 2013 Honda Civic vs 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT. Click image to enlarge |
Originally published May 29, 2013
Review and photos by Jonathan Yarkony
Here in Canada, compact cars are the transport of the masses. Affordable, practical and efficient, a compact car can serve as anything from a teenager’s first car to a small family vehicle or from a template for tuners to a retiree’s transport. It has to be everything to everyone if it hopes to have the kind of success that the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla have had for years.
So what does it need to do well? Often as not, these small cars are a family’s only car, and all four seats, if not five, see heavy use, so it has to be spacious despite its compact dimensions. Then again, these also often serve as a family’s commuter car for mom or dad while the other schleps the kids around in a minivan or crossover. This is a smart choice, piling kilometres on the efficient and hopefully reliable vehicle that, because of its inherent simplicity and widespread availability, is also cheaper to maintain.
The wide variety of drivers means that these vehicles must offer as broad a spectrum of handling and comfort in order to appeal to the masses and styling that will attract new customers, or at least appease interested shoppers that are lured in by brand reputation. It’s a fine line to walk, but the rewards are huge sales volumes and capturing new drivers with the hope of keeping them loyal to the brand, and trading in for newer and bigger models down the road.
    2013 Honda Civic & 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT. Click image to enlarge |
Right now, the two cars dominating the compact car sales charts are the Honda Civic and Hyundai Elantra. The Civic’s 2013 emergency refresh seems a moot point since it still managed to shift almost 65K units last year, its best numbers since 2008, but Honda doesn’t just want to sell cars, they want to maintain their reputation of building good cars. No question the 2013 Civic is a notable improvement, but is it enough to compare favourably to a car that won a previous Autos.ca Comparison Test of leading compact cars?
The Hyundai Elantra is a relative upstart in this segment, basically an afterthought until 2009, but since then steadily climbing, selling over 50,000 Elantras in 2012 as they rolled out a hatchback replacing the Touring wagon and an all-new coupe.
So far in 2013, the Elantra has sold 16,872 while the Civic is at 16,711 through April. Could it get any closer?
This new hatchback, the so-called Elantra GT, is the model that won the aforesaid comparison, and in our opinion, is superior to the Elantra sedan in many ways beyond simple cargo-carrying capacity. Is it an unfair advantage to compare the Elantra GT hatchback to the Civic sedan? I’d be more than willing to compare it to a Civic hatchback just as soon as Honda decides we North Americans deserve one again, but until then, the Civic faces this same disadvantage in the showrooms as they do in this test.
There are many other new entries in this segment that we are eager to test, but we await the arrival of a new Mazda3 and Corolla on the horizon before revisiting this segment in a compact car Battle Royale.
Features/Value:
Press fleets being what they are here in Canada, equipment on our specific models varied, so let’s start from base equipment and look at the differences.
The Elantra line starts from $15,949 for the sedan and $19,949 for the coupe. The GT starts at $17,999 with a six-speed manual transmission, 16-inch steel wheels, heated power mirrors, rear wiper, six speakers, air conditioning, power locks, centre console storage, cloth seating, cooled glove box, USB and auxiliary jacks, power windows, tilt and telescopic steering wheel with ‘Driver Selectable Steering’ and a trip computer.
    2013 Honda Civic & 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT. Click image to enlarge |
The Civic sedan starts at $15,440 and the coupe at $18,645. In base trim, the Civic offers a five-speed manual transmission, Econ mode and Eco Assist system, tilt and telescoping steering wheel, power windows, six-way adjustable driver seat, 15-inch steel wheels, halogen headlights with auto-off. The $18,245 LX (at an equivalent price to the base Elantra GT) adds body-coloured mirrors and door handles, keyless entry, cruise control with steering wheel controls, USB connector and auxiliary jack, air conditioning, heated front seats and 60/40 split-folding rear seat. No matter how much the seats split and fold, this sedan will never match the cargo capacity of the Elantra hatch.
Both have identical $1,495 Freight/Destination charges, which is odd, since you figure it would cost Honda less to ship Civics from the plant in Alliston, Ontario to anywhere in Canada than it does for Hyundai to ship Elantra sedans from Montgomery, Alabama, and GTs and coupes from Ulsan, Korea. US Destination Fees? Essentially half: $795 for the Elantra GT vs $790 for the Civic. Does it feel to anyone else like we are subsidizing American sales?
