Hyundai Accent is new contender for the b-segment sedan crown

THE Accent is becoming more and more common on our roads.

While I love sports cars, track and race cars, road-going rally-replicas like the Lancer Evo and Subaru STI, I have a very strong desire to ride and drive every new small car that comes out because at the end of the day, ordinary people like you and me can only afford one of these cars with our hard-earned money. Hence, the standards are pretty tall: big-car space and refinement inside with a versatile interior, small-car feel while driving in the city, frugal fuel consumption and reliability that can shame death and taxes, plus a resale value as solid as crude oil prices. A wise engineer indeed once said that working for an ultra-high-end car company is easy because of your open budget, but building a reliable, ingeniously effective and interesting to drive mass-market car is nigh-on impossible, or so we’re often led to believe.

In a market dominated by the Honda Jazz, Toyota Vios and the Ford Fiesta, Hyundai’s first proper entry into the B-segment class with a properly sized vehicle (previous Hyundai’s in this class were somewhat a bit too big, a bit too small or priced in no-man’s land) is a rousing success. While the shape harks to a baby Sonata, Hyundai’s handsome executive sedan, personally, it’s the inside that really shows the established brands how to do things. I’m talking about the driving position. A car, no matter how good, if it has a poor driving position, becomes less endearing, less exciting to drive. The Hyundai Accent boasts of a driving position that will shame a variety of quick and fast performance cars. The excellent driving position also means one can press on harder, drive faster, and more importantly, keep your body safer and healthier as it promotes good blood circulation over a long stint behind the wheel. The seats adjust manually for height as does the steering wheel. Satellite navigation is standard, bundled with a full multi-media entertainment system with AUX-IN and USB connectivity for your MP3 device that, as a whole works very well, if looking a bit cheesy. My particular test unit had leather seats as standard, regular 1.6 Blue Accents will come with fabric seats. Space inside is impressive as the shape doesn’t seem like the interior will be a roomy cabin and in this particular variant offers 60:40 split-folding seats to increase cargo space for big, bulky objects.

The engine is a 1.6 liter, one of only two in its class, and boasts of class-leading 124 ps and 15.6 kg-m of torque thanks to continuously variable valve timing from the 1.6 Gamma engine. Electric power steering means less ancillaries for the engine to power, giving the Accent light but accurate feel, perfect for driving through traffic and parking in tight spots in urban areas. The handsome 3-spoke steering wheel has controls for the audio system, and the inside is just really clean, polished and classy with well laid-out controls intuitive for first time users.

The brakes are 4-wheel discs with ABS-EBD assistance, and should you get into a serious prang, dual airbags are available up front. The upscale Blue also has an integrated alarm into its folding key-fob as well as full-auto climate control. Faux black piano wood gives a hint of class.

Out on the road, low-profile 195/50R16 Hankook Ventus performance tires give fantastic grip, let down only by the comfort-oriented soft suspension which soaks up all the bumps Edsa throws at it. Out on the open highway, the 4-speed automatic feels a bit dimwitted, needing some manual intervention to get the most out of the 1.6 Gamma engine by slotting the gearshift on the parallel gate beside the D-position.

Since we’ve been under a lot of rain, most of my stint behind the Accent was through crazy traffic jams. But the excellent audio system kept me relaxed throughout. Loading up with three other adults for Sunday Mass was easy, especially parking in tight Greenhills at Sunday noon.

The Blue designation stands for the Blue Pack, a fuel efficiency package with an ECO-mode to transform your Accent into an even more miserly fuel sipper. Of course I didn’t use this feature at all, but still enjoyed a good 8.5 km/liter of traffic driving, and an easy 11 km/liter on my short highway drives. The real-time ECO meter helped immensely get the best balance between power and economy, which no doubt helped me save on fuel rather than just stepping blindly on the gas pedal without knowing how the consumption was going.

It’s not seriously bad, but if I were to nit-pick, the only two complaints I’d throw at the Accent are the aforementioned soft suspension and the use of cheap plastics inside. The Japanese still use better, higher-quality interior materials and while Hyundai has slowly been catching up especially on the technology side, small things that we see, feel and touch can still create a less than ideal perception of Hyundai’s quality.

That being said, the established brands should watch out as the Accent is becoming more and more common on our roads.