Hyundai i20 (2008) CAR review and video

Hyundai is brimming with confidence over its new i20 supermini. The firm asked buyers of the Getz – the model the i20 replaces – what they didn’t like about their car. Unsurprisingly, the wallowy handling, stodgy steering and noisy ride all featured. With the i20, Hyundai reckons it’s gone a long way towards righting those wrongs, hence its buoyancy.

Hyundai didn’t exactly forge new frontiers when they produced the Getz. Is the i20 any different?

Unlike the Korean designed and engineered Getz, the i20 has been conceived and developed at the firm’s Euro HQ in Germany. It’s longer, lower and wider than the Getz and has a far more modern, understandably European appearance. It’s not striking like the new Ford Fiesta but it can certainly hold its head up against the likes of the Mazda 2, Seat Ibiza and Vauxhall Corsa.

Those are the looks. How does it fare elsewhere?

In build quality terms, it continues the recent Korean trend of high quality. Even though the cars we tested were pre-production models, panel gaps were tight and the interior was well finished too.

The i20 will be built in India and the technology in Hyundai’s factories there doesn’t allow it to use some of the soft touch plastics the company would have liked. But the scratchy stuff has been kept to a minimum. The dash won’t win awards for originality but the buttons are clear and it’s unlikely to date dramatically.

Scroll down the page to the embedded player below to watch Hyundai's uneditted footage of the i20

Click 'Next' below to read more of our Hyundai i20 first drive