The Elantra GT we tested was the GLS Auto model, MSRP $22,599, and the nearest Civic equivalent would be the EX with automatic transmission at $21,445, but for the sake of argument, let’s look at the equipment on the SE Auto, its $24,349 MSRP almost even with the $24,900 Civic Touring that we tested, and the best way to highlight the value quotient for each model. The SE Auto, as implied in the name, is equipped with an automatic transmission, and it has six forward gears. The Civic’s auto has five. The Elantra GT equipment list: power heated mirrors, fog lights, a glorious panoramic sunroof, mirror-mounted turn signal indicators, 17-inch alloy wheels, auto headlights, front wiper de-icer, keyless entry, satellite radio, steering wheel audio controls, heated front seats, Bluetooth hands-free phone and audio, eight-way power driver’s seat with lumbar support, leather seating and steering wheel, auto-dimming rearview mirror with HomeLink, dual-zone auto climate control, additional
The fully loaded Civic Touring trim we booked had a five-speed auto, 17-inch alloys, power moonroof, fog lights, speed-sensing variable-intermittent windshield wipers, navigation, multi-angle rearview camera, auto climate control, multi-information display, hands-free voice command and Bluetooth phone and audio, six-speaker audio, leather seating and steering wheel, and eight-way power adjustable driver’s seat and heated front seats and mirrors.
The differences: the size of the sunroof on the Elantra GT, which spans essentially the entire roof compared to the dinky little roof window in the Civic, while the Civic outguns the Elantra with a nav system and back-up camera for which you’d have to pay an extra $2,000 to step up to the Elantra GT SE Tech Auto. Not that I’m a huge fan of navigation systems, but credit where credit is due – the Honda has a slight edge on the feature list at the same price point, a not uncommon mark-up for hatchback models.
However, for those shopping for a car right now, the Hyundai website lists a $3,200 price adjustment on GLS models, working out to about $21K with Destination charges for the automatic. Both Hyundai and Honda are offering $1,000 on most Civic and Elantra GT models. You’re on your own digging up financing and leasing rates.
Design and Utility
I’ll cut right to the chase here. Hyundai wins, hands down. In both visual appearance, interior design and packaging efficiency, the Elantra GT sweeps the category.
Perhaps the Civic ran into a biased judge (me), but I’ve never warmed to the Civic sedan since its 2006 redesign, and neither the 2012 design or 2013 refresh have done anything to change my mind. Are the taillights nice? Sure, and I really appreciate the chrome strip across the trunk, but the Civic’s futuristic melting blob, the sloping windshield and short stubby front hood and trunk decklid just turn me off. No amount of trim and grille tweaking will win me over. Oddly, I find the Civic coupe very appealing, particularly in Si trim. Go figure.
Sure, opinions of styling can differ, but I talk to a lot of people about cars and few of them would pick the Civic for its styling, while the Elantra GT can win over converts to the Hyundai brand with its well executed, creased and sleek design, both in sedan and hatch configuration, but especially in the tidy proportions of the GT. A touch of black trim on the grille against this bright red give it a hint of hot hatch aggression.
    2013 Honda Civic & 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT, 2013 Honda Civic, 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT. Click image to enlarge |
Inside, the fluidity and cohesiveness of the Elantra’s design continue to shine. In every way, it seems like the car was designed by one person or one closely knit team, whereas the Civic seems to have different areas designed by teams that never looked at the whole. That being said, the driver-centric attitude of the Civic is clear, with the centre console canted toward the driver, the upper dash tier with its super clear digital speed that you can read from two lanes over in another car, and a thick-rimmed, small diameter steering wheel that serves the driver well. As awkward as it looks, it all works quite well.
Some of the Elantra’s design flourishes, like the elegantly arrayed buttons on the steering wheel, come at the expense of functionality, though it’s in no way unmanageable – the Civic is simply easier in that regard. However, expending the amount of real estate on a tachometer in a car equipped with an automatic transmission seems a tad wasteful; clearly the overall layout has the high-revving, manual-transmission-only Si model in mind. Let’s take a moment here to point out that Hyundai has no hot hatch or sport compact in the Elantra line to compete with the Sis and GTIs of the world, only the smaller Veloster Turbo or larger Genesis Coupe.
