My wife got to use the back seat when we took my mother to a doctors appointment and she said it was very comfortable and she had good leg room. As for kids, I cant say how the room would be as I dont have any experience there. The GS starts at a little over $17K. My Hyundai dealer flat out told me that the price is what it is and theres no room to negotiate and that they werent padding the price. Not sure how much I believed them but the vehicle price seemed reasonable and I had enough financial room to get the extended warranty, gap insurance and life insurance. All told, my payment is about $380 which is only a bit more than it was for my Dakota and thats including a couple extra thousand of negative equity factored in. You should be able to do better than me. :-)

 

I'm gonna do some more mpg testing soon. I've noticed a little less average mpg (but I've been driving rather sporty), but then I've also noticed some higher high speed (75mph) mpg figures too. So I don't know for sure whats going on. Anyway, the Accent has nearly 2000 miles now and I guess everything is broken in real good and maybe the mpg has improved. I need to do some new testing.
I was driving on the interstate at 75 mph the other day and I kept noticing mpg figures in the low 40's. When I last tested this, the car seemed to be getting more like 35mpg @75mph. The problem is that I've been trying to leave the "average mpg" button alone to get full gas tank figures, then I accidentally reset it on this tank. So, I need to see, and do some more testing. In fact, I think I'll take it on a late-night cruise right now and I'll report what I've found. .........brb

 

OK,
I did some mpg runs with the cruise set @75mph. The car gets 36-37mpg at 75 miles per hour.
This is one speed I didn't mention a couple weeks ago when I did a bunch of testing on a long trip I took. The car is more broken in now. It has nearly 2000 miles on it now.

So, 36-37 mpg @ 75mph.

 

I mentioned a couple weeks ago when the car was still relatively new that I couldn't find anything I didn't like about it.
Well, after a couple more weeks checking it out, I have found a couple of annoyances. One is real bad, the other not so much.

The really bad annoyance is the way the climate control wants to reset itself to fresh air. This is particularly annoying after you've cooled the interior down with max (recirculative) AC and then turn it off and the damn thing will reset itself to fresh air every time. I mean all you do is turn the fan control all the way down to switch off the AC and it changes the "recirc" button to fresh air, and then you're pumping hot, humid air into the interior you just cooled down and DEHUMIDIFIED!
Can someone explain the reasoning behind this? Is this normal for new cars nowadays? I HATE it!
So, now I have to always remember to punch the recirc button when I turn off the AC. Its VERY annoying.
It is particularly annoying on a car that you don't want to run the AC all the time because you bought it primarily for fuel economy.

The other thing I've noticed in the last couple weeks is the tendency for the transmission to downshift when you have completely let off the accelerator. As you're coasting you can see the tach jump up and FEEL the car will slightly lurch you forward. Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this will do nothing but hurt fuel economy. So, its like you have to keep steady pressure on the accelerator to prevent this. Annoying, but maybe necessary to keep the 6-speed transmission at the ready in an appropriate gear when you do give it throttle. I don't know. Does anyone else have an explanation?

All this considered, I still absolutely love this car. No regrets.

P.S.,
Anyone an electrician that can tell me how to fool the recirc button to stay in the position I put it in... or ... how to rewire it so it always reverts to recirc instead of fresh air? If I can fix this one problem, then this car will almost be perfect except for the downshifting.

Don't let me discourage anyone with the above post about the downshifting auto transmission in my 2012 Accent. The problem isn't REAL noticeable. It only does it when you've let completely off the gas and coasted long enough for the car to slow down several miles per hour. I've never had a 6-speed auto. Maybe this is normal? Comments?

 

Ive experienced the same thing as you with regards to the coasting and the transmission having a noticeable 'lurch'. Shifting into neutral will also give you bad results as I noticed a huge drop in mpg when out of gear but I only did this once so I need to play with it a bit more.

I think you may have an AC problem as my recirculation button stays on no matter how many times I would turn the fan control to off and then back on again. I leave the main AC power button on and just turn the fan to 0 to shut it off.

Ive played a bit with the CC and while I get reasonable mpg with it, I prefer to use a light foot on the gas. Ive got a couple ~230-250 trips into some very hilly country (right at 1000 miles now) and still managed 40+mpg. I did a 85 mile trip yesterday in town and managed 46mpg with AC. These are all 50mph and up so that Im not holding up traffic too badly. If you are going for higher mpg, the folks at CleanMPG forums swear by NOT using the CC at all.

 

Yes, this is normal. Do you have the automatic or manual climate control. I'm going to assume the manual.

The "MAX A/C" setting will automatically turn the A/C on and set the vent to recirc. It's just a shortcut to do three things automatically for out at once. But you don't have to use that setting to get the same affect. Instead, do those 3 things manaully: 1. push the A/C button in the middle of the fan speed dial, 2. press the recirc button just below it, 3. make sure the temp dial is all the way to the cold (left) side but not into the "MAX A/C" setting. Now, when you want to turn the A/C off, just press the A/C button in the middle of the fan speed dial. The recirc will say on.


This is normal but the transmission is probably not downshifting. It's probably just unlocking the torque converter. That will make the RPM's jump up slightly. It's done to HELP fuel economy. That's because keeping the converter locked will slow the car down quicker (engine braking). Unlocking the converter will allow the car to coast further.

Here's how to check for sure. Drive up to speed and then move the shifter into the Sport-Mode gate. The "D" on the dash will change to a number of whatever gear you are in. That should be a "6". Move the shifter back into the regular mode and it will go back to a "D". Now, start to coast and wait until you feel the "downshift". Move the shifter back into the Sport-Mode gate and see what gear the trans is in.


First, shifting into neutral while driving is very dangerous and illegal. NEVER do that.

Second, it does not give better fuel economy. That's because all modern cars shut off the fuel injectors while coasting so you are using zero (or very little) fuel. This is done because the momentum of the car will turn the engine because it is directly connected to the wheels through the transmission. When you shift into neutral, you lose that connection so the wheels are no longer turning the transmission. Now the engine needs fuel to keep running. So basically you are idling like you would while stopped at a light and using more fuel.

 

Thank you for clearing that up! Im pretty car ignorant...is it this way for most vehicles or is this a front wheel drive specific behavior?

 

Most if not all modern, fuel injected engines operate that way regardless of drive configuration (FWD, RWD, AWD, etc).

More info:

Coasting in Neutral or Gear to Save Gas - Coasting and Fuel Economy - Popular Mechanics

Does Shifting Into Neutral Really Help Fuel Economy? - Popular Mechanics

 

This is turning into a very informative post, Thanks!

 

So I just drove my new Accent home from the dealer. I hadn't test driven this one (it was in the showroom) but test drove several others. It might just be my imagination but this one seems to have more steering issues. Maybe I just didn't take the test drive vehicles up to 80 (I thought I did though) (maybe it's road surface dependent?). When I'm going 75 or 80 sometimes the car just lurches to the side and I have to make quick corrections quite often. Is this normal? I know this was mentioned before, and people said it's just the electronic steering. I guess there's no fix?