Hyundai Accent

The Hyundai Accent is one of the better subcompact cars, but suffers from many of the shortcomings that are common in this segment, such as a stiff ride and lots of road and wind noise. Even though the Accent’s fuel economy is good for the class, there are plenty of larger compact cars that get the same or better, and for not much more money.

Drivers will never forget that the Accent is basic transportation, as there's nothing notable about the engine and transmission. There's just enough power to accelerate the Accent from zero to 60 mph in just under 10 seconds, which makes the Hyundai one of the quicker subcompacts. But drivers really need to mash the gas pedal to climb hills and to merge onto highways. That’s when the engine gets buzzy and sounds coarse.

The Accent got 33 mpg overall in our tests, which is good, but no better than most compact sedans, such as the Toyota Corolla and Mazda3. There isn’t really a fuel economy advantage to choosing a subcompact car.