Safety: The front shoulder belts of the Chevrolet Cruze are height-adjustable, and the rear seat shoulder belts have child comfort guides, which helps the belt to properly fit children. The Elantra only has front height-adjustable seat belts and no child comfort guides. The Elantra child locks have to be individually engaged manually at each door. The Cruze, however, has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver’s seat and to know when they are locked. The Cruze also has standard OnStar, which uses a GPS receiver and a cellular system to remotely unlock your doors if you’re locked out, help find your vehicle if it’s stolen or even automatically send emergency personnel to your location if needed. And those are just a sampling of what OnStar offers. The Hyundai Elantra doesn’t offer a GPS response system or anything comparable to OnStar. Moreover the Elantra only offers 6 airbags as opposed to the Cruze’s impressive 10.  Quality, Reliability and Durability: There are more than 7 times as many Chevrolet dealers as there are Hyundai dealers, making it easier to get service under the Cruze’s excellent warranty. The Chevrolet Cruze’s engines use a cast iron block for durability. The Elantra uses an aluminum block for its engine, which is more likely to warp and crack than cast iron.

Power and Performance: The Cruze’s available ECOTEC 1.4L turbo engine produces 17 lbs.-ft. more torque than the Elantra’s 1.8L engine. The Cruze’s engines produce their top torque and horsepower at lower RPM than the Elantra as well.  The Cruze’s turbo does 0-60 in 8 seconds, while it takes the Elantra 8.9 seconds to do 0-60. According to the EPA, the Cruze Eco Manual gets better fuel mileage than the Elantra with 42 highway mpg versus only 40 highway mpg. The Cruze also holds 2.8 gallons more fuel capacity than the Elantra, granting the Cruze a greater maximum traveling range than the Elantra.