I really am beginning to despise capable little cars. Especially the cocky sort that get the job of commuting done effortlessly on a whiff of fuel because they seem to be having a laugh at the other seemingly pointless behemoths that refuse to move out of their garages without at least 10 litres of fuel in their tanks.
I suppose I don’t like these smaller vehicles because I feel foolish for driving and enjoying bigger cars.
For practical reasons (such as being owned by fairly huge hounds), I can’t own anything smaller than a mid-sized sedan, but cars such as the recently launched Hyundai Accent make me wonder if my Labrador Retriever and Boerbull/Ridgeback would fit into the back of such a small sedan.And it’s just this sort of insidious appeal that gets my goat because despite the impracticality, I prefer bigger vehicles and don’t want to be made to feel guilty about it by yet another clever little car.
The launch of the new Hyundai Accent took place on a particularly frosty morning on the Highveld and the little 1600s proved to be much more enthusiastic about starting the day than the journalists tasked with test-driving them.
We started off with the four-speed automatic, which felt quite easy to drive, and the five-speed manual, which also proved to be a confident performer.
The transmission was smooth, the suspension adequate and the overall handling proved to be well above what I had expected of such a small car.
There is only a 1,6 litre petrol engine being offered in all three of the vehicles, which are priced from R115 900 to R139 900.
The new Accent has neat lines flowing from the front to the rear of the vehicle and the interior is as well-specced as any of its rivals, most notably the VW Polo and Toyota Yaris.
It features a driver air bag on the entry-level manual and a driver and passenger air bag on the higher- specced models.
Hyundai and Kia are the sixth- largest vehicle manufacturers in the world, producing about one million fewer vehicles than Daimler- Chrysler, which Hyundai foresees itself eclipsing by 2009. Hyundai has also achieved a higher reliability rating than Toyota in the JD Powers and Associates reliability survey in the United States and this is obviously quite a big deal for this Korean marque, which hasn’t always performed as well as leading brands.
The Accent made easy work of short and long drives and delivered a wonderful first impression.
As far as value for money goes, it offers more than its rivals and I predict that we will see more Accents, as well as other newer Hyundai models on our roads simply because Hyundai seems to be listening to what customers across the globe are looking for: reliable, fuel-efficient, value-for-money vehicles that are a pleasure to drive.