Test Drive: Elantra GT is fun, thin on power

• Spacious, comfy. Nice tricks in small car
• Stylish, which isn't the same as beautiful
• Pricey. Premium, yes, and you pay for that

Hyundai has added hatchback and coupe models to the recently redesigned Elantra lineup. The hatch, which is today's subject, is called GT, which is a little silly.

A Grand Touring, or GT, car traditionally is a fast, supremely comfortable car, usually very powerful, made to eat up the miles in high style at high speed.

It also often has limited luggage space, assuming that (wealthier than the rest of us) impulse-travel users simply buy what they need when they get there. (Leaving unanswered the question of how to get it back.)

So the Elantra hatchback really is an anti-GT.

Its modest-power, 1.8-liter four-cylinder (same as in the sedan and coupe) will give you all it has, willingly, but that's not much: 148 horsepower and just 131 pounds-feet of torque. A Ford Focus trumps it handily.

And the engine can begin to sound a bit "thrashy," as the enthusiast magazines like to say, when spurred hard.

The car is stylish, in the modern creased-and-wedged idiom, and comfortable, especially for its compact size, and surprisingly so in the back seat.

But based on our time in both a manual-transmission model ($22,015 with a few good options) and an automatic ($25,365 with lots of good options), it's not a top pick for, say, Omaha to Denver in one sitting.

And it simply has too much stuff space to live up to the true GT's people-only orientation. Which, as real life would have it, is a very good thing.

The Elantra GT proved quite appealing in the normal suburban thrash-about.

The muscle-challenged engine did, however, require spirited use to keep up with maddened suburban traffic. (Nobody's more frantic than a parent late to day care and paying a $1-a-minute tardiness penalty.)

The six-speed manual transmission shifts well enough, but gives us an opportunity to curse Hyundai's approach to the stick shift.

The last spacious variant of the Elantra, a wagon called the Touring, had a crisp, performance-oriented B&M shifter on the stick. It performed brilliantly. You found reasons to shift when unnecessary, just to feel the mechanism move so right.

It's hard to think of a spell dark enough to cast upon the automaker for giving such delight, and now withholding it.

The six-speed automatic, on the other hand is vastly superior to the four-speed in the old Touring, and most buyers choose automatics, so it's a case of serving the greater good.

Hyundai has been big on fuel economy for several years, leading the charge into four-cylinders for midsize family cars with the latest Sonata, for example.

And the GT walks the line, getting a noble rating of 39 mpg on the highway, though the 31 (manual) or 32 (automatic) for combined city/highway use is more relevant.

But we didn't come close: about 21 mpg in the burbs with the automatic. That's even less than the 27/28 mpg rating for the city.

Even our heavy-foot regimen generally yields better.

This isn't the first time, and it suggests that Hyundai's engine or transmission tuning is especially sensitive to real-life driving, while still hitting the big numbers in the federal mpg tests.

The two test cars both had sport suspensions and the optional bigger wheels and tires, making the cars more inviting to drive hard, thus amplifying the shortfall between window-sticker mileage and actual fuel use.

Your mileage may vary.

Inside, the optional leather upholstery was inviting, the controls simple, smooth and premium in feel, and gauges easy to read. Hyundai's to be praised for keeping it simple, relatively speaking.

A slight annoyance: The dashboard slants away, toward the windshield, so radio knobs and some other controls require a little more reach than they otherwise would.

And that pricing of about $20,000 to start will strike some shoppers as too dear.

Mainly, though, the Elantra GT, though misnamed, is a welcome and appealing entry, providing lots of adult amenities in a youthful-looking package that's generally pleasing behind the wheel.

About Elantra GT

What? Hatchback version of the recently redesigned front-drive, four-door Elantra compact sedan; slightly smaller outside, bigger inside than the sedan.

When? On sale since June.

Where? Made in South Korea. Some might eventually be made at the Montgomery, Ala., factory that builds Elantra sedans.

How much? Starts at $19,170 including shipping with six-speed manual transmission, $20,170 with six-speed automatic.

What makes it go? Same 1.8-liter, four-cylinder gasoline engine used in the sedan, rated 148 horsepower at 6,500 rpm, 137 pounds-feet of torque at 4,700 rpm.

How big? Similar to Ford Focus hatchback. GT is 169.3 inches long, 70.1 in. wide, 57.9 in. tall on a 104.3-in. wheelbase.

Weighs 2,745 to 2,959 lbs. Passenger space, 96 cubic feet. Cargo, 23 cu. ft. behind second-row seat, 51 cu. ft. when seat's folded.

Turning diameter, 34.8 ft.

How thirsty? Rated 27 miles per gallon in the city, 39 highway, 31 city/highway mix with manual transmission; 28/39/32 with automatic. Automatic transmission test car registered 20.8 mpg in frisky suburban driving. Manual transmission tester 26.2 mpg.

Burns regular, holds 14 gallons.

Overall: Fun, comfy, classy, but a bit pricey.