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2009 kia spectra6/15/2023 ![]() Leather may be available, the automatic gearstick may zig-zag through the gates to get to each selection, and the center console may have an interesting two-tiered shape to it. The Elantra’s interior, however, can’t cash the check the exterior attempts to write. The switchgear feels… functional, the controls are intelligently laid out, the steering wheel is (thankfully) bereft of buttons, and the plastics don’t get too depressing until you start hunting them out. The Spectra carries it’s sort of respectable simplicity inside the cabin, feeling exactly like a Cobalt and looking only slightly nicer. The socially-awkward manager-in-training and the wannabe skater chick show their sisterhood in their interiors. The Elantra is the ill-fitting designer knockoff hanging in Hyundai’s closet next to the Spectra’s denim jeans. But while the cars the Elantra attempts to roughly emulate look sleek and feminine, the Elantra itself comes across as heavy and dumpy. ![]() ![]() Sure, it has smooth curves and little accents and complex head lights and all that jazz. Neither car takes any sort of chances the Spectra manages to be almost handsome in that simple and clean sort of way that makes a Cobalt coupe acceptable. The Spectra pulls off its hipster looks to a much greater degree than the Elantra pulls off the Lexus thing. But does the reality match the marketing dream? Clearly, the Elantra is aimed at the sort of people that pretend to have stock options, while the Spectra is aimed at the sort of people that pretend to have social lives. The Spectra brochure has “spark” blue and “spicy” red cars racing along winding roads between keggers and climbing walls. The Elantra brochure is full of “black pearl,” “captiva” white, and “quicksilver” Elantras posing in front of fountains and driving through jewel-like cityscapes. The Spectra’s brochure is just standard gloss paper with two staples. The Elantra’s brochure is surprisingly substantial, printed on premium paper stock and bound with an actual binding. Is it a distinction without a difference, in the not-so-grand tradition of General Motors? Let’s have a look to each model’s respective brochures… In fact, American buyers hunting in that market segment can choose between Hyundai’s Hyundai Elantra and the Kia Spectra. As you’d expect, the company offers the now-essential model in any current car range: the budget-priced, fuel-efficient compact car. In the process, the Korean automaker acquired struggling brother Kia. In the last ten years or so, Hyundai decided it’d be fun to build things that resemble cars that people want to buy.
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