Test Drive - Hyundai i20 CRDi Asta - Interiors

Hyundai launched the much awaited i20 in January this year. The 1.2 Kappa engine quickly collected reviews of being under powered in the bigger i20, and if Hyundai seriously wanted to steal Fabia's and Swift's thunder, a more powerful engine was unmistakably the fix.

Recently, Hyundai launched two more variants of the i20 - the 1.4 petrol Automatic and the much awaited 1.4 CRDI in India. Hyundai sent us the top-end i20 CRDi Asta and we'll be talking about it for the rest of the week.

Hyundai i20 CRDi Asta - Interiors and Dashboard

This is as well thought out and laid out interior. It is as good as it gets. The twin color theme using chocolate brown and beige rewards this car a distinct personality. Easy-to-read dials, comprehensive instrumentation along with a trip computer neatly housed at eye level are the best bits.

A very ergonomically sized steering wheel is placed with buttons for the stereo. Steering wheel is made from rich plastics and the leather wrap offers you support and grip. Adjustable for height and reach, the car is ready for a driver of any size.

Hyundai has designed the A.C vents intelligently opening out a lot of usable area on the dashboard. By making them long, a trendy look is obtained - form and function equally present.

The climate control has a neat display reading out variables like fan speed, modes using eye-friendly graphics. The factory fitted stereo has AUX, USB and iPod connectivity and the regular CD, radio functions by default. The  sound quality is very good, better that the Fabia and the Swift's speakers. Track and album titles were projected on the main MID, which educates passengers on the music that you prefer.

Rather than having a for-the-sake-of-having goggle holder near the front roof lamp, Hyundai provides a shelf with shutter below the stereo. This can also be used to keep items like a cell phone, pen or coins.

What’s missing here is the double horn; the i20 has a single horn system which was not sounding good or loud. All the control switches worked as they were meant to and we had no problem with the ergonomics. We have been missing one thing on many of the cars is the retractable mirrors (self folding electric mirrors) and we are delighted to find this convenience on the i20.

The glove box is more like a store room, we haven’t seen such a big glove box on any cars we have driven so far, and that includes the Mercs, Skodas and the Audi. This is huge and we believe it can swallow a complete laptop which we would be trying tomorrow in daylight This area is cooled internally and the lid to this opens progressively.

Door pockets are present but cannot accommodate bottles or fat items. There are bottle/can holders between the 2 front seats. Sadly no door pockets on the rear doors but a map pocket is present behind the front seat.

Today's verdict -

The dashboard looks like it came from a car several segments higher. For this price, the dashboard quality and practicality does not get any better. Electrically retractable mirrors are not common in this league. The sound quality is crisp and the steering wheel looks like a Honda's.

So far, this is looking very very good.

The i20 is hot, and we are sure that many of our readers who would want to know more about its strengths and weaknesses. Tomorrow's article deals with the boot, seats and comfort. Cya then!