    2013 Honda Civic & 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT. Click image to enlarge |
But we were talking about interior, and as far as interior space goes, there’s not much to complain about in either. While interior materials are improved in the Civic for 2013, it still lags behind the Elantra GT. The seats themselves are comfortable, seating for four is spacious, and the centre rear seat is equally uncomfortable in both. With tilt and telescopic steering and power-adjustable driver’s seats, a comfortable position is easy to find, though in these trims, the Elantra GT’s cloth seats and slightly more aggressive bolsters hold you in place more securely. Then again, the Civic’s thrones were wider and would perhaps be more comfortable for a wider range of body types.
Getting in and out of both cars was uneventful, although in the back, the Civic has higher door sills and narrower door openings, making it a bit harder to get into, but once inside, the flatter floor and slightly better leg- and headroom will be appreciated by taller passengers.
I had little trouble installing a car seat in either, but the Civic’s smaller door opening and slightly lower roofline meant it would be a bit more strenuous if repeated frequently. However, with my rear-facing child seat in place, the front passenger seat still had ample room for an average adult in the Civic or Elantra GT, something even many SUVs struggle to accommodate.
 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT. Click image to enlarge |
As sedans go, the Civic has a spacious trunk, but it’s really no contest when it comes to cargo capacity. The Elantra GT starts with 651 L of trunk space (better even than the Mazda3 Sport), which opens up to 1,444 L with the seats folded flat. The Civic’s trunk measures 353 L, and despite the seats folding down, its utility doesn’t even come close. To top it all off, the Civic doesn’t have a trunk release on the trunk itself, so you have to open it using the cabin switch or key fob – an odd miss for Honda, that is usually so practical. Even the nooks and crannies around the Elantra cabin seemed more useful and plentiful, with an overhead console that provides a dedicated space for your shades.
Ride and Handling
Now things start to get tricky. Frankly, there is so little to complain about between these two that this is more an exercise in nitpicking. Both ride comfortably on rough roads, remain stable on the highway at high speeds and respond well to steering inputs. Anybody looking for a humble compact car will be well satisfied by composed handling and excellent shock absorption.
The 2012 Civic’s cheap, tinny, sound insulation a thing of the past, it soaks up rough roads better than should be expected of a compact car. The Elantra GT is also supple over most roads, although there is one notable exception. One stretch of the 401, whose lanes are shifted to accommodate construction, routes you right over recessed drainage covers. Travelling over those at speed, the thump was adequately shushed, but upon rebound from the shock, the back end shifted, dancing away from the impact ever so slightly but distinctly. Because of my affinity for Mustangs, I proceeded to hit every single one of those drain covers that I could find and giggled fitfully with every wiggle; however, some drivers might not find the Elantra GT’s behaviour quite so entertaining.
    2013 Honda Civic & 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT. Click image to enlarge |
Beyond ordinary highway driving and smoothing out potholed streets, the Civic continues to shine, and proves why it was the car that so many tuners flocked to during the heyday of the Fast and Furious. The steering is sharp and quick, with decent feedback as you push it around an onramp. Push some more, and while progressing into understeer, the chassis still feels lively and balanced, the Civic’s multi-link rear suspension showing greater control than the Elantra GT’s torsion beam setup in back. Lift your foot off the throttle, and the back end actually comes around, but smoothly. This kind of behaviour, in a $25K compact car? Surprising, indeed.
The Elantra GT, at a slight disadvantage with smaller wheels, delivered the expected grip and managed the turns effectively but without any sense of occasion. None of Hyundai’s three steering modes offer anything but the vaguest steering sensation, although moving from Comfort through Normal and onto Sport provides progressive levels of weight. After testing, we wouldn’t trade the Civic’s well-balanced steering for any number of steering weights. Give me one good steering weight with adequate feel over three options with poor feel any day. A lesson to Hyundai: spend your money on one good steering setup instead of a button to choose between three bad ones.
Now, while steering feel is well down the list of priorities for most compact car shoppers, all other things being equal, it can have an influence on the overall sense of vehicle control and comfort. And, for those that seek a more enthusiastic driving experience, the Civic is the clear choice, with the option to move up to a true performance model in the razor-sharp Si.
Powertrain
Of course, there were no upgraded powertrains in this comparison, just each brand’s workhorse engine and the people’s choice automatic transmissions.
