It’s the battle of the front-drive heroes, established swag versus the brand new child, the Honda Civic Sort R versus the Hyundai Elantra N. Editor-at-large Alanis King and I took the 2 sport compact heroes to the canyons to search out out a easy query: Which is best?
Finances efficiency has by no means been higher. Although “low-cost” is a relative time period, the $45,595 Civic Sort R and $35,100 Elantra N are the head of front-driven sport compact vehicles, and are each within the realm of attainability. The problem is simply how shut the Hyundai Elantra N will get for over $10,000 much less.
Even with that value hole, the Elantra N and CTR really feel like a pure comparability, two vehicles which have broadly related specs, functions, and audiences. But, they do not sort out the difficulty of front-drive in the identical method. Every automotive leverages know-how in nearly diametrically opposed methods, with the Elantra making the perfect of mechanical grip, whereas the Sort R makes use of brake vectoring trickery to bend physics to its will.
Right here’s the kicker: With its 2025 updates, the Elantra N will get startlingly near the Sort R in outright efficiency. The place earlier than you could possibly make the argument that the worth hole was justified by efficiency, now the Elantra does the identical job with a lot much less. Now, it’s much less about pace and extra about what both automotive does emotionally. The vibes, if you’ll.
We decided, and also you’ll have to observe the video to search out out. Take pleasure in.
