Perhaps more than anything it's the interior of the Hyundai Accent that has been improved over the pre-2006 models. For starters, there's a much better view out. The hip point in the driver's seat is two inches higher than in older Accents, giving the driver a better view of the road. The Accent cabin has a conservative two-tone interior color scheme reminiscent of larger cars, and it's trimmed out quite nicely, helping it avoid the feeling of an econobox.

The dashboard wraps around to the door panels and the center stack is nicely integrated, with large, well positioned climate control knobs. The big speedometer and tachometer are located in a nicely contoured instrument pod in front of the steering wheel. Smaller fuel and coolant temperature gauges are set inside, along with a small LCD readout for the odometer and trip meter as well as an indicator of the selected gear.

The seats are contoured and finished in a classy cloth material that feels high quality. The driver's seat is eight-way adjustable on all models.

We noticed several nice touches that kept our sedan from feeling like a cheap econobox. Among them: dampened grab handles, a thick roof lining, center folding front and rear armrests, a tilt steering wheel, a micro roof-mounted antenna, driver and passenger side-illuminated vanity mirrors, cabin air filtration, remote trunk and fuel cap releases, and a windshield shade band. There are decent size pockets with a cup holder in each door. In addition there are other storage places and a big glovebox.

The rear seat splits 60/40 for additional storage capacity. For better rearward visibility, the three rear-seat headrests slide down shingle-style into the seatback when not needed. A fold out center armrest with two cupholders is provided for rear-seat passengers.

Rear-seat leg room and headroom is not too bad unless the car is full of six-footers. Getting into the back seats is made easier by locating the rear wheels farther back, so the wheelwell does not intrude into the sedan's door opening as much.

Compared to the sedan, the coupe surrenders less than a half inch of hip room up front, and less than an inch in the rear; otherwise its passenger-comfort dimensions are identical to those of the sedan. Both models qualify as compact cars by government interior-volume standards, while the competing Toyota Yaris and Scion xA are classified as subcompacts.

Trunk volume in the sedan is a very respectable 12.4 cubic feet. Despite its shorter length, the hatchback coupe expands this to 15.9 cubic feet with the rear seats in place. Folding the back seats flat in either car greatly increases the total cargo volume and makes room for long and bulky items.