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Old 04-29-2011, 01:04 PM   #1
AVANTI R5
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Default 2011 Chevrolet Cruze LT vs. 2012 Ford Focus SEL, 2011 Hyundai Elantra Limited, 2011 M



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Even if two weeks’ worth of Maruchan ramen drains your savings account, there’s something about a rusting mid-’90s Accord on sagging springs that fails to inspire confidence among financial backers or real-estate agents. And when you and the missus are just starting out, you feel that need to be taken seriously more acutely than most. There are certainly cheaper new cars than the group gathered here, but—wrong as it may be—“cheap” is the only reputation many B-segment cars have.

Fortunately, respectability is booming among compact sedans as the class itself matures alongside its target customers. All five of the cars gathered here are new within the last two years, with the Hyundai Elantra, the Ford Focus, and the Volkswagen Jetta fresh off their debuts. And, while all five have entry prices of less than $17,000, an essential part of the startup mind-set is pretending you’ve already made it. We therefore checked out an example of each car possessing a sticker fiddled appropriately upmarket, with optional engines, automatic transmissions, and uplevel trims, landing them in the $23,000-to-$26,000 range. (Regrettably, there was no way to achieve stick-shift parity in this group.)

The elephant not in this room is the Honda Civic, a bestseller and all-around nice guy. Generation nine of Honda’s compact wonder was on the verge of introduction as this was written and thus unavailable for our testing, but watch for a mano a mano between the Honda and the winner of this comparo in an upcoming issue.

For now, our reigning segment champion is the Mazda 3, which prevailed over a Kia Forte and a Volkswagen Golf in a previous

comparo [“Three Ducks Not in a Row,” April 2010]. Newish last year, the 3 rides on a platform largely unchanged from the car that was introduced in 2004. Not a problem, we said, naming it to our 10Best list for 2010.
On sale in Europe for two years already, the Chevrolet Cruzeis actually older than the 3, but it is newer to the U.S. market. It rides on a platform that shares virtually nothing with its predecessor—a good start. In replacing the Cobalt, the Cruze had small shoes to fill, and it has positively exploded their seams. In our first test [January 2011], we said, “a Cruze, in a comparison test right now, might very well win.”






Ford’s 2012 Focus, like the Cruze, is the result of a domestic automaker exploiting a global platform. In this case, “global” means the Focus was developed by a crew in Germany and will be sold, with only minor variations, just about everywhere but the International Space Station (the destination and delivery charge would be prohibitively steep). The car’s underpinnings are similar to those of the European Focus for which we’ve pined ever since our last-gen Focus was haphazardly warmed over in 2005 (and again in 2008). A hatchback is available, but we tapped a sedan for this test.

Hyundai’s Elantra is also brand-new. Once a tinny, cheap emblem of automotive desperation, the 2011 Elantra arrives on the scene with a glut of features and a sense of style that hardly existed anywhere in the sedan market 10 years ago, let alone in such an affordable class. Whether or not we like the look (most of us do), we respect that Hyundai dove into the deep end; with the exception of the Focus, nothing else here comes even close to having such a cohesive look.

Rounding out the roster is the VW Jetta. Having failed to attract a suitable sales base as a semi-premium car—with pricing and content halfway between the compact and mid-size classes—the Jetta is now embracing the austerity it once tried to live above. Alongside a big bump in interior volume, the 2011 VW gets a substantial price cut, thanks to the addition of a don’t-go-anywhere-near-it base model with an overmatched 115-hp, 2.0-liter four-cylinder. But any Jetta equipped with the more desirable 2.5-liter inline-five still carries a premium of at least a thousand bucks more than the entry-level prices of the four other cars here. The enlarged Jetta now takes direct aim at the heart of the segment. But that heart is beating stronger than ever.


At its entry point of $15,765, the Jetta is the vehicular equivalent of a studio apartment with just enough room to stack a mini fridge and a hot pot at the foot of your futon. In addition to being saddled with the aforementioned 2.0-liter embarrassment, the starter Jetta doesn’t even include a CD player or air conditioning. By the time you hack your way through the trim levels to the $24,165 automatic-equipped SEL (with sunroof), you’ve rectified those wrongs and also upgraded to the 2.5-liter inline-five with 170 horses. The SEL also includes scattered chrome trim, a touch-screen navigation system, heated front seats, and more.





But no matter how many options you pile on, the Jetta feels cheap inside; a hard, hollow, black-plastic casket. Unfortunately for Volkswagen, the timing of its cost-saving approach could not have been worse. The Jetta has regressed to a once-common cheapness just as the longtime champions of that school—notably Chevrolet and Ford—have deemed that gambit obsolete.

While we found the steering too heavy at parking-lot speeds, once we ascended into the hills, the Jetta proved that German dynamics are hard to engineer out of a car. The VW has a welcome immediacy off-center, and its directness inspires a lot of confidence. The ride, though pleasantly damped, falls to the sporty side of soft, with nicely restrained body motions and minimal roll.




