2012 Hyundai Accent
A couple of years ago I used to drive an Accent, it wasn’t a
2012 obviously and I didn’t drive it for very long because I was involved in an
accident (totally not my fault) and it was totaled (and of course the lady who
hit me had only like a scratch on her dumb car.). Since it was a while ago I don’t remember
exactly what the interior looked like but I do remember it feeling bigger,
although I just might be the one who
is getting bigger. This car is used in a
rental company so there are no fancy options found in it, although I can’t imagine
there are too many fancy options even available for the Accent.
The rental company I work for classify the Accent as a
sub-compact aka teeny tiny. Other
vehicles in this class are the Toyota Yaris and Chevy Sonic. Most people will book themselves into a sub-compact
because they are the cheapest and then when they get here to rent it, they get
all pissy because the car is so small and I won’t give them a larger one for
the same price. So, people, knowledge is
power. Moving on, the first thing you
are bound to notice about this car is its size and of course the smaller
something the cuter it is, so this car is a cute little thing. Hyundai has rounded the edges out and given
it a line through the middle which makes it look pretty sleek. Besides that though, there’s not much else to
say about the exterior.
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| Look at that sleekness |
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| It's so teeny |
The trunk is surprisingly roomy and is comparable to a
midsize trunk and the back seats can go down making the trunk even larger. But when you actually see the back seat it becomes
pretty clear that they have sacrificed the leg room for the trunk. I think that Hyundai should have made the
trunk smaller and given more room to the back seats; I am of average female
height and I fit back there but it would not be comfortable on a long ride and
anyone over 6 feet would not even be able to get their legs in there. When you buy a car like this I don’t think
you are expecting an exceptionally large trunk, so I think Hyundai should
rethink their priorities. (I hope you got the Harry Potter reference there.) One interesting (ok, probably mildly boring)
thing to point out is that there is still a clothes hook that is near the
ceiling door handle on the back driver’s side seat. I didn’t know they still put these in cars
and it is definitely the first one that I have seen in a while that isn’t in a
Lincoln Town Car. There is nothing else
in the back of this car, very basic.
The front doors have cup holders in them that are intended
for bottles only and even have a little diagram depicting that (so don’t go and
try suing Hyundai if you burn your leg on hot coffee), and the glove
compartment is relatively large, smaller than the compact Nissan Versa but
larger than the small SUV Jeep Compass.
The driver’s seat has an armrest on the right side that can go up or
down, but this is only found on the driver’s side – an odd addition that seems pretty
superfluous. The middle section is
pretty standard but it does not have a lidded cubby that you find in almost all
vehicles. Starting at the back of the
middle section is a good sized compartment that could easily hold a phone
and/or GPS or whatever tickles your fancy.
Moving towards the front there are two cup holder where one is larger
than the other, and next to those you will find the parking brake and then goes
the shifter. Like I said, very
basic.
The bottom of the middle console is a compartment where you
will find the AUX and USB ports and also a 12 volt AC jack. If you are at all familiar with the interior
of a Kia, here is where you will start to see the similarities between the two
and then you remember that Hyundai and Kia are owned by the same people. You will find this little space with these
features in almost every Kia. The space
is also pretty big and you could easily put your phone or mp3 player in
it. I like when the compartments in vehicles
are actually useful and not just for design, too often the size, shape, or
placement make them just stupid (ie the Ford Focus Hatchback I reviewed). Above this little opening are the temperature
controls which are very easy to understand and use, and above that is the
radio.
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| You can see the ports on the bottom |
The radio is another area that looks startlingly similar to
the radio you can find in a Kia, and it is in fact almost identical to the radio
in my Kia Forte. There are some small
differences like that the buttons in the Accent are on a slant and that the
button for the hazard flashers is found on the bottom of the radio in the
Accent not the top like the Kia Forte.
But even the placement of the buttons are the same, I could easily
control this radio without needing to look at it too closely. If you are not lucky enough to drive a Kia
then this is not a big deal, and even if you are used to driving a Kia it still
isn’t a big deal, but I still thought it worth mentioning.
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| So similar it's eerie! (Totes exag obvs lolz) |
The steering wheel does not have any controls integrated in
it like volume control or cruise control settings, and in fact this car does
not even have cruise control. It is not
uncommon for a car of this size to not have a cruise control, and that is
important to know because that can be a make or break feature for some people.
There is a digital display on the dashboard that is
(thankfully) very easy and straight forward.
It has your trip, odometer, engine temperature, and gas level. It is not the labyrinth that is found in the
Ford Focus. The older I get and the
longer I work in this field the more and more I appreciate simplicity when it
comes to the controls in a car. I don’t
want to have to memorize the manual just so I can tell a customer how to turn
the lights on or where the miles can be found.
There are a couple of things I want to point out and I didn’t
know where else to put them so here goes.
First, there is not a holder for your sunglasses, a feature that is
commonly left out of very small cars.
Second, there are electric windows but no electric locks, and again,
that is not uncommon for this size of car.
Last but not least, is the fact that there is no key fob for this car, which
makes sense considering it doesn’t have electric locks. It makes your key ring less bulky but also
less convenient.
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| Raw and uncut, just how I like 'em |
I expected this car to be, what I like to call, zippy. To zip
around corners and handle really nicely like the compact Kia Soul, but
unfortunately I was wrong. The steering
wheel gives a lot of resistance that I didn’t anticipate, it’s not as bad as a
Nissan Altima but definitely not as good as the Soul or the midsize Kia
Forte. I also expected the Accent to be
able to take corners like a boss, and here too I was disappointed. By no means does it have as large a turning
radius as a Chevy Impala or some other full size, but it doesn’t turn as
sharply as the Soul or even the midsize Chevy Cruze. This is definitely one of those cars that
makes you feel like you are driving a go cart so it’s not at all surprising
that you feel the road throughout the car, but a nice surprise is that the acceleration
is not at all jerky – something you might expect in such a small car. All in all I was pretty disappointed in how
this car handled, not cool Hyundai.
Ultimately this car is extremely basic, so if you are
looking for something affordable that doesn’t eat too much gas, and if you don’t
care about certain options and you do not need to haul around a lot of people
or things this could definitely be a good choice. It’s very economical and you could fit in
pretty much any parking spot.
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