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Video: 2012 Hyundai Accent

02:26 min
By Cars.com Editors
April 21, 2011

About the video

From the 2011 New York Auto Show, Cars.com's Kelsey Mays takes a look at the 2012 Hyundai Accent.

Transcript

(upbeat music) <v Announcer>Cars.com auto review. (upbeat music) Hi, I'm Kelsey Mays for cars.com.
For years, the Hyundai Accent has represented cheap, thrifty transportation that says, hey, I've got a really low car payment so I can make my rent and occasionally go on a date, but I never get to go on a second date because I picked her up in my Accent. That may change, because for 2012, the Accent has been redesigned. It comes in sedan and hatchback trims. And I got to say, it looks pretty sharp. We'll show you why. We're checking out the sedan here at the New York Auto Show. It's about three and a half inches longer than the old Accent sedan and a little bit wider. Actually pretty easy to mistake for that larger Elantra. The difference is that the headlights here are a little more clipped, and the fog lights, which are optional, are actually a little more expressive than on the Elantra. The old Accent's kind of shelf-like dashboard is gone. There's much more contemporary shapes in here, kind of a wavier style. It comes down into the center. Nice sort of trim pieces here, like piano black accents and chrome door handles. And even the plastics at eye level have this sort of dimpled texture to them. Makes you kind of forget that they're harder stuff. That's all pretty typical for this class. I'm impressed how far back the driver's seat goes. I'm about six feet tall, but I sit with it maybe an inch or two ahead of all the way back, which is kind of nice. Unfortunately, the steering wheel, it doesn't telescope. It only tilts. The steering wheels into the Ford Fiesta and the Honda Fit both telescope. Backseat, kind of tight. This is where I would sit to drive and my legs are touching. And in the sedan actually, kind of start to run out of headroom if you lean back. In the hatchback, headroom is actually a lot better. I just sat in one a little while ago. In the sedan behind here is about 13 cubic feet of cargo volume. Pretty good for a small car. The hatchback has nearly 50 cubic feet of cargo volume with the seats all the way down. It trails the really big Honda Fit, but it's generally impressive otherwise. With its tiny four cylinder engine, Hyundai expects the Accent to get EPA ratings of 30 miles per gallon city, 40 miles per gallon highway. Pretty impressive. The car goes on sale this summer with a starting price of under $12,500. That means you can probably still have enough money to go on those dates. And this time around, I think the car is gonna be an asset. <v Announcer>For more car related news, go to cars.com or our, blog kickingtires.net.

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