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Hyundai i10 Review
Hyundai i10 is one of the premiere options considered by anyone planning to buy a hatchback. A good city car with decent handling, power output, and great mileage numbers becomes an instant favorite in the hatchback segment.
The company has garnered a great response and gained solid foothold in the Indian hatchback market with the launch of the i10. The Hyundai i10 has been ruling its class since 2007, from the time of its launch.
Hyundai is known to keep its product portfolio fresh with the right facelifts. The i10 too was updated with its now trendsetting fluidic design language without any unecessary flamboyance. The refresh boasted of redesigned headlamps, new front grill design, stylish bumpers and refreshed interiors.
Thus as a package, the i10 is one of the best offered cars in the market. With respect to competition, it holds its own superbly against the competition. This is what we find out in our review.
Appearance Exterior
The most important aspect of the refreshed i10 was its fluidic language inspired looks. This was evident from the front profile as Hyundai has adopted a uniform look among all its products.
Headlamps have been redesigned and now offer a better visibility. The tear drop shaped headlamps also pack in the side turning indicators in them. Front grille gets the hexagonal design with the company logo done in chrome. The headlights don’t get engulfed in the bonnet line and instead flow back in a sweeping manner. The bonnet line lies well above the grille.
In the side profile on the Magna variant, the ORVMS get a new design and the turning indicator lights are integrated in then. The Door protectors are body coloured. Overall the upgrade given on side profile is very subtle and is not very evident.
In the rear exterior portion, the previous bumpers have been replaced by stylish and good looking bumpers. The tail lamps are of the clear lens type. The new headlamp design helps for better illumination. The tail gate can be opened by twisting the “Hyundai” logo. On the Era variant there is no wiper for the rear glass shield however the top end variant sports a rear wiper along with a spoiler too which has the break light affixed on it.
Appearance Interior
The interiors of this car have been improved a lot. It has been upgraded with all the necessary and useful options. The fabric seats are designed with a proper human body curve for a comfortable ride. The steering wheel in the Era version has no audio controls mounted on it nor does it have Bluetooth mobile connectivity. Even without all these features the interiors of the i10 manage to look sophisticated.
The dashboard is dual coloured and features an integrated AC unit. The AC unit is impressive compared to the earlier version as it helps cool down the cabin in a comparatively less time even in hot grilling weather. The switches on the console are of very good quality. The hazard indicator switch is smartly placed in the centre. The affixed glove box also offers ample space.
There are manual joysticks to adjust the ORVMs, which provides effortless adjustments with ease. The Speedometer design is decent and looks good with elegant blue backlighting. The digital display has two trip meters and a fuel gauge. There is no up gradation with the wiper and indicator controllers.
Even the door panels are dual coloured. The doors locks on the Era variant are not impressive as they look dull compared to the high end versions. In this variant only the front section has power windows while ones in the rear have to be adjusted manually.
Glass holders are placed between the front seats. The roof mounted map reading lights are of simple design and are bright enough. The legroom is not spacious as compared to its competitors, but the rear seats are very comfortable and good for long drives. The headroom is decent.
Even a tall person can easily get into a car and drive around without any hesitation. Windscreen is big enough for a clear view. The IRVM gives a sufficient view of the rear, which helps to park it easily or reverse the car.
The interiors of the Hyundai i10 indeed feel premium compared to its competition but then the only drawback is the lack of room inside the cabin where its competition can have the winning edge especially the Wagon R which feel a lot roomier compared to the i10.
Performance Drive
The Hyundai i10 Era is powered by a 4 cylinder iRDE2 (Intelligent Responsive Drive Engine) 1086cc engine which produces a max power of 69 bhp at 5500 rpm and a torque of 101 Nm at 4500 rpm. It has a 5 speed manual transmission gearbox. It also flaunts the AMS (Alternator management system) which controls the delivery of power to the battery and helps improve the battery life as well as get an improved mileage.
Starting from the first shift the car feels smooth to drive and effortless to change the gears. The engine doesn’t feel stressed and the power delivery to proportionate to the rpm.
It is effortless to drive around in city and even on highways. It feels like a typical light footed hatch and is very easy to steer out of tight parking spaces. The i10 has an electric power steering (EPS) unit, which makes it effortless and easier to drive around traffic and even on the highways. The pint size engine is not the most energetic one but even then the performance offered is satisfactory.
