I USED TO have a white Accent. Not really larney the ads depict, just white. Well some bits were grey, as I’d purchased it second hand from a questionable used car dealership, but that was a very long time ago in 2001. It was a 1996 1.5 CS and had a set of 14”TSW alloy wheels, and at some point during my Max Powery life I got it into my head to spray the calipers blue (?) and outfit a banana branch manifold (?) to it. It had sixteen valves, 12 in the cylinder, 1 in each tyre. There might have been some window tint involved too. Now, this is the dark horse, a car I never really speak about despite it only ever letting me down once with a busted fuel pump. Instead you’ll often hear me laud the Chevy 4100, Mini Cooper or VW Beetle from my past and I guess it comes down to the absolute lack of street credibility of the Korean brands 15 years ago. But today, here and now, the Hyundai Accent has grown into a formidable B segment sedan. This has all it takes to be best in class, and after the pleasant surprise its big brother (the Elantra) was we would wager that perceptions towards the marque are set to improve dramatically.

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Styling for the latest range of Hyundai from the large Sonata down to the smaller Elantra and then this new Accent may be similar, almost derivative, but there’s no denying that it’s an attractive car and progresses the marque’s design by more than just one generation. This could easily be the 2014 Hyundai Accent, but it is yours today for just R164 900, about R30 000 less than a Honda Ballade. A strong new corporate face can be found on each car, and on the Accent the graft work is just as convincing. The entire car is rendered in ‘fluidic sculpture’ which is design speak for waves and creases dominating every panel of the Accent and carving up its flanks like sashimi. Cool. Inside it’s the same story, upmarket, elegant – a quality feel, just like we found in the Elantra, but in a smaller slightly pared away fashion and boasting almost as many toys and modern conveniences.