Sporty and Stylish, Hyundai Readies Elantra Touring for North America

Hyundai has just released the first sketch of a brand new model that’s headingto North America, and as was predicted it is a compact, five-door wagon. The only thing is that predictions were wrong about it being the European-built i30. Rather, Hyundai has just announced a new car called the Elantra Touring. Underneath, the Elantra Touring will share components with the i30, but with a different exterior that will also be unique from the Elantra Sedan. It will have vertical tail lamps and a kinked rear window that reminds us of the Saab 9-3 SportCombi. Mind you, this is just a preliminary sketch, so there’s no telling what the vehicle will look like in the metal.

The car will utilize the same engine currently found in the Elantra, a 138-horsepower, 2.0-liter four, and will offer a choice between a five-speed manual and a four-speed automatic transmission. What’s got us slightly more excited is the promise of a sport-tunedsuspension and revised steering rack that should give the little Elantra wagon a sportier feel than the four-door. It’s nice to see that not only the wagon body style is being chosen by Hyundai, but that it will be the sportier model of the two. The Elantra Touring will be the vehicle Hyundai pitches against sporty five-door hatchback rivals like the Mazda3 5-Door, Toyota Matrix and the recently redesigned Subaru Impreza 5-door hatchback.

In announcing the new product, Hyundai was also quick to announce its pledge to safety with this new five-door wagon. The Elantra Touring will not only have ABS brakes with electronic brakeforce distribution as standard equipment, but stability control as well. This will make it the first five-door compact car to feature ESP as standard; we were originally inclined to say that the first was the Jeep Compass, but it’s classified as acompact SUV and not a hatchback. There are still more safety features, by the way, including a sextet of airbags that integrate curtain bags for all outside passengers, plus anti-whiplash front headrests, all at no extra cost to the buyer. It’s great to see that Hyundai is taking the initiative to offer this sort of safety equipment without charging extra, when many other car companies make them optional. This should provide Hyundai with top-tier crash test ratings on all trim levels.

Safety features might not get everyone excited, but a decent sound system should certainly help. On this front Hyundai has confirmed that the Elantra Touring will feature a standard auxiliary jack and standard XM satellite radio, and that it will also be the first Hyundai to feature a USB port for directly connecting MP3 players (not just iPods). That sounds pretty good to us…

Hyundai announced that the car would go on sale in early 2008 as a 2009 model, so expect to see it at the LA or Detroit auto show.