2009 Hyundai Accent 1.6 from Australia and New Zealand
Summary:
This is not worth the cost
Faults:
The interior plastics scratched very easily, and the external side panels have chips from ordinary driving. The paint seems to have faded.
General Comments:
This is a relatively small car, but it seems to use a lot of fuel and costs me around NZ$60 in fuel every 10 days for ordinary driving to work and back. I only drive about 12 km per day, and I am not happy with the fuel consumption.
My second gripe is that the car has scratched inside very easily. The plastics are cheaply put together, which is a shame in an otherwise decent car.
There are gaps in the relatively low seats, and rear vision is not the best it could be.
The petrol cap feels fragile and is awkward. There is no rear wiper either, which is a let down on a relatively expensive car.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 5th February, 2010
5th Feb 2010, 15:51
If you only drive 12 km one way, in any car with electronic fuel injection, your engine has not had time to warm up long enough for the engine management to operate in closed-loop mode. This is with all modern cars. If the coolant is not yet at a certain level, the ECU will ignore the signal from the coolant sensor and will operate the engine richer to comply with emissions regulations. Try driving out of town on a full tank and displace the fuel used, you'll see the difference.
I assume you do not use the motorway then? If you live in Auckland, you will be travelling in urban mode with hills -- and your fuel consumption will increase if you are pushing the weight of the car uphills, even on a slight gradient, as compared to urban on a level road.
Do an accurate consumption test -- fill the tank up until the nozzle clicks off, zero the odometer, run for 10 days, fill it up again until the nozzle clicks. That's the most accurate way of determining how much fuel you ACTUALLY used. Then the number of km on your odometer divided by the number of litres = your consumption. If your consumption is at least 9 km/L in hilly urban driving for an automatic, especially with air conditioning, that's pretty average.