2003 Accent: old vs. new model

Hi all.

Looking for advice here. Thanks in advance if anyone can help.

Thanks in part to this newsgroup I've been surfing the Internet for
info on Hyundai. I still plan to seriously look at an '07 Elantra for
my next car, when the new Elantra finally hits the streets. (Should not
be long now.)

Anyway, a local reputable used car dealer has several used Hyundais for
sale. Just for fun, I looked up all the info I could find about all of
them. The 2003 Accent piqued my interest. There's at best an outside
chance I would seriously consider buying an Accent, since it's just too
small, but....how does one tell if an '03 Accent is an 'older' or
'newer' version?

It's important because the newer version gets much better marks for
safety in NHTSA crash testing. We're talking better by a wide margin
here, for reasons that are not clear to me.

The NHTSA site lists the cut-off date as Dec. 20, 2002 and Jan. 5,
2003, respectively, for the two crash test results that changed. I know
the factory sticker on the car door or wherever should provide the
month it rolled off the assembly line....but as far as I know it does
not give the precise date.

Is there any way to tell from the sticker, the VIN or whatever, just
when the car was assembled? The first few digits of the VIN on the car
in question are: KMHCG45.

Also the model I looked at from the local dealer has side airbags,
which were optional for the '03 Accent. Does that by itself mean the
car is a later release model and does the presence of side airbags by
itself mean the car gets the newer, much higher crash test scores?

Sorry if these are silly questions. I'm still feeling my around the
online world of Hyundais and cars in general.

Thanks and regards,
Eric M

 

There's a plate on the frame around the driver's door that gives the
date of manufacture and other information. IIRC, it's also included in
the VIN, though I don't recall how to translate it. If you do a Google
search on "VIN", you should find resources for deciphering the code.

 

According to technical service bulletin 03-90-021:

"Early production 2003 Model Year Accents (before January 06, 2003
production) are not equipped with side impact airbags."


www.hmaservice.com

It's your friend.

 

Thank you and Brian Nystrom for the info.

So, any '03 Accent that has side air bags is a "later release" model
with the much better side crash test rating. That's good to know. I've
seen varying opinions on how much stock to place in crash test scores,
but in this case the difference is striking.

The Accent is still probably just too darn small for me consider
buying, but at least now I know what car I'm looking at. (Maybe the
confusing model year stuff runs in the extended family. It took me
awhile to figure out the "2004.5" Kia Spectra.)

Thanks and Regards,
Eric M

 

It would be even a better friend if it worked with Netscape. I couldn't
even get it to work with IE two evenings ago when I tried to view the
Elantra brake system. The text came up, but the pictures just has the
"broken picture" icon in each frame.


Matt

 

That seems to happen occasionally, but in general it works fine as long
as you use IE. I agree that it's truly stupid to not make it usable with
other browsers. It also really sucks that you have to use the assigned
password and cannot change it. Considering that the site is open to the
public, what's the point of heavy-handed security.

 

Especially when the password is VERY cryptic and not easily remembered.
Netscape remembers my passwords for me, but I don't trust IE/Windows
with this as they are too easily hacked.

Matt