Test Drive--Hyundai Accent

by Cookie the Dog's Owner on August 11, 2009

Some cars are proudly possessed of the stuff of pistonhead passion: raging horsepower, legendary handling, avant garde design, opulent luxury, noble pedigree, and engaging or even quirky personality.

Today's subject is not quite one of those cars. Today we are going to forgo our usual emphasis on speed, power, styling, passion, and all that and examine a car designed and built to be basic transportation with the accent (pun intended) on the "basic."

In other words, we're test driving a 2009 Hyundai Accent.

Besides giving us an excuse to go driving on a pleasant summer day, putting this little Hyundai through its paces presents us with a challenging series of philosophical questions: Does an inexpensive car also have to be a "cheap" and "chintzy" one? When a car's design is stripped down to the essentials, can it still be an object of Car Lust? What does our reaction to this most basic of rides tell us about ourselves? And, finally, can this paragraph possibly get any more pretentious?

The current-generation Accent is built on a 98.4-inch wheelbase FWD platform shared with the Kia Rio, and weighs in around 2,500 pounds. The engine is a fuel-injected 1,599cc inline four which produces 110 horsepower at 6,000 RPM. Though it occupies the bottom slot in Hyundai's product line, the Accent nevertheless has six airbags and ABS.

Our test subject is a base-level ("GS") three-door version with a five-speed, hand-cranked windows, no AC, and no stereo--and a four-digit MSRP. It's painted a fetching shade called "Tango Red" which, combined with its roundish profile, kind of makes it look like an Easter Egg on wheels. The styling could be described as "generic" if you're feeling grumpy, or "cute" if you're in a better mood. Either way, the design is executed with taste and restraint and there's a certain basic rightness to the proportions. It may not turn heads, but it doesn't hurt your retinas either.

Inside are decent front bucket seats covered in dark gray cloth. The dash and door panels are rendered in a matching plastic that looks better than it feels. The rear seat is surprisingly roomy--your humble narrator, a husky lad of six feet in height, fits comfortably--and back-row access is assisted by a passenger seat that automatically shifts forward as the seatback folds up.

The ergonomics of the driver's position are excellent. I had no trouble getting my large self comfortable behind the no-tilt steering wheel. While it lacks the full array of electronic and electromechanical gadgets (such as remote power mirrors) found in cars with five-digit price tags, the Accent's controls are arranged conveniently, and the gauges are easy to read. There's even a dead rest pedal for your left foot.

Fit and finish, inside and out, are superb. The car feels solid and tight. Hyundai justifiably makes a big deal about its 100,000-mile powertrain warranty, and the Accent certainly gives the impression that it will last well beyond that point.

The driving dynamics are pretty good for what the Accent is. Remember, we're talking here about an entry-level car optimized for cost efficiency--that is, low sticker price and high mileage--and not for performance or entertainment value. It won't corner like a CRX or accelerate like a V-8 muscle car, but then again it was never meant to. Still, the clutch and shifter are better than you'd expect at this price point, and while the brakes (front disc, rear drum) certainly lack the raw stopping power of four-caliper Brembos, they're adequate to the task at hand. The steering--power-assisted, believe it or not!--is precise and responsive, with good-but-not-great road feel, and there's no noticeable torque steer.

The springs are a bit on the soft side. This gives the Accent a surprisingly smooth ride over rough pavement, but you pay for that with a fair bit of body roll in hard-ish cornering. It's certainly not anyone's first choice for championship autocrossing, but fling it down a twisty back road, and the Accent comports itself well as long as you respect its limitations.

The only element of the driving dynamics that I can really criticize is the lack of acceleration, though it's not so much a flaw as it is a thing to be worked around. The horsepower-to-weight ratio is respectable, but the motor--which gives off a happy sound like an enthusiastic sewing machine when you open the throttle--has weak bottom-end pull. Maximum torque is only 106 foot-pounds at 4,000 RPM, and I suspect the torque curve is rather sharply peaked. The owner's manual recommends shifting "for optimum performance and economy" in a manner that keeps the engine between 2,000 and 3,000--well below maximum torque. Drive it by the book, and there's not a lot of get-up-and-go. If you're merging into freeway traffic or trying to pass on a two-lane road, you really need to downshift and get the sewing machine spinning over four grand. (Even then, you're no threat to the Camaros at the local dragstrip.) Anything Hyundai could do to beef up the lower part of the torque curve would be helpful.

