1999 Hyundai Accent Coupe i review from UK and Ireland

A month after buying my Accent with only 38,000 miles on the clock, a long journey on the motorway left me with gear box oil leaking.

This was due to the drive shaft gasket, so I got it replaced ASAP.

Since the gasket, it's just been new tyres and new bushes, which is pretty normal for any car a few years old.

The paint work isn't the best, I've already had to re-spray the passenger door and the rear bumper due to the paint peeling off the primer.

Not a bad first car, apart from the insurance... being a young driver.

It's fine when I'm driving round with my mates in the car, but once I get a car full of adults, it gets very cramped in the back. Even though the car looks big from the outside, it's not very roomy in the back.

Very nippy car for what it is, gets me up to 60mph in just under 12 seconds, and doesn't drink too much fuel. Normally I get about 270 miles out of the tank, but if I'm really careful I can get up to 400.

Soon after buying my Hyundai, I noticed the sound system wasn't the best around, very distorted at both high and low frequencies.

So I treated myself to a Ken-wood CD player / changer, and replaced all the stock 20w speakers with 135w loudspeakers, the improvement is remarkable =)

Replacing my standard coil springs with an Apex lowering kit and the standard bushes with Polyurethane bushes has really increased the handling of my car.

With the stock suspension parts, there was a lot of body roll going round corners, that has pretty much been eliminated with performance suspension, whilst maintaining a comfortable ride along our pot-holed English roads =)

So far I am very happy with my 1999 Hyundai Accent Coupe. Still going well with 50,000 miles on the clock.

The next car I buy will probably be a 2.7 petrol Hyundai Coupe.