I agree you should get a new car. I did.
I foolishly bought a used Mazda 5 a couple years ago when I wanted something slightly bigger than my old Corolla. I regretted the decision for 18 months. The Mazda 5 was a poorly built, poorly designed piece of crap. In December I traded it in for a Subaru that I love.
I also agree with you that the Elantra is an awful car. I had one as a rental for 9 days this winter. My kids and I nicknamed it "The Toaster", because it felt about as safe as driving a toaster would. In fact the scariest drive of my life was the day I tried to drive it to work in the snow.
Take the baby with you and test drive a bunch of different cars. Driving different ones will really help you make a decision. Before committing to any specific car, drive it at night somewhere dark. Even many newer cars have really dim, poorly placed headlights.
Curious - what gen Elantra was it? I'm honestly surprised - prior to it, in Canada, we had an 04 Civic, and an 03 Accord. The Elantra (with snow tires) is good-great in the snow; the only issue is it has low ground clearance.
It's got.. hmm, must be pushing 30k km on it now, and it's been fine (not that I wouldn't expect a new car to be fine after 30k km!). Base model - literally no options, not even remote locking or heated mirrors, manual transmission. It's perfectly peppy, etc, etc. I mean, I don't *love* it or anything - it is what it is, which is an econobox. For what we paid for it, I have no complaints at all.
It was a brand new 2017. Not sure what trim level. It had 4 doors, automatic and some of the new safety features (backup camera, side detection) but not all (no forward or rear braking to help avoid crashing into things). Also, no paddle shifters, so so way to slow down other than braking.
I fully admit the biggest problem was that the rental agency refused to put snow tires on it. Without snow tires it just slid down snowy hills like a child's sled. I could feel, and hear, the anti-lock brakes trying to stop the car, but it just kept sliding downhill (towards an intersection with several other cars stopped at the light at the bottom of the hill). The following day it had trouble starting from a stop in 2" of slush. With snow tires and a manual transmission it would've handled much better.
I was extremely angry with the rental agency, because I'd specifically requested a car with winter tires, and they'd promised me it wouldn't be a problem. However, when I showed up to get the car, the agency tried to tell me that all season tires are perfectly fine in snow. It was pretty clear that the staff couldn't even tell the difference between all season and snow tires. I should've walked away right then, but we live in a area that rarely gets snow so I thought it wouldn't really matter. I had serious words for them the day of the epic downhill slide and again when I was finally able to return it.
More on point, it also had the aggressively sloped front windshield that means the side pillars also have to be strongly angled. This makes it harder to see out the front sides because there's now a more horizontal line across your field of view. If you want better visibility, look for a car that has a boxier shape both front and back. The teardrop shape of many of the current sedans, hatchbacks and SUVs also creates gigantic blind spots at the back.