Early Look: 2009 Hyundai Elantra

The 2009 Hyundai Elantra will make its debut April 20 at the Beijing Motor Show, an increasingly important step on the car show circuit as automakers seek growth in China.  Jalopnik reports, "The new Elantra maintains the design language of the rest of the cars in the lineup that aren't the Genesis. That means an evolution of the front end treatment to something more resembling a late model Acura."

Autoblog sees the same resemblance, saying "it's somewhat reminiscent of the beak on early-'00s Acura CL/TL models. Those cars still look good, so this is not a bad thing for the Elantra."  Autoblog likes the look, commenting, "Think of the changes as going from regular vanilla ice cream to that tastier version with the little flecks of real vanilla inside. They're basically the same thing, but you gravitate towards the fancier one. This is how we feel about the new Elantra."

Carscoop points out that Hyundai has not formally said the changes will come to the U.S., "although it sounds quite logical for these styling changes to pass onto the North American market."

Whatever the U.S. version of the Elantra ultimately looks like, Hyundai has announced its plans to sell a hybrid Elantra in the second half of 2009.

Read about the current Elantra, and its competition, with U.S. News' rankings and reviews of affordable small cars.

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