Camry or Elantra?

I have had experiences with both models throughout several of their generations. I have always prided myself in being very meticulous in my car buying experiences and weighing every little detail in assessing the true value and worth of an automobile, from the exterior choices such as paint and headlight bulb types, to the interior trim material and the technology that resides in the radio/user interface. As such, I believe both have exponentially increased in their personal worth and their modernization. I am going to strongly suggest the Camry, though, because of reliability and quality. I would like to make clear that I am in no way saying that Hyundai produces a "cheap" car (for quality's sake) in the modern Elantra, I am saying that, based on my family's ownership of both cars, the Camry (throughout the generations) always seemed to have an edge on the Elantra in terms of interior parts quality. By that I mean the seat material, the plastics, and the infotainment. Also of note, I would like to mention that I have found the ride quality (suspension and the like) to be better in the Camry. I hope I have helped you in making your decision easier and wish you the best regarding whichever vehicle you choose.

Thanks for your informative response. Do you have experience with the active-safety features in either car? One possible downside to Elantras: I have heard they don't do well in the snow. Any experience with that?

My question is why the Elantra. The Camry doesn't compete with it. You can get everything the elantra has plus more in the Sonata. The Sonata is what would compete more with the camry. I personally would take a honda accord EX with sensing over both cars, but that is me. The camry over the Elantra any day. Its a much nicer ride. Its a heavier car so it will handle the snow just a little better. I don't dislike the elantra for the money it is not a bad car. They don't age well so if you are keeping it for more than 5 years expect broken plastic pieces from the interior.

The 2017 Elantra because it has the fullest set of active-safety features, including dynamic bending headlights and lane- departure assist rather than simply warning. I looked into Civics with Sensing and they are certainly nice, but lack full blind-spot detection (I know, they have Lane Watch, but to me and Consumer Reports it's inferior to full blind-spot). Bottom line, you get the fullest available suite of active-safety features in an Elantra at a very reasonable price. Also, I just plain prefer compacts because I am a smaller person.

Incidentally, I know that the 2017 Corolla, coming out in September, will also have active-safety features (for the first time for that car), but I have a lengthy road trip coming up in August and it would be nice to have a car with active-safety features by then. And there are some terrific deals to be had right now on a 2016 Camry XSE with active safety. But as I say the 2017 Elantra has perhaps the fullest set of active-safety features available on a sedan today (better than the Camry, Sonata and Honda Civic or Accord) plus a couple of nice extras like memory driver seats and hands-free trunk opening. The people who have responded so far are no doubt right that the Camry probably delivers a better ride, is probably more reliable and may well deliver the best overall value, but if it is active- safety features you're most interested in ...