2023 Hyundai Elantra N Manual Review: Fun, Value and Noise

To stick or not to stick? It’s a tougher question than you would think.

Published July 21, 2023

Hyundai has been killing it lately. Its new Ioniq EVs earned back-to-back World Car of the Year awards, and with newfound confidence, we’ve seen Hyundai branch into automotive realms where you would not have expected to find them ten years ago. Its Genesis brand builds some of the best luxury cars on the market, and its sports sedan from its burgeoning N performance brand, the Elantra N, may be the best value sports car out there.

The Elantra N faces tenacious competition. Volkswagen and Honda have been refining the Golf GTI and Civic Type R for decades. But the Elantra N also has a newcomer’s advantage. The absence of preconceptions and tradition freed Hyundai to drill down on what cheap sports car buyers actually want: fun (hello, attention-grabbing exhaust note) and affordability.

I drove the eight-speed dual-clutch Elantra N last year and loved it. This year, I tested the six-speed manual version at home for a week in Michigan on everything from long curvy road runs to summer camp schlepping. And it presented a conundrum I still have not entirely resolved.

The 2023 Hyundai Elantra N: What We Think

I love what Hyundai did here. The Elantra N isn’t quite as dialed in as its competitors. But it manages to sound and feel visceral in a way those competitors do not. The Elantra N is made for the people who buy cheap sports cars, for the driving they want to do with them at a reasonable price point they can afford. It won’t turn a lap as quickly as the Civic Type R, but it’s more than $10,000 cheaper.

I am torn on the manual transmission, however. Going from the dual-clutch to the manual in the Hyundai Elantra N is more than just a few ticks on a lap. The six-speed makes the Elantra N a less lively car in ways you notice. But if you’re not going manual with a cheap sports car, what’s the point?

Should you buy a Hyundai Elantra N with a stick?

Automatics outperform manuals no matter the helmsman. But with the Elantra N, the difference is stark. The eight-speed “wet” dual-clutch transmission is excellent. You can rip off crisp and precise shifts. The six-speed manual, meanwhile, is fine. The clutch is easy to use in traffic. Shifting is short with rev-matching you can enjoy or easily remove. It just doesn’t feel quite as on it as Honda’s unit, or as smooth as VW’s. And that old-fashioned upshift on the way from 0-60 mph costs you nearly a second.

The Elantra N is still quick, agile and engaging with a stick. There aren’t many cars I would rather have been driving when my potty-training two-year-old daughter announced she had to pee seven minutes from our house. But having tasted the other side, I’m not sure I could live with owning the objectively second-best version of the Elantra N. I’m also not sure I would buy this sort of car without a manual.

Practicalities won’t swing Hyundai Elantra N buyers. But it’s worth noting the manual transmission is surprisingly more efficient than the dual-clutch (25 mpg combined vs. 23 mpg combined). It’s also $1,500 cheaper.

Custom N mode is the way to go in the Elantra N

The Elantra N has two blue N mode steering wheel buttons. The left side one sends you into the manufacturer N mode. The right side one sends you to your custom N mode. Usually, I despise customizable drive modes for the same reason I don’t instruct the chef how to cook my meal; I want to drive the car as the engineers intended. But for the Elantra N, I make an exception.

N mode is where the Elantra N comes alive. You get the full-bore power and the orchestral exhaust crackles. But N mode also makes an already stiff car with heavy steering exceptionally so, which is a little too much unless you’re booking it on a back road. The Elantra N has a longer wheelbase than the Kona N or the departed Veloster N, which gives it more composure. But it still gets bumpy, especially for family duty.

I eventually experimented with the custom N mode. It’s the first icon on the touchscreen menu. You slide over one screen and get clear, well-spaced icons that let you adjust just about everything. Dialing back the suspension and steering let the Elantra N be noisy and fun but far more livable driving around town.

How did Hyundai hit that price point with the Elantra N? A cheaper interior

The Elantra has a very well-designed digital cockpit. It circles around the driver. Information is easily visible. Physical controls for vital functions are easily accessible. The mystery spot to the left of the steering wheel balances out the look. And the asymmetrical center console is a convenient handhold when your car journalist spouse decides to take a delicious-looking corner with gusto.

But it’s not an expensive interior. Indeed, the Elantra N does not go far beyond the base Elantra interior. It’s easy to find airline-grade plastic, and the N Light Sport Bucket seats — while they do a great job cosseting you from moving side to side — don’t do as great of a job keeping you from bobbing up and down on bumpy roads.

And the Elantra N is a lot to look at

Appearance is subjective. And while I can’t quite predict how the Elantra N will hit you personally, I did find it a lot to behold. The base Elantra is an aggressive design with a lot of sharp angles. And the Elantra N leans into that with a blacked-out mug, a wing, and aggressive red detailing. It’s not a car that blends into the background, as I found out when a cop did a U-turn and followed me for a few miles while I drove my family to see some fireworks.

That said, I did enjoy my test car’s vibrant “Intense Blue” paint, which may be my favorite application of blue outside of Lexus’s Grecian Water.

What are some Hyundai Elantra N alternatives?

The Elantra N is a tweener. It offers more power than the VW Golf GTI and the Subaru BRZ/Toyota GR86. But it’s not quite as powerful as the Honda Civic Type R, VW Golf R and Toyota GR Corolla. Hyundai’s sport sedan is closer to the latter group on power, while being closer to the former group on price.

A close sport sedan alternative to the Elantra N could be the Subaru WRX. It starts around the same price, offers a manual and has a similar power output at 271 horsepower. Though the WRX is AWD instead of FWD and you level up the WRX, while the Elantra N comes in one fully-loaded trim.