Last year Hyundai added a performance oriented “Sport” trim to their newly redesigned Elantra sedan, for the 2018 model year, Hyundai has added a hatchback to the Elantra lineup, called the Elantra GT. The Elantra GT also gets the “Sport” treatment, which we reviewed last week. Our review car was the top of the line 2018 Elantra GT Sport Ultimate.

The Elantra GT Sport competes with he likes of the Focus ST and the Golf GTi, although the Elantra GT is less powerful than these two vehicles, it also has a lower starting price. I had fun driving the Elantra Sport sedan last year, the hatchback takes the same concept and adds in a bit more practicality.

Pricing

The base Hyundai Elantra GT Sport with a 6-speed manual transmission has a starting price of $26,999, add the 7-speed dual clutch automatic and price jumps to $28,499. The next higher trim is called the Sport Ultimate, starting at $30,499, this package adds ventilated front seats, navigation, autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane keep assist with lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control with stop and go, 7 speaker sound system, high beam assist, and 4.2” color TFT display in the gauge cluster.

Engine/Driving

The Elantra GT Sport is equipped with a turbocharged 1.6 liter 4-cylinder engine, with direct injection, producing 201 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 195 pound-feet of torque between 1,500 – 4,500 rpm. This is unchanged from the Elantra Sport sedan we drove last year, however, our review car for this year had the 7-speed dual-clutch transmission.

Personally, I would rather go with the 6-speed manual transmission over the DCT. I always find manual transmission go well with small engines like these. The DCT is an alright transmission but I wasn’t the biggest fan of it, especially at low speeds, where the transmission would get confused and couldn’t decide which gear it wanted to be in. However, I have heard this is normal in most DCT in slow/stop and go traffic.

Dual-clutch transmission are supposed to be very fast shifting, which is fine in a supercar, however, I feel it’s not needed in a 200-horsepower car, you’re not going to take these cars to the track and you’re not going to be setting Nurburging track records in your Elantra GT Sport.

However, driving the 2018 Elantra GT Sport is still fun, the transmission does feel good at higher speeds and the shifts are very quick. The engine produces a good amount of power and it helps the car get up to speed very quickly, there’s enough power to make the drive more fun than the regular Elantra. The suspension on the Elantra GT is also on the softer side, especially compared to the GTi and Focus ST, it’s more comfort oriented.

The steering feel was another area I was disappointed in, the steering is very vague, and it felt like I was driving a car in a video game, I didn’t feel a connection to the front wheels, especially with the lane keep assist on.

According to Hyundai, the DCT equipped Elantra GT Sport should consume 9.2/7.1/8.3 L/100 km in city/highway/combined driving. For our weeklong drive, the trip computer showed 8.5 L/100 km in mixed city/highway driving of about 60/40 city/highway, which is pretty close to the claimed figures.

Styling

Styling is a subjective matter, so you may or may not agree with my opinion. Personally, I prefer the look of the Elantra Sport sedan over the hatchback, I think the sedan has more sharper lines and it looks distinct, the hatchback looks too plain and it just blends in. However, I liked the look of the previous generation hatchback over the sedan, the previous generation hatchback was more edgy and looked much sportier.

Interior

I am a fan of the interior on the Elantra GT Sport, it looks very sporty with the red stitching on heavily bolstered sports seats and red accents on the dashboard. Surprisingly, there is a bit of a difference in the dashboard layout between the sedan and hatchback. The sedan has the touchscreen integrated into the dashboard, while the hatchback has the touchscreen sticking out, like an iPad on the dashboard. Normally I don’t like this layout, but on the Elantra GT it works.

Overall Impressions

I did enjoy driving the Elantra GT Sport, even though I wasn’t a fan of the steering feel and the dual-clutch transmission. The later of the two problems can be resolved by choosing the manual transmission, which makes the car quite fun, but if you want all the fancy gadgets, then you’ll have to stick with the DCT.

I hope Hyundai improves the steering feel, which would make the Elantra GT Sport a very fun to drive car (if you go with the manual transmission). But for the average consumer that’s looking at a bit more power than the standard Elantra, the Elantra GT Sport should be a fun car to own, not everyone drives hundreds of cars in their lifetime like I do, so you could call me a bit of a car/performance snob.

Overall, I think the Elantra GT Sport is a good try by Hyundai, but if it wants to compete with the likes of the Focus ST and Golf GTi, they need to step up their game a bit.

For more information on the 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT Sport and other Hyundai vehicles, check out hyundaicanada.com.