2,330 km- fill up and features

AZBA gets handed over to Andrew Meeson this evening so after a fill- up of 87 octane Sunoco ($18.00 worth - I can still remember the day I first filled up my then-new '64 VW Beetle, it cost $3.25 to fill the tank.)

Then I gave the Accent an inside-and-out cleaning, polishing and checkover. A number of things were seen that may have otherwise escaped notice.

The black trim and upholstery, especially the floor covering is harder to clean and vacuum than the grey or tan in our own cars. The hard vinyl trim panels seem to mark up with light scuff marks although a little cleaner removes them easily. Three trim panel screws are either missing or were never there. Too-obvious shiny staples hold the floor upholstery into the car.

The Accent abounds in little convenience touches that seem surprising to me at this price: the six-jet windshield washer, the locking gas cap (the inside of the gas cap door has a parking hook so the cap doesn't dangle against the car body) and the dipstick for the washer fluid container. Mark Richardson mentioned the MP3 connector.

I'm not sure that the provision of two tool pouches, one for the jack and another for the jack handle and the wheel wrench is really needed. I would prefer a wheel wrench with a longer handle for better leverage instead of the smooth and nice black paint job on it and the jack.

A little investigation of the possible reason for the poor low beam headlight seems to eliminate the possibility of a badly aligned bulb filament. The H4 55/60 watt quartz halogen bulb was a German-made Phillips, by the way.

So ends my stint with the Accent. Conclusions? A good basic new car - at an attractive price with a 5 year, 100,000 km warranty on much of it. A lot of room inside for a 3 door hatchback and access to it as good as one can expect in that body type. Adequate performance and handling. Good fuel economy - and we are all going to be looking for that in our next car - aren't we?

Drive safe, eh? Remember - better 20 minutes late in this world - than 20 years too soon in the next.

2,326 km-- "Drag-racing" with streetcars

Canada Day saw AZBA and us off to "Trawna" (Toronto to you non- Torontonians) for a mix of highway driving and urban crawl.

The Accent turns out to have surprisingly good power and acceleration in 5th gear from 100 km/h on the highway considering that the tachometer reads only 3000 r.p.m. at that speed.

The sales brochure claims the peak horsepower is 110 at 6000 rpm with maximum torque at 4500. Methinks that OPP Commissioner Fantino would not approve us running along in 5th gear at those rpms in an Accent on "his" highways.

It's a hot day, so we are using the extra-cost air conditioning, which we said we would not to use while doing this "economy test" run. But leaving the windows open increases turbulence and air drag so perhaps it will all cancel out.

We are also running on Sunoco 87 octane fuel instead of the Petro-Canada low test of the previous tank. The latter in our town won't take $50 bills any more to pay for gas unless you sign a special form.

Anyway, the Accent runs fine at expressway speeds, perhaps a little quick on the steering and bumpy on some of the bad Queen Elizabeth Way paving and bridge expansion joints.

Parking on the crowded side streets in Roncesvalles Village is easy with a car this short. Helped out by the small turning circle of the Accent.

I had felt that first gear on the Accent was perhaps too low -- too much of a "stump puller" -- but in the traditional Toronto sport of drag racing with a street-car, the Accent, even with three people aboard, easily beat the Queen St. "Red Rocket" (Now I see that old nick-name for the TTC rolling roadblock is out of date - they are turning them into rolling beer advertisements.)

After a fine vegetarian meal we headed back on the 401 to 905- land, still trying to save gasoline by keeping the engine rpm down while still trying to move with the traffic.

Canada Day is cooling off and the air conditioning is not required.

The combined fuel consumption for the whole trip turned out to be 6.4 L/100 km.

2,200 km - "A Little Night Music"

The Forks of the Credit road is famous — some would say infamous — amongst motorcyclists. The curves, the hills and the sheer ambience of the rural landscape have made it famous since 1930 when it was used briefly for a 24 hour motorcycle endurance race.

So, after dark, AZBA and I went for a cool evening run in and around the Caledon hills on some of the recently re-paved and some of the still washboard gravel roads of the area.

Some of the little things starting to show up. Seat belt access is cumbersome and therefore increasingly annoying. The high beam headlights are okay and well aimed but the low beams are just not adequate for more than 70 km/h. I've got a witness to this fact: one large (and startled) whitetail doe deer near Cataract village. She appeared out of the dark hole in the center of the headlight pattern, I braked immediately, and she sauntered off to the side of the road. No venison roast this time.

And I can well do without the "Welcome" message every time I turn the radio on — cute the first few times, but really. I know, they do this because it can be done (and so cheaply done). Better they should remove the molding seam on the window crank handle which scratches my index finger every time I roll the window up or down.

Tomorrow, we go downtown.

2,124 km - Sunday drive

I'm really a motorcyclist - not a "car nut".

And what do motorcyclists do on a summer Sunday morning but go for a ride?

So the two of us decided to take "AZBA the Accent" for a spin around some of the rural back roads between here (Georgetown) and the Vintage Motorcycle Museum at Brantford. (That's me in the picture with AZBA under the gun at the Military and Motorcycle Museum in Brantford.)

This leisurely circuit visited not only Brantford, but also the village of Lynden - which must have the longest main street for a village of its size in the province, the small and picture-perfect town of Paris (on the Grand river, not the Seine) and the hamlet of St. George.

All the roads were 40 to 80 km/h speed limits and there were lots of corners and stop signs so the gearbox on the Accent got a good workout.

It's hard to fault the gearbox shifting action. Probably won't do much for the gas mileage with all those stops, starts and shifts, though.

In fact, it worked out to 7.15 L/100 km.

1,901 km - Allan Johnson takes over -- first servicing

I arrived at Attrell Hyundai around 3 pm, got the key from the nice people at the service counter (who charged us $37.73 for the first inspection and oil change on the car) and went outside to get acquainted with AZBA 264, the Wheels long-term Accent L 3-doo r test car.

Now, I'm not really superstitious but it was parked in space #13 in the lot. None of the other parking spaces were numbered, which seemed a bit strange.

Anyway, I took a few minutes to study the controls and adjust the seat. I would have guessed that Jim Kenzie had been driving this car, even if I didn't know it - the outside rear view mirrors were set for the extreme wide-angle rear view he has been promoting for decades.

Then I began the 20 minute trip back home, which turned into an hour-long detour off Hwy. 7 due to the kindly Peel police closing the road and diverting the Friday rush hour traffic into a new local subdivision. There are probably still people lost in there.

I got used to the Accent's clutch and five-speed manual in a hurry.

Although I grew up with manual transmissions 50 years ago, our recent cars and vans have been automatics (all my motorcycles are still manuals).

As Kenzie pointed out, I am a motorcyclist and normally write for Wheels on old bikes. But you'll see in the next week or so if I have anything interesting to say about economy cars. I have owned some of them over the years.

Oh, Jim! I saw the chocolate on the back seat as I was trying out the seat-folding system. A little cold water on an absorbent paper towel cleaned it up - and also removed the smaller spot on the carpet.

Looks like the seat material has some sort of treatment on it to repel such things.

I'll clean "AZBA the Accent's" windows tomorrow.