The upside to this is fuel economy, which is commendable. The EPA rates the Accent at 27 MPG city and 33 highway. From my own (admittedly limited) observation, that's probably an understatement. I suspect you could blast around all day in full drive-it-like-you-stole-it mode and still not push the Accent's fuel consumption down much below 30 MPG.

So, though it's solid and competent, is this a car you could fall in love with? "Love" is perhaps too strong a word, but it's sure likable enough. What it might lack in excitement it makes up for with a pleasant demeanor and understated air of confidence. It won't tear up the roads like a GTI--but on the other hand, it costs about a third of what a GTI does, and beats the GTI by a few MPGs in fuel economy. You could do a lot worse.

The politicians and pundits are promising us that Chrysler and GM are going to be brought back from their present sorry state by producing smaller, fuel-efficient "little green cars." I don't know enough about business or economics or politics to say if that's likely or even possible, but I do think I can be certain of one thing: whoever may be tasked with designing one of those "little green cars" would be well-served to start by taking a good look at a Hyundai Accent GS. It could be your prototype.

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Star Trek III: The Search For Spock -- Hyundai Genesis

by CarLustBlog.com at 4:37 PM PDT, July 24, 2009

The word? The word is no. I am therefore going anyway.

Thus begins the best sequence in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, and one of the greatest scenes in all of Trekdom--the scene in which Admiral Kirk and his officers steal the USS Enterprise from space dock to rescue their ambiguously deceased shipmate and friend Spock. I'm not totally clear what they were rescuing him from--evidently some sort of ill-defined post-mortem Vulcan mental trauma--but that doesn't change the fact that it's a tremendous sequence in an outrageously underrated film (a film underrated even by Car Lust sister blog Armchair Commentary).

Now for the whiplash segue and the forced comparison between car and movie that is becoming de rigueur in this series. I would argue that the Hyundai Genesis is the automotive world's version of that scene--a tremendous car from an outrageously underrated car manufacturer. That's convenient, since the Genesis name links the car to the tremendously powerful terraforming device central to the plots of Star Treks II and III (as well as, it must be said, the Phil Collins-led musical group, the Sega gaming system, and of course the first book of the Bible).

It might help my analysis if I knew what Genesis is, beyond the biblical reference.

The Genesis Coupe represents Hyundai's coming-out party--a top-flight performance coupe from a company known for its small front-wheel-drive economy cars and that has steadily grown from past ignominy into unspectacular but extremely competent respectability.

The Genesis Coupe is a rear-wheel-drive sports coupe with 306 horsepower V-6 (or a tuner-friendly turbo four) that runs off the 0-60 sprint in 5.7 seconds and tops out at more than 160 mph.

Let that sink in for a moment. It wasn't long ago that this kind of performance was restricted to Corvettes, Porsches, and exotic Italian cars. Now a sub-$30,000 coupe from Hyundai can do the same thing. That's pretty remarkable given Hyundai's, well, checkered history.

How many have paid the price for your impatience? How many have died? How much damage have you done, and what is yet to come?

Lt. Saavik laid this withering line on Dr. David Marcus in STIII after learning that he had taken an unethical shortcut in the development of the Genesis device. Marcus used the mysterious proto-matter in the device--a cheat that helped bring initial successes but completely undermined the project's long-term success. So too did Hyundai's initial success in the American market set the stage for subsequent near-disaster. (For those of you keeping track at home, that's the second jarringly abrupt segue so far).

Hyundai's introduction to the American market in 1986 paralleled Yugo's. The Hyundai Excel and Yugo GV subcompacts made headlines in that model year both for their unexpected countries of origin and their amazing, rock-bottom pricing. The Yugo was mostly notable as the cheapest (note that I did not use the more polite "least expensive" descriptor) new car available in America at $3,995. At $4,995, the Hyundai was significantly more expensive than its Eastern European counterpart, but compared to the Spartan Yugo the Excel seemed like a sophisticated, luxurious little ride.

