Born to travel

By DAVID LINKLATER

The Chungmun resort on the Korean island of Cheju, venue for the launch of the new Hyundai Elantra, is about as international as it gets.

Wake up at Chungmun's Shilla hotel and the view out your window is a row of perfectly aligned palm trees and pebbled poolsides. You could be anywhere from Sanctuary Cove to the South of France.

Which is the probably the point. With the new Elantra, Hyundai is looking outwards more than ever before. It's got to be a truly international car to succeed.

Domestic sales are still important to Hyundai, but they are now outnumbered by exports. Of the 720,997 Hyundais bought in the first half of this year, more than half sold outside Korea.

The Sonata remains Korea's number one, but the new Elantra is destined to be the company's top-selling model worldwide. North America is an important market, as is Europe.

It's certainly a crucial model for Hyundai Automotive New Zealand. The outgoing Lantra has accounted for about 45 per cent of its total sales in the year to date, and the company is hoping for more volume from the new car.

There will be a number of changes for New Zealand buyers to get to grips with as the car filters into showrooms this month.

Simple but significant is the name change from Lantra to Elantra. The latter has been the accepted form for the first two generations of the model, save for a few markets, such as New Zealand, where use of the e-name has been an issue. The problem here was Mitsubishi's ownership of the Elante monicker, which was used in the mid-1990s for a V3000 variant.

A more substantial change for the third-generation Elantra is the addition of a five-door liftback variant, which joins the traditional four-door sedan.

There are dramatically different styling cues for each. The sedan has a conservative XG-like bootline and large lights, while the liftback sports a wedge shape and kicked-up tail.

The new car is bigger in every dimension than the old. The Nissan Primera was a benchmark for the Elantra during development, and the Hyundai now boasts similar dimensions to the family-size Nissan.

The wheelbase is up 60mm to 2610mm, and overall length has increased 45mm to 4495mm. Cabin space is usefully improved as a result, and it's clear that there has been a quantum leap in the quality of the Elantra's interior fit and finish.

New Zealand buyers will not be short of engine or model choices. Hyundai's existing Alpha and Beta powerplants have been revised for the Elantra and are offered in 80kW 1.6, 98kW 1.8 and 108kW 2.0-litre versions.

All will be available in both liftback and sedan variants; the 1.6 and 1.8 are matched to the GL trim level, while the 2.0-litre powers the flagship GLS Elantra.

There's no difference in the cost of equivalent-specification liftbacks and sedans. Prices start at $28,990 for the 1.6 GL and run through $30,990 for the 1.8 GL to $34,990 for the top 2.0 GLS.

A four-speed automatic transmission - using HIVEC adaptive software on the 1.8 and 2.0 models - is available as an option on all Elantras for $1750.

Standard equipment for the 1.6 GL includes dual airbags, seatbelt pre-tensioners and load limiters, air conditioning, four-speaker cassette stereo, power front windows and central locking.

The 1.8 GL adds detail touches such as larger tyres, a CD player and power rear windows, while the 2.0 GLS caps things off with anti-lock braking (a $1250 option for the GL), remote locking and alarm, trip computer, blue-lit VDO instruments and a rear spoiler.

Hyundai New Zealand is anticipating that the liftback will be its core model - to the tune of an 80/20 split between five and four-door variants.

"If you look at the 1.6 to 1.8-litre segments, 65 per cent of sales are liftbacks," says general manager Philip Eustace.

"The new liftback presents us with a real opportunity for growth."

For that reason, the company says it is not concerned about the absence of a new wagon, which is thought to be more than 18 months away.

Why the wait? During the Cheju launch programme, Hyundai's Korean officials admitted they made a mistake back in 1996, when work began on the new Elantra, by deciding that mini-MPVs would completely displace traditional wagons by the year 2000. Not so. Thus, a new load-carrier is on the way.

The current-shape wagon, which has made up 74 per cent of Hyundai New Zealand's sales for 2000, will continue to be sold alongside the Elantra until stock runs out - probably well into 2001.