewhat similar personalities and mannerisms, I knew the car didn’t have a hare’s chance at a hungry greyhound convention if she didn’t like it.
Back at the dealer, the overall experience, fortunately, wasn’t bad. We saw the car waiting for us when we pulled in, very dapper in Intense Blue with a gray interior. A quick walk-around confirmed that the car was in excellent shape. The salesman threw us the key and told us to take it for a test drive.
I drove first and immediately noticed that the car had 31k miles and not the advertised 29k. Even though we’d been looking at 3-year-old off-lease vehicles, this one was only a year old with about the same number of miles at only a slightly higher price. Our first thought was that the former owner drove for Uber or Lyft, but the interior condition was too nice for that, and it didn’t smell like they delivered for Grubhub either. It was likely driven by a salesperson, sales rep or consultant, which were the only jobs we could think of that would make it worthwhile to privately lease a car for one year and put that many miles on it. Another plus was that the car also had nearly 30k miles when they acquired it; the dealer also had to do a full service, including tires and front brakes, before putting it on the lot.
Both my wife and (unlicensed) daughter took a turn, and everyone loved how well it drove as well as how nice it looked. Back at the dealer, I tried to negotiate a lower price based on the extra miles, but since we were already getting the financing discount without financing, that was a no-go. Due to the low asking price, and after I told them to remove the VIN etching charge, we quickly came to an agreement when the final tally matched almost to the penny what I’d calculated on my spreadsheet.
I then told them that we needed to bring the car for a pre-purchase inspection before signing anything. They handed back the key and effectively told us to knock ourselves out. This was very different from what we experienced in Miami. Unfortunately, the mechanic I’d lined up told us he was too busy. We frantically called all the mechanics in the area until we found one who was willing to see us. My primary concern was undisclosed damage since, as a CPO vehicle, any mechanical issues would be covered under the remainder of the 5/60 bumper-to-bumper, 7/100 powertrain warranty. He gave the car the once-over, threw it up on the rack and pointed out all the places where there could be damage. To our relief, there wasn’t any. The only issue he could find was that the rear brake pads were at about 40%. To top it off, he didn’t charge us because the car was in such good shape and didn’t take much of his time.
We dropped the car back off at the dealer and went to our bank to get a cashier’s check. When we returned at the appointed time, they were finishing up with another customer and asked us to wait a few minutes. I did ask if they could balance the tires due to a slight vibration at highway speeds. The sales manager looked at me and said, “I’m not putting another penny into that car.” Based on how little they were likely making on the sale, I didn’t argue with him.
The “few minutes” turned into an hour and a half. The family in front of us was trying to lease a new Palisade with a 550 credit score. They were able to get the financing by changing the legal owner to the wife’s mother, but when the wife admitted the arrangement to the insurance company, they refused to insure it. I’m not sure how they ultimately worked it out or why the family was trying to lease Hyundai’s most expensive SUV in the first place. Since the couple had a new baby, my guess is that the wife had convinced her mother that the only way they could keep her grandchild safe on the road was in a $50,000 Palisade. I don’t see this ending well for the mother. On the bright side, they balanced the tires while we were waiting.
Fortunately, things went much easier for us, and we drove away in our new-to-us Elantra, now named Emiline (Emmi for short).
Introduced for the 1991 model year, the Elantra had always been Hyundai’s mediocre but pleasant compact offering. Its initial draw was the ability to buy a Corolla-size car at a Tercel price. That all changed for 2021 when Hyundai released the seventh generation. Its sleek fastback styling and origami-like “parametric dynamics” design language resulted in a car that looks much more expensive than it is. Its low, somewhat aggressive stance makes it look like it’s going fast standing still. When Hyundai introduced the 300-horsepower N shortly afterwards, it then had the performance to back up its looks. Not that the Hyundai pricing magic has disappeared completely – in the used-car market, the Elantra is still considerably less expensive than a comparable Civic.
The base SE is a very well-equipped car, and we would likely have been able to find one with 20k less miles for about the same price. However, this was also going to be my car for a year, and I had two big issues with the SE: The fact that it uses a physical key (in my life, I’ve had two keys break off in the ignition, which is massively inconvenient and expensive to fix) and 15-inch wheels that, like the Grinch’s heart before his epiphany, were two sizes too small.
Moving up to the SEL solves that problem somewhat, but I just don’t like the way the black-painted 16-inch wheels look. Besides very attractive 17-inch alloy wheels that nicely fill out the wheel wells and, to my eyes, just look perfect on the car, the Convenience package also included:
- Adaptive cruise control
- Enhanced forward collision mitigation system
- Leather-wrapped steering wheel
- 25-inch touchscreen with navigation
- 25-inch fully digital gauge cluster
- Heated front seats
- Wireless smartphone charging pad
Both my daughter and I agreed that these were worth the extra scratch.
