Extended Play: A week with the Hyundai i10 Active 1.2

 Hello world, it’s been a while.  Various other commitments have distracted me from writing for some time now but I will now mark my return to posting things here with the first new car review to be featured on this website. However anyone eagerly expecting a car as interesting as some featured in Trader Dreamer’s will be disappointed I’m afraid.

Indeed my humble blog receives a humble car as it’s first review subject, the Hyundai i10. A car notable mainly because of it’s sales success through the scrappage scheme. We shan’t hold that against it however, but was it worth trading a Jaguar XJ-S in for as one customer did?

One thing it certainly lacks over a Jaguar is visual drama, the Hyundai could, at best, be described as anonymous, with the DRL aping bright-work in the headlamps perhaps being the cars most interesting feature. So quite boring then, this continues inside, with everything well laid out and un-remarkable. Again when the blue lighting stands out of something of interest you know you’re in a somewhat uninteresting place. That said it all works well, quality is decent, the controls feel sturdy and even the plastic steering wheel feels decent enough.

The tall boxy shape allows for plenty of interior space in such a compact car, and the driving position is predictably high. It’s also easy to get comfortable, and the commanding driving position is a boon in town. Visibility would be great were it not for the A pillars which I found very obtrusive, they conspired together with the huge wing mirrors to make oncoming vehicles seem to wholly disappear, before reappearing in your side window, something I found a little un-nerving.

Setting off couldn’t be easier, all the controls are feather light, and the cars small size makes getting out of even the smallest spaces very easy. The 1.2 engine feels pleasingly zippy in first, allowing you to dart in to gaps in traffic, should you so wish.  Gearshift action is slightly on the rubbery side, but very easy to use, and you’ll be encouraged to use it a lot by the economy minded gear shift indicator. The light brake pedal is devoid of any feel, but brakes are easily modulated. Steering completes the package of light and numb controls, being utterly devoid of any feedback and very light. All this makes the i10 a very effective car in town, annoyances are limited to the small amount of dead travel you’ll find on the accelerator and the steering’s over eagerness to self centre.

                 nothing about this car encourages you to drive quickly

Go out and find a fast twisty road and the package that made it so easy to drive in town quickly conspires against you, nothing about this car encourages you to drive quickly. Roll is decently contained but the steering’s lack of communication gives you no confidence, especially when the car is fitted with eco tyres that are rather keen to let go. In-fact the tyres are easily the weakest point of the Hyundai i10, it’s easy to find understeer and easy to break traction by accident from a standing start. I even had ABS kicking in while doing a not particularly aggressive stop from 30mph in greasy conditions. At higher speeds they did a fair job of hanging on however, and I certainly wouldn’t call the car unsafe, but slightly better tyres wouldn’t go amiss.

The engine also doesn’t like pushing on. Around town it’s low down torque surprises and, thanks to trusting the gear shift indicator, I found my self surprised at how little revs it needed to pull along nicely. Open it up however and you’ll quickly be reminded this is just a 63bhp 1.2. It has a distain for revs and becomes so thrashy that it would be impossible to run into the rev limiter by mistake. Even so it does an admiral job of shifting the car, it’s even decent on the motorway; while definitely happier below the national limit it will also happily propel you at any reasonable speed.

The Active model tested here weighs in at £8,945, and the car I tested had optional metallic paint at £455, one of only three options available across the i10 range. Even the base model is well equipped with an Aux/USB capable sound system and air conditioning as standard. The sound is pretty tinny though and my 64gb iPod flummoxed the USB connection. Despite this decent spread of equipment a trip computer can't be had on the i10 at any price level. The Active gains convenience features over the base spec Classic such as remote central locking, electric mirrors, electric rear windows, and oddly ‘intermittent wash wipe’, is that really a luxury to charge extra for in this day and age? If you can cope without those things and more superfluous features such as alloy wheels and fog lights the £8,345 Classic might make more sense. Of course if scrappage were to return, Hyundai might not clean up like it did last time. VAG have waded in with the Up/Citigo/Mii (3dr Citigo with air con £8590) and the Fiat Panda is even more appealing than it was last time. I suspect the real winner now would be the £7,995 Dacia Sandero Laurette, which offers more space and similar specification to the £950 dearer Active Hyundai i10 tested here.

This competition makes it hard to recommend the Hyundai, it’s a capable city car and there’s not a great deal wrong with it. It is a white good car, that merely sets out to do what it says on the tin and very little else, and somehow it’s quite likeable for that trait, but to buy one without checking out the opposition mentioned above would be foolish.

Hyundai i10 1.2 Active

OTR £8,945

0-60 12.2 seconds
0-100 N/A seconds

Top Speed 105 mph
Power 63 bhp
Torque 89 lb/ft
Weight 996 kg
Insurance Group 12 (new system)

MPG 61.4

Co2 108