Great
There is some vibration when the car reaches 120 kph.
This car is very comfortable to drive and ride. It is economical too at 11 kilometer per liter on city driving and 16 kilometers per liter on long provincial drives.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 17th November, 2005
This car is a real value for money
None so far.
This car though small packs power and response.
Can easily climb the road to Cebu Plaza even in 3rd or 4th gear.
Very comfortable to drive with the slightly elevated seats and large headroom.
Has a good ride and handles well over bad though urban Philippine roads.
This can outrun any 1600 cc sedans out there.
I would like to continue using this car for the next 5 years or even more.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 16th August, 2005
A versatile, powerful car worth every Philippine Peso which is hard to earn nowadays.
There was a rattling noise on the front passenger side that I was able to trace down to the tray located below the seat. I filled it up with cut up styrofoam and the rattling vanished.
Blind spot! The driver's side rear-view mirror is convex, hence, making images from behind appear larger! The manual said that the convex mirror is supposed to be placed at the passenger side.
Transmission feels a little bit stiff in the beginning, but softens up as you breach the recommended 2000km break-in period.
The most noticeable feature was the excellent headroom and legroom of course.
Rear seats can easily be folded up for extra space.
The car has very good acceleration on the first two gears despite the fact that I was staying below 3000rpm and 80kph for the break-in. Remarkable for a diesel.
After breaching the break-in period, I began to high-rev and found the car reaching the 0-100km/h mark in 12-14 seconds. I feel that the car could do better so we'll see.
So far, 150km/h was the fastest I've reached and easily if I may add. It's possible to go head to head and overtake 1.6 sedans except for the 1.6+ BMW variety.
The Matrix is powerful for its size. There is a steep area in my city (Marikina) called "Tumana" and it could easily climb through even with passengers and airconditioning using the third gear.
On flat surfaces, the Matrix could run from a standstill by using the second gear, bypassing the first.
Air Conditioning is very good and versatile with its thermostat. The windows get misty whenever you dial the thermostat to the left and you could warm yourselves up when you dial to the right.
Suspension feels good albeit soft. It could handle Philippine roads (bumpy, uneven and too many potholes) well, but it exhibits evident, though tolerable, body-roll when cornering.
My matrix came with a Sony MP3 player. Very nice audio quality, but speakers need some bass boost.
The fuel consumption is great. I went on a round trip to Laoag, Ilocos Norte and I found the Matrix consuming at least 19+km/l on the highway and 13+km/l on traffic. Very useful on rush hours.
Stock tires are noisy especially on asphalt and gravel.
Forget and ditch the 1.6 gas Hyundai Matrix. This diesel version with the Variable-Geometry-Turbo is the real deal.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 22nd July, 2005
I will ditch my 1.6 GL gasoline-fed automatic Hyundai Matrix when they come out with a CRDI diesel automatic. Is that variant in the works?
I have a Hyundai Matrix 1.5 CRDI acquired in 2005, and after 5 years, everything is still alright, except the noise that came out recently on the front disc brakes.
Fuel economy is still excellent. The problem with Hyundai service center here in Cebu are the high labor and parts costs.
There is enough speed; as much as you want. I've reached only up to 140kph, but there's still too much of it left in the ODO. This machine is very good going uphill.
Too bad, the model is discontinued, but replaced by the more expensive i30.
12th Dec 2005, 02:42
I have a Hyundai matrix also, I had the same problem of vibration at 120km/hr... It was solved by doing off-wheel balancing for all the wheels at the service center... I hope you have it solved...