Gadgetory

the accent it's the first rung on the hyundai ladder competing with the Honda Fit Ford Fiestas Toyota Yaris Nissan Versa not an easy room so is this where Hyundai's recent ascendancy is going to flatten out let's drive the 2012 Hyundai Accent se and check the tech used to be you drove a car like an accent because you arrived here coming off a pricey degree program a personal bankruptcy or a nasty divorce but this kind of car has moved from the must drive to the must drive category but along the road to becoming a nice car the accent also picked up a nasty habit 3400 of them in fact added to the MSRP it has to earn that okay now Hyundai Accent has the accent on the word simple which isn't in the name but it should be because there's not a lot in this car not a lot of you can get here is the head unit we're in an SC so we have a fairly good array of sources first of all that little screen which if obviously is monochrome is also non touch your controller interface is this knob here you rotate and push to select it's just that simple now the stuff you control with that is pretty simple you've got your optical slot up here your CD AM and FM radio no HD radio on this guy satellite radio is XM although nowadays that Sirius XM but unday still calls it XM under CD aux you've got a couple of choices you've got the CD Drive I just showed you and the aux jack is this one down here which is the classic Hyundai Kia where you've got an aux the USB and combined together with their cable it also becomes an iPod jack and with my ipod touch plugged in let's see how the interface works it's a little spare a little compact nice quick response by the way as I go through tracks I don't lose it it stays right with me these are little things you live with everyday in a basic car that'll drive you nuts if they don't work and they basically work here the audio system sounds like crap it doesn't sound good you're going to want to go and do a little bit of upgrading on this vehicle and you buy it get some better speakers go to Crutchfield or somewhere and find some better add-on amps or processors to bring this up keep the head unit it's fine but do something better on the output side would be my advice that won't cost you much we do not have bluetooth a2dp stereo streaming here not on the accent this is the bottom car they got to save something for the better rides we do have power base though which just kind of sounds badly thunderous not elegant I left it off speaking of interface we do have steering wheel controls I believe that's an SE trim thing so you've got your volume and media controls for mode seek track up and down your cruise control here on the right your voice command that is for the phone system only not for driving media or navigation since there isn't any and then your hands-free buttons are over here as I mentioned no navigation I mean no navigation you can't option it if you want option navigation on this it's going to involve a suction cup or it's going to involve juggling your smartphone that's how you option navigation in an accident over all the materials on this car are good kind of a rubbery hard plastic there a different hard plastic over here good stuff on the wheel nothing smells stinky which I can't say about all cars that are inexpensive no leather available in this car which is just fine by me oh and above the seats no moonroof not even optional that's unusual especially in the high trim model which this is on the accent line but no matter what you do it's always a 10 top now our gear shift here as you can see is a manual 6-speed this is your stock gearbox on an accent spend a thousand more and you get a six-speed automatic which in my experience is going to be a well-functioning gearbox that also brings in some new logic what they call active eco so the car can then take part in making you drive as less of a lead foot but obviously with a manual there's kind of no place for that logic so that feature doesn't get rolled in with this transmission this to accent for 2012 is dramatically better looking than the little dough ball that replaces and more than one person walked up to me and said oh so that's the new Ford whew no it's a Hyundai for what it's worth Ford got there first if you're wondering who inspired whom I know the engine this guy is nothing too remarkable but kind of high powered or its class in line for 1.6 liter front-wheel drive sitting sidesaddle you've seen it a thousand times before 138 horsepower 123 foot-pounds of torque that's kind of on the burly side for this classic cars zero to 60 is about in the low 90s right around there while delivering 30/40 MPG now note that the next car up the Hyundai Elantra which is substantially nicer than this one also gets 3040 so you're not buying this car to get the better mpg in the line you're buying it to get the lower MSRP oh it is direct injection which is kind of impressive for a low cost car with a low displacement engine now the accent is a simple car in its underpinnings its power plants its everything well this car has to do is be civilized and it's a win in this price class and it's more than that it's actually quite smooth there's no nasty engine vibration which is more than I can say for some other cars in its class where you feel the engine gnashing its teeth when you step on it to merge or pass the handling swallowing most importantly this car does the everyday stuff right it's as responsive as it can be for the limited amount of power it has it's smooth and non fatiguing and doesn't feel like it's going to be coming apart ok this price fits 2012 Hyundai Accent now the accents on cheap 16 5 for this guy delivered and this is the top trim the SE you still got the GS below this and the GLS below that the GLS by the way only available as an ungainly looking sedan yeah doesn't work for me this and the model below it are only available as hatchbacks now your options on this se are pretty simple thousand bucks for the automatic with that eco drive mode take it or leave it and 35 bucks for an iPod cable