"RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars" (rallydarkstrike)
03/16/2018 at 14:30 • Filed to: Hyundai Accent
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"RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars" (rallydarkstrike)
03/16/2018 at 14:30 • Filed to: Hyundai Accent | 10
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***Re-post for the afternoon crowd!***
To begin, as most of you know, I own a 2009 Hyundai Accent hatchback base model with no bells and whistles AT ALL. That being said, as slow, cheap, plastic-y, and bland as it is, I love my little car and thought it was high time I actually wrote something well-researched and tied with information I have learned while owning my car! :)
The ‘MC’ generation (2006-2010) Hyundai Accent sedan and hatchback debuted at the New York Auto Show in 2005. Here, over the course of it’s 4-year run, it received a few small updates, but no real updates to the exterior of the car. From the outside, it’s difficult for anybody to tell a 2006 from a 2010 as most of the changes were on the inside, such as a switch from lime-green instrument backlighting in 2010 to the brand’s now common blue/white backlighting. In this write-up, I’ll be telling you some differences in fascia and design from one MC-generation Accent model to another around the world.
Here in North America and in most of the world, the Accent received conservative and relatively pedestrian styling. It’s not amazing looking, but I, at least personally, think its not ugly either and is handsome in a ‘it does it’s job well’ kind of way - some of the treatments to the Accent hatchback are actually kind of sporty for an economy car, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Canadian, US, Australian and European cars as well as Mexican-market cars (o !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! south of the US border) all received the same fascia treatment front and rear for the most part, other than black plastic side rubbing strips being available on Mexican market cars, but not here in the US or Canada. Mexican-market Accent/Attitude sedans also had a black plastic logo plate above the rear license plate rather than the body-colored panels found elsewhere globally. Factory wheels/hubcaps differed from market to market. Mexican market cars also had plastic black doorhandles and black mirror covers on some models while all cars (whether base trim or not) in Canada, Australia, the US and Europe were sold with body-colored handles and mirror covers:
A Mexican-market Dodge Attitude - note the Dodge logo in place of the Hyundai one on the front grill, and the black rubbing strips on the side, as well as black mirrors and doorhandles.
European and Australian cars received the same fascia as well, though I am unsure if the black side strips were available. European, Australian and Mexican market sedan models had different taillights than those we had here in the US and Canada - the lights were virtually the same, however Australian/Euro/Mexican market cars received them with amber-tinted turn signals where Canadian and US cars had turn signals tinted red - this is a bit odd as the Accent hatchback was sold with amber-tinted turn signals globally!:
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
The only distinct fascia changes on most North American/Australian/European market cars were the front grill and side repeaters. These cars all had the same body-colored front bumper design with black plastic insert - foglight equipped models had holes in the same insert for mounting the lights at the upper corners each side, meaning the entire black insert or bumper has to be replaced if an owner decides to install factory foglights. Hatchback models received a body-colored, sportier looking grill with wide body-colored bar and black large mesh, while sedans featured a plainer chromed grill. Hatchbacks also all came with fender-mounted side repeaters while they only came on higher trim levels of the Accent sedan, with most sedans being repeater-less.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
The only other distinct fascia change on North American-spec cars was the Canada-only Accent SR model. Limited numbers of these (500) were sold only in Canada and each came with small performance upgrades from the factory such as a front strut-tower bar, short-throw shift kit, cold air intake as well as styling enhancements with added fender flares, badging, front lip, rear lip, side skirts and exhaust tip.
The Canada-only SR model was very rare and only came in a few colors - silver, white, black and red, I believe!
Now, here is where things get confusing - elsewhere in the global market. Information is hard to come by, but India and a lot of Australasian countries only seem to have received the Accent sedan with no hatchback models available of this generation. In India, South Korea, and many Australasian countries, the Accent was sold as the Verna. Most Chinese, Indian and Australasian cars seemed to follow the same fascia designs for the sedan that we had here, but had the rear amber turn signals and a similar black plastic logo plate above the rear license plate as is often found on Mexican market cars:
An Accent sedan taxi in the Philippines - note the amber turn signals and black plastic logo plate.
Malaysia, at some point, had a different front bumper design than the rest of the world. I don’t know if this change was sold in any other countries as this is the only instance I can find of this design, but the front bumper cover was reshaped and the large, somewhat ugly black plastic insert was removed in favor of more matching body coloring. Foglights remained the exact same models though. The front grill differs from other global cars as well, and the hood now featured a chrome strip with the Hyundai logo where the logo was previously mounted on the grill:
South Korea did one final large facelift to the MC generation Verna before the arrival of the RB generation. This was one of the first instances of Hyundai trying to use their then-upcoming ‘fluidic’ design language, with the Verna receiving a completely revised front and rear end, including taillights, rear bumper, exhaust tip, front bumper, headlights, and grill - the “Hyundai Verna Transform” was born. This facelift was sold in Chinese markets as well, and possibly others, though I can not find any exact details!
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
I actually like the changes in the Verna Transform facelift, despite the fact they are kindof overdone - swapping those onto a car here would certainly leave you with something unique that nobody else would have!
At any rate, time to rush an ending as I have to head off and get some work done. Hopefully you weren’t
too
bored and at least learned some new trivia you will never have a reason to use! I may have made a mistake(s) somewhere as this was all based on what information I could find and what I already knew - feel free to correct me if I am wrong and you know better! ;)
Spanfeller is a twat
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
03/16/2018 at 09:49 |
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No one knows why the Hyundai was labeled as a dodge, even the i10 was sold as a dodge here for a long time... I think Dodge is like Mexico’s try it all brand, they’re trying to be a high standard brand but they also sell fleet cars, they sell an 707hp car alongside the attitude, etc.
