New Hyundai Accent Executive -August 2010. Review on Hyundai Accent

This is a review on my new Hyundai Accent Executive.

1. The car is brilliant for the money I paid.

2 The engine is smooth and so is the drive.Pick up is good and the engine can be revved up on highways upto 4500 RPM in the 5th gear(translates to between 175 KPH to 180 KPH).A lot depends on the control the driver has as well.Please do not try this if you do not have adequate expreience driving at such speeds).The engine churns out 95BHP@5500RPM.But I was told that is not possible when you are driving as there wouwld be some load on the car and you could actually about 90BHP at 4500RPM in the 5th gear.

3.The car handles highways brilliantly (Due to the low ground clearance)and lets you execute curves at speeds excess of 160KMPH(A lot depends on the driver as well.Again a lot depends on the control the driver has as well.Please do not try this if you do not have adequate expreience driving at such speeds).

4.My car's current odo is around 2600KM.It's 2 months old. I have done two trips up and down between

Hyderabad & Bangalore and this has contributed gratly to the run-in for the car and the odometer reading.

5.The car comes with run-in recommendations till 2000KMS which I followed and on my way back to Bangalore the last weekend I crossed the 2000KMS mark and had a chance to push the car to the limit. I was able to touch around 178KMPH in the 5th gear @4500 RPM.But I seriously urge no body otry this primarily for safety reasons.Secondly I felt guilty and had sleepless nights that I possibly damaged the engine by revving it so hard.I literally spent the entire week till yesterday on the phone with different guys from Hyundai(Factory, Workshop& regional office) to understand if my feat would have damaged the engine.All of them were of the opinion that such high speeds are recommended after 10000KMS though it may not cause any damage.But I wanted something concrete to be done to come to a conclusion that the engine is safe.That was when an employee from Hyundai suggested a Hi-Scan to be carried out on the engine which would throw up error codes if there was any damage done to the engine.Got it done yesterday evening at Advaith Hyundai, Sarjapur and by god's grace

everything was fine.But this equipment was a brilliant one which wowuld give one an immediate output on how the engine is performing based on a lot of parameters.

6.Another interesting fact I discovered when I was on the phone with guys from the Hyundai factory was

that every car manufactured is actually test driven at pretty high speeds depending on the engine

capacity before it is rolled out of the factory.I was told that the Accent is usually tested at 140 - 160

KMPH in a half a kilometer stretch(forcing them to touch such speeds in the third gear itself).This was

told to me to let me know that the engines are very tough and that they are put thriugh such touch conditions before rolling them out.Sounded impressive.

7.On highways I got a mileage of close to 14KMPL (Speed 80KMPH-90KMPH)but in city conditions I get around 9KMPL.The ciy number is so low thanks to the Bangalore traffic and the speed breakers whwich ensure that you never get into the 4th and 5th gears.

8.Another piece of info that I gathered from the factory guys which is not mentioned in the owners manual is the reserve capcacity when the low fuel lamp comes on in the Accent , it is 7Ltrs. I'm happy with the car and would recommend to any one who is looking for a petrol sedan with a maximum budget of 6 - 6.2 Lakhs.The cons I had mentioned were things I had in my wish list but practchandru021y speaking can not expect all of them at 6Lakhs in a sedan.

Please note: I urge you not drive at high speeds risking your safety as well as the longevity of the car and base any of your vehicle tests based on the above review

Happy Driving To All !

UPDATE

Date : 28-Oct-2010

The car has done around 3000KMS now.I'm now getting a mileage of 11KPL.I think this is because I have now changed my driving style a bit with rRajeev_Vermact to the speeds at which I was changing gears whwich lead to a better fuel economy.

During the run-in period(First 2000KMS) I was changing gears in the below pattern to avoid engine load:

1st to 2nd @ 10 KMPH

2nd to 3rd @ 20 KMPH

3rd to 4th @40KMPH

4th to 5th@50KMPH

I have now moved to the below pattern since the car is through with the run-in :

1st to 2nd @10 KMPH

2nd to 3rd @20 KMPH

3rd to 4th @30 KMPH

4th to 5th @40 KMPH

Got my engine oil changed around 2800KMS though wanted to do it at 2500KMS from Advaith, Bangalore.Again not recommended by Hyundai untill 10, 000 KMS or 6Months but did it just for the longevity of the engine since there could be some metal particles floating around in the oil.This is the reason why you may see a lot of blogs recommending an oil change at 1, 000KMS.But you may also want to note that the oil sump in the Hyundai Accent comes with a magnet which ensures that the metal wase generated during the run-in gets stuck to it and is prevented from moving into the other parts.

Wish you all a happy Diwali & happy driving !!!

Update @ 3500 KMS

Hi All,

I had an opportunity to drive down to Hyd for Diwali and returned to BLR on 7-Oct.I got a mileage of 18 KPL on the highway.Before getting onto the highway at Hyderabad I got the tank filled completely(45 ltrs) and did the same just after entering Bangalore near the new airport.The petrol bunk guy could fill 30ltrs.The distance travelled till then was 545 KMS which translates to a mileage of 18KPL.The speed maintained was between 80 - 90 KMPH.I did the same experiment while going to Hyd from Bangalore but I had most of them time driven at 110 on that trip and got a mileage of 16.

I have uploaded two new photos & a video of the car taken on the highway.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year To All.

Happy Motoring !!!