1.2 Active 5dr Hatchback

Great little car, 2 of my friends bought one after trying it, but there are annoyances...

Note that my car has the latest Euro V compliant 1.2 4 cylinder "Kappa" engine, which behaves differently to the other, earlier versions of the same engine! Don't get me wrong, overall it's brilliant for the money, so I'll tell you the few bad bits first, because it won't take long:
The throttle response on mine is driving me crazy! Instead of revs falling away when you release the throttle, they rise then gradually fall. Most noticeable between 1st & 2nd, exacerbated by a 1st gear that's very low of ratio (my friend sets off in 2nd gear in his). Not a big deal if you don't mind sounding like a learner driver or concentrating hard to drive it smoothly, but it does irritate me all the time & I reckon will shorten the clutch life unless you change gear very slowly or release the accelerator early when changing gear. I've driven my friends, spoken to the dealers & they're all the same, so try before you buy! Dealers agreed they're strange but said they're set up for inexperienced drivers & to enable low emissions, may be fixed by a software update at a later date. To be fair, it doesn't bother my friend's wife who drives his, he said she just "lives with it" & a lot of peoples' driving is best described as "rough & oblivious". What annoys her (and not me!) is the steering. It's relatively responsive & can't be described as "dead" but it does have a rather odd feel at the straight-ahead position & seems to allow it to wander. Final gripes are: They still haven't fixed a well known headlight adjuster switch problem, the panel lights all flicker, there's a fair bit of tyre noise (although the standard "Kumho" tyres stick like s*** to a blanket! Note some are fitted with energy saving Hankook tyres for some reason) & the suspension's pretty hard at times. Otherwise, handling is quite good. So, on to the positives:
Build quality is great, paintwork superb, seats good/comfy, stereo sounds good, heater & aircon work well, brakes very good, economy pretty good, although you've little chance of achieving claimed 61.4 overall claimed - best I've had when trying hard was 53mpg, usually hovers around 50 mpg, my last car was claimed as 54mpg & I usually got far more than that, so it's not me! It's quite fast - it does almost 90mph in 3rd gear & the generally high gearing means it's good at distances too. There's also tons of room for 5, I often have 5 folk in mine without any complaints but the boot is small - there's a storage compartment in my model under the boot carpet which is of limited use, makes the boot shallower & can't be removed easily. The engine's sweet & quiet but doesn't have a temperature gauge, why Hyundai have chosen to save 50p & omit including something so important is beyond me. Gearbox is also great & lever position is superb - on dash where it should be & isn't on most other cars. The engine is a very sophisticated piece of kit (all alloy, chain driven twin cam 16v, variable valve control etc etc) even the exhaust is made of stainless steel! So, overall, it's difficult to fault at the price, has a superb warranty package & will hold it's value as a result. It's better in most respects than it's main competitor the Fiat Panda, but sadly, it doesn't drive as well & isn't anywhere near as likeable. I bought mine having tried both, my head said i10, my heart said Panda. The Panda's a bit like having a girlfriend that nobody else fancies - the sum total of it's parts don't stack up that well, but appearances deceive! The Hyundai impresses & ticks every box & yet it just doesn't do it for me, so I'm the sensible guy admiring what somebody else has got & nobody else seems to know why!

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