At some point, we all acquire enough random, useless knowledge about cars that we occasionally catch ourselves for a second, wondering “hang on, was that actually a thing?” Sure, there weren’t any 1983 Corvettes sold to consumers, nor was a 1988 El Camino ever a thing, but as factoids get ever more obscure, you almost have to question them. Was the Hyundai Elantra Coupe real, or was it a falsehood planted in our brains?
Let’s take things back eleven years to 2013. The front-wheel-drive compact coupe market had been in atrophy for years, and it was only a matter of time before it died out for good. The Ford Focus coupe, Acura RSX, Chevrolet Cobalt coupe, and a myriad of others had vanished from showrooms, leaving just the Scion tC, Honda Civic Coupe, Kia Forte Koup, Hyundai Veloster, and debatably the Honda CR-Z to battle it out.
However, Hyundai believed there was room for one more. Never mind the fact that the Veloster served a largely similar role despite having three doors, Hyundai thought it needed a proper coupe built in the exact same Ulsan assembly complex as the Veloster, so a proper coupe was born.
The recipe was simple — take the new Elantra, remove two doors, and Bob’s your uncle. No crazy powertrain changes, no wildly different styling, not even a change in wheelbase. The result was a compact coupe that was actually roomier than the sedan, with two-tenths of an inch more rear legroom and four-tenths of an inch more rear hip room.
Not only that, it was also well equipped. You could get an Elantra Coupe with dual-zone climate control, a 360-watt audio system, push-to-start, leather seats, dual-zone climate control, effectively the works. However, there was one small problem — this sporty-looking coupe wasn’t actually that sporty.
See, 2013 was still in the days of The Great Recession recovery, and with an industry-wide focus on fuel economy and lightweighting in mainstream models, Hyundai launched the Elantra Coupe with a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine making just 148 horsepower and 131 lb.-ft. of torque. Granted, that was competitive with the base Honda Civic coupe, but the results were still a bit underwhelming. Just ask Motor Trend:
Out on the open road, as my drive partner and fellow MT editor Benson Kong put it: “The Elantra coupe is not a car that should be rushed, but driven at a relaxed pace so onlookers can take in the styling.” We found it to be a perfectly capable car around town and on the freeway, one that does a good job soaking up road imperfections and is relatively quiet and composed at higher speeds.
Fortunately, Hyundai set to work quickly and dropped in a larger, more powerful two-liter engine for 2014, offering a rampaging 173 horsepower. Wawaweewa. However, refinement when using all 173 horsepower wasn’t so brilliant, as Autoweek noted:
And when I switched off Active Eco, a/c and stability and applied the patented Vaughn brake-torqueing technique taught in the finer drag racing schools acrossAmericaI got a 0-60 time of 7.8 seconds. That’s not too bad, really. Except that the whole car sounded like it was going to dynamite at any minute.
Ouch. At the end of 2014, Hyundai pulled the plug on the Elantra Coupe in America, citing no reason in particular. However, it did live on in Canada for one more model year before everyone including Hyundai realized that the Veloster was enough to fulfill Hyundai’s needs in the sporty compact segment.
Here’s the thing — whether or not the Hyundai Elantra Coupe was actually any good doesn’t matter, because it feels fake despite being an entirely real entity. It was crazy to launch a new coupe in 2013, it was crazy to only offer it for two years in America, and because so few were sold and they look so similar to the sedan up front, on the minuscule chance you happened to see one in the wild, you might think someone is screwing with you.
Considering the Elantra is one of Hyundai’s most popular cars, it’s wild to think that only 48 Elantra Coupes are for sale on Autotrader right now, meaning these are some seriously rare machines to see out and about. However, if you happen to randomly remember a two-door Elantra, don’t panic. It’s very real, it’s not propaganda, and it’s not an attempt to discredit your credentials or warp your sense of reality, let alone manufacture consent for the decline of the compact coupe market.
It’s just a weird car, from a time when the market was growing less weird. For now, let’s just be thankful that it existed, because it really had no reason to. The roads are slightly richer with it around, and that’s far from a malicious thing.