We were less pleased with what we felt through our feet. Stepping on the Jetta’s accelerator feels a little bit like breaking through a thin layer of ice: It is unyielding at the first touch but then gives way to more fluid travel. The pedal to the left exhibits the opposite, yet still annoying, behavior. For the first increments of travel, the brake pedal is squishy enough to give the impression that it is doing something, but the car doesn’t actually slow. We also gave the transmission a couple of demerits. While quick and smooth, it needs a heavy kick to downshift. As a result, getting a one- or two-gear drop is nearly impossible, and we found that we were either groaning along in sixth or screaming in third.

For those bent on transporting the Packers’ defensive line, the Jetta’s spacious interior received the highest rankings from rear-seat passengers, including the only passing grade with three abreast. Ultimately, though, while the Jetta might be the most accommodating car here and meet VW’s new, lower price point, its cheap aura made it feel out of step with the rest of the segment.

When we wrote that the Cruze might win a comparo, we qualified that statement by saying, “if the Cruze in question were a $21,395 2LT or maybe even the $16,995 starter kit.” Well, the Cruze participating in this comparison test is a 2LT. And its higher-than-base price of $22,910 shouldn’t have put it at a disadvantage in this group. Problem is, when we wrote that premature conclusion, we hadn’t yet driven the new Elantra or Focus.




We were seduced by this Cruze’s two-tone interior, its brown-and-beige scheme a refreshing change of pace from the black in every other car here. We were disappointed, however, with the fat-pixel displays situated in the middle of the instrument cluster and atop the center stack, particularly after seeing the high-resolution screens in the Focus. As pleasant as it is inside, though, the Cruze isn’t a jaw dropper like the Ford and the Hyundai are.

That interior is a serene place to pass the miles. The Cruze was the Buick LaCrosse of the group, its solid structure and soft suspension keeping it supremely isolated on freeway slogs. Unfortunately, the combo also kept it isolated when the wending began. Logbook comments following our mountain loop ranged from “soft and floaty” to “soft and rolly.” The brakes also came under fire—and nearly caught on fire, judging from the smoke pouring off of them—after the pedal turned to mush.




That’s not to say the Cruze can’t handle. It tied for the top spot on the skidpad and was the lane-change champ by a significant margin. The avoidance-maneuver heroics were in large part due to the immediacy of the steering, but otherwise, we had little positive to say about the tiller. It is too light, with very little feel. Competent, the Cruze is. Fun, it is not.
The Chevy’s 1.4-liter is the smallest engine here and the only one with a turbo. Unlike many boosted engines, though, it doesn’t require premium fuel. Even with a curb weight more than 400 pounds heavier than the Elantra’s, the turbo four pushed the Cruze to a midpack quarter-mile sprint of 16.4 seconds at 85 mph.

As comfortably as the Cruze rides, its seats are too hard and flat. They offer very little support, and the rear compartment proved tightest of the bunch. We tried to put three adults back there, but the middle passenger couldn’t even get his butt on the cushion; instead, he had to hover above the seat with the back of his neck pressed against the ceiling.
When we made that prediction about the Cruze winning a comparo, we did say we were “out on a wobbly limb, here, with Wile E. Coyote hoisting the chain saw.” And everyone knows how that endsContinued...
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Old 04-29-2011, 01:08 PM   #2
AVANTI R5
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There’s no getting around the most alluring (or off-putting) aspect of Hyundai’s new Elantra. Unquestionably the most daring style here, the car looks alien—Alien, even, or maybe Predator. Regrettably, thermal vision is not on the list of standard features. Strangely, neither are power seats or automatic climate control, neither of which is available for any amount of money. In a car with heated rear seats, we find that perplexing.





But, if they are not automatic, at least the Elantra’s HVAC controls do appear to be straight out of a Bentley. Yes, we realize we just said that about a Hyundai, but it’s true. Pull off a knurled fan-speed knob and drop it between your local mob boss’s sheets, and he’ll think his Mulsanne has been stolen and stripped.

The Elantra feels upscale on the move, too. It has a very smooth ride without being sloppily floppy in normal use. However, the Hyundai’s softness becomes a problem in spirited driving, when the car exhibits a bit more flex and does a poorer job of filtering out road imperfections than the rest of the group. Like the Chevy, the Hyundai’s steering is quick and light, but it never comes alive. There’s no more buildup in effort than you’d feel at the helm of a dirigible, which we anticipate has not very much effort buildup.






While the Elantra is the lightest car here, at 2749 pounds, its1.8-liter four is less powerful than all but the Cruze, so the Hyundai was the back marker in our acceleration testing. It also defined or shared the lower boundary in nearly all the subjective performance ratings: steering feel, brake feel, and handling, as well as engine noise, vibration, and harshness.

