We recently had to rent a car with only a 24-hour advance notice. We were flying into a major city and of course most of the cars were already rented except for the smaller than compact cars called "economy".

While I was completing the paperwork at the car rental counter the gal kept snickering about the car we were getting and kept calling it a Honda Accent. Not knowing anything about the small cars since we are SUV owners, I really thought it was a Honda. I asked why she kept laughing and she claimed "because you will be lucky to get your luggage in it because it is so small and that is why we seldom rent these". She also laughed and said and "with this hot weather you are going to wish you had air conditioning". I questioned her that I thought the car had air conditioning. She informed me "yes, but how cold would you expect it to get from such a little car".

First Impression

The rental car bus dropped us off next to the car. It was not a Honda but a Hyundai Accent. Yes, it was small but not as small as she had me believing. My sister owns a Hyundai Sonata so I do know a bit about this Korean automaker.

The car was a 4-door model and actually had a roomy trunk that held our entire luggage just fine which included 2 large suitcases and a duffle bag. The color was silver with a gray interior. The inside construction of materials was actually no different than our GM SUV's. The car was exceptionally well equipped with cloth bucket seats, automatic transmission with console on the floor, air conditioning, AM/FM CD player, power steering, power windows, airbags, and rear defrost. I was surprised to see that the car was front wheel drive.

The interior dash and components were pretty much the same operations as my Nissan Pathfinder so I did not have a problem trying to figure out how to turn on the lights or wipers and they are located off of the steering wheel so anyone can see them clearly.

The front seats were of course not power seats but were easy to adjust forward and backwards with the handle under the front seat. The back seat was full length but I think it would hold 2 people more comfortably than 3 due to the size. Legroom in the back reminded me of an airplanes cabin class. Not much room.

The side view mirrors were easily adjustable from inside the car. The power windows had the safety lock feature on the drivers door for those with children.

There were 2-cup holders on the middle front dash that came out with a push of a button.

When we arrived at the car, the key was in the trunk lock therefore it was easy to open the trunk. This car apparently just offers a key and not the remote controller that we have for our SUV's that lock/unlock from a distance without the insertion of a key. Also we found that in order to unlock the rear doors you had to click the key twice to the right.

Driving It

As we left the car rental lot you have to show your rental contract to the person and then she started laughing and said "I just hate these cars, they are so ugly and so small". She then wished us luck as she kept snickering. Geesh…I really felt confident now.

Luckily it was late at night and not much traffic on the road so I could get the feel of driving a very small car.

While driving, it was evident that the steering was very easy to maneuver, change lanes, and park. I did not notice any blind spots in the car but the car is small. The pickup in it though had a tinny sound and you could really hear it when I pressed on the accelerator to gain speed. It also loss speed easily and several times I caught myself way under the speed limit even though I had barely let off the accelerator.

Braking was not a problem and the car stopped when you wanted it to with the braking not feeling spongy. Our destination was another 2 hours away and we would drive it the next day.

Temperatures the next day were 111 degrees and surprisingly the air conditioner put out very cold air. The radiator temperature stayed stable. Crossing over a mountain pass the car really needed to have a lot of acceleration to make it up and the engine sound became rather loud as we climbed. Many of the larger cars and trucks pulling boats even passed us. Of course going down the pass was no problem and the car really started to cruise and the loud sound ended.

The stereo was easy to use with buttons to change the stations. We didn't bring any CD's with us to try it out. We are used to the quality sound of Bose so I won't even go to the quality of sound issues.

The ride was smooth with no issues of wind noise with highest speed reaching 75 going downhill.

Features, Specs

Hyundai's actually have a fantastic warranty of 5 years/60,000 miles with a 10 year/100,000 mile power train warranty. The Nissan and the GM cars are a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty.

The tinny sounding engine I was mentioning is listed at 104 horsepower, which produces 106 lbs of torque per foot. Engine size is a 1.6 liter 4 cylinder and has a dual overhead cam.

The gas tank capacity is 11.9 gallons and it claims to have a fuel rating of 26 miles per gallon in the city and 35 miles per gallon on the highway. When we filled up before dropping off our gas mileage was 30.5 miles per gallon with the majority being highway miles. To compare this with my Nissan Pathfinder, this was about 6-7 miles per gallon more.

Final Thoughts

I found out this car is priced around $13,779 for the features it offered and for those on a small budget this car is worth comparing to others due to the fuel economy, warranty, features, and front wheel drive.

Although this car is not for me due to mountain driving and lots of hauling, this would be a great car for those who need an economy car for driving back and forth to work as long as mountain passes were not involved and the need for fast get up and go speed was not essential.

I would not recommend this for families due to the size. It just would not be even close to comfortable.