The 2009 Hyundai Accent is Hyundai's entry into the subcompact car field, first fielded in the 1996 model year as a replacement for their Excel. Competitors are Dodge Caliber, Ford Focus and Chevy Aveo on the home front. Foreign competition includes Nissan Versa, Toyota Yaris, and Honda Civic. It shares many of its aspects with its cousin, the Kia Rio.

The Accent comes with a single engine choice, a 110 horsepower 1.6 liter I4. It is matched standard with a five-speed manual transmission, or you can get the optional four-speed automatic. Either transmission comes with overdrive. While the engine will get you from here to there, one knock on the Accent is its lack of power.

Fuel efficiency is a whopping 27 miles per gallon city and 33 miles per gallon highway with the manual transmission, a mile or two less with the automatic. That's about five miles per gallon better in the city than class average.

There are three trim levels with the Accent: GS 3-door, GLS 4-door and SE 3-door. Anyway you slice it, the Accent is not a luxury car. GS 3-door standard features include only air conditioning, tachometer, tire pressure monitor, rear folding seat and cargo area cover. On the other hand, with the SE 3-door you can get, either standard or optional, Cruise, leather tilt steering wheel, radio/CD player (no changer), cargo net and sunroof; so it does have some play features. Changes in styling to the Accent for the last few years have been very minor.

Small cars are inherently less safe than larger cars. That being said, the Accent does very well for what it is. NHTSA gives Accent a five-star front crash rating and four-star rollover and front side crash rating. The rear side crash rating drops to three-star - the only knock on the car beside the lack of power. On the other hand, the five-star ratings are above average for this type car.

Standard safety features include front and front side airbags. Safety Options include antilock brakes and remote keyless entry.

While only a couple of features draw complaint, several attributes of the Accent draw praise. Already mentioned are the mileage and frontal crash ratings. Accent also has better front legroom than its average competitor and a significantly better warranty.

At $11,070 the 2009 Hyundai accent costs well under the average base price of cars in its class. In fact, it was the second least expensive car in the class, behind only its cousin, the Rio - by less than two hundred dollars. The Accent is an excellent choice for a high school or college student or a single person just starting out in a career.