Accent on the Getz

HYUNDAI Automotive Distributors Australia plans to reposition its top-selling Accent range to make room for the company's new light car competitor, the Getz.

Although a final decision has not yet been made as to what form changes to the Accent line-up will take, the likely scenario involvesrationalising the range with the axing of the entrylevel $14,990 Accent three-door.

The remaining models will be repositioned to compete in the mid-high teens price bracket, mainly against Mitsubishi's Lancer.

"In my view there is clearly not a role for Accent three-door and Getz three-door at a similar price," HADA general manager marketing Peter Evans said.

"If we do 2000 cars a month in the second half of the year, I expect somewhere between 1500-1700 will be Getz and the remainder will be Accent."Those figures equate with removing the volume-selling base three-door model from the Accent line-up, which will prevent it cannibalising sales of the Getz.

Last month Hyundai sold 1697 Accents, of which 75 per cent (1278 units) were base three-doors, with the next biggest seller in the range the automatic GL five-door hatch, which shifted 128 units or about 7.5 per cent of total Accent volume.

To help the Accent tackle the Lancer head-on, Hyundai will upgrade theengine from the "Alpha" series 1.5-litre to a bigger 1.6-litre powerplant when the range is facelifted later this year, following the arrival of the Getz in September.

"The idea is to try to pick up some extra Accent volume by repositioning it as a Lancer competitor," Mr Evans said.

"Mitsubishi don't have a direct Elantra, Corolla, Astra competitor, as the Lancer is really between the $14,990 cars and the $19,990 cars.

"So I can see the Accent becoming a de facto Lancer competitor, certainly as a 1.5-litre competitor with a 1.6-litre sedan and 1.6-litre five-door hatch, because that's where it is priced now anyway."Hyundai currently has a product and pricing taskforce working on how to deal with the Accent range post Getz.

* THE Accent turbo is still on the cards but is now "probably a lower priority than it was six months ago when it was kicked off," Mr Evans said.

The car has been busy with motor show duties since first shown in Sydney last year and will not return to Hyundai headoffice until May, following the Perth motor show.

Some work has been done on the EFI calibration since Sydney.

But the plan is still to "get it to the point where we're happy enough to show it to the Koreans, get them to drive it and say look this is what we want ... and try to do it for under $20,000 - that would be the target."* A NEW Elantra-based soft-roader will arrive next year to give Hyundai achallenger in the competitive compact four-wheel drive segment.

The South Korean marque is targeting the big guns with the new model, such as CR-V, RAV4 and Forester.

The crossover vehicle will slip into the Hyundai range below the medium-size Santa Fe and is expected to cost around $25,000.