Off-topic chat thread

[Draigflag]

Originally Posted by ChewChewTrain

Paul, if people from England are called English, why aren't people from Wales called the Whales?

No idea Doug, why do Americans speak English and not Americanish?

[ChewChewTrain]

TOUCHE! You got me, Paul!

Paul, is your town big enough to attract the typical fast food restaurants and retailers?

[Draigflag]

Not really Doug, it's all small family independent businesses here, which the tourists love. Having said that, there is apparently a Starbucks opening a few miles down the road next to a petrol station which gets busy with passing holiday traffic. My nearest McDonald's is 30 miles away.

[cuts_off_prius]

So you get all your meat and groceries from your village area? How often do you go to big cities like London?

[cuts_off_prius]

2017 Hyundai Elantra Sport - now that is one sweet daily! The interior kinda reminds me those in Euro hot hatches, more like Peugeot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7wCOxK0h8s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgN696oTPUA

This will be a VW GLI, Honda Civic Si competitor. I wonder if you guys across the pond will get it... Do you guys even get the Elantra over there? Solid car, even less NVH than the Honda Civic at highways speeds. They've come a long way!

[Draigflag]

Originally Posted by cuts_off_prius

So you get all your meat and groceries from your village area? How often do you go to big cities like London?

I tend to drive the 50 mile round trip to a bigger store to save money, and also I love driving these sweet scenic roads, so it's no chore anyway! Only been to London 2/3 times, last time was in 2003. Not a fan of cities to be honest, always preferred the fresh open countryside.

Originally Posted by cuts_off_prius

2017 Hyundai Elantra Sport - now that is one sweet daily! The interior kinda reminds me those in Euro hot hatches, more like Peugeot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7wCOxK0h8s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgN696oTPUA

This will be a VW GLI, Honda Civic Si competitor. I wonder if you guys across the pond will get it... Do you guys even get the Elantra over there? Solid car, even less NVH than the Honda Civic at highways speeds. They've come a long way!

We get something similar, but in hatch form as "sedans" are not a popular choice over here. That same engine is available in several Hyundai's and Kia's, at one point I quite liked the Pro C'eed GT (see pic) with 200 BHP. The thing is with cars like this, they give it a pokey engine but don't really do anything with the suspension, brakes, steering setup so it can't really compete with the likes of PeugeotSport, Golf GTI's etc and the reviews always pick up on this. They don't really have the same well established in house tuning companies like the other brands do sadly.

[trollbait]

Hyundai uses a letter/number scheme for car names in some markets, but they are basically the same model.

Europe tends to prefer tighter suspensions than in America. I like driving my father's Mini, but speed bumps become more of a pain.

[cuts_off_prius]

I glanced over the Hyundai UK website and it looks like we get the i30 in the US as a sedan (Elantra) and a 5-door hatchback (Elantra GT), while you guys across the pond get it as a 5-door hatchback and wagon/estate. The next level up is the i40 for the d-segment, which looks like a stretched Elantra, but we don't get that here, we get the Sonata instead. Seems like the i40 is more compact than the Sonata as to better compete in Europe.

[trollbait]

Wikipedia has the i40 and Sonata on the same platform. So does the Santa Fe.

[Draigflag]

To be fair Hyundai do pretty well in the World Rally, it's a shame some of thier R&D doesn't make its way down to the road going cars like it does with other brands. They could compete in the hot hatch market, but thier target audience seems to be the older generation.