Hyundai i20 1.2 Comfort Five-Door review
by David Finlay (9 March 2009)
One of the most important aspects of writing about cars is that you should always (except perhaps for comic effect) do so in appropriate conditions. There would be no point, for example, in trying to go off-road in a Maserati, or hammering round Brands Hatch in a smart fortwo.
It makes very little more sense to drive a Hyundai i20 for 1100 miles in eight days, since that equates to a very un-i20like annual mileage of more than 50,000 miles, but that's what I've just done. Not my idea. It's just the way the schedule worked out.
When the process started I was convinced I would be roundly fed up of the i20 by the time it ended. But when I climbed aboard and turned on the engine for the last time - for a journey of about three times the car's length, just enough to move it from one parking space to the other - I found myself thinking, "I like doing this. I want to keep doing it. I want to keep this car. I am going to miss it." And I do.
It's not as if the i20 is absolutely brilliant in every respect. In fact, there are things I don't like about it at all. The window design at the rear is silly and the visibility correspondingly awful (though no more so in either case than almost every other small car on the market) so reversing and to some extent overtaking can verge on the perilous.
The ride quality is a bit fussy, especially over large bumps, and for me there isn't quite enough interior room, though this wouldn't be a problem for anyone less than six feet tall. Luggage space is pretty good at 295 litres (equal to the Ford Fiesta, superior to the Peugeot 207 and Renault Clio) but you have to lift your chattels over quite a high sill, which isn't ideal.
But I still loved driving the i20 for reasons that reminded me of my first experience of the original Mazda MX-5. For five miles I wondered what all the fuss was about, since the Mazda didn't appear to do anything outstandingly well; later I realized that it did most things very well indeed, and the harmony of its qualities was what gave it so much appeal.
I have a similar view of the i20, though if I had to pick its most surprising feature it would be the way it copes with long motorway journeys. The key element here is the fact that the seats are much more supportive than they look, allowing me to drive further than usual before my back starts complaining. It also helps that the footrest is extremely well-placed - not too close, not a leg-stretch away. Overall I found that the i20 was more comfortable on a high-mileage trip than many larger, more luxurious and vastly more expensive models I've tried over similar routes in the past year.
It would be better still with a different engine. The 1.25-litre petrol unit in the test car can't cope with very tall gearing, so it was a bit high-pitched on a motorway cruise, and fuel economy wasn't especially impressive at 48mpg in ideal conditions and 43mpg on a day when there were strong winds to battle against. The 1.4 diesel engine in the i20 range would have been better on both counts.
I would still have the 1.25, though, partly because it's £1000 cheaper (if you're using the car only for short trips it will take a very long time for the diesel to claw back that deficit in reduced fuel bills) and partly because it works so well.
The maximum output of 77bhp isn't class-leading but it's still impressive for an engine of this size, and I prefer its general behaviour to that of the more powerful 1.4 petrol, which doesn't seem to be ready for immediate action the way the 1.25 always does.
The 1.25 is the cheapest engine but this is not the cheapest car - you can save £450 by opting for three doors instead of five, and there's a more basic trim level, called Classic, which knocks a further £800 off the price. That £800 buys you alloy wheels, rear electric windows, iPod and USB ports, more loudspeakers, electrically-adjustable heated and folding door mirrors and body-coloured exterior trim, and you can decide for yourself whether this lot is worth the extra expense.
Either way you get six airbags, air-conditioning, a height-adjustable driver's seat, active headrests and a cooled glove box. If you want the full package you need to buy the range-topping Style, but that costs more than £10,000 (which feels like too much to pay for an i20) and it's not available with the 1.25 engine, so as far as I'm concerned it doesn't count.
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