[windcruiser15]

Hey fellow Accent owners!

My name is Matt, a college student at the University of North Dakota, snowkiter, flight instructor/pilot, and outdoor adventurer!

Also, I am a new owner of a 2007 Accent SE! I love the car, and think it is going to suit my needs very well! I needed something sporty, high cargo capacity for size, and fuel efficient. I have the 1.6 I4 5 speed (which just makes it that much more fun). After only driving it a few times its easily the best car I've ever owned. Needless to say I'm highly excited!

However, I have some questions for all you experts! Some may be obvious (excuse my newbie-ness).

1) 5th gear....with 75mph ND speed limits = 4,000+ rpms!! any ways to cope?
2) light weight hitch assembly? moving a cargo carrier
3) Roof rack, bikes and board. Yakima? Thule?
4) WINTER - starts, tips, driving performance (It gets to -30/-40 F in ND)
5) Maintenance - overall, common schedules, oil, grease, fluids, tires, etc
6) Plug in oil/block heater suggestions? even needed for the winter?
7) Plug in battery maintainer? for the winter also

All in all those are specific questions. I could use any advice to the above as well as any advice in general about being a new accent holder! Tell me about what i need to know, what problems i might run into, what i should be aware of, etc.

Finally, I am currently in Cleveland Ohio, and in about 3 weeks I will be making an 18 hour trek to ND in my new accent. What should I do to prepare the accent for long hauls (besides checking fluids, pressures, the usuals). Anything accent specific.

Thanks everyone! I can't wait to get back and drive some more, the cornering on these cars are amazing! no body roll at all, its like driving a go kart!

See you soon, good riding, and good winds (for my fellow pilots and/or kiters )!

Matt

 

[Naky]

1) Yup, do what I do for my highway commuting at 130kmph - turn up the stereo Also, this is really common in other 5 spd subcompacts and even compacts. Most sit at the 4 grand range at that speed and the drone's fairly audible no matter what you drive.
2) Towing's not recommended, but people do it anyway. Just look to see if it's illegal in your state to tow with a car that's not rated for towing (and ours isn't), else you open yourself up for a big ol' lawsuit in the event of an accident or potential fines.
3) No idea.
4) Cars are great in winter and snow, but you may want sandbags in the back or some good winter tires rated more for ice. The stock tires run well in plain snow, but they're terrible on ice. And for the record, I've started my car in -45C weather without plugging it in. It doesn't like it very much though, it never really ever gets warm at that temperature and it'll sound like a diesel the entire time (with or without plugging it in - nothing's designed for -45C weather).
5) Follow the manual's recommendations and you'll be fine.
6) It's not a bad idea to get one.
7) You shouldn't need one, but if your 2007 has the stock OEM battery in it, you may want to purchase a new, better battery come fall. You don't have to, but it'll probably result in easier cold starts.

Beyond that, there's nothing else specific to the car as far as any sort of trips go that you wouldn't do in any other vehicle and you seem to be aware of them all already so g'luck and enjoy the car.

 

[ausom accent 9]

Naky covered that well :grin:

 

[HyundaiSR]

Roof racks :

I needed one for my kayak and bike.

I looked into them here, and Hyundai told me that because of the odd shape in the Accent roof, that racks have trouble holding on. I also found one on Kijiji and asked the person what reason he was selling it for.. He told me it was because it wasn't very tight on the roof. What I use is the hitch ones , and their not so bad.

I looked into the racks maybe 1 1/2 - 2yrs ago... maybe they have better ones now. But that was story back then.


For winter... I live in Quebec (canada) and it gets pretty cold up here. I don't plug in my car , and don't have a maintainer. The car started every single day without any problems. It even passed a week without moving in my driveway, and when I started it had no problems.. ** just a tad longer than usual.