Housewife's Car Review: 2018 Hyundai Elantra

This week I received an e-mail from Hyundai Canada that read “We invite you to write a review on Hyundai Elantra. If you have ever used customer reviews yourself, you know how valuable they can be.”

So I’ve decided to put my Elantra’s review ahead of a number of others. First of all, I would say that this model deserves to be called best value for money. Korean auto manufacturers proved that cars could be inexpensive, but reliable at the same time.

Waiting for the snow

I've completed the winter tires challenge. Yeah, sounds funny, though I managed to make a real quest out of it.
First, I was looking for the best tires for my car. Compared credentials, reviews, conditions and so on. Purchased the tires in the end of October.
The second step was finding the rims as well as an installation facility. Ended up doing everything in Canadian Tire, since I get a lot of bonus points there.
Third, finding time to bring the car. That was the most challenging part.
You would be surprised at how many people want to change their tires in mid-November. Today, I finally woke up at eight and sacrificed my morning coffee for the tire change. I got to the garage at 8:45 AM and Glove was the last car accepted today. Hooray!
Well, it's 6 PM and the car's already in my driveway. Of course, it had to rain cats & dogs the day I finally got my tires changed.
What should I say? It feels different, driving in winter tires. I feel like our gas consumption is going up for the season! The brakes are smoother, and there's a lot more friction between the wheels and the road.
We're ready for the snow!

Housewife's Car Review: 2009 Acura CSX

Continuing with our luxury edition, today I will talk about the 2009 Acura CSX.

The Acura CSX is the youngest brother in the Acura family, which was created to replace Acura 1.7 EL. Actually, 1.7 was a great car, and I still see them on the road.  CSX stands for Compact Sportscar Experimental.  It’s a dark horse on a road. It looks exactly like the Honda Civic (ha, it’s called Honda Civic in the Japanese internal market), but it has a great Acura 2.0 L engine. Originally this model was designed specifically for the Canadian market. Not sure if I ever encountered it in other countries, but it is pretty common in our area. Even though Acura CSX was a bestseller for a few years, the model got discontinued in 2011 and was replaced with the ILX edition. 

Is Elantra a new Civic?

The competition between Corolla and Civic is well known for decade(s) . 15 years ago my friend was telling me that young drivers in Canada are dreaming of buying Honda Civic as their first car. Since then I was talking to many guys and all of them were confirming that they like Civic. Both Corolla and Civic are a cheap basic model, but excellently built for a long-term usage. Both are reliable and decent cars with almost no issues in first 200K km. The only difference is that mature people like the comfort and stability of Corolla, while young generation says that Civic is "sexy". I personally prefer Corolla over Civic, because I do not care about the look, I judge by performance. Limited visibility in Civics  from 2008 to 2015 (haven't had a newer version yet), less sensitivity on gas and brakes, interior and a few other minor issues keep me away from this car.  
Usually I drive in suburbs or away from the city. Going to Toronto by car is a nightmare for me, but I live close to the subway and use TTC if needed. This week I had to drive in the city a lot. So I noticed the following trend - there are many young and aggressive drivers on Hyindai Elantra. Even more surprising, they are driving Elantra GT which is a hatchback. Looks like a new generation of boys has switched from Civic to Elantra. It is a nice looking car; a hatchback is a bit more advanced than a basic model; Elantras have 2L engines compared to 1.5 L in Civics. Koreans made an excellent basic car that is able to compete with two old monsters. What is your opinion? Would Elantra be able to win a market in the next couple of years?

Housewife's Car Review: 2016 BMW 528i xDrive

One sunny day I came for my “compact sedan” and the boys from Enterprise gave me a bit of a different car. They didn’t have anything left but a pearl white 2016 BMW 528i xDrive. “Sorry, but we can only give you a luxury car.”

Long term solution or quick decision?

Being a person a bit over 30, I had never owned my own car. There were family cars, friends' cars, rentals, occasional  cars from the companies where I was working, though never in life had I owned a car.

Life is full of surprises, so circumstances are pushing me to buy a car. Finally!
After analyzing the market, I've decided that only two options would work for me:
- Buy an old fellow, drive it for a few years, change to a new car for long-long time.
- Take over somebody's lease for a year or two, follow the second part of option 1.
If everything is pretty clear with urgent solutions for tomorrow, getting a new car is more interesting.
I am an environmentally friendly person and the one, who looks a few steps ahead. A car for me is more than just a vehicle. I don't want to get a lease for 3 or 5 years, but would prefer to buy a brand new car and use it for at least 10 years (unless I would need a different type of vehicle later on).
So I try to imagine myself 10 years from now, on the same car. Definitely, gasoline doesn't sound catchy if outside is 2027. Ideally, I would buy a Toyota Mirai and keep my fingers crossed for hydrogen "gas stations" in the areas where I live and travel. Realistically, considering an electric car makes more sense.
Also, I like the concept of hybrid cars. I'd say that hybrid suites me more, since I cannot guarantee charging the battery on time (my cellphone is a great example).
Since none of my friends own a hybrid car and rental companies still treat it as exotics, my knowledge is based only on some random articles. I really like the Toyota Prius in hybrid version. Keep thinking about 10 years from now - would a hybrid engine last for that long? Would anyone at all drive cars that consume gasoline in 2027?
I would really  like to hear opinions about this.
By the way, 2016 BMW 528 review is almost ready to be posted. Thinking to add a mobile review to this blog ;) Stay tuned.

Housewife Car Review:2017 KIA Sorento

Finally, I got a new toy for the weekend. This time Enterprise provided me with a 2017 KIA Sorento. We had a busy schedule and I didn't have enough time to go through the dashboard and all its features. Nevertheless, 300 km in two days is good enough to get an opinion about this car.
In terms of driving, in my rating it is on the second place after Lexus IS250. That Lexus is being missed a lot =) But let's go back to Sorento.