Hyundai i10 test drive review

This is Hyundai’s third attempt at a small city car. The new i10 is the rival for the new VW Up and this one is bigger, better and posher than ever before.

So whilst their top spec version costs just over £10K with the optional winter pack, it comes with a heated steering wheel, cruise control, climate control and heated seats equipment you’d normally expect on a larger car. Hyundai hasn’t forgotten the basics either. The new i10 is more practical than before with space for a big water bottle in all four doors, space in the centre compartment to store your phone and a good size glove box. There is also room for four adults and it’s got the biggest boot for its class which will hold one litre more than the Volkswagen Up.



The old i10 was surprisingly fun to drive but it was a bit of a buzz box. However, with the updated model as soon as you get in you’ll notice that the refinement is really impressive. It’s really quiet thanks to extra seals in the doors and the larger seals used across the bulk head helps stop engine noise from coming through to the cabin. The i10 also rides really nicely. It’s quite soft – there’s a little bit of body-roll but that’s easily countered by supportive bucket-like seats. You’ll find the drive nice and compliant. If you find yourself driving over broken bits of tarmac you’ll find that the i10 rides like a much bigger car and we don’t mean a Ford Fiesta. So, despite being a lot more refined, it’s nice that the i10 is still quite good fun to drive. The turning circle is still very tight as you would expect for a little city car, but the steering has a little feel to it which is quite rare these days. The brakes are also really impressive. Although it’s a tiny little car it has brake discs at the front and the back. This helps make braking really powerful giving you a lot of confidence in their stopping power.



Hyundai has been quite clever in how they’ve used materials in the cabin. Everything that you touch the steering wheel, the plastic on switches, gear knob, handbrake all feel quite nice and posh, everything else is made from quite hard plastic. However the colour scheme is really well thought out so you don’t actually notice the hard plastic. You can have one of four matching colours to choose from inside which matches the exterior paintwork.

So not only is this the best i10 Hyundai has ever made but it might just be Hyundai’s best ever car, and that’s bad news for other car makers too because this is the first of 22 new Hyundais that are going to arrive over the next four years.
Why not compare the new i10 with the outgoing version. We have thousand of Hyundai i10’s available today!