2019 Hyundai Elantra vs 2021 Subaru Impreza

What's the difference?

The Elantra might be overlooked compared to its famous i30 stablemate, but it shouldn’t be. It’s every bit as entertaining to drive and just as well equipped.

It’s a shame active safety is on the option list for lower trim levels, and there’s no radar features on higher ones, and the unnecessary styling changes might polarise buyers. But the Elantra is otherwise a well-equipped and rewarding-to-drive package across the range.

Sturdy, safe, and comfortable, the Subaru Impreza continues to cut its own path as a little, lowered-SUV with all-wheel drive in the hatchback space. 

Unfortunately, in a lot of ways the Impreza is a shadow of its former self. This is a car calling out for some sort of engine and tech upgrade, be it a smaller turbocharged option or the new ‘e-Boxer’ hybrid. Time will tell if it survives another generation to evolve into what it needs to be in tomorrow’s market.

Despite being a facelift of the rather good looking 2016 Elantra, the 2019 car has taken a hard turn into the domain of triangles and right-angles.

The new styling has proved controversial in the CarsGuide office. The Go and Active seem to have largely abandoned many of the styling points which Hyundai has invested in over the past few years, with their vertically lined grilles and abundance of triangle light fittings.

All the extra space on the big, flat rear is taken up by the big-font ‘Elantra’ text and Hyundai logo, which is '90s-style in design.

The Sport and identical-from-the-outside Sport Premium are angry looking cars, with frowning LED light fittings, giant alloys and an abundance of angular black highlights.

The side skirts, rear diffuser and spindle grille give the Sport variants an impressive amount of presence on the road. There’s no spoiler to be found, though.

Inside, the Go and Active are a fairly basic offering, with the Active scoring a leather wheel and some extra niceties. The dash is a sea of grey, however, and the nice touchscreen is humbled by its old-school in-dash positioning.

The Sport grades add some more sophisticated touches, with sporty leather-trimmed seats, a flat-bottomed steering wheel and a more subtle climate-control console rather than the clunky air-conditioning one used in lesser variants.

All cars have a sensible trip computer and simple gauges in the instrument cluster.

Missing from any variant is a digital dashboard as seen in the Honda Civic. There’s also the argument that the Elantra’s cousin, the Kia Cerato, has a more forward-thinking cabin design.

Subaru plays it very safe for the Impreza’s latest update, with a gently re-worked grille, new alloy wheel designs and, well, that’s pretty much it.

For a hatch, the XV is already safe and inoffensive, wearing some swoopy lines down the side, but otherwise adhering to the brand’s chunky and squared-off side and rear profiles. It’s set to please people who find the Mazda3 too extreme, or the Honda Civic a bit too sci-fi.

If anything, it’s hard to tell this top spec apart from the rest of the range, with only the larger alloys as the big give away. 

The inside of the Impreza is nice, with the brand’s hallmark steering wheel, an abundance of displays, and comfortable seat trims well and truly present. Much like the XV, Subaru’s design language really takes its own path here, away from rivals. 

The steering wheel is an excellent touch point, and everything is really adjustable, with plenty of room, even for larger adults. Soft trims extend from the centre console, across the dash, and into the doors, making the Impreza’s cabin a relatively attractive and comfortable place to be. All but the lowest spec get a similar interior treatment, a testament to the value within the range.

The only issue here is it feels a little less agile, and maybe a bit too SUV-like from behind the wheel. Everything in the interior layout feels a little exaggerated, and while this works for the SUV pretences of the XV, it does feel a little out of place here in the lower-riding Impreza.

Up front, the Elantra offers decent room. The Cabin feels a smidge more spacious than its i30 hatch sibling, and there’s plenty of leg and headroom on offer in every variant - except for the sport premium, which has a cropped roofline due to the sunroof. While there’s a decent centre console box, the door lacks a bit of padded trim for your elbow.

Like the rest of Hyundai’s range, the Elantra has a slew of generous cubbys and cupholders throughout the cabin. Underneath the air-con console is a deep trench which houses a 12v output, USB port and, in the Sport Premium variant, the Qi wireless phone charging pad.

Rear passengers are granted great legroom and decently sized cupholders in the doors, as well as a drop-down arm rest with two more cupholders.

The Active and Go lack rear air vents, whereas the Sport and Sport Premium offer two for back-seat passengers.

The available boot space should serve as a reminder why sedans shouldn’t be overlooked for practicality reasons, with 458 litres VDA on offer. Still, it is bested in this segment by the luggage capacity of the Cerato (520L), Civic (517L), and Impreza (460L). A rubber cargo liner and fabric bumper protector are available as genuine accessories.

In an annoying niggle, the Sport variants ride quite low around their midsections due to the flared bodykit bits. I found these would quite easily scrape if you weren’t careful over speedbumps or shopping centre ramps. Go and Active variants were fine in terms of clearance.

The Impreza does a good job of looking and feeling like a box on wheels, and this makes for a pretty practical interior. Despite big chunky seats and lots of padded trim points, the cabin proved to be a spacious and adjustable environment, with thought given to places for objects.