The Yugo's incredibly low price lured thrifty car-buyers into the market, but once bargain shoppers had a chance to compare the imported oddities many opted for the Hyundai's relative sophistication. The Excel was an immediate sales smash, with more than 160,000 cars sold--which, according to Wikipedia, was a new sales record for a first-year import. But, as with the Genesis device, the means of the initial success worked to its long-term detriment.

The Excel proved to be refined only compared to the agricultural Yugo; compared to contemporary small cars from Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and the domestic manufacturers, it was cobby and rough. Thanks to the Excel's initial popularity, Hyundai's major quality issues quickly became only slightly less well-known and ridiculed than Yugo's. Kia's subsequent star-crossed arrival in the U.S. market did nothing to take South Korean cars out of the crosshairs of the late-night comics.

After that first burst of success in the United States in the mid-to-late 1980s, Hyundai spent a full decade following the Yugo path--building a cripplingly poor reputation and sliding down into the yawning void of irrelevance.

If I hadn't tried, the cost would have been my soul.

With its Chevrolet Citation/X-car debacle, General Motors established that selling huge volumes of bad cars isn't a good way to build a reputation or a customer base. Hyundai endured the same pain but responded in a way that, in retrospect, is pretty inspiring. Hyundai reorganized in 1998 with the goal of doubling down on its quality; it began steadily improving its lineup and made the point very publicly with a brand-wide 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty.

I don't remember taking much note at the time--as with most enthusiasts, Hyundai was at the very edge of my radar screen--but over the subsequent decade, the impact of Hyundai's efforts has been dramatic.

Genesis is, simply put, life from lifelesness.

I remember seeing the first few glimmers of life from Hyundai back in 2003 or so--a friend bought a Sonata, and I was surprised by how competent it was. The following year, Hyundai took second in J.D. Power's initial quality survey. In 2005, I recommended the Hyundai Santa Fe mini-SUV to a family member who has absolutely loved it. In terms of satisfaction, quality, and reliability, Hyundai had arrived.

Hyundai's first real attention to performance began around then too. The Tiburon wasn't a particularly impressive performer, but as a stylish, attractive low-slung sporty coupe, it was a worthy successor to the Toyota Celicas and Mazda MX-6s of the 1990s. The fourth-generation Hyundai Sonata was the car that really signaled Hyundai's maturing performance capabilities; its 235-horsepower made it a sneaky-fast sleeper with as much horsepower as a mid-1980s Corvette. In future years when I recall the horsepower explosion of this decade, the hot-rod Sonata will be the car right at the top of my mind. A Hyundai family sedan with 235 horsepower? What?!?!

Can I cook, or can't I?

Now, of course, we have the Genesis Coupe--and considering that Hyundai is new to the top levels of the hyper-competitive sports-luxury game, it is astonishingly good. It runs with the excellent new six-cylinder Chevrolet Camaro, for one thing. It accelerates, handles, and rides like a world-class performance coupe, and even more impressively it feels like a premium piece. It isn't a gorgeous car, but it is suitably aggressive and fresh without a reliance on retro design cues.

If the Infiniti G-series provides most of the goodness of the BMW 3-series at a discount rate, the Hyundai Genesis Coupe plays the same game with the Infiniti. Compared with the Infiniti, it's 95% of the goodness for 85% of the money; it obviously has an even larger value gap over the BMW. If this sounds like I'm damning the Genesis with faint praise, I'm not--the Genesis is, right out of the gate, a strong competitor for some of the finest cars in the world, and at a competitive, accessible price, with a reliability reputation to rival Toyota's, and with a fantastic warranty to boot.

Considering the state of Hyundai a decade ago, that's incredible--much more surprising, for example, than Spock's resurrection at the end of STIII. The Genesis effect rejuvenated Spock; but in Hyundai's case, a rejuvenated company resulted in an excellent Genesis.

Hold on, I just blew my own mind.

Giiive meee Gennnesis!
Genesis allowed is not! Is planet forbidden!

I couldn't really find any use for these quotes, but they were just too good to exclude.

For your viewing pleasure, I have included a Hyundai Genesis commercial, Dr. Carol Marcus' description of Project Genesis, and the aforementioned best scene in Star Trek history--the part where Kirk and his officers steal the enterprise.

The silver Genesis pictures above are press shots from the manufacturer; the screenshots from the movie are all over the web; and the old Excel ad came from thehyway.com.

--Chris H.

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