Wrenching on one’s own car is intimidating for the inexperienced, so it’s often easier for folks to pay more money for a new car that has a warranty than to buy a cheap used car that will need some work. A Canadian TV show called “Roulez au Suivant,” or “Move on to the Next,” tackles the hard part of refurbishing a high-mileage car. Hosted by Quebecois automotive journalist Antoine Joubert, he and his team refurbish worn out cars and give them away to individuals or organizations in need. The show’s latest project is this 2008 Hyundai Elantra with one million kilometers on the clock that got a makeover in the style of the modern Elantra N.
Show host Joubert actually crossed this Elantra’s millionth-kilometer mark back in 2020 when reporting on the car and its owner, and Hyundai Canada donated the vehicle to the show to make the restoration possible. The previous owner, Jocelyn Roy, was a delivery driver who claims to have driven no less than 107,000 kilometers per year and followed a strict maintenance schedule. Roy was the one to hand his refurbished Elantra’s keys to its new owner, first-time car owner and 16-year-old Quebec teen named Éloïc Lachance. Lachance’s mother and brother registered him for the show without telling him, and he was selected as the new owner of the refurbished Elantra to give him greater autonomy and start his adult life off right.
One million kilometers may be a shorter distance than one million miles, but it’s still just over 621,371 miles, which is a hell of a lot. The odometer stopped at 999,999 kilometers, so the team decided to reset it and add the number one to the gauge to honor its true mileage. The Elantra held up well over those one million kilometers, but Hyundai Canada still chose to replace the car’s engine block before giving it to its new owner. It sent the original block to Hyundai’s Quality Assurance division for documentation of its longevity, but claims its cylinders and rotating assembly are still in very good condition after initial inspection. The engine block replacement took place at Hyundai Granby, the dealership that sold this Elantra to Roy back in 2011 when its odometer read just 30,000 kilometers, but the team of experts from the television program carried out the rest of the restoration.
Now for the elephant in the room — the new paint job. Joubert and his team chose to pay homage to Hyundai’s recently-established N performance vehicle division by painting this pre-Elantra-N Elantra a light blue hue similar to the N Division’s signature color Performance Blue. When I first saw photos of this creation I thought it and its red-lined body kit were a sick joke, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. Unfortunately, there’s no mention of actual performance upgrades added to this economy car, but at least it’s got a manual transmission. Despite being an Elantra N wannabe, this little Elantra has a great story to tell, and hopefully many more kilometers of safe travel in its future.
