Introduction: The Hyundai Accent is Hyundai's replacement for the old Excel. It took the role of Hyundai's smallest car in 1994 and is now in its 4th generation. Its known as the Hyundai Verna in South Korea.
Yeah I'm sorry for the rubbish introduction, but I'm lost for words on what to say about this car. There's nothing special about it, nor is its history any interesting. As with older Hyundai models when I first saw this, I was not expecting much from it.
Performance: The Hyundai Accent is given a 1.6L 4-cylinder engine. This engine produces about 110 hp and 107 lb.ft of torque, all in all not very impressive numbers. Under acceleration the Accent goes from 0-100 km/h in about 11 seconds, so its rather slow. The engine is a bit noisy and sounds rather unrefined. Fuel economy is not as good as those of a Yaris nor a Fit but better than the greedy Aveo. Overall a pretty lackluster engine. The automatic transmission on this car is rather dimwitted, its very slow selecting from R to D and vice-versa, definitely get the manual.
My Score: 5/10 - Not quick and noisy with a bad automatic.
Handling: As a small car the Accent handles better than many larger cars. Although there's still quite a lot of body roll when taken into a fast corner. Steering feel...depends on the year, the earlier years were numb and inert while the later years were a bit more tighter in feel and allowed the car to be a bit easier to toss around. That said even the later updated cars are not all that exciting to take into a corner. Ride comfort is merely average in this car.
My Score: 6/10 - Average in every way.
Interior: Depending on what trim level you get depends on what features you have available. The least expensive 3-door hatch has no equipment at all, the moderately well equipped 4-door sedans got much of what you need. The radio is different on newer cars, its far better than the older Hyundai unit which was terrible. As one of the least expensive cars on the market, the interior is full of plastic, the newer cars aren't updated to the degree like the Sonata was. As a result the plastics are acceptable for the cost, I don't understand though why the rear cup holder if you remove the coaster there's a hole through the car. The assembly quality on the Accent is pretty decent, not the greatest but for such a cheap car surprising its not worse. The Accent is made in Ulsan, South Korea.
My Score: 5/10 - Standard equipment varies, material quality is what's expected of the price, build quality is acceptable.
Styling: This Accent is pretty generic for a car. Like most of the other Hyundai's of this era I think little of it.
My Score: 2/10 - Has the look of an anonymous car.
Value for Money: Ok, this is where the Accent makes up for its generally disappointing scores. The starting price for the 3-door bare bones Accent has actually been $9995, no joke. It was so inexpensive that during the 2008 crash Hyundai was willing to give this car away for free if you bought a fully loaded Sedona. As you spec up the Accent it gets less attractive, but as a way of basic transportation for the least amount of money its impossible to match Hyundai here. So if you really want the cheapest possible car, the Accent is a good buy. If you're curious about the 2011 Accent, buy that instead its certain to be better than this version.
My Score: 10/10 - Offers the cheapest car available and its not truly awful.
Overall: 28/50 - Its a very cheap car, hard to argue with that. Its not even a very bad car at that, although if you want more than just a average car there are better cars out there so long as you can spare the extra money.
No comments:
Post a Comment