Still, this car boasts a low sticker price, an impressive roster of equipment, an accommodating back seat, and the highest EPA-estimated fuel economy. It’s just that Hyundai seems to have engineered the Elantra to objective benchmarks—which the car met—and then called it a day, utterly ignoring how it felt while achieving those marks.


We recorded surprisingly consistent performance data from this group of cars: Quarter-mile times for all were within a second of each other, with trap speeds within 5 mph. There was a three-way tie for best skidpad grip, with the fourth car trailing by 0.01 g and the last 0.04 g behind that. And all of the cars stopped from 70 mph within nine feet of one another. With such tightly bunched competitors, it comes down to feel.





Getting into the Mazda 3 each rotation was a chance to recalibrate; an “oh, yeah” opportunity to remind ourselves that small, economical cars can be fun. Mazda even supplied its hero in a seductive shade of “harlot red,” although the hue’s official name is Velocity Red Mica. The steering needs just a tweak off-center to redirect the car, and the front tires beam a clear signal back up through the wheel to the driver’s palms. The chassis responds just as quickly, changing direction like a desperate politician scrambling to stay in office. The brakes react to the slightest touch and allow easy modulation, and will do so again and again. In five back-to-back panic stops at the test track, the 3 recorded stopping distances spanning only four feet.





Mazda doesn’t reserve the sportiness for only the most-expensive 3, either. Sure, the Sport trim, which adds a manual shift gate to the automatic, and the “s,” which denotes the larger engine, raised the price of our test vehicle. But the chassis and steering are also standard on the least-expensive 3. That optional 2.5-liter puts out 167 horses, just three fewer than the VW. The second-lightest car, the 3 walked away with straight-line honors. Its engine is smooth and responsive, although there’s little aural encouragement to wind it out. Even down a cog compared with the transmissions of the rest of the group, its five-speed automatic encouraged manual operation like nothing else here. And it’s the only transmission with the appropriate manual-shift layout (back for upshifts, forward for down). It actuates downshifts immediately, if not with the same rev-matching enthusiasm as more-expensive cars, and is quick and smooth even in automatic mode.

So what is the sportiest car here doing in second place? As good as it is at all of the things we love, it struggles with most everything else. It’s short on equipment, standard or otherwise, and its (relatively) powerful engine is one of the thirstiest here. Meanwhile, the Focus has a higher-quality feel inside and out, and it looks fresher. The Mazda 3 nails the fun factor, but the Focus does a better job of balancing fun with value and style.

Twelve years ago, Ford introduced the first Focus. We loved it, electing it to our 10Best list and ordering a long-termer. Then, for the next decade or so, the company let the Focus languish, steadily decontenting it while the rest of the segment moved on and surpassed it. We’re not forgiving enough to say it was worth the wait, but this car wipes a lot of our old gripes off the board.

For starters, it’s a looker; stylish and smart without being borderline overwrought like the Elantra. Inside, too, the Focus won over all jurors. Its modern design makes its big brother, the Fusion, look in need of a quick makeover. And the Focus is packed with gear, including a self-parking system for just $695. While we maintain that every driver should know how to parallel-park, this system is unbelievably good. We set up an exercise to test it and kept cinching the adjoining cars closer just to watch the Focus squeeze in.





Behind the wheel, the Focus held our attention with equal ease. The ride is Euro-firm, body motions are very well controlled, and the car stays extremely flat through corners and is eminently predictable. The steering is weighty and progressive but not as quick as the Mazda’s, and the engine note, though not the stirring scream of a Honda VTEC mill ripping toward redline, is the most rousing here. The one letdown is the brakes. The pedal sweeps through a lengthy dead zone before doing anything.





We had a few other complaints about the Focus. We were disappointed in the PowerShift dual-clutch transmission, which feels like it is programmed to mimic a conventional automatic instead of a manual with sporting intentions. Programming wasn’t the only problem we had with the transmission: At low speeds when the car was cold, we noted numerous disconcerting clunks and jolts. Additionally, we could feel the clutch chattering as we crept along in traffic, and the shifts were slow (for a dual-clutch unit) and soft. Put it in sport mode, and the shifts get faster, but they’re still nowhere near as quick and crisp as Volkswagen’s DSG, and the shift logic seems programmed only to burn more fuel by never upshifting, not to provide enthusiastic response.

MyFord Touch, Ford’s new technology suite, stinks. One juror called it “a killer.” It is slow to respond and demands a tremendous amount of attention. It’s as though someone forgot that this system was intended to go in a vehicle, where not crashing is going to be the operator’s first priority (or so we hope).

However, solving these two problems—by sticking with the manual transmission and not opting for MyFord Touch—would only make the Focus cheaper, which enhances its appeal. Ford has again given us a winning Focus. Hopefully, this time it will keep it that way.



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