Hyundai equips their compact with a 1.8L four-cylinder with dual overhead cams and dual variable valve timing. Its output is rated at 148 hp and 131 lb-ft of torque. The Elantra GT GLS Auto weighs in at 1,281 kg (2,784 lb). Its power is entirely adequate for its weight, and the six-speed automatic is smooth and steady. Peak power is at 6,500 rpm, and peak torque at 4,700 rpm, but sharp throttle response and decent mid-range torque are adequate for almost any situation. At highway speeds, the Elantra GT hums along at 2,100 rpm at 100 km/h, and 2,500 at 120 with acceptably low levels of wind noise and tire drone.
The Honda Civic’s 1.8L inline-four offers up only one overhead cam, but its variable valve timing system is a Hollywood superstar and internet sensation called “VTEC just kicked in, yo!” That’s gotta’ be worth something… Anyhow, power is rated at 148 hp peaking at 6,500 rpm, and maximum torque of 128 lb-ft is only attainable at 4,300 rpm, and it weighs 1,267 kg. There is no question Honda knows how to build small displacement four-cylinders, but without a manual transmission to properly cane it, much of the enthusiasm is muted, although it still sings a touch more sweetly than your average commuter car powerplant. Honda has yet to make the switch to six gears in this vehicle, but its five gears seem to have the situation well in hand. The Civic transmission is completely automatic (no manual mode), and spins at slightly higher revs at highway speeds, 2,200 at 100 km/h and 2,700 at 120 yet still remains quiet for casual conversation levels.
On the road, neither was overwhelmingly superior, but we give the nod to the Elantra GT, which felt a bit stronger in passing maneuvers, offered more gears and a manual mode that allowed greater driver control even for the joy-dulling automatic.
  2013 Honda Civic & 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT. Click image to enlarge |
Fuel Efficiency
Both vehicles came equipped with a “Save the Planet” button that dulls throttle response and induces early upshifts from the transmission. We used both as much as possible, occasionally opting out for a bit of merging power or extra motivation.
Transport Canada assessment procedures yield estimates of 7.1/5.0/6.2 L/100 km in city/highway/combined for the Honda Civic Touring, while the Elantra GT rates 7.6/5.3/6.6. The US EPA estimates the Civic automatic at 8.4/6.0/7.4 L/100 km (28/39/32 mpg) versus 8.7/6.4/7.8 L/100 km (27/37/30 mpg) for the Elantra GT.
Our observed fuel consumption for the Elantra GT was a respectable 8.3 L/100 km, but once again the Honda comes up aces with 7.9 L/100 km. Not a huge margin, but a wide enough gap under almost identical driving conditions and parallel to estimated ratings (props again to the EPA estimates), so it is fair to expect that the Civic should yield you slightly better real-world efficiency.
  2013 Honda Civic vs 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT. Click image to enlarge |
Conclusion
Once again, I’m faced with a decision that really requires none. Both of these are excellent cars that should satisfy owners, and for a very long time – though here again, Honda has a slight edge, scoring better in JD Power and Consumer Reports reliability ratings. Consequently Honda is the top-ranked mainstream brand (Hyundai is sixth) in ALG’s Canadian Residual Value Awards (Civic actually scores second in the Compact Car category behind the Impreza), meaning it is most likely to hold its value better for a higher resale value down the road, an often overlooked but crucial cost of vehicle ownership.
The Elantra GT pulls at my heartstrings with its alluring sheet metal and practical, accommodating interior. The greater utility of a hatchback is hard to overlook, and its performance and features are more than adequate.
For some people, myself included, passing up the added cargo capacity and ease of use offered by the Elantra GT (or any hatchback or wagon) is simply too big a sacrifice, but I came away from this test feeling that the Civic was the better car. It’s more efficient, it handles well without being a harsh ride, and offers competitive options, easy operation and good utility for a sedan. Heck, it’s even fun to drive – stick in Honda’s well-sorted manual transmission and it would keep you entertained rowing your gears.
If you like the styling and prefer the sedan body style that the Civic offers, you’ll be driving what I feel is the better car. In this battle of the bestsellers, the Civic again comes out on top.
Pricing: 2013 Honda Civic Touring
Base Price (DX): $15,440
Base Price (Touring): $24,840
Options: none
Freight: $1,495
A/C Tax: $100
Price as tested: $26,335
Pricing: 2013 Hyundai Elantra GT GLS Auto
Base price (L Manual): $17,999
Base price (GLS Auto): $22,599
Options: none
Freight: $1,495
A/C tax: $100
Price as tested: $24,194
