Hyundai Accent CRDI hatch or Hyundai Elantra?

**chocomansi** · April 10th, 2013 04:16 PM

Hi Everyone!

Just looking for some answers, honest opinions, comments with regards to me and my wife's dilemma on which car should we buy. We are considering two cars from Hyundai but we can't get to decide which would best suit our needs. This would be our first car and are in a dilemma of which one would be best for our family.

We live in Baguio and will be used for city driving, monthly travel to La Union and Pangasinan and will occasionally traverse Isabela and Manila. Price range for both is very close (~20k diff - for the bare Elantra). However, which will cost much in the long run? and some factors to consider are the following.

FC (Diesel vs Gas)
Comfort
Safety (Hatch vs Sedan)
Performance
Reliability
Maintenance

Looking forward to your much needed help and suggestions. We are also open to other vehicles as long as it wouldn't get to more than what the cars cost. Thank you!

**gucci88** · April 10th, 2013 04:28 PM

1. accent wins with around 10-14 km/l city
2. Elantra will be much more spacious and stable on highways
3. I think same lang sila based on comparison with their kia siblings. all have excellent safety crash test ratings
4. the power of the accent is gonna be tough to beat, the 1.6 in the elantra would be a little under powered on mountain inclines.
5. both should be the same provided that the CRDI is maintained properly
6. Elantra wins due to service interval being every 5k kms against elantra having to be serviced at 10k

Since you live in baguio i recommend the accent because of the power that the CRDI gives however be wary of dirty diesel present on some gas stations.

**renzo_d10** · April 10th, 2013 05:52 PM

How long do you intend to keep your car? And are there gas stations around your area (preferably SeaOil & UniOil, but Big 3 would be fine) that has clean diesel?

If the answer to the first question is more than five, much worse, a decade. Then Elantra.
If the answer to the second question is none and you're not sure if the fuel offered are clean. Then Elantra.

The Elantra might be more stable as it is wider and bigger, but the power is nothing compared to the 1.6CRDi Accent for it has more power and a smaller (probably lighter too) body.

**kisshmet** · April 10th, 2013 06:20 PM

just bear in mind diesel maintenance is more costly in the long run.

so whatever saving you get in the onset with cheaper diesel fuel will be taken back by more costly maintenance of diesel engines

if you opt for the diesel, dont keep it in a long run let the new owner bear the burden of shouldering high maintenance cost of diesel engines

**chocomansi** · April 10th, 2013 08:36 PM

Thank you for the inputs. Honestly, I am leaning towards the Accent hatch but I really find the Elantra a bit more beautiful, however, when it comes to power and fuel consumption, it levels up the competition. I do see a number of Eastern Petroleum and UniOil pump stations here in Benguet province and I think there's quite a few in Cagayan and Isabela. Parking is becoming a problem here in Baguio and my wife will also be a first time driver so will go with an A/T tranny.

As for the maintenance, I will work on that with my trusted mechanics that I pirated from the Casa

as they've been taking care of my father's Everest and Getz (gas). Yes we do plan to keep the car for more than 5 years and am hoping that the one that we are going to choose would still be an asset 5 to 10 years from now.

It pains us from choosing one.

Parang wala kang itatapon sa dalawa.

**yebo** · April 10th, 2013 08:51 PM

well if there are eastern and unioil stations there then i change my vote, accent na

**Quint** · April 11th, 2013 12:08 AM

Originally Posted by kisshmet

just bear in mind diesel maintenance is more costly in the long run.

so whatever saving you get in the onset with cheaper diesel fuel will be taken back by more costly maintenance of diesel engines

if you opt for the diesel, dont keep it in a long run let the new owner bear the burden of shouldering high maintenance cost of diesel engines

I have heard many Pinoys talk about this so-called issue, but I have yet to see concrete evidence of the diesel being more expensive to maintain vs. a gas powered engine.

My diesel vehicle only needs the occasional oil filter, oil change, fuel filter replacements with gas savings to boot. My gas vehicles need the additional spark plugs, and not to mention more costly fuel. Give it a few ten thousand kms more, and you need to replace the ignition coil(s), the distributor cap or rotor, and the high tension wires for the gas, and yet just change the oil and filters on the diesel. Can you kindly elaborate where the extra costs for diesel will come from? Unless I'm changing common rails, and all, I don't see where the expense will come from.

Kindly educate us...