(Photo credits: Top graphic tinfoil-hat pup via Depositphotos.com. All other images: Hyundai)
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
-
Why China Sold Four Different Generations Of Hyundai Elantra In 2016
-
The Acura TL SH-AWD Manual Is The Stick-Shift All-Weather Sports Sedan You Forgot Existed
-
The Forgotten Audi A3 3.2 Quattro Is A Golf R32 In Disguise For Thousands Of Dollars Less
-
The Forgottenest Passat: Cold Start
-
Two Decades Ago, Jeep Made A Small SUV With A Beefy Diesel Engine Everyone Forgot About
Got a hot tip? Send it to us here. Or check out the stories on our homepage.
Factoid: an assumption or speculation that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact.
I worked with a guy that had one and we went to lunch in it a few times. Surprisingly comfortable inside. In the front, of course. I have legs, so the back was a no go. I remember liking the seats.
I’d drive it.
I remember showing up at work in 1986 in a 1972 Olds Cutlass sedan I had just bought for like $250. My co-workers immediately started in-
“Four door? Where’s the family? I guess you’ll be changing diapers and watching Sesame Street tonight”.
That’s how incredibly uncool 4-doors were back in the day.
And that’s how we liked it! Looking back on it, it was an era of where everyday automotive fun rode high and where cars didn’t have to be serious all the damn time like today.
Sort of related, kinda, ok, not really, but a coworker found this site earlier today. I was looking through 1991 and a lot of cars didn’t cost what I thought they did. For example for the price of a Cadillac Alante, you could have an NSX, 2 300ZX’s, 3 RX7’s 4 MR2’s, or 6 Mustangs…
https://www.michigan.gov/sos/vehicle/ownership/vehicle-base-prices
The Cruze should’ve been offered as a coupe. I found these two renderings:
https://img.indianautosblog.com/2012/10/Chevrolet-Cruze-Coupe-4.jpg
https://gmauthority.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2016-Chevrolet-Cruze-Coupe-Rendering-720×340.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NNBNdcHsCw4/UB_HMYKm-9I/AAAAAAAAB5Q/84jt8RM80D4/s1600/Chevrolet+Cruze+Coupe-4.jpg
For sure. It’s unusual, but not totally crazy to still see Cavalier coupes running around.
I feel like another forgotten coupe is the Ultima. Honestly, I didn’t even know they were a thing until a few months ago and I had to double take because I was like “heyyyy wait a second…”
Those seemed oddly popular in my area. My guess is that most were bought by people who wanted a G coupe but couldn’t afford one and went with something that kind of looked similar.
I presume you mean ‘Altima’ and not one of these?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/2000_Ultima_GTR_Coupe.jpg/1920px-2000_Ultima_GTR_Coupe.jpg
How awesome would it have been if Nissan actually did call the coupe version the Ultima? It’s right up there with my wishing that Chrysler had named the hot turbo version the GT Cruiser.
I have a fond memory of me in one reading a Berenstein Bears book to my kids before we went to see Sinbad in Shazaam.
I’ve always though the best little coupe in this segment was the Scion tC. It has the engine from the 4-Cyl Camry so very reliable, you could get it in a manual, alloy wheels, it had the old school glass and hatch combo and they all came with panoramic roofs. I honestly think it’s a good hidden little gem and can be had for pretty cheap. Also those Camry engines have been known to reach 300K miles plus with no issues.
Under 3,000lbs and available factory supercharger
My biggest regret in tC ownership was selling it after bringing my first child home from the hospital in it. Yeah getting a baby seat into the rear was a huge pain, but it was a very good car despite all my attempts to make it a bad one, and in true project car Irony, I finally had it almost perfect when I sold it.
A good friend of mine had one and he loved it. This dude was in his 50s and well to do so he could be rolling around in an S-Class if he wanted to but no he loved his little first gen tC lol. I finally drove it one day because I wanted to know what all the hype was about and I get it, it was pretty comfy, good on gas and had a decently peppy little engine. They are sweet little cars.
The tC was basically the final version of the Celica, and one that brought the whole concept back to what it was originally – a fun, sporty Japanese take on the Mustang.