There’s a large trench in the doors with a bottle holder on either side, two large cupholders in the centre console, a large console storage box with soft trim on top, and a small bay underneath the climate unit. It seems as though a wireless charger could go here, but there isn’t one yet  available in the Impreza range. There’s also no USB-C, with two USB-A outlets, an auxiliary input, and a 12v power outlet featuring in this location.

The large, bright touchscreen is easy to use for the driver, and practical dials for all the important functions are joined by perhaps one-too-many steering wheel controls to make functions easy to operate while driving.

The Impreza’s cabin is notable for the amount of room on offer in the rear seat, where I have airspace for my knees behind my own driving position (I’m 182cm tall), and there’s plenty of width here, too. The middle seat is perhaps less useful for adults, with a large transmission tunnel taking up much of the space.

Rear-seat passengers can make use of a single bottle holder in each of the doors, a set of cupholders in the drop-down armrest, and a single pocket on the back of the front passenger seat. Despite the amount of room on offer , there are no adjustable air vents or power outlets offered to rear passengers, although the nice seat trim continues.

Boot space comes in at 345-litres (VDA), which is small in the case of the XV, which purports to be an SUV, but a little more competitive in the case of the Impreza. For the record, it’s larger than the Corolla but comes in smaller than the i30 or Cerato. There is a space-saver spare wheel under the floor.

Being the top-spec, our 2.0i-S hatch wears a before-on-roads cost (MSRP) of $31,490. You’ll note this tops out quite a bit below many of its rivals, and notably a significant margin below the equivalent XV ($37,290), which is simply a lifted version of this car.

Traditional top-spec rivals include the Toyota Corolla ZR ($32,695), Honda Civic VTi-LX ($36,600), and Mazda 3 G25 Astina ($38,790), and there is also now the ever-popular Hyundai i30 N-Line ($31,420) or Kia Cerato GT ($34,190) to compete with.

You’ll note all those rivals are front-wheel-drive, of course, giving the AWD Subaru a bit of an edge from the get-go, although unlike some of its rivals, even this top-spec misses out on a more powerful engine.

Equipment levels across the board are good in the Impreza, although it is missing some of the more modern tech items that feature prominently in rivals. 

Standard stuff on our top-spec 2.0i-S includes 18-inch alloy wheels in a new design for this year, an 8.0-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, sat-nav, DAB radio, a CD player, a 4.2-inch multi-information display, a 6.3-inch multi-function display, dual-zone climate control, push-start ignition with keyless entry, full LED exterior lighting, leather-accented seat trim with heated front seats, and an eight-way power adjustable driver’s seat.

While this Subaru arguably already has too many screens, the top-spec car is missing a fully digital dash or a head-up display, which many of its rivals now feature. There’s also no truly premium audio system, so you’re stuck with Subaru’s tinny one, and a power adjustable passenger seat would be nice, too.

Still, it’s a significant discount from the equivalent XV, and undercuts many rivals, so it's not bad at all on the value front.

There are two engines in the Elantra range. A dated 2.0-litre non-turbo engine which has hung around for a long time in Hyundai’s stable, and a much newer 1.6-litre turbo engine in higher variants.

Unlike the i30, there’s no option for a 1.6-litre turbo-diesel. Any EV and plug-in hybrid versions are still beyond the horizon (perhaps pending the success of the Ioniq).

The Go and Active variants share the 2.0-litre engine which produces 112kW/192Nm. The Go is available as either a six-speed manual or a six-speed traditional torque converter automatic. The Active is six-speed auto only.

The Sport and Sport Premium are powered by the excellent 150kW/256Nm 1.6-litre turbo. Aside from the Kia Cerato GT, which shares the same engine, the next closest competitor at this price point is the outgoing Mazda3 SP25 (139kW/252Nm).

The Sport and Sport Premium can either be had with a six-speed manual gearbox or a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, and can cycle between ‘normal’, ‘sport’ and ‘eco’ drive modes.

The Elantra range is a strictly front-wheel-drive affair, as there’s no option for all-wheel drive.

The Impreza soldiers on with just one engine choice, a 2.0-litre non-turbo horizontally opposed ‘boxer’ producing 115kW/196Nm. These figures wouldn’t be so bad in most hatches, but this engine has to contend with the added burden of the Impreza’s all-wheel-drive system.

Speaking of which, Subaru’s all-wheel drive is always on and theoretically “symmetrical” (as in, it can send about equal torque to either axle), which is generally preferable to the “on-demand” systems  used by some rivals.

Only one transmission is available in the Impreza range, a continuously variable automatic (CVT). 

All 2.0-litre Elantras have claimed/combined fuel usage figures of 7.4L/100km. Against this claim I scored a very reasonable 8.0L/100km in my road test of the Active.

The 1.6-litre variants have a marginally better claimed consumption figure of 7.0L/100km against which I scored 9.0L/100km in my test of the Sport. If you’re having fun, expect at least 9.0L or above. That’s a compliment.

All Elantra variants happily consume regular 91RON unleaded and have 50-litre tanks. Good stuff.