Though they stopped selling the v6 version of the charger and the Durango, so lets see how that affects fleet sales to the police
punkgoose17
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
03/16/2018 at 09:55 |
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Great write up I really enjoyed this. I really like the Malaysian grille. It is like a good version of the ugly grille on my ‘05 Elantra.
gin-san - shitpost specialist
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
03/16/2018 at 09:59 |
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This was my old car (the 4-door sedan)!
Great for city driving since it’s small, steering is quick and consumable costs are low. While my old car had some weird issues they were all fixed under warranty and never came back.
The most annoying, recurring problem was replacement of some kind of ball joint or something in the suspension. I had to have it done twice under warranty - it basically causes this annoying knocking noise when going over larger bumps.
Otherwise, the only other issues I had were both with the driver’s side door - the first time, the door wouldn’t latch closed at all so I had to drive it to the dealer while using one hand to keep the door closed. The second time, the driver’s side door wouldn’t open, meaning I had to climb over to the passenger seat to exit the vehicle.
However, the ancient 4-speed automatic paired to the 110hp engine was solid, albeit slow. 160km/h in this car feels frighteningly quick, whereas I can hit 160km/h in my current car and I’d barely notice.
I didn’t think it was ugly or beautiful, but I thought it was kind of a “cute” car. It doesn’t have any aggressive lines, it’s all softer curves.
This was also my favourite winter car; I threw some Blizzaks on there and even days where we got 30+cm of snow this car simply wouldn’t get stuck.
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> Spanfeller is a twat
03/16/2018 at 12:22 |
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Definitely odd! I also like how the ONLY thing changed was the exterior and interior badging, nothing else. The Dodge logo sticker on the steering wheel isn’t even a replacement, it just COVERS the Hyundai badge...
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> punkgoose17
03/16/2018 at 12:23 |
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Thanks friend! Sometimes it’s fun to write about mundane stuff! :)
I actually quite like the Malaysian front bumper...I prefer the NA-spec hatchback body-color grill, but the Malaysian front bumper cover looks nice to me!
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
03/16/2018 at 12:31 |
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I like the side and rear lines on the hatchback quite a lot - it might not be the best looking thing, but it’s pretty handsome to me. Both my brother and mother have MC-generation Accents as well (though mine is a hatch, theirs are sedans, like yours).
Mine has been very reliable, all told. One minor issue under warranty. Mom’s sedan and my brothers have an odd issue with rear windows (manual windows on all our cars) not staying up all the time and they sometimes crack themselves open a centimeter or two. Mom had the dealership fix it under warranty, but it still does the same thing....dealer claims they replaced the rear window regulators, but I don’t think they did a thing, to be honest. Bro’s has also had an issue, like yours, with his rear-right door refusing to latch properly. It’s done that 4-5 times now over the 4 years they’ve had theirs, but fiddling with it for a moment gets it back to rights and all is well again for a long time.
We still like the cars a lot though, and they’ve never left us stranded once. Parts are cheap, they’re good on gas (especially mine, which has a stick), what’s not to love! :) I will say the auto transmission sucks a LOT of life out of the car though. They’re not fast, but driving mom’s and bro’s with the auto and then driving mine with the stick feels a LOT peppier...
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punkgoose17
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
03/16/2018 at 12:52 |
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I really like economy cars, compact and smaller cars. They are interesting pieces of efficiency.
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> punkgoose17
03/16/2018 at 14:06 |
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Same! They are interesting in a ‘how do we make the most something from nothing’ sort of way! :)
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gin-san - shitpost specialist
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
03/16/2018 at 14:25 |
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I never had the window issue, but I had the GL model in Canada which was a step above the base model, so mine had power windows and A/C.
I think a 5-speed manual in such a low powered car would be better since you have more control over the power compared to the 4-speed auto which has really long gearing, and 4th gear is an overdrive gear (lol @ seeing an overdrive button in 2009).
The major practicality issue with this car is the back seat space - it may as well have been an accent coupe since I had to put the driver’s seat all the way back, which meant no one could sit behind me. I ended up using the back seat as a trunk..
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
03/16/2018 at 14:36 |
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I’m not very tall, 5' 7", the top of mom’s head only comes up to a bit past my shoulders and bro is about the same height as me, so we’ve always found the rear seat room perfectly acceptable. I also have stubby legs, so I tend to keep my seat a bit farther forward to reach the pedals comfortably.
We all have Accent Ls - base models, no power anything, no ABS, no Cruise, haha!
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gin-san - shitpost specialist
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
03/16/2018 at 15:16 |
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Oh trust me, the only benefits of the GL are A/C and power windows. The GL doesn’t have cruise, ABS, traction control, etc. Given these facts, it must not have stability control, either.
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
03/16/2018 at 15:27 |
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Nope, no ESC for me either!
Michael Woyahn
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
03/16/2018 at 21:45 |
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Fantastic write up! I love when others have such an appreciation for their “normal” cars. I love learning a bunch of little known facts about cars, too. I thought I knew a lot about 2nd gen RX’s, but you seem to have me beat with Accent knowledge!
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RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> Michael Woyahn
03/16/2018 at 22:00 |
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Haha, well, only with the MC generation Accent in my case! :D
Thanks for the kind comments! :)