The otherwise smooth gear transmission gets little tedious while climbing steep surfaces especially on ghat sections wherein the lower gear have to engaged often in order to make way through the steep stretches. There is also a gear shift indicator as seen on the entry level Hyundai i10 as well which tells the driver the correct time to shift to a higher or a lower gear depending upon the rpm. This helps churn out optimum fuel efficiency figures.
The i10 suspension comprises of independent McPherson struts layout at the front and torsion beam axle with coil spring at the rear. This provides a better ride quality and helps to reduce the impact on uneven surfaces.
Braking quality offered in i10 is decent and feels confident even while braking at high speeds. Front and the rear tyres are 155/80 R13, which provides good road grip. The hatch however tends to lose on confidence while travelling at high speeds.
There is an issue with the AC unit i.e. when the AC is on the car feels a lot sluggish and takes efforts to haul it. The mileage too drops very consistently while battling the bumper to bumper traffic. These issues however don’t occur on the 1.2 versions.
Overall, this hatch is a decent performer which doesn’t let down the expectations from it. The only issue of concern is the mileage which can be improved.
Tech Specs
| Technical Specifications | |
| Make | Hyundai |
| Model | i10 |
| Variant | Era |
| Engine Capacity | 1086/4 |
| Power in PS / RPM | 69/5500 |
| Torque in Nm / RPM | 99/4500 |
| Gears | 5/MT |
| Dimensions in mm | |
| Length | 3585 |
| Width | 1595 |
| Height | 1550 |
| Wheel base | 2380 |
| Ground clearance M | 165 |
| Fuel tank capacity L | 35 |
| Mileage in KMPL | 18.4 |
| Tyres rating | 155/80 R13 |
| Tyres type | Tubeless |
Features
| Features | D-Lite | Era |
| Ex-showroom Price Mumbai (Rs.In Lakhs) | 390663 | 426470 |
| AC with heater | Yes | Yes |
| Front power windows | No | Yes |
| Passenger Vanity mirror | No | Yes |
| Gear shift indicator | Yes | Yes |
| Body coloured Bumper | No | Yes |
| ABS | No | No |
| Airbag | No | No |
| Driver side airbag | No | Yes |
| Micro roof antena | No | Yes |
| Central locking | Yes | Yes |
| Power windows | No | Yes |
| Power steering | Yes | Yes |
| 2-DIN-Radio+CD+MP3Player | No | No |
| Tilt steering | No | No |
Competition All Specs
| Specifications |
Hyundai
i10 |
Maruti Suzuki
Alto K10 |
Chevrolet
Spark |
| Variant | Era | Vxi | 1.0 LT |
| Ex-showroom Price Mumbai (Rs. In Lakhs) | 426470 | 357940 | 400372 |
| Engine Capacity in Litres | 1086 | 998 | 993 |
| Power PS / RPM | 69/5500 | 68/6200 | 63/5400 |
| Torque Nm / RPM | 99/4500 | 90/3500 | 90/4200 |
| Gears | 5/M | 5/M | 5/M |
| Power Steering | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Power windows | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Central locking | No | No | Yes |
| A/C | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Music system | No | No | Yes |
| Fog Lamps | No | Yes | Yes |
| Rear wind shield washer | No | No | Yes |
| Defogger | No | No | Yes |
| ABS | No | No | No |
| Air bag | No | No | No |
| Average fuel efficiency (Kmpl) | 16 | 20 | 17 |
Conclusion
Hyundai is one of the few automobile companies to boast of a popular model line up. The Hyundai i10 is the company’s strong weapon against the stalwarts like Maruti Suzuki.
With the Hyundai i10, the customers finally realised that even the small car segment can be exciting. Without compromising on the quality, Hyundai offers premium level interiors which are a segment benchmark. Mileage and cabin space are some of the lows but then fluidic exterior, decent interior and low maintenance overshadow the demerits completely.
So the Hyundai i10 is a definite recommend for someone looking at a sub Rs.4 Lakh hatch. There is also news floating on the virtual space about Hyundai readying the next generation i10 and planning for a 2014 launch. On a final note, it would be interesting to see if Hyundai offers diesel option on this hatch, perhaps can be the next game changer.
