I own a March 2012 manufactured model of the IX20 1.4 Petrol in 'Active' specification with 'Blue Drive' option (engine start/stop technology, aka: ISG). This lowers the emissions and tax duty for the car to tax band D - £110 per year. I have owned this car for more than a year and have driven over 15,000 miles. The car was bought second hand back in August 2014, when it was 2 years old, one previous owner and had 7000 miles on the clock.

Positives:

* Good high seating position, ideal for elderly and disabled people.
* Wide opening of doors.
* Very well specified car - 'Active' specification (mid-range): all around electric windows, air conditioning, traction control, Bluetooth, USB / MP3 player, alloy wheels, spare wheel in boot, rear parking sensors, cooled glove box, ISG (though, only with 'Blue Drive' option), on-dash gear shift indicator for fuel-efficient driving.
* Comfortable cabin and supportive seats. Good driving position. No back ache or fatigue after long journeys.
* Spacious interior, good head and leg room all around. Boot is spacious and practical too.
* Very practical with a lot of cubby-holes and cup holders / bottle holders.
* Quite good looking and stylish car (in my opinion). Does not look like a typical MPV vehicle, looks more like a small hatchback from the outside, but has room of a larger car inside.
* Very cheap to insure.
* Not broken down since owning and seems very reliable.
* Tyre and brake wear minimal so far - still on original Continental tyres after 18,000 miles and have around 5 mm tread left on front tyres / 6 mm on rears. Break wear similar: last service indicated only 10 % worn.
* Engine fluids consumption very minimal, ie. never had to top up engine oil, or coolant, so far in 18,000 miles.
* Flat rear floor - no intruding transmission tunnel (ie. more foot space of rear-middle seated passengers).
* Sliding rear seats to switch between boot space / rear passenger leg space.

Negatives:

* Very poor fuel efficiency; Hyundai tested fuel efficiency average = 50.4 mpg, realistic average = 37 mpg. Up to 40 mpg reached on the rare occasions (long and slowly driven journeys). My previous car, a 13 year old Ford Mondeo with larger 1.8 litre petrol engine, was able to achieve and surpass the fuel efficiency of my current Hyundai; Very disappointing and rather shocking, especially since the IX20 is newer by more than a decade and is supposed to be more fuel efficient. Consistently being out by more than 10 mpg of its official figure is unacceptable and is a sick joke! The on-board computer average mpg readout is always overstating the average mpg by 2 mpg, compared to my calculated readings. Read any other review board or fora and other owner reviewers will quote similar average mpg figures for their IX20's, so, i'm not alone here.

* Under-powered engine; The 1.4 litre petrol engine only has 89 bhp / 137nm of torque which is too little for the heavy weight and tall body that it is pulling around, 1268 kg unladen. It is mated with a 5 speed gearbox which is inefficient on faster roads and motorways where the car can rev up to 3500 rpm at 70 mph. The car also struggles to maintain speed when going up hills, even when only myself or another passenger are present in the car. Also, the car is very slow accelerating with frequent gear changes required at lower speeds to maintain optimum fuel efficiency and consumption. Tying in with the poor fuel economy issue stated above, any speed above 50 mph and the car's fuel economy drops drastically (according to the on board computer readout). Bottom line is this engine is really only suited for slower town / city driving. I feel this car would be greatly improved if fitted with a turbocharger and a 6th gear, but I doubt that will ever happen.

* Ride comfort; Read any journalist's review of this car and they will claim that Hyundai have engineered this car's ride and suspensions to suit the UK's roads. Ever since owning this car I still wander "in what way?!" Since I, and my passengers, find the ride of the IX20 very uncomfortable. The car jitters, jolts and bounces around on the slightest bit of bump or pothole and is even more unbearable on larger potholes and bumps. The car also has a habit of bump steering and transmits loud thumping sounds after riding over bumps and potholes. To give you a better idea I will use my previous car, the 13 year old Ford Mondeo, as a benchmark of comfort. I make frequent journeys to Wales from the East Midlands area, a journey time of roughly 4.5 hours. In my previous Mondeo my passengers would fall asleep for almost the entire journey's length when I would undertake the journey at night. If I perform the same journey on the same roads in my IX20 my passengers find it very hard to sleep, as they are frequently and rudely awaken by some jolt or bounce. Or, even by the lean / body roll of the car which was hardly ever present in my Mondeo. Even driving at a slower speed does not seem to cure the issue. It is good that the seats are comfortable and supportive to compensate for the bad ride, otherwise this would be a further mark down in my review.

* ISG (engine start / stop): The IX20 has an unreliable engine start / stop system. The ISG system works very well if you have, or are, undertaking a long journey, but it doesn't work if you are frequently undertaking short journeys. The excuse from Hyundai dealers when presented with this problem is that the battery needs to be charged to 86% or more. Of course, there is no way for the driver to ever this figure out (apart from when it's not working), or do anything about it. As a note, the ISG system was taken off production for all petrol models after March 2012. It is no surprise, and I suspect it is due to the system being so unreliable. Reading the motoring news, it seems like it will be re-introduced to all car models on the updated 2016 models. Hopefully, this should work more reliably than what is currently present on the older models.

Other minor issues: Rattles from the pillar areas / trims. The car is noisy at any speed, you can hear engine clicks and clatter under acceleration. The on board fuel gauge is rather deceptive too; When the car has been fully fueled, the top bar (out of 12 bars which represent fuel level) disappears anywhere between 40 and 90 miles, whereas the other bars disappear at around 25 mile intervals. Though, the fuel tank range is anywhere between 315 to 360 miles on about 40 litres of fuel, depending on how its driven.

Conclusion: Unfortunately, this car receives an average rating from me (at best) as the negative issues far outweigh the positive issues, and I actually feel cheated and disapointed by Hyundai especially regarding its fuel efficiency claim. Granted I should have taken a longer test drive before buying this car (my previous car was dying and I needed another car quite urgently at the time). Unfortunately, this is likely to be the last Hyundai I buy as I have not been impressed with this car, or Hyundai dealers in general. I have even questioned whether the 5 year warranty given to all Hyundai cars are really worth the paper it is written on, since my experience has been proven pretty bad to date. I can only recommend this model of car to people who may not be doing too many miles and mainly in towns and cities, but even then to opt for the 'Classic' specification (base specification), rather than Active or Style specifications. The classic spec has smaller steel wheels and hopefully, a more comfortable ride. It will also be cheaper. The 'Classic' specification is also very well equipped too and you are not missing very much between this and the 'Active' / 'Style' specifications. Items like the parking sensors / better stereo system found in the mid and higher spec are available to purchase as add-on from Hyundai dealers afterwards (parking sensors, which I feel, is essential for this car).

Reading the online motoring news of the 2016 IX20 face lift models, I read nothing that seems to address the above negative issues I have stated. It seems like many of the changes to the face lifted models are minor cosmetic changes and for the engines to comply with the Euro 6 emission testing. These are essentially the same engines that are being carried over from the previous models with only minor difference being of the diesel engines now having more torque added to them. There also seems to be a new option of a 6-speed manual gearbox mated to the 1.6 litre petrol engine, which may be worth a look since it offers more power and a 6th gear. Though, the downside with this 1.6 litre engine is the annual road tax imposed on it and lower quoted average fuel consumption (despite it also having ISG start/stop). It is a shame because had some of the negative issues been addressed in the updated car, I would have considered buying it or recommending it.

Apologies for the lengthy review. I hope this review helps others make their decision on this car.