Hyundai has come a long way in the past decade, but when it comes to performance, the Korean carmaker still doesn’t have much to offer. For the most part, Hyundai’s cars are very competitive in their segments, but don’t inspire much passion.
The 2017 Elantra Sport is at least a step in the right direction. Hyundai threw a more powerful engine and other upgrades at its recently redesigned Elantra compact sedan to show that it knows how to have fun. The changes are enough to garner the “Sport” name, and perhaps the Elantra Sport will start a trend toward more performance-oriented Hyundais.
Under the hood sits the same 1.6-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder engine used in the Veloster Turbo. In the Elantra Sport, it produces 200 horsepower and 190 pound-feet of torque. That’s up from the 147 hp and 132 lb-ft of the naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four in other Elantra models. The turbocharged engine is available with either six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmissions.
Read more: 2017 Hyundai Elantra first drive
The Elantra Sport also gets a more sophisticated independent multi-link rear suspension setup, which should improve handling. Less substantive is the model-specific exterior styling, including a new front fascia with large side air intakes, and a rear bumper with what looks like a fake diffuser. The interior gets a flat-bottomed steering wheel, sport seats, and red contrast stitching.
While the mechanical upgrades should make the Elantra Sport fairly nice to drive, it may have a tough time standing up to the competition. Sport compact heroes like the Subaru WRX, Ford Focus ST, and Volkswagen Golf GTI get more power and more comprehensive performance upgrades. Still, the Elantra Sport should be an appreciable improvement over the standard Elantra, and it’s the only choice until Hyundai’s long-gestating “N” performance sub-brand finally gets going.
The 2017 Hyundai Elantra Sport goes on sale later this year. Pricing will be announced closer to the on-sale date.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.