Tested: Hyundai i10 1,1 GLS

Road tests, especially those of budget cars bought by the thousands, have plenty of potential to be a bore. So standardised are production standards and client expectations that there is less and less basis with which to judge cars in the same segment.
Small boot, great fuel economy, bubbly headlamps and good value are adjectives that can all be levelled at (take your pick) Kia’s Picanto, Citroen’s C1, Peugeot’s 107 etc etc etc. How on earth does one actually significantly differentiate these cars bar the way the design either grabs or deters you?

I just spent an extended weekend with the quintessential example of the modern budget car, namely Hyundai’s i10. And it really is all of the above, so for this review, I’ll try to focus on the little things that set it apart from the rest and which may just tempt you into considering one.

COMFORT

Standard aircon, power steering, a decent MP3 sound system and increased levels of refinement add up to a comfortable little car. It certainly isn’t a chore to drive and cruises well once up to speed. About that aircon, however – it isn’t the most powerful unit I’ve experienced and could struggle to cool down a packed interior on a hot day.

PERFORMANCE

The i10 is fitted with a 1,1-litre engine producing outputs of 49kW at 5000 r/min and peak torque of 99 N.m. at 4000 r/min. These are not mind-blowingly different from rival offerings, and the driving experience is pretty much on par with the Picanto. What I enjoyed about the i10 was that its motor is not only quiet in operation, but emits none of the desperate, whiny noises that other small-capacity motors do. Whilst taking it to 5000 r/min won’t send you hurtling for the horizon (or even the car in front of you), this aural quality does mean that you won’t feel sorry for the car when pushing on a bit.
The gearbox and clutch operation are typically light-car effortless. In fact, the clutch initially felt laughably light to me, with close to zero muscle required for engagement. Once acclimatised, the ease with which you can manoeuvre through city streets will be much-appreciated by female drivers. Again, a “difference” I found here was the i10’s elevated and very comfortable positioning of the gearlever on the lower fascia, and not immediately in front of the hand brake as traditionally done.

COOL FACTOR

The i10 won’t win any awards in this category, unfortunately, which could prove a bit of a problem in a segment that also contains the sharp Chevrolet Spark and Peugeot 107 / Citroen C1 sisters. The biggest compliment I can pay the i10 is that it is a vast improvement over the Atoz, being far better proportioned and a more quality-looking item. It’s cute and will appeal primarily to females.
Inside, there is perhaps a tad more personality on offer. The speedo is set on a sporty-looking white background with blue detailing and the basic dash design does just enough to stop you from nodding off out of complete boredom. A more adventurous colour scheme than my black and grey example wouldn’t hurt, however.



BUILD QUALITY

There is very little to report here, as the materials are not remotely opulent, but perfectly acceptable for this type of car. For example, a lack of padding on the door panels will be missed by anyone downgrading, but is fine for anyone looking for an economical runabout. Most of the dashboard is constructed from plastics that look better than they feel which will only bother people who enjoy stroking their car’s interior surfaces.
The way the doors and boot close and the car’s general NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) are all an improvement over the Atoz.

HANDLING

A 1,1-litre capacity engine without turbos, superchargers or a dragon blowing fire up its backside is hardly going to challenge the chassis. Handling is therefore predictable, easygoing and without much entertainment value. The steering is super light and complements the other major controls in that regard.

PRACTICALITY

Modern small cars seem to all be cast in the same mould; namely, make sure four reasonably-sized passengers can be accommodated at all costs, but don’t worry too much about a boot. So while the i10 is spacious for its size inside, lifting the rear hatch reveals no boot at all. Just a little slit of space for a t-shirt, a sock and a box of Corn Flakes (the 750g, not the 1kg box).

SAFETY

Here exists an unfortunately negative – and major for most – difference between the i10 and its rivals. There are no air bags on all but the high-spec, range-topping HS model and ABS brakes are not fitted as standard. Why individuals with less capital still have to sacrifice their safety in 2011 is beyond me, but there you have it.

RUNNING COSTS

With a minuscule 35-litre fuel tank, according to the fuel gauge I managed 270km on just under half a tank with the air-conditioner in constant operation. 500km on a thankful should therefore be an easily achievable figure in a mix of city and highway driving, equating to a consumption figure of around 7 litres per 100km. This is good rather than excellent consumption.
However, these figures should serve only as a guide as fuel gauges are differently calibrated from car to car - I’ve come across gauges that drop from full to half fairly quickly and then slow down as they approach empty.

