ArcaMax

If anything, the Accent is too good. It will cruise all day at 80-plus without sweating and still give you 30s-something MPGs. Fifth gear is easily skipped over; just go direct from fourth into sixth and save a little fuel. There is power to spare on top and down low, the direct-injected engine has a 7,000 RPM redline and you've got six gears to work with in a car that weighs just under 2,400 lbs. You can have a lot of fun with that - and more to the point, you'll never feel you brought a (rubber) knife to a gun fight.

Handling, too, is a high point. As in the other areas already mentioned, the latest economy cars handle better than some sports cars used to - and only if you're SCCA autocrossing (or driving like that on the street) will you be able to discern any meaningful difference in maximum grip, the extent of body lean or how quickly you can drift the thing through an S turn relative to others in this class. It is nothing like Back in the Day, when a Chevette would make it very clear, very quickly, you were pushing it by going into a corner at say 5 over the posted speed limit. You have to be really moving to induce any tire screech (let alone slip) in a new Accent. The bar is that high - not just for the Accent but generally. Even the more conservative econo-boxes of today - like the Toyota Corolla, say - will surprise you with how far and how hard they can be pushed, if you happen to be so inclined.

The quality that's more relevant to the discussion is ride quality - which will also startle you if you haven't test-driven an economy car in a few years. Because it's that good - meaning, quiet, well-damped and just ... comfortable. The old POS economy cars made you suffer. The seats were cheap and hard - and so was everything else. You felt every pothole (twice, if you counted the reverb), heard the wind whistle - and often, felt the rain drip.

You had to be young and tough - or older and with a high pain threshold - to take a car like an old Chevette out on the highway for any length of time. Or frankly, to spend any more time in the stinking thing than you absolutely had to.

But I'd take an Accent (or a Sonic or a Fiesta) across the country - and enjoy the trip.

AT THE CURB

I wish I did have a circa 'early '80s Chevette (or any other economy car from that era) to park next to the Accent and give you a side-by-side look-see. It's really the only way to appreciate how much has changed in 25 years - hell, in 10 years. Go back to 2000 and park the 2002 Accent next to this one. Sad-looking. Bleak. Really slow (0-60 took 15 seconds or more). It was a car you bought because you had to - not because you wanted to.

Well, forget all that.

Instead, look at this: Cushy, comfortable seats. Full gauge package, housed in a cluster that's just as nice looking as what you'd find in cars with $10k higher sticker prices. iPod hook up, nice stereo. Aluminum-finished and "piano black" trim plates (in my tested $15k-ish wagon). Back seats roomy enough to comfortably fit my 6ft 3, 200-plus pound self - knees not hunched up against the front seatbacks, head not scrunched down so as to avoid scraping up against the roof.

Now, other cars in this class are similarly nice, comparably fitted out. But they do cost a bit more - and in a few key categories such as standard hp and/or standard MPGs, don't give you quite as much for your bucks.

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