With its sizeable trunk and 38-inches of rear legroom, we decided to press the Elantra into service as the family vehicle. The day after we signed the papers, we drove it down to New Jersey to visit friends and take in Six Flags Great Adventure. I generally like to RTFM before a trip like that, but there wasn’t time. The highlight was when I pushed the button with the picture of the steering wheel inside two lines to see what would happen, and the car started steering itself (Lane Following Assist). It was just so cool.
Another fun trick: by default, the black-on-white digital gauges change to red-on-black when Sport mode is engaged. Not that the 147-horsepower, 2.0-liter four and CVT are anywhere within the realm of “Sport”, but the combo was perfectly acceptable for my six-mile, all city-driving commute to work. When in ECO mode, with a light foot, the transmission acts like a typical CVT with no perceptible shifts. Change modes and/or put your foot into it, and you start feeling the shifts between the faux seven speeds. Regardless of mode, gas mileage is spectacular. With my all-city commute, I consistently saw close to the 30-MPG EPA estimate. I sometimes even beat the 40-MPG highway estimate on trips when the road was flat with little traffic.
Roughly half-way through my year with the car, I decided that the white-on-black gauges were just too bright at night, which I initially solved by changing to Sport mode. I then investigated what other clusters were available. Besides those two, there’s a white-on-dark-gray option and what I ultimately chose: 3-D cubes, which presents digital speed and RPMs inside a wireframe cube that “turns” every 10-mph. As much as my daughter loved the quick-change default trick, she decided to keep this cluster when she took the car.
In Connecticut, new drivers can obtain their license in as little as six months after receiving their learner’s permit. However, if they sign up with an accredited driving school, it drops to four months. My daughter had repeatedly asked for that, and I responded that if she was willing to pay for it, I had no problem. The conversation usually ended right there. For her 16th birthday, we teamed with my mother and sister to buy her the AAA teen driver program, and she passed her road test exactly four months later.
Her first week with the car was a classic “everything that can go wrong will.” On her first day driving to school, I received an angry text with, “YOU DIDN’T TEACH ME TO PARK NEXT TO A CURB” followed by a picture of one of those beautiful alloys with very evident curb damage. I’m sorry, but I thought I’d paid someone to do that for me…
For the Connecticut road test, drivers cannot look at the backup camera while backing up, only when stopped. They must be looking out the back window when moving. As you can clearly see from the pictures, the Elantra’s rear window points mostly to the sky. Nobody does this in the real world, but my daughter, unfortunately, was stuck in this mode a day or two after the curb incident when she was backing out of her friend’s one-car driveway, which had rock walls on either side. As hard as she tried to avoid hitting one of the walls, she scraped the side of the rear bumper. From then on, she backed up primarily to the camera and mirrors.
The scariest incident occurred that Friday when she and her friends went to the local golf course, which apparently is a lot of fun to wander around at night. Since drivers under 18 are not allowed to have friends in the car with them, she drove alone in the Elantra. After being chased off the golf course by either security or some madman, her friends all left while she plugged the home address into the navigation system. The next thing she knew, three guys, likely from the neighboring city, pulled in. One jumped out and started screaming about how this “c**t” was stealing “his” car and yanked open the driver’s door. Another one went around to the other side of the car, but, thankfully, chose to open the trunk and not the passenger door. My daughter, no shrinking violet, yelled, “This is MY f*****g car!”, pulled the door shut, quickly closed the windows and tore out of there. They put up a chase but lost her when she pulled into a friend’s driveway and cut the lights. She was, understandably, quite shaken and hysterical when she finally arrived home. We checked the trunk for air tags, but the other person seemed to just be searching for something to steal.
She now carries mace and a very loud alarm with her, and her friends have been informed that girl code dictates that EVERYONE LEAVES TOGETHER.
Fortunately, knock wood, nothing has happened since, and she still loves the car even though she doesn’t keep it as clean as we’d like. And now that I, again, have lost my daily driver, it was time to add another vehicle to the fleet.
I scraped a granite curb last year with my near new car. A ten dollar purchase of touch up paint sold by the manufacturer (exact color) got it 99% better.
Speaking of windows, every time I see one of these those cheater panels behind the rear doors irk me. If Hyundai was going to commit to that shape, they needed to COMMIT to it and give it 6 windows and a liftback.
Did your sister ever grow out of her “hard on cars” phase?
She’s only hard on cars she doesn’t like. She has a love/hate relationship with her current Cruze, but takes pretty good care of it.
That blue color is gorgeous.