SUMMARY

At R107 900, the little i10 1.1 GLS impresses with a decent mix of quality, specification, value and the solid reputation that Hyundai has earned in South Africa after almost two decades of sometimes soulless but always dependable motoring.
In the unlikely case of safety features not being at or near the top of your checklist, then there are few blemishes that can be levelled at the i10 package. However, if like me you put extra emphasis on style and safety, I’d wash cars, cancel my gym membership or beg until I could put together the extra R8000 required to get hold of the Chevrolet Spark.

Tricky Trends

In the great world of cars, trends good and bad are followed relentlessly. Manufacturers get so caught up in “the moment” of what’s perceived as trendsetting that they often design features or sometimes entire cars that actually go against the very essence of what their brand stands for.

Somehow, the Toyota Yaris doesn’t come standard with an air conditioner or alloy wheels and yet it is fitted with an extravagant centrally mounted digital (on the hatchback, analogue on the sedan) instrument display. The Renault Scenic is another example of this instrument display.
Do these manufacturers not know that if something is not directly in your line of view, your significantly inferior peripheral vision takes over? Hardly conducive towards safe family motoring, something both Renault and Toyota strive to provide.

Then we have the first generation Polo Classic (at least, the first generation launched in South Africa).
While it was seriously unpretty / boring and therefore couldn’t have had ambitions of setting any trend, it nevertheless was fitted with a design feature that (and I stand to be corrected here) I had never before seen on a car and which spread rapidly to other vehicles – namely, a single rear reverse light.
There can be no logical explanation for this besides cost-cutting. What it does is to provide the rear of your car with an unbalanced appearance and permanently make it appear as though one reverse light is broken. It is also less safe – if anything happens to be obscuring the side of the vehicle without that reverse light, those viewing it from behind won’t always know it’s moving backwards.
Seems a petty concern, but it’s simply unnecessary.

It is my next “trend” that really gets me hot under the collar (and depending on which car I happen to drive, her too!).
Apparently, modern vehicles have become so impeccably well engineered that some of them no longer require the once obligatory temperature gauge. All that is now needed is a single and often miniscule red lamp in the instrument panel that illuminates once your engine is probably on the verge of exploding while you’re traversing De Waal Drive at 20km/h on a Friday afternoon.
The very point of a gauge is to be able to constantly be aware of how warm the engine is. This way, you’ll be alerted instantly when it starts to heat up and long before steam starts spewing from underneath the bonnet of your Chevrolet Spark (which, you guessed it, is one of the offenders).
As advanced as they have become, modern vehicles’ engines still run on petrol, they still rely upon a cooling system and they can still overheat.

Car names are another moot point. It seems as though designing a car from scratch takes so much effort that there is insufficient brainpower left for the team to think up a reasonable model name.
Volkswagen has loads of fun revising its dated CitiGolf every 5 days or so, complete with new individual designations for each model in the line-up that range from an eerie canine to a synonym for doggedness; I doubt anyone will feel very good telling their mother-in-law that they drive a Citi Wolf or a TenaCiti. A sharply raised eyebrow is sure to follow.
Manufacturers of 4X4s are perhaps even worse. They can’t resist the tendency to drown their gas-guzzling beasts in an hilarious assortment of masculine words like Defender, Discovery, Commander or Outback. Or, if you often indulge in the odd trip around your backyard, you could get yourself a VW Touran Track and Field. Not many could have predicted that cars would one day be named according to the surface they’re adept at driving on.
Let’s all hold thumbs for a BMW X5 Road and Driveway.

But perhaps more bizarre than all of these is a car that tries extremely hard to be trendy when it is actually quite terrible.
The range-topping Tata Indigo GLX comes standard with awful interior plastics, a breathless engine, refinement notable only by its absence and… a dual rear DVD entertainment system. Hell, they’ve even thrown in leather upholstery. Whether it’s real leather or not is highly
debatable.


Tata Indigo

What it all boils down to is that far too often, being perceived as cool, funky or trendy takes preference over reliability, practicality and good old common sense.
Then again, who would say no to the ridiculously overindulgent fingerprint recognition system on the Audi A8 that adjusts seats and the like to your preferences at the touch of a little electronic pad…? Not me.