The downside of having standard all-wheel drive is weight. The Impreza tips the scales at over 1400kg, making this all-wheel-drive hatch one chunky unit.

It has an official claimed/combined consumption of 7.2L/100km, although our testing returned a decidedly disappointing 9.0L/100km over a week of what I’d consider to be “combined” testing conditions. That's not great when many much larger SUVs are getting the same or better consumption. An argument for a hybrid variant, or at least a turbocharger, perhaps?

At least the Impreza will drink entry-level 91RON unleaded fuel for its 50-litre tank.

All Elantra variants are great to drive. They share excellent suspension and steering characteristics, lending them a rewarding experience in the corners while not being too stiff or too soft over bumps.

The 2.0 litre variants offer, well, acceptable power, even if they're a little on the thrashy side, and their ride comfort is boosted by sensibly sized alloy wheels and soft rubber.

Sport variants are genuinely a blast to drive. The 1.6-litre turbo has small amounts of lag, but is otherwise strong through 1500-4500rpm. Torque steer is present but manageable, and even adds a little to the excitement.

Thick (and pricey) Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres (225/40R18s) help keep the Elantra Sport planted and surprisingly grippy through the corners.

Road noise is acceptable but not stellar across the range. The same goes for the 10.6-meter turning circle.

Truly gone are the days where you should question whether Korean cars can be fun; the Sport and Sport premium do a better job of channeling the characteristics of Japanese sports sedans of the '90s and '00s better than most current Japanese nameplates.

On the downside, the silly flared body kit on the Sport variants limit ground clearance on ramps or speedbumps and can be prone to bottoming out. This combines with the easily scratched giant wheels to make for some nervous driving.

Like all Subarus, the Impreza has a lot of nice characteristics granted by its all-wheel-drive system, fairly organic steering, and comfortable ride. It’s sturdy and reassuring on the road, and while it misses out on the ride height of its XV sibling, it still possesses a comfortable suspension tune.

In fact, the Impreza is just like the XV, but more engaging and reactive, thanks to it being closer to the ground. If you don’t need the ride height, the Impreza is the better pick.

Thanks to that lower  height, there’s also better body control for the Impreza in the corners, and yet it deals with potholes and road imperfections seemingly just as well as its raised companion. Indeed, the Impreza’s ride is preferable in urban scenarios to many of its sporty rivals, if you’re looking for a softer edge. It’s also a breeze around town or when parking, with great visibility and good camera coverage in this top-spec version.

The engine and transmission are less pleasing, however. The 2.0-litre non-turbo gets the job done for urban commuting, but it’s a thrashy,  noisy unit, which needs to fly up the rev range to provide adequate power in a lot of situations. It’s not helped by the rubbery response from the continuously variable transmission, which is particularly average. It just sucks the joy from what could have otherwise been a fun and capable hatch.

It’s a shame to see there’s no hybrid “e-Boxer” version of this car, as the hybrid version of the equivalent XV is a little more refined, and the electric drive helps take some of the edge off the underpowered engine. Perhaps it might arrive for this car’s next iteration?

When venturing out of town, this Impreza offers a contrast of excellent active-safety features for the freeway, with a notable drop in refinement over 80km/h. Still, its ride comfort and chunky seats make it a decent long-distance tourer.

Overall, the Impreza will suit a buyer who is looking for something a little more comfort-oriented than its rivals, plus the security and safety of all-wheel drive.

Subarus have been notable in recent years for their unique and impressive ‘EyeSight’ safety system, which uses a stereo camera set-up to to host a suite of active-safety functions.

Included are auto emergency braking (works to 85km/h, detects cyclists, pedestrians, and brake lights), lane-keep assist with lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross traffic alert, reverse auto braking, lead-vehicle alert, and adaptive cruise control.

The 2.0i-S also has an impressive suite of cameras, including a side and front-view monitor to assist with parking.

The Impreza has seven airbags (the standard front, side, and head, as well as a driver’s knee) and features the standard array of stability, brake, and traction controls, with the addition of torque vectoring via the all-wheel-drive system.

It’s one safe mainstream hatchback. Unsurprisingly the Impreza carries a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating, although it is dated all the way back to 2016 when this generation launched.

Hyundai covers its range with an on-par five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty promise offered by most of the competition. It is outdone by its mechanical twin, the Kia Cerato,with its seven-year warranty.

Hyundai’s fixed service program is one of its strong suits, with service pricing on turbo Elantra models locked between reasonable $273 to $460 costs per visit, locked all the way out to 168 months/210,000 kilometres. And even beyond that there's the optional pre-paid ‘iCare’ packages. Costs are slightly less for 2.0-litre cars.

Subaru covers its cars with an industry-standard five-year and unlimited-kilometre promise, although there are no boons or frills to this, like free loan cars, or the transport options offered by some rivals.

One thing Subaru isn’t known for is low running costs, with the Impreza’s yearly or 12,500km service visits being relatively expensive. Each visit will cost between $341.15 to $797.61 for a yearly average over the first five years of $486.17, which is painfully expensive compared to, say, Toyota’s Corolla.