Since I first experienced them almost 15 years ago, Hyundai/Kia has been the place to go for really nice cars at a reasonable price. I would have considered one when I bought my Charger, but a V6 sedan was no longer being offered. I hope H-K has finally sorted out the issues with its 4 cylinder engines.
“You didn’t teach me how to park next to a curb” Haha, you have to love teenaged daughters. Mine never said that to me, but I can hear the phrase in her voice anyway. And I’m sure glad she got away from those nasty dudes!
Stupid question. What is COAL?
“COAL” = “Cars Of A Lifetime,” which was what we were originally calling “auto-biography” posts about people’s experience with specific vehicles. We’ve been moving away from that acronym because it’s puzzling for new visitors, so you’re definitely not the only one who’s had that question.
I hope that your family has the same great experience with your blue Elantra as we had with the blue 2010 Elantra we bought for our high school aged daughter 16 years ago. After 175,000 miles of trouble-free service, I just donated it to Habitat for Humanity about a month ago. That humble little Hyundai helped us get through some difficult times without ever missing a beat.
Great story! I too didn’t want to be one of “those” dads who bought his kid a new or near new car. I originally imagined my kid inheriting my 2013 Outback, where I would add Blind Spot detection, etc. But the Outback was getting on in age and miles and was becoming needy, and I didn’t want to risk the kid breaking down someplace whether away at college or traveling there or back from our home 200 miles away.
She had no interest in getting her license in high school (I didn’t mind; I loved our time together in the car shuttling around) but started thinking about it once she got to college. I started looking for a vehicle for her during her freshman year and ultimately decided I wanted something strong and sound that she could depend on for at least 7-8 years. I happened upon a year-old Nissan Rogue with only 4k miles on it with a clean history for half its MSRP. That was 6 years ago, and the kid has been phenomenal with it; details it herself and pays for all its maintenance and insurance. I’m very proud of her.
I had the chance to rent an Elantra for a week when both my cars were in the shop. I was very impressed with it – the comfort, the safety systems, the storage room and the gas mileage (often 40+ on the highway). You made a good buy!
Thanks Dave!
First of all, great choice for a car name! “Emiline” (though spelled differently) is one of my daughters’ names – it’s an unusual name, so I’m glad to see it getting some use!
A lot of what you wrote about rings true for our family as well. My kids are about the same age as yours, and my oldest has rather profound ADHD, so managing schoolwork has been problematic, to say the least. She’s starting community college this fall, and will need a car then. I’m teaching her how to drive now.
My youngest has been much more eager to get her license; she’s 16 now, and is just one drivers-ed ride away from getting it. Neither kids have had “real” jobs, and like where you live, teenage jobs have largely disappeared. Very frustrating, in my opinion, and we’re really cheating our future generations by taking away these options. For me, summer and after-school jobs were great for both earning money (to buy a car, in my case), and for just getting real-world life skills.
Anyway, to the car. When searching for potential new(ish) cars, these Elantras always climb to the top for me. I’m glad to read the perspective of someone who’s bought one.
However, your daughter’s experience scraping the curb is the reason I wouldn’t want a car with low-profile tires, especially for my kids. Just one of my own items of paranoia. Also, that’s interesting about the Connecticut road test prohibition on drivers looking at the backup camera. I understand in theory, but many cars are like your Elantra, where visibility without the camera is just terrible. I don’t think that Virginia’s drivers’ test has that prohibition, but my daughter has mentioned that you’re required to visibly look over your shoulder when changing lanes, which is something I think is a bad idea – i.e., if your mirrors are correctly positioned, there’s no reason to take your eyes off the road to rotate your neck. Just one of those drivers-test things that new drivers need to deprogram themselves.
I’m glad your daughter didn’t let those parking lot scrapes deter her from driving. That kind of thing happens – almost a rite of passage for new drivers. The golf course parking lot experience is terrifying, though. A lot of that kind of stuff happens around here too, and the police often won’t even investigate it. A similar thing happened to the wife of a friend of mine, and while the guy was caught, he wasn’t prosecuted. Absolutely crazy.
Also, another thing that has concerned me a bit about used Hyundai/Kia cars is their requirement to use Top Tier fuel, and whether the previous owner did so. I’m not sure if that’s really worth worrying about, but it’s something I’ve thought of occasionally.
Anyway, this seems like a great car for your family. And as an added bonus, it’s not silver or gray too! Thanks for writing up this interesting car-buying experience.
Thanks Eric! I have a rental car review coming up where I talk about my experience with a car, a curb, and even lower profile tires 🙂
There’s nothing in the owner’s manual or on the filler door about “top tier fuel”, but I’m seeing a lot of posts about it on various forums. I clearly need to do some more research…
The reason I’m attuned to the Top Tier issue is because we have a Kia Sedona with a GDI engine. I can’t remember when I came across the Top Tier recommendation, but I too was surprised that it wasn’t more prominently mentioned, considering that it seems to be a pretty big deal (as far as carbon buildup w/ GDI engines).
