2007 Hyundai Accent GS from North America - Comments

Since the car is under 1000 miles, nothing has malfunctioned.

My wife woke up at 2am & asked for a new car. After test driving a Pontiac Vibe & Toyota Yaris, I was going to drive a Honda Fit & VW with dual clutch transmission. On the way tho, I saw a Hyundai Accent hatchback. Without having to deal, the salesman sold it to us for $10,500 including 60,000 mile full & 100,000 mile drive train warranties plus lifetime oil changes. My wife had her car 16 hours after asking & loves it more & more each day. Never got to the Fit or the VW.

Tho small on the outside, the interior is fairly roomy. The Accent, Fit & Yaris are the same exterior width. But the Accent has 1 to 3 inches more shoulder width, both front & rear seats, than Yaris. Accent has marginally wider shoulder space than Fit. I love small cars, but it is nice to look across the car & actually see a bit more space. With rear seats up, the Accent has 60% more cargo space than Yaris & an equal amount to Fit.

There is an extra cost dealer installed short throw 5 speed shifter. Coupled with the nice clutch, this combo is the 2nd nicest combo I've ever driven. Excellent!

Hey, for a $10,500 car, Accent has a tachometer, 8-way adjustable driver seat making seating nice, manual folding rear view mirrors with interior adjustments, fold down armrest & console, & 2 trip odometers. Would have liked a rear window wiper to go with the rear window defroster tho.

Wind noise is OK, but the engine noise is moderate because the 5 speed close ratio transmission at 60MPH tachs at a high 2900 rpms. The close tranny ratios should make good mountain road gear choices, altho I've heard someone complain about the tranny in the mountains. Road & tire noise is average for a small car. None of the noises are objectionable, but all the noises together would make long drives tiring.

Seven tanks of gas have been 32, 32, 30.7, 29.7, 30.5, 30.2 & 32 MPG in mixed city, back road, & highway driving using lower energy winter mix gasoline & conservative driving. Expect MPG to rise when higher energy summer mix gasoline arrives. Acceleration is adequate for the MPG given.

Third party High Definition near CD quality radio w/CD player installed. Kept the stock Hyundai speakers. Tho they are not bass dragging deep sounders, they make the digital HD radio clean & sharp as a bell with excellent musical detail. Spectacular reception of immaculate quality, even across 50 miles distance! If getting a radio, get HD radio if HD stations are in your area. HD radio is the best free radio, maybe better sound quality than satellite.

No Hyundai problems yet with less than a thousand miles.

Made the original report here. My wife's last tank of gas was 35MPG. Think the higher energy summer mix gas finally arrived at the gas station. Hope further tanks shall also be in the 35MPG range & should be higher if we go for a long distance ride. At 4000 miles the Accent runs 100% without 1 squeak, creak or rattle. A while back she had the car checked out & got her first free oil change. Carry on.

Made the original report here. After my wife's 35MPG, the MPG once more reduced, with only occasional 34 & 35 MPG tanks.

Finally I took the Accent for a trip to Mt. Rainier & 5500 foot Chinook Pass from sea level. That trip & back turned a wonderful 42.6MPG. Careful feather footing will give you MPG to be proud of.

Following the tank with 40+MPG, 2 more tanks thru the mountains gave 41.5MPG & an astounding 45MPG. The last tank was NOT downhill, but rose from sealevel to 1400 feet & two 600 foot hills. Accent shows itself to be as fuel stingy as the Honda Fit, with a better warranty at a much lower cost.

Though this website continues to post our Hyundai Accent in the 2007 section, our car is a 2008. The website is misrepresenting, since the 2008 has several things different from the 2007.

My wife's tough commuter drive, which includes several areas of stop & go traffic, has been between 30 & 32+MPG, rising a bit as the weather warms. I was disappointed with the MPG. Her MPG has been close to the EPA highway MPG, but I thought the Accent EPA MPG standard to be pretty low. However, I have been able to drive this car on 3 daytrips over 1400, 3000, 4000 & 5500 foot mountain passes. Careful feather footing has gotten 41.5, 42.6, & 45.1 MPG! Mountain driving that is as much as 13 MPG OVER THE EPA highway standard is great! This MPG shows the Accent to be on a par with the Honda Fit & nearly as good as the Toyota Yaris.

If I had driven till the tank was nearly dry on the 45.1MPG tank, I could have driven 500+ miles!

Tho I haven't driven the car in commuter traffic, I believe it would give good MPG if feather footed. As I said, my wife's commute is tough.

Our Accent continues to function at 8800 miles almost 100% with no squeaks, creaks, or rattles. Make sure you tighten the gas cap 3 to 4 turns after placement. For some odd-ball reason, the check-engine light has come on unless we give the gas cap the extra twists.

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steven@carsurvey.org

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Thanks for the review and the updates, they're much appreciated.

All reviews are grouped by year of manufacture, not the model year, so your review is in the correct location.

Model years do not exist in many countries, and Carsurvey.org is a global site, so it's not possible to arrange all the reviews by model year.

With hindsight, North American reviews should have been arranged by model year, but model years weren't originally recorded for North American reviews, so that's not possible without throwing away a lot of the older reviews.

Steven Jackson.