There was an entire episode of Adult Swim’s Frisky Dingo promoting it:
“Introducing the Scion tC! The bold, sleek styling is all like ka-kow, but the 2.4-liter dual overhead cam engine with 160-horsepower is all like KA-KOW!”
Haha I just finished watching it, that was great.
Hyundai are the kings of making coupes that are not as sporty as they look.. my Tiburon has 140hp haha
To be fair, 140hp was the same as Integras that weren’t badged with a GSR or Type R emblem and more than the 127 in EX Civics. Same as the last gen base Celicas too.
This is definitely one of the cars of all time.
I’ve seen all of 1 of these in the wild. It was a silver. Actually I’ve seen a silver one twice so I just assumed it was the same vehicle. I honestly had to look up and see if there was an elantra coupe because I was totally unaware of it existing and was doubting my sanity.
I actually like these, and have seen them puttering around here from time to time (this area flew to Hyundai dealers like moths to lights around 2013).
The fluidic sculpture language manages to “fit” onto the coupe and the Sonata than it did on the Elantra sedan. And I don’t usually like big fat grilles, but in this case the blacked-out chin of the coupe looks far better than the busy-as-hell split body color grille of the sedan.
I always thought these were handsome. Certainly more so than the Forte Koup, which very much had “We have Audi A5 at home” energy (and since Peter Schreyer had recently moved from VW/Audi to Kia, there’s some real merit to that).
I remember that VW, ahead of the Mk.6 Jetta’s release for MY2011, previewed it as a coupe. Allegedly, they had no plans to build it, but I can see a world in which they would have. It’s a shame they didn’t, because it sure would have been handsome.
I recall inadvertently hitting redline on a test-drive of a small Hyundai when I was younger. It truly sounded as though I thrashed the engine hard enough that it died – the sheer sound of the noise from that engine coupled with the immediate rev-limiter slamming the revs down, I pushed in the clutch immediately and coasted to a stop at the side of the road to see if it blew.
This is one of my favorite lazy designed coupes. It really harkens back to the two door sedan look but with the modern roundness. I guess it wasn’t such a pencil whipped design after all.
My absolute favorite of those has to be the VW Jetta coupe. So gloriously ungainly.
One of my friends had one of these! It was, by all accounts, a car!
She traded her Genesis Coupe to get it, and I never understood why she switched to a less practical Elantra.
Some people have an aversion to rear doors.
At least the Elantra coupe would have had more than a mailslot for the rear storage.
Her next car had 4 doors, so I think she learned.
I daresay the Genesis Coupe was the less-practical car.
I meant compared to a 4-door Elantra.
..and thats the Scoupe on the Elantra Coupe
I can’t recall ever seeing one of these in the wild. And I’ve seen some shit in my day. Also, not sure if you put dual-zone climate twice as an option to be funny or just a small slip up.
What? I didn’t even know these existed.
What’s esp crazy is this entire concept is sooo 2000s by way of the 1990s. Along with SWG, I’m a huge fan of the sportcoupe era, which ended pretty much by 2005 at the absolute latest. To make this in 2013, almost a decade after the bit was finished, is both madness and totally cool.
I hope SWG is ok. We haven’t heard much from him lately and Wilmington took a pounding from that storm last week. I sure hope he has flood insurance for his Volcano wrenching lair.
I hope the worst of it was “wait, the windows in the Park Avenue were down! DAMNIT!”
If only these lived long enough to get the N treatment.
It’s truly staggering how little they did to make these coupes. As mentioned, just two doors, that’s it. Nothing else. At least the Forte Koup had different bumpers and wheels to give it some differentiation. This is just so insanely subtle it’s mind boggling.
For that exact same reason, is anyone surprised it sold poorly? Sure its marginally more spacious in the back with the penalty of being a PITA to get back there. All that for no styling to even imply sportiness, and zero actual change to make it more sporty. At least the Forte Koup pretended it was cool. All the negatives aside, I still love that they made these, even if just because they’re so bizarre.
My mom actually owns one of these! I think it’s the only one I’ve ever seen.
Thanks for the coupe scoop.