**niky** · April 11th, 2013 02:50 AM

Originally Posted by Quint

I have heard many Pinoys talk about this so-called issue, but I have yet to see concrete evidence of the diesel being more expensive to maintain vs. a gas powered engine.

My diesel vehicle only needs the occasional oil filter, oil change, fuel filter replacements with gas savings to boot. My gas vehicles need the additional spark plugs, and not to mention more costly fuel. Give it a few ten thousand kms more, and you need to replace the ignition coil(s), the distributor cap or rotor, and the high tension wires for the gas, and yet just change the oil and filters on the diesel. Can you kindly elaborate where the extra costs for diesel will come from? Unless I'm changing common rails, and all, I don't see where the expense will come from.

Kindly educate us...

It's a bit of a tricky thing...

New gasoline engines no longer have distributor caps, or expensive high-tension wires. They have electronic ignition and ignition coils on each plug. In the long run, things like MAF sensors, electronic throttles and coils will incur maintenance costs, but these typically cost around 5-10k each to repair.

Diesels nowadays use direct injection systems running at something like 15,000 - 20,000 psi, and high pressure piezo injectors. When these go, due to dirty fuel, they often cost in the realm of 30k pesos. Each. The fuel pump is also pretty expensive. They also mostly use variable geometry turbos, which cost in the hundreds of thousands to replace, but can sometimes be repaired for 30-50k. Then you have EGRs, which are more prone to failure or clogging than gasoline EGRs due to the nature of the fuel and engine, and diesel particulate filters (to be fair, gasoline catalytic converters and O2 sensors also go bad... at around 100-150k kms or so...). And you have to change oil more often due to fuel dilution, especially if the vehicle runs a DPF cleaning cycle which involves injecting diesel into the chamber after the combustion event to clean out the DPF... this allows diesel fuel to wash into the oil, and was cited as a problem with the new Mazda SkyActivD in particular. DPF regeneration is also the reason why you can't use biofuels with many new diesels.

Then there are dual mass flywheels. These are used on some gasoline engines, but their use is more prevalent on diesels due to the excessive vibration. They have to be changed every time you change a clutch, at about 30-50k each change.

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This is not to say gasoline engines can't be maintenance nightmares... but at this point, diesels are more sophisticated than gasoline engines, and as such, maintenance costs if you keep them past 100-200k kms are a lot different from before. My Crosswind might not be as clean as these new diesels, or as powerful, but at least when something breaks, I only have to pay a fifth to a tenth of what a common-rail owner pays to fix it.

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For Hyundai small engines, though, I've been impressed with the longevity of the fuel system relative to some other makes, and the Accent CRDI should be easy (and very cheap) to care for. That said, I think the Hyundai gasoline 1.6 is also an excellent engine.

**seawind** · April 29th, 2013 11:40 AM

hello to everyone. just a newbie here since this is my first post though a member since many years ago. I'm planning to buy a car and have narrowed it down between an accent diesel or an elantra. Having read your notes from the above posts, it seems to be a question of how much cheaper will it be between maintaining a diesel engine (but savings due to lower diesel prices than gasoline) or a gas fed engine (but higher gasoline prices) for five years driving in metro manila? Can anyone give an estimate of costs and savings between the two? In other words, will I be spending more with a diesel engine or gas engine during the five years? thanks for the reply.

**GTi** · April 10th, 2013 08:03 PM

1. FC- Accent, though the Elantra's also fairly good
2. comfort- Elantra due to more space
3. safety- tie breaker is the bloke behind the wheel

4. performance- Accent, period!

5. reliability- depends on care of the owner, but with minimal maintenance, most likely Elantra
6. maintenance- Elantra, diesel maintenance is always more expensive due to more fluids used and more expensive engine components

I suppose you have to test drive both cars yourself to make the final decision. The Accent's a great car with great gas mileage and great performance. With our experience with CRDi diesels, there's not much really that can go wrong with it in at least ten years as long as you take good care of it like changing consumables on time, making sure everything's clean and cooling down the turbo after long and hard driving. However on the occasion that something like the fuel system or turbo really does break down, its gonna cost you a lot.

The Elantra's not too shabby either. It certainly didn't get the 2012 Speedlab tuner car of the year award for nothing! Being a 1.6L engine, gas mileage ain't bad either so the Accent doesn't have an extremely big lead in the gas mileage department. Small gasoline engine means low maintenance cost too. You take real good care of it, keep it for twenty years, and it'll still run the way it does when you first got it.