It’s confusing though, because (as I’ve learned), “Top Tier” is really just a marketing program where fuel retailers pay to have their gas “certified.” I’ve read a lot of discussions on Kia threads about whether other gas stations actually use fuel that’s just as good as Top Tier, but they don’t pay for the advertising rights. I’ve just played it safe and bought only Top Tier fuel for that car, though I suspect that most major gas brands are just as good. I know there’s a lot of people with poor experiences with Hyundai/Kia engines but ours has 110,000 mi. and has been very durable.
See the discussion of TOP TIER here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/tech/why-gasoline-has-detergent-additives-and-why-more-detergent-isnt-necessarily-better/
It’s not a rubber-stamp marketing program. TOP TIER certification requirements are substantially more stringent than the EPA or CARB currently require, especially as regards turbocharged GDI engines. The actual testing isn’t performed by the TOP TIER program or the manufacturer; it has to be done by an accredited independent laboratory that “cannot be affiliated with a TOP TIER Licensee, a fuel marketer or the manufacturer of any additive package approved for use in TOP TIER™ Approved Gasoline.”
Here are the current certification standards for gasoline: https://www.toptiergas.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/TOP-TIER-Approved-Gasoline_Deposit-Control-Performance-Standard_Rev-G.pdf
I struggle every time I approach one of these cars and notice the Elantra badging. Isn’t an Elantra a small car? This looks bigger than a Sonata. I know this growth isn’t unusual, the Jetta and especially Civic are also examples of generational growth, but somehow the Elantra seems to have taken it to an extreme in just one generation. I love the color … I am a fan of blue vehicles, though I’ve only owned two, both pickups and in far more dull shades of blue than this.
It’s actually an inch shorter than the current Civic, but yes, they’ve all grown up. This generation is about two inches longer than the previous, so maybe the styling is effective in making it look even longer?
The increase in size is one of the reasons we were able to use it as the family car. My 5’10” and 5’11” children were quite comfortable in the roomy rear seat. Have you seen a Sonata lately? It’s Azera sized, which is likely, along with slow sales, why they dropped the Azera.
I love the colour on this. Good on you and your daughter for getting one that is not silver, black or white. Says the guy who currently owns a black car (but bought well used).
Those parking lot issues are discouraging but way better than an accident out on the road involving injuries!
Agreed. Of course, we still worry every time she’s on the road, but she had nearly a year under her belt now.
So Adam, apparently your sister and my sister in law (Beth Honig) were best friends way back in the day! I married Cindy Honig in 1984 and after reading the CC of the Gremlin, I sent it to Beth!
Anyway, I’m glad you found a solid car. We recently chose to help our son and gave him our 04 Grand Marquis when his 02 BMW got long in tooth for him. And looking for a car in a budget (I’m disabled and SSD isn’t a whole lot of money) was a challenge. Mrs Chip thought we wanted (my car you see!) a used Expedition. I knew i didn’t but test drove one to keep peace. It failed on my test drive when the check engine light began flashing! The same dealer had a nice and clean 17 Explorer (originally from Sawgrass Ford- you know where that is I’m sure) and the price was great.
Personally I don’t want to buy anymore cars-i belive 78 is enough! But you never know.
Hi Chip! I knew from some previous comments that you were in or around Ft. Lauderdale. What a coincidence! I remember Beth and my sister always brings her up when we talk about friends from Piper. Beth probably remembers this car (https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-extra-1985-honda-civic-crx-never-co-sign-for-a-car-loan/) even more than the Gremlin.
Yes! We lived in Davis in Honey Lake across from Shenandoah! And I owned Riverland Hardware out on Davie Blvd across from St Thomas high school!
I’ll share that with Beth for sure. I guess those two were a bit on the wild side! Cindy was/is definitely the rooted daughter. So then my stories about my father in law Paul now make more sense! He recently pawed away (a good thing as he was not mentally well) but he and I worked together at the hardware before I bought it from him. And oh my did he have a variety of cars! When we met, he was driving an 82 280 ZX and the wife (Ethel) drove an 83 Continental.
Anyway, I enjoy the chronical stories.
Hyundai has come a long way since the Excel.
I really like this current generation. In some interior dimensions it’s actually larger than the Sonata. The exterior looks great and this is a great colour for it.
By the way, the two displays are 10.25 inches, not 25 inches.
Also so sorry to hear about the scary incident your daughter has!
Thanks William. Somewhere between MS Word and WordPress the “10.” got dropped and I didn’t catch it. Sorry about that.