Kelley Blue Book

This is the compact car that costs the least over 5 years

The Hyundai Elantra can save you $1,073 over the competition

The 2021 Hyundai Elantra

Hyundai

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2021 Hyundai Elantra:

Predicted 5-Year Cost to Own: $30,117

Compared to segment average: -$1,073

Even if it didn’t have sharp “look at me” styling, the all-new 2021 Hyundai HYMTF, +3.26% Elantra would shine as an example of how upmarket safety and convenience features, together with superb refinement, have begun trickling down into the realm of the affordable compact car. As such, the well-built and highly refined Elantra has claimed the title of Best Compact Car in the 2021 KBB 5-Year Cost to Own Awards.

How does the Elantra do it? Several ways. It starts below $20,000. It has excellent resale value. It has a good standard safety suite with features like automatic emergency braking and blind-spot monitoring. It also gets 43 mpg on the highway. For even better fuel economy, the Elantra Hybrid is rated by the EPA at an impressive 54 mpg combined. There’s also a new sporty new Elantra N Line, which is available with that rarest of features — a manual transmission. Like all Elantras, the N Line is backed by an outstanding 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty.

We think the new Elantra has better proportions than the Sonata. It’s 2.2 inches longer and an inch wider than the previous model, and its wheelbase has grown by 0.8 inches. These changes are felt most noticeably in the second row.

Also worth noting: The 5-seat Hyundai Elantra is a KBB Best Buy winner, our top Compact Car for 2021. KBB editors said the suspension was tuned with a deft touch. And the accelerator, steering, and brake pedal all worked with a well-oiled precision that brings an unexpected grace to the compact car segment. These attributes further underscore the Elantra’s winning performance in the 2021 KBB 5-Year Cost to Own Awards.

KBB’s 5-Year Cost to Own is the total amount of vehicle-related costs you will likely have to cover during the first 5 years of owning a car. This includes out-of-pocket expenses like fuel and insurance, and vehicle depreciation (loss in value).

This story originally ran on KBB.com.

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