All this car had to do was meet some very basic requirements. I needed a cheap rental car to get me around Southern Ontario while I visited friends and family. I was given a choice between the Toyota Yaris, which I had driven before, and the Hyundai Accent. Curiosity alone made me pick the Accent, and I have been regretting it ever since.
It's not bad to look at. Yes, the headlights are a bit bug-eyed, and the tires are too small, but overall it works for a small car. Hyundai has been doing well lately in the styling department. I suspect they hired away some key designers from the Toyota and Honda, who in turn have lost all sense of proportion and restraint and are following BMW into an abyss of uglyness.
Inside things look clean and well organized. There is a nice flow to the dashboard, and the mixture of beige cloth upholstery, dark plastic and silver-painted buttons blend well. I wasn't expecting luxury but I did get power windows, mirrors, remote locks, and a jack to plug in my iPod (after stopping at a Dollar Store to find a suitable adapter). The right-rear speaker sounded great. It completely drowned out the other three speakers.
Where the interior fails is in the touch. The door panels are hard plastic with no give whatsoever. The steering wheel was the prime focus my rage. Made of hard, grainy plastic, it is the most uncomfortable and unpleasant part of a car I've ever had to touch. My hands felt blistered from the rough texture and I kept finding jagged edges in the nooks and crannies as I tried to find a comfortable position. Finally resorted to steering with my fingertips and balancing with my knees. This made the Accent dangerous as well as tacky.
I wasn't expecting much in the way of power, and I didn't get any. It comes standard with what feels like a small rodent, whom I took to caling Gerald, under the hood. Gerald turned out to be whiney and asthmatic and it didn't help that he only had 3 gears to choose from. Gerald also has ADD. When pressing on the accelerator, it takes a while to get his attention, and when he does pick a gear, it is never quite the right one. This combination gave me just enough power to pass a Mennonite on a horse and buggy and even he was sneering at me.
All this could be forgiven in a small and frugal car. But The Hyundai Accent is not even that frugal. With the air conditioning on, I was alarmed to notice the fuel gauge started dropping steadily. This car has a tiny tank, and with the air conditioner running, I barely made it past 300km before having to fill up. Yes, I know running the air-conditioner affects fuel economy, but turning it off in the middle of a hot sunny day is not an option I was willing to consider. What is the point of having air-con if you can't use it?
A well-designed car should be able to handle everyday situations with comfort and ease. I drove a 4-cylinder Camry from Vancouver to Seattle (with the AC on), and I made it back across the border before having to stop for gas. That was a much bigger, heavier car which was still better on gas than this awful product of short-sighted cost-cutting engineering. The heavy use of cheap, unrefined and shoddy materials adds further insult to injury. This car will end up costing more in the long run in depreciation, fuel bills, and shame. My only consolation is this particular Accent is a rental car that I can soon return to the depths of hell from whence it came and never look back. I'll stick with the Yaris.
