Great to hear she's doing well.

 

great write-up. Have owned numerous hyundai's-currenty own a '11' sonata. Just wish it came with more things but we wanted 6MT. Same thing with the elantra-basic with 6MT. Traded our 05 elantra GT with 100K+ problem free miles for the sonata

 

My girlfriend just got a 2011 Elantra last night! It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles like yours but just about anything is better than the 2002 Civic she used to have.

I'm glad you're still enjoying your car

 

Great write-up! Definitely get into car blogging, you never know what can happen.

So is the dealership giving you a loaner steering wheel for the time being?

 

Great writeup. Thanks for sharing. The Elantra seems to be a great little car and at least you got out of your lemon Santa Fe.

 

Great write-ups!

My sister's 99 Passat is at 190K+ miles and I'm not sure how much longer it'll go. Lately it seems the CEL has been coming on every other week. Being the mechanically inclined brother I get to diagnose and fix the damn thing.

I'm going to get her to start looking at the Elantra or the Kia Optima. She's been drooling over the latter but I think it's out of her budget.

 

Well the steering wheel is all done and I can get my car back tomorrow. I can't wait to see the wheel in the car.







Money shots.

 

Ooooo la la. That's purdy.

 

Awesome.

 

Thanks guys. I love it and can't wait to see (and feel) it in person.

But it's funny I should post this today because apparently the Santa Fe has not sold but was in the hands of a manager for awhile. I got a text from my friend saying that while being driven by said manager, smoke began pouring out from underneath the hood and the check engine light came on. That thing should just be crushed and shredded whole.

 

Yikes...

 

Kill it with fire! What a lemon that particular SF was.

 

Nice wheel!

 

That is a nice wheel.....and a nice car. I'm a bit late to this thread but, congratulations. I'd no idea that the Elantra had a Navi pkg.

 

Well guys, as it turns out the smoker was not my old SF but an '09 owned by somebody who has the same first name as me and the last name 'Field'. My last name is Fields. What are the odds?

Anyway, I got the wheel back and put on yesterday so here are pics of it on the car:





View of the grain. Unfortunately I don't have a close up of the OEM material but it was this sort-of perforated pleather. It almost looked like a dot matrix printer had its way with it.




The work they did around the two bottom arms is actually better than stock!

 

Looks good.

I may have missed it, but where did you have it sent out to be done?

 

You didn't miss it because I failed to mention it. Check out the link below if you (or anyone else) might be interested. The owner's name is Don and he runs a very tight ship, keeping me informed from receipt of the wheel, to an expected time of completion and then a final e-mail with pictures of their work for my approval before it is sent back. He quoted me $269 for standard leather and $319 for the premium leather, which I chose. The silver stitching was no extra charge. Some guys on HF think I'm crazy but for me, the cost was well worth it.

http://dallassteeringwheel.com/index.htm

 

Thats not really a bad price IMO. Its the only thing in the car that you touch 99% of the time, its got to be comfortable.

Ive heard of that shop too, Im thinking about having my wheel recovered, but Im not sure yet.

 

Congrats Andrew!

That elantra is pretty pimp. Be aware of the DI making noise. I convinced my coworker to get a Sonata over a Camry. I drove it and it was very smooth, she loves it but the DI started making a bad noise after a while. Not sure what the solution to the problem ended up being.

 

Congrats on the new wheel! I've heard only good things about Dallas Steering Wheel, and it's a great investment.

Maybe your name is cursed, and not your Santa Fe

 

The Elantra doesn't have DI but thanks for the warning.

Thank you, sir.

 

 

Very cool photos!

Has your MPG issue been resolved? My girlfriend averages about 31 all city and 37 mixed. She and I drove about 4 hours to Greenville, SC a few weekends ago and got 42 mpg

 

31 city!?

 

Yep. That car is a beast.

 

I do mostly heavy city driving and the hills around here are what kills it. I get between 25 and 27 in all city driving. I did a test on a flat stretch of highway last week and also got over 40 MPG...42.3 to be exact.

 

31 all city? wow

 

 

that steering wheel looks

 

Just wanted to update everybody on my car and how it's doing.

I rolled over 8K this weekend and the mileage is steadily improving. I'm running a tank of non-ethanol fuel that damn near broke my wallet but in mixed driving, I'm getting 32.5 MPG. I could probably do 30 to 31 on E10 and I can now easily get 42-43 MPG on the highway so I'm not complaining anymore.

I got the windows tinted and decided to risk it and rock it without the front plate, even buying a set of bumper plugs to fill the holes. I'm an optimist so here's to not being noticed by da . I've also upgraded the high beams to Osram Nightbreakers and boosted the fog light bulbs to 37 watts up from the lame-duck 27.5 watt stock bulbs. I also swapped the weak stock wipers for the aero blades from, oddly enough, the current Honda Fit. They look good, work ten times better and unlike Hyundai, you can get just replacement inserts instead of having to spring for the whole blade.

Upcoming mods include the Korean-market HID projector headlights, some swanky but subtle BMW-style LED tails, aluminum pedals, a subtle front lip and trunk deck lid spoiler, rear diffuser and an upgraded sound system. Stay tuned.

Here are a couple photos I took today; not my best work but I'm happy.





No...I'm not nine feet tall. This photo was achieved by extending my tri-pod's legs fully and then cranking the camera mount all the way up.

 

Glad to hear MPGs are improving as well.

It's also great to see the mods you're doing first are all things that you will be using every day... the steering wheel and pedals are things you always touch, and headlights and wipers can always be appreciated. If it wasn't the ultimate DD, it will be now.

 

Looking good buddy. Nice to see the MPGs are heading in the right direction as well.

 

Glad to hear the MPGs are going up

Looking forward to seeing all of the goodies on your car

 

Nice little car. You are gradually swaying me toward Hyundai....though my choice of poison would probably be an R-Spec Genny. Guys with broken-in engines are getting up to 30 mpg in those. I'd damn near give my left nut to achieve that in my CTS-V.

 

x2 Bob. Strictly city driving in my Infiniti really HURTS.

 

You live in Portland OR with no weathertech digital fits mats? With all that rain how does you carpet stay in shape? I just bought front ones for my new ride. They last forever.

 

Thanks, guys. I'll continue to update this as I install the mods.

I have the Hyundai OEM rubber mats for fall, winter and spring and the carpeted ones in for summer. I still need to get a WeatherTech trunk liner because Hyundai decided to market the stupid thing in Canada but not here.

 

Latest mod is complete with the Korean market aluminum pedal kit. The Elantra GT will come with these but not the sedan so I ordered a set. The hardest part was getting the accelerator pedal and linkage swapped out but I got it done.

 

Hey I'm thinking about one of these. What Hyundai forum are you going to?

 

The MD Elantra section on Hyundai Forums is the best I've seen although I've been there since '06. I'm also on Elantra Club but it's not as active over there.

On HF I'm 'lovemysantafe' which I considered changing after getting my Elantra but as I've had that handle for seven years on various Hyundai sites, I could never go through with changing it. It's part of my identity now.