Transcription
Have you ever thought to yourself, "I would like a car that is almost exclusively sold to rental car companies." Well, if you have, we're going to look at the 2017 Hyundai Elantre. In today's high mileage review, we got the 2017 Hyundai Elantre behind me. It's the sixth generation. This one has 130,000 mi, and we are going to decide if it's a buy or if it's a bust.
Taking a walk around the outside of the 2017 Elantre here. I got to say, I actually like the style of these. thought the old ones were pretty uh ugly and so I think they improved them a lot. These do have some issues with peeling paint and we'll see that around the other side. It's a little too new to talk too much about rust. I haven't seen a ton of rust issues on them yet, but that may crop up over time. And some people complain about some of the exterior like trim stuff falling off or rattling when you're driving. This one doesn't have it, but uh it's definitely something that people talk about. Otherwise, up front, you can see the typical headlight oxidation, but we can clean that up pretty easy.
Under the hood here, we got the 2 L 4 cylinder that makes 147 horsepower, 132 pound- feet of torque, and it's made it to a six-speed automatic transmission. As you heard in the video, this thing is running smooth, quiet. It actually has no issues. It never really has had any issues, no serious maintenance on this engine other than oil changes yet. But there is some common problems with these cars that we want to go over. They can get a rough idle, kind of hard to start, different things. One of the big issues is the PCV valve. It is not an expensive thing to replace. It's not difficult really to replace. I'm not worried about it and you can it'll usually cause a check engine light or something like that. One of the other common problems that is also simple to fix and it causes a lot of the same symptoms actually as the PCV valve is the coil packs on these. Coil packs go bad pretty commonly. A lot of them been replaced. Actually, a lot of them happened like when the cars were fairly new, but um it's not terribly expensive. It's not terribly difficult to replace those and uh they will cause some of the same like rough idle and things that the PCV valve does. So, you got to get the code scanned if there's a check engine light.
Now that we got the more simple things covered, this engine is actually fairly reliable. I actually really don't hate these engines too much. They fix some of the issues that the earlier generations of them had. Um, they can still have some bigger issues, but they're not I wouldn't call them overly common like some like some vehicles big issues. Uh, they have a can they can have like connecting rod issues, which is catastrophic. You just get a new engine or a new car. You're probably not going to fix this car most likely. Uh, the other one is timing chain issues. It's usually a timing chain tensioner that goes first, but that is a very indepth repair and it does happen sometimes, but it's not it's not overly common, especially on ones that the oil was changed regularly and things like that. I would it's not something that scares me too much if when you start it there's no rattles or anything like that. Uh, similarly, the transmissions are generally actually decently reliable on these, but some people have said that there is some shutters. I mean, they sometimes they'll have a complete failure, but that's usually on ones that had no maintenance done whatsoever, but generally they'll have like a slow shift shutter kind of just feel weird and and fluid change on them a lot of the time actually fixes that problem. The last thing under the hood is the power steering. Uh the power steering rack itself kind of just wears out over time. It usually doesn't just fail fail. Um, but you'll notice your steering starts to feel funny, loose, whatever. It's a sort of expensive repair, so you probably want to keep an eye out on that.
Moving on to the interior here. Um, I actually personally always kind of like the interiors on these. Now, they're not fancy or anything like that. Um, it's a lot of plastic. They might rattle, might be road noise, things like that. Uh, but in comparison to anything else of a small car, I feel like they're they're right in line with everything else. As far as electronics on the inside, everything kind of works. Um, the windows go up and down, the locks work, the AC is reliable in them. Um, the only thing that I can really think of that is a common problem is the infotainment system is not very good in my opinion. Um, and they tend to have a lot of glitches anyways. So, you know, the screen will freeze up, anything like that. And I've rented several several of these cars and I've had it happen in those where like I don't know, something just doesn't work quite like it's supposed to. Um, no check engine, no warning lights, anything like that on the dash except for a headlight bulb it says is out and we cannot find it. We've looked all over the car um and cannot find the bulb that is out. So, I don't know whether we have a bad sensor or what's going on with that, but we can't seem to find a bulb that's out.
In the back seat now of the Elantre, I always like to show leg room. This is seat is where I would sit. I'm 5'9 and I actually have more leg room than I thought I would in a small car. Uh, so, leg room is pretty good. Head room I actually got plenty here. So, I really have no complaints back here. It is basic as basic can get. um probably wouldn't want to do like a 10-hour trip in it, but it's fine for around town or something like that. One of the sort of oddball problems with these cars is if you use the rear seat a lot. This car hasn't been used, so it doesn't have that issue. Um, they'll start to squeak [laughter] like as you go, uh just the, you know, the mounting, you know, brackets or whatever or metal underneath there will start to squeak a little bit and I can imagine that'd be pretty annoying if you got to use the rear seat every day.
