2018 Hyundai Accent Completes Puberty, Becomes Full-Grown Car
It looks like the awkward years are over for the subcompact Hyundai Accent.
Our first glimpse of the next-generation Accent comes courtesy of leaked photos from China, where the model goes by the name Verna. In them, the Accent appears all grown up, adopting a large grille and styling reminiscent of its bigger brother, the Elantra.
The model, which will appear sometime next year as a 2018 model, grows slightly in width and length. There’s talk that a hatchback version won’t accompany the sedan seen in the leaked photos, which seems almost sacrilegious, given the Accent’s roots.
Speaking of talk, you’re not likely to hear many animated water cooler conversations about the Accent, but it remains an important model for the automaker. Hyundai sold 61,486 of them in the U.S. last year, so it’s not about to start ignoring its entry in the subcompact market.
But back to that grille. The first Accents to reach North American shores back in the mid-1990s featured a plastic-heavy face with a vestigial front air slot resembling something you’d see living near the ocean floor. The model received regular styling updates through the years, and a healthy dose of competitive technology arrived in 2011, but this redesign really closes the door on its lackluster econobox past.
[Source: AutoHome] [Image: Wikimedia Commons]
More by Steph Willems
Comments
Join the conversation
Verna is starting to look like she's got "potential." If-you-know-what-I-mean. In a small car sedan way. Even if I didn't have much money, I bet I could get with her.
Turns out an accent doesn't make everyone sexy...