Road Test
Hyundai i10
Test date 12 March 2008
Price as tested £7,345
For Value for money, generous standard equipment, grown-up handling
AgainstMediocre refinement, some tacky trim, unenthusiastic performance
Hyundai has been building cars for only 40 years, starting in 1968 with a license-built version of the Ford Cortina. It produced its first home-grown car, the Pony, in 1975. The company merged with Kia Motors in 1998 and is now the world’s fifth-largest car manufacturer.
Hyundai’s first city car was the oddly styled Atoz, released in 1997, which was then replaced by the more conventional Amica in 1999. However, the i10 represents more than just a successor to the Amica. This is Hyundai's first serious attempt at a properly resolved city car. And after the universal praise heaped on the Focus-sized i30 hatch when it arrived last year, big things are expected of this little car.
If Hyundai can achieve anything like the leap forward that we saw from the lacklustre Elantra to the thoroughly impressive i30, then the company’s ambitious plans to double its annual city car sales in the UK from 5000 to 10,000 units seems like a perfectly achievable proposition.
The question is, can Hyundai mix the good value, high equipment and dependable reputation it already has with the dynamic sparkle? Because it’s just that verve that the makers of city cars like the Fiat Panda and the Toyota Aygo/Citroën C1/Peugeot 107 triplets are so keen to capitalise upon to appeal to young, image-conscious buyers.
If the i10 is to really succeed in the UK, then it must beat – or at least equal – these cars on their own core territory, as well as bettering them on value, reliability, perceived quality and on-paper appeal. No mean feat, then.
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