We are out on our test drive now for this 2017 Hyundai Elantre. 130,000 miles, not as high as some of the cars we we review, uh, but still enough. They've been out long enough now that we can get a good feel for the reliability. First thing I notice is just road noise. We are on a back road, but it is still um it's it's noisy in here. Um, you can tell that they did not do any soundproofing. Now, Hyundai always tries to keep their prices pretty low, especially on these entry- level cars. So, it makes sense they would skip things like that, but it's uh it's significant. We're going to do a little pull. We're on eco mode right now, so we'll see. Actually, a little better than I thought. Um, yeah. Yeah, pretty decent power. Now, maybe I just hit it right at the right shift, but it uh it felt pretty good there.
Now, speaking of eco mode, let's talk about fuel mileage. The rated fuel mileage on these, and the reason I'm saying rated is because there might be some discrepancy, um, is 31 and 40. Now, the owner of this car actually says that they get better fuel mileage than that on the highway. They said they do like 45, 46 miles to the gallon. I'm curious, if you guys own one of these cars, let me know if you get higher than the uh, you know, EPA estimated 40 miles to the gallon out on the highway. I'm curious about that. But if they really are getting that much, that is incredible. um and has to be like class leading almost for these being a non-hybrid, you know, just kind of standard car. We're pulling up to a stop sign here and one of the things that people do complain about is just brake squeal in these cars. Um, it's not an issue really other than your brakes are just sometimes noisy. This one's actually smooth. I don't have any issues with it at all. Few other things I'm noticing is it actually runs and drives transmission shifting really well. I do notice that people complain about the interiors and these rattling and it does have um some interior rattles. I can I can hear those as we're going here. One of the things that is common on these though is uh wheel bearings. So if you get a little hum or you get an ABS light, something like that up on your dash, a lot of the times it is wheel bearings on these. Uh, that's not an expensive fix, but it, you know, it's definitely something you need to take care of.
We're cruising some corners here. It actually feels feels okay. Hey, it's a it's a very light steering feel, but uh it drives pretty well. We're going to put it in sport mode. I want to I'm curious what the difference is. Let's see here. Seems to hold the gears a little longer. Sure, it affects fuel mileage a few, but uh, yeah, it's actually peppier than I anticipated it was going to be. And like I said when I was outside, the steering uh rack can go bad on these. I don't feel anything on this one um that indicates any loose steering, anything like that. Um, the steering is light like I said, but it's not nothing mechanically wrong or the steering rack going bad, but sometimes you'll actually feel clunks or you know [laughter] the steering wheel kind of wobble um on some of the ones the steering rack's going bad, but this car doesn't have that issue. Um, one of the one of the really good highlights on these cars is parts are cheap. Um, so you can basically fix most things on the car for almost nothing. The the parts are a dime a dozen, as they say. Uh, in general, I'm sure there's a few that are more expensive, but uh, as far as cheap repairs, these cars, uh, definitely have that. Well, with that, I think it's time to head back and decide if this thing is a buy or a bust.
Back from the test drive, and now it's time to decide if this car is a buy or if it's a bust. To be honest, I was never impressed with the prior generation Hyundai Elantre. Uh, I always thought they were, one, I thought they were ugly, two didn't think they were that reliable, and uh, I just didn't think there was anything really remarkable about them at all. I do think they improved a lot for these, and I was expecting to see actually more common problems when I researched than than what came up. It seems like they're generally a pretty reliable car. Now, Hyundai, reputation wise, especially recently, has been pretty rough because they've had a lot of engine and just basically any issue you can find. Hyundai has had recently. People buy them new because they have a great warranty, 10 years, 100,000 mi. Everybody knows it and they buy it and then they get to 100,000 miles and then the car is pretty much shot. That being said, I actually think you might get some use if you bought one out of these with 100 150,000 mi. You might get another 100,000 mi out and hit 250,000 mi.
Price-wise, these are also very cheap because they don't have the reputation that Toyota and Honda do for reliability. The price on these for a like what I consider to be a pretty modern car, even though they're now 7 8 years old, um is like somewhere between 4 and $6,000 with this miles on it. While other manufacturers may make cars that are a little bit more reliable, um for the price that you get this for, you're getting a heck of a value. So, that's why today I'm going to call this one a buy. And that is actually a true surprise to me. I thought this car was going to be a bust, but it seems like generally people have pretty decent luck with them overall. Now, I am curious to see what your experience is. If you have one of these cars, if you've had issues that I forgot, if you had something major catastrophic happen like some of the engine failure stuff that we talked about as being a possibility. I want to hear all about it. Put your thoughts on this car in the comments down below. Thank you so much for watching.