2010 Hyundia Accent
Test Drive

2010 Hyundia Accent
Test Drive
Las Vegas, Nevada to St. George, Utah,
USA, December, 2010

AllCarCentral.com's Test Drive

With out trying to start a debate, let me say that cars can be roughly divided into 3 groups. Super cars, economy cars and all the rest. The 2010 Hyundia Accent in my mind would be in the economy car class.

On this December holiday trip, the last one of 2010, we were going for the most economical form of transportation, thus we opted for an economy class car, even though we had a 100 mile run from Las Vegas to St. George, Utah. Even economy class cars should be engineered for interstate driving, especially here in the US where every thing seems to be several miles away.

We picked up the Hyundia Accent at the Las Vegas airport rental car hub and set the GPS for our destination in Utah. I always use the UPS to access the interstate in the shortest manner possible. The pre-drive checkout of a rental car is a quick look for exterior damage. The operation of the car is presumed to be "if you have a drivers license you must know how every car works". That may have been the rule in the past when cars had simple functions like key start, wiper, lights, heater, and a shift lever. Now days cars are 100-mile-an-hour-computers, operated in dense traffic. The 140 Mile-per-Hour marking on the Hyundia Accent speedometer is probably a bit optimistic. On the flat interstate at freeway speed the Hyundia Accent held its own in the flow of traffic as we drove north on I15, into the state of Arizona for the little nip across the northwest corned of the state and up through the Virgin River canyon into Utah. As the light disappeared and we entered the overflowing Virgin River canyon in the dark, we drove into the largest rain storm in the last 5 year for that area. With close traffic, pouring rain, on the twisting dark rain-wet road I had my full attention to keeping the car in it's lane.

Earlier, I had drove onto the interstate in the daylight and turned on the headlights but as the blackness of the rain and night overtook the little Hyundia, the over-bright dash lights aimed straight into my eyes almost made it impossible to see past the wipers. I finally located a small nylon bag and stuffed it into the dash recess to block-out the light so I could see the road. (The next day, in the sunlight, I found the dash light dimmer switch down low behind the steering wheel.) Driving with the rain covered traffic on the twisting road, and heeding the signs to watch out for rocks washing onto the road I really felt I was struggling with the cars placement within the lane. I later discovered that my problem of lane placement was the result of the front end of the car was not visible from the driver's position. The cars front end simply could not be seen. This made 'pointing' the car a bit like trying to aim a gun that had no front site or barrel. The windshield and wipers were the only reference I had in front between the darkness and me. Even the early VW Bugs gave a front fender reference. The overly quick steering in-put did not help at highway speeds. I could feel resistance at the steering wheel but there did not seem to be any 'road' feed back.

With the exception of the car not revealing the presence of it's front and rear sections, the Hyundia Accent performed quite well over all. The power was a bit down on some of the steeper climbs on the interstate, having to down-shift to maintain traffic speed. In and about town the short wheel base allowed easy maneuvering and fit the tasks of a town runabout. The return trip to Las Vegas in the sunshine, the Accent behaved as expected, the now dry Virgin River canyon was a downhill run and posed no challenge. Driving in the western US, radio stations have their local quarks, not always entertaining to those driving through. But this car had Sirius radio installed and gave us a selection of uninterrupted, static free entertainment. I can not comment on gas mileage as I could not find how to make the Trip Function on the odometer work.

As a closing note, we saw the Cirque du Soleil production of the Beatles LOVE. To all that is able to make it to the Las Vegas Mirage, this is a must see production, a total sensory over-load.


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Hyundai Accent 2010

Hyundai Accent 2010
Test Drive 2010

Hyundai Accent 2010

Hyundai Accent 2010
Test Drive 2010

Hyundai Accent 2010

Hyundai Accent 2010
Test Drive 2010

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