Hyundai has released first images of its facelifted Elantra in Korea, ahead of the updated small sedan’s Australian arrival in the fourth quarter of this year.
Known as the Avante in Korea, where the upgraded model is "coming soon", the Elantra’s midlife makeover brings fresh front-end styling comprising new headlights encircled by a striking LED daytime running light design and a new bumper with different foglights, bezels and chrome grille garnish.
In its home market, the sister sedan for Hyundai’s popular i30 hatchback will also offer fresh tail-lights, new-design 16- and 17-inch alloy wheels, a revised interior and new technologies including a 'Smart Parking Assist System' that allows the car to park itself.
Hyundai’s three-mode Flex Steer system is also likely to be fitted, along with localised steering and suspension tune – as is the case with all new Hyundai models.
The Elantra is currently available in Australia with a single 1.8-litre petrol engine, priced from $20,590 plus on-road costs with a six-speed manual transmission. A six-speed automatic is also available, along with three specification grades.
The current generation was released here in June 2011 and remains one of the most popular small sedans. However, last month it was comprehensively outsold by the i30 hatch, which attracted almost three times as many sales last month.
Combined, the i30 and Elantra notched up 3110 small-car sales for Hyundai in July – not much less than the Mazda3 hatch/sedan range (3464) and Toyota’s top-selling Corolla (3945).
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