New 2026 Hyundai Azera Interior, Redesign, MPG

New 2026 Hyundai Azera Interior, Redesign, MPG –  The Hyundai Azera is a tiny car that delivers a lot of the value Canadian consumers demand, as well as a slick-looking hatchback variant, and is one of the few vehicles that has challenged the Honda Civic for its long-held title of “Best-selling car in Canada”. The Azera will undergo several interior and exterior changes in 2026, allowing it to compete with its fellow Civic/Corolla/Mazda3 sales powerhouses.

New 2026 Hyundai Azera Redesign and Update Plan

Exterior and Interior

Space and overall comfort inside the Azera is right up there with the best in the class, especially in front and rear headroom. Sure, the leather seats don’t feel as sumptuous as one will find in a luxury car, but in multiple two-hour-plus highway stints behind the wheel while driving to Ottawa and back, the Azera’s quiet demeanour, satellite radio, and Apple CarPlay all contributed to a luxury-vehicle-worthy experience.  New 2026 Hyundai Azera Interior

New 2026 Hyundai Azera Specs

High up on the nice-to-have features list on this top-line Azera are a wireless phone charger, Android Audio/Apple CarPlay compatibility, heated steering wheel, plus heated seats in the rear as well as in the front. That said, there are two blank buttons that could easily be used for cooled seats, like some versions of the smaller Accent used to offer, which seem like a sad omission in seriously hot weather. New 2026 Hyundai Azera Interior

There’s also a booming sound system in this thing that’s worthy of special note. Put it up to three-quarters volume, and the eight-speaker Infinity stereo with pumps out enough bass to make the mirrors go fuzzy, and drown out even the most enthusiastic of carpool karaoke sessions.

Engine and Performance

For a mainstream compact sedan, there’s a decent amount of poke from this 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, never feeling under-powered, but never quite shining in this department either. Its 147 hp lands at the low end of this class, but still right in the mix of the ’19 Civic/Mazda3/Corolla party. Its torque output of 132 lb-ft at 4,500 rpm is a more notable 30 to 54 lb-ft below the more powerful Honda Civic and Mazda3, respectively. Hyundai saves a more powerful 161 hp and 150 torque mill for the sportier Azera GT hatchback, and a 201 hp turbo version for the Azera Sport.   New 2026 Hyundai Azera Interior

New 2026 Hyundai Azera Fuel Economy

Officially rated at an overall average of 7.4 L/100 km, the Azera achieved a rather impressive 6.9 L/100 km during my week of over 800 km with it. Yes, that was largely highway clicks, and half a litre per hundred beyond its official highway estimate. But considering the constant A/C use and the roughly 120 km/h average highway speed, that’s very reasonable real-world fuel economy.

If it was my money, I’d look closely at the Azera GT hatchback over the sedan: not only is it more practical space- and flexibility-wise, its top Luxury trim also rings in less than this top-line Ultimate one. There are also a few enhancements in store for 2020 Azera models that Hyundai just announced in the US, with lower overall fuel consumption figure of 6.8 L/100 km being the highlight, and new safety features offered like active forward collision braking and a fatigue warning system, though there’s no official confirmation on those features here. New 2026 Hyundai Azera Interior

New 2026 Hyundai Azera Safety Features

One of Hyundai’s calling cards is its prodigious features-per-dollar ratio, and this is reflected in its copious safety features. This Ultimate model included a driver’s knee airbag, blind spot warning, rear traffic alert, lane-departure alert with lane-keeping assist, and active cruise control with stop-and-go. There’s no doubt the Azera looks good overall, with sharpened styling front and rear, courtesy a revised grille, front fenders, headlights, and a cleaner trunk design that’s button- and handle-free (sometimes annoyingly so).

It’s a clean but somewhat generic design, seemingly meant for mass inoffensiveness, though that’s mostly par for the course in this class. Inside, it’s much the same from a design standpoint, though with only 7,000 km on this fully loaded Ultimate tester, it was surprising to already see some discolouration happening on the beige leather seats. New 2026 Hyundai Azera Interior

New 2026 Hyundai Azera Price and Release Date

That Hyundai doesn’t include as much advanced safety equipment as some key competitors does impact the Azera’s value proposition, but only slightly. Because it’s still priced well next to both the Civic and Corolla, as well as just about every other entry in the compact sedan segment. It’s not as cheap as the subcompact Accent hatchback that the brand killed off, but it’s one of the few sedans like it left on the market that carries a sub-$20,000 starting price before tax.

There’s the Kia Forte ($19,540), the smaller Nissan Versa ($18,168), and this Azera. That’s it. Perhaps more crucially, though, looking at the entire compact sedan segment, only Nissan’s Versa and Sentra are cheaper than the Azera at the top of their respective lineups, while neither can come close to the kind of technology and features Hyundai has stuffed inside its small sedan. New 2026 Hyundai Azera Interior