2007 Hyundai Accent Road Test
August 5, 2007 by Alborz Fallah
2007 Hyundai Accent Road Test
CarAdvice rating: 
Recommended Retail Price: $15,490 -> $20,490
Options Fitted: Metallic paint
The Hyundai Accent is not the most exciting car in its class; it’s like a middle-child, the forgotten cousin or a quiet achiever. In all respects, the Accent is a Hyundai Excel that has just finished high-school. It’s more refined, better looking, smarter and better packaged; however, it’s inherently still the same car.
A bit of history
The problem facing the Accent stems from back in the late 80s early 90s when Hyundai had this formula that started with the Hyundai Excel, import a semi-reasonable, cheap, A->B car and sell it to first-car buyers that are extremely price conscious. It was a good idea, but as with all good ideas, copycats emerged and the Excel lost its edge.
Trying to stay ahead of the game, in 2000 Hyundai ditched the Excel badge and changed the name to Accent, while raising the price. The new plan was to aim for a slightly more upmarket audience while offering more for the money – it didn’t really work.
Many thought Hyundai had gone mad for ditching the Excel badge, but with so many reliability issues and the cheap and nasty image that it had acquired in its 16 years of loyal service, the Excel was seen as more of a curse than anything else. With Hyundai recently ranked as the 8th most valuable car brand in the world, it may have been the right decision after all.
So it’s 2007 and the Hyundai Accent has come a long way. No longer associated with a cheap and cheerful image, the Accent has moved up in the world, but not too far. It’s a hard car to categorize, it’s a small car, but it’s not really that small, plus Hyundai already have the Getz as a small car. The Accent comes in 3-door hatch and sedan variants.
Prices start at just $15,490 for the 3-door manual hatch and go all the way to $20,490 for the luxury auto sedan.
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UGLY!!!
Yeah I have to agree, the older version was nicer looking. My grandma has the older 2003 model (she bought it new 3-4 years ago) and it really is a great car. It doesn’t have much power, but for A-B it is not bad. She’s never had a thing go wrong with it, and you would mistake it for new on the inside and out.
My parents want me to buy it from her but for the reasons you stated above about the new model (cornering/handling) I’m not interested. But for people who don’t want to “drive” their car, it’s very good.
Wow talk about going down hill… that looks very Korean in its styling
It’s korean isn’t it!?
That gearstick is a throwback to 1968.
Bought one simply because it is affordable and we were working on a tight budget. The radio is horrific (at times it sounds like Rice Krispies when you pour milk on it) and we met another owner at a filling station the other day who had the same complaints.
Rex & Reggie
bought one this week. base model which was quite good. standard with electric mirrors, windows etc. sold a 2006 holden omega because of gas guzzling concerns and so far I love it. Nippy,very economical which is the big bonus and looks arent everything. Off tomorrow for 17in alloys. should look good. so far I am very pleased.
^^^You sold a VE Commodre Omega for this!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gas mileage and just 3 miles distance commute to work was the reason I bought one. It’s a cute car and going from a V-8 engine to this with gas going past $4.21 this week, it makes sense.
Its shaped like a watermelon, the Kia Rio version looks far better.
Do they make washing machines and cement mixers as well.
man i bought this car n had it for a year. it is great, faster than alot of cars that think they r good on gas, n cornering, come on i can go on a ramp going almost 75mph n still have control, n wit the mods that came out it is awesome, btw beats a mustang in both acceleration n top speed n gas!
I have a 2003 5 door Hatch auto. I have to say it does handle well and is quite perky to drive. I am now going for a Yaris however this time around. Had one problem with the accent and it was a crank timing chip on the last day of the warrantee. Waiting to see if Hyundai honors it or it will cost me 240.00 to fix it.
Duck Says:
April 12th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
^^^You sold a VE Commodre Omega for this!!!!!!!!!!!!!
……Sounds smart to me.
Is Accent just discontinued by Hyundai in Australia?