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Accent transforms from a drab check-out chick to a dazzling starlet

17/Jan/2012

By Bill Buys, Community Newspaper Group motoring editor

Comments:

Hyundai’s Accent has moved to the top of the class. Hyundai’s Accent has moved to the top of the class.

WHAT a change the Accent has had.

The cheery econocar of yesteryear has been to a finishing school and has emerged as a beauty, a classy machine with stylish lines, tuned suspension and a new, much-improved interior.

It’s as if a bland check-out chick had emerged from a spacecraft transformed as a dazzling starlet.

The Accent de jour has also grown a bit, and is now more spacious for passengers and cargo.

It has the agreeable ‘fluidic sculpture’ of the i40, i45 and Elantra, and comes as a sedan or hatchback (same price) and in three levels of trim: Active, Elite and Premium.

The engine is a 91kW/156Nm four-cylinder displacing 1.6litres and it has the enviable official fuel economy figure of 6.0 litres/100km for the manual and 6.4litres/100km for the auto.

The car should sometime this year get a new and more powerful GDI (gasoline direct injection) engine and six-speed gearboxes in both manual and auto.

They’re already on the closely-related Kia Rio and in Accents in the US, but for now the local offering is a five-speed manual and four-speed auto, the latter switchable to sequential manual.

A great feature of the engine is that it has a maintenance-free timing chain and advanced coatings on the engine’s moving parts.

That translates to longevity, peace of mind and cuts maintenance costs.

Prices start at $16,990 for the Active manual, rising to $22,990 for the Premium auto, as reviewed. In between, from $18,490, is the Elite.

We quickly became endeared to our hi-spec car, especially liked the rear view camera, which displays on the left half of the rear view mirror, and the reverse park assist, which shows a predictive path and makes precision parking a cinch.

It also solved the somewhat compromised rearward visibility of the hatch.

All 2012 Accents have a long list of standard safety features including anti-lock disc brakes with brake assist, stability and traction control, active front head restraints, six airbags and a five-star safety rating.

Inside, the car is now pretty close to the i30 in size and comfort.

It can take a couple of tall folk in the back seat, which has fold-down backrests to extend the wide, deep boot.

The dash, which includes a good computer, is nicely displayed and there’s a smart leather-trimmed steering wheel with built-in audio and phone controls.

The steering is adjustable for rake, but not for reach.

And entry is by a proximity key, and ignition by a push button.

The finish, materials and fittings, too, were well above the usual in a car of this class.

On the road, the Accent runs beautifully on its locally-tuned suspension and motor-driven power steering, giving good roadholding and comfort.

It’s a peppy number, too, getting to 100km/h in just 11 seconds, and it cruises along easily and frugally at the State limit.

It’s a quite different car from the earlier Accents and should appeal to a wide swathe of buyers, from youngsters through to retirees.

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