Hyundai-Sime Darby Motors (HSDM) has officially introduced the Elantra 1.6 Executive in Malaysia, nearly six months after the 1.6 Premium originally landed in Malaysia. The new entry-level variant is also fully imported from South Korea, and it is going at an introductory price of RM139,888.
That makes it about RM19k cheaper than the Premium. So, what are the features that have been omitted to bring the price down? Quite a few things, but mostly to do with the interior. The Executive model gets black fabric upholstery with white contrast stitching, manual seating adjustment, and a more conventional analogue instrumentation with a 4.2-inch multi-info display on the rightmost side of the panel.
It also loses out on the heating and ventilation function for the front seats, and the heated steering wheel (still leather-wrapped with the requisite multifunction controls) function and wireless smartphone charging tray have been removed, too. The electrochromic rear-view mirror also gets omitted.
Another compromise HSDM had to make was to offer just the basic functionalities of Hyundai SmartSense. The Executive only gets passive cruise control, blind-spot collision warning, and rear cross-traffic alert. Other advanced safety assist systems such as AEB (with pedestrian and cyclist detection), adaptive cruise control, high beam assist and lane keeping assist have been stripped from the list.
That’s pretty much it in terms of differences. Otherwise, it shares the same LED projector headlights, LED combination tail lights with continuous light strip, 17-inch dual-tone alloy wheels, floating eight-inch display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as the 1.6 litre Smartstream engine (123 PS, 154 Nm) and intelligent variable transmission with four drive modes.
Company managing director, Low Yuan Lung said: “We have received a significant number of interest from customers on the new Elantra and also a preference for lower pricing. As with all fully imported cars, the exchange rate is one of the determining factors for the price of the car.”
“The Elantra is a complete built-up unit that is fully imported from Korea, therefore the exchange rate does affect how we price the car. Having said that, we would still like to make the Elantra accessible to all our customers with the introduction of this variant,” he added. Watch this space for a full gallery of the new variant! In the mean time, what do you think of this base variant?
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Now this is a good buy
“The Executive only gets passive cruise control, blind-spot collision warning, and rear cross-traffic alert. Other advanced safety assist systems such as AEB (with pedestrian and cyclist detection), adaptive cruise control, high beam assist and lane keeping assist have been stripped from the list.”
Err..for 140k, how is that a good buy? please enlighten us.
At Rm140k? A Civic TCP with full Honda Sense is a good buy. This car? Not so much.
This car only worth rm70-80k to me
Yeah, continue to strip things off and see if there is still a steering wheel left at~ 100k price because that is what a korean 1.6 NA is worth in the market.
Managing director:“We have received a significant number of interest from customers on the new Elantra and also a preference for lower pricing.”..
What your customers asking for is to lower the price, not striping out all the features..
Ironically the low spec of Elantra is priced at the same level as the high spec Civic and Corolla which comes with full safety features.
The moment a Korean car leave the showroom, 30% drop in resale value, so HSDM good luck with that.
TSI, betul what u said.But no matter what we say,there will be hardcore Elantra buyers..they dont mind the price tag,inspite of the fact one can easily get a base spec X70 and Persona.
This is called “addictive branding psychology”.
Significant number of interest from customers?? Let’s see how many when the brand sales data is released.
rm140k is really cheap. the same Hyundai Elantra 1.6 sellng for S$97,999 in singapura.
They also have triple the purchasing power.
They also forced to scrap perfectly good cars after 10 years and repeat the whole cycle plus their COE can go up to 10X the car price. There’s always a flip side, the grass is not always greener there.
Not forced . One can still choose to renew coe for cars of 10yo, but need to have inspection done yearly.
Msians syukur still cheapest petrol in the region.
Will this variant be in the Five Cars from Hyundai You Should Not Buy list?
Hyundai-Sime Darby Motors continuously insult the intelligence on Malaysian consumers.
They say that the exchange rate affects the car – though does it justify pricing an ELANTRA at almost $34,000? You think it would be maybe a couple thousand extra not almost $10,000+. The base level Hyundai Sonata should be around that price! Not a Elantra
That price you can buy a Honda Accord Touring 2.0T in countries like Mexico AND still save money. Of course Malaysian prices are different because we have to protect tin kosong rebadged cars. In that case it is better to buy used Honda Accord instead of this budget orientated Korean car (that for some reason is overpriced in Malaysia)
1.6 Exec, still look handsome. The fabric seats with a touch of lux.
But… Price is still quite at the high side, if you compare it with the Japs CBU, isn’t it?
Somemore the Japs comes with direct injection high compression engine. A proper transmission that is call 6-speed automatic. Advance vehicle stability control. 7 airbags. Head-up display. Paddle shifter (I just can’t live without this). And the most convincing 5 years free service.
Sorry Hyundai SD, I am not sorry.
Seriously, how did it even dare to price itself in the >120k price range, look at the seat, look at the mid console, and then look at the engine and the wheel. I can find better Japanese car than this thing with little bit cheaper price ffs
Pointless having this NEW Elantra in the 1.6L Naturally Aspirated engine iteration in THAT DewCow LannChart High kind of price range, just like the current Mazda3 1.5L – better for me to save my buxx for the Honda City, Toyota Vios, Nissan Almera 1.L Turbo (Woyeah!) or at best, even the Proton Persona 1.6L Premium instead where drivers may still not go way too wrong with B-segmenters………
I think I read somewhere that this elantra, the standard varsion to be specific is being penalized in europe due to low headlight clarity
Premium C-Segment pricing with B-Segment specs. it’s still overpriced.
I scare once acident, spare parts order take months to arrive. The car would tersadai-sadai at workshop collecting dust.
This is what happened to my previous Korean car. Sorry to say that now I am korean-car-phobic.
If this spec priced around 110k confirm sell well. HSDM you screwed up with the pricing again.
RM140k for just NA1.6. Still NO!