nothermark said:
If she is going to college with this I woud go for the 4 dr hatchback.
The rear seats fold flat so she can load a lot of "stuff" to get it
back and forth. The 4 door makes getting things in and out much
easier. The vehicle has a decent tow rating if she needs a small
trailer. She can also get roof racks if she is in to ski's, kayaks,
bicycle's or canoes. OTOTH she may want a better radio as the stock
one doesn't take her Ipod or do mp3's well.
;-)
TOWING: I was at the dealer yesterday because I wanted to check on
smaller vehicles than my V-8 truck that were capable of pulling my small
pop-up trailer. I checked the Tucson 2.0 4 cylinder and it was rated at
1000 lbs without trailer breaks and 1500 with trailer breaks. I had read
earlier that the Elantra had a pretty high tow rating (Edmunds.com says
3086 pounds) so I asked the dealer to check that for me. He looked it up
in his details book and said the 2006 Elantra is now "NR", not
recommended for towing. You might want to double check on the tow rating
if you go to the dealer to see if he showed me the correct page if you
want to use it for towing. Unfortunately the web seems to give lots of
differing values for tow ratings, and other countries seem to get better
tow ratings than the USA. Hyundai doesn't list tow ratings on their
website like most dealers do.
HATCHBACK: I agree with the hatchback version, much more useful,
especially if you need to transport stuff from "home" to the "dorm". I
once had a Ford Escort sedan with rear seats that folded down. It had
plenty of room inside to carry the 23 inch TV I wanted to transport, but
there was no way to get it inside because the trunk opening was too
small, and the door openings were too small. If I had the hatchback, the
rear opening would have been much larger and accepted the TV. I now have
the Accent hatchback, which only comes in 2 door version in 2005. All
Elantras are 4 doors in the USA, but the hatchback gives better access
(and looks sleeker).
SAFETY: From a safety standpoint, the Tucson might be a good choice for
your daughter since it has additional safety features to help her get to
her college safer, such as seat mounted side impact airbags, roof
mounted side curtain airbags, Antilock braking system (ABS), traction
control system (TCS), and electronic stability program (ESP).
John