The i20 is a car which can be overlooked when considering the most important models in the global B segment. It shouldn’t be. Hyundai is on course to sell around 140,000 units of this five-door hatchback in India this year and more than 100,000 in Europe.
Designed to offend no-one, that philosophy remains for the i20 – enhanced even – after a recent minor facelift. And who can blame Hyundai for leaving the car’s looks mostly alone? Vanilla has great appeal to a lot of people who just want a small hatchback which doesn’t cost much to run or insure.
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Europe’s list of the top ten best selling B segment hatches – Polo, Clio, Fiesta, 208, Yaris, C3, Corsa, Sandero, Fabia and Ibiza, plus the pricier Mini and Audi A1 – excludes the i20. That won’t worry Hyundai Motor Europe (HME) one bit as it is more than happy with almost 70,000 sales of the car to the end of August. Every example will likely have been sold with a tidy profit and you can’t say that about each of the i20’s rivals.
Building the i20 in India and Turkey is how Hyundai makes the business case for this model. There is no production in South Korea, nor is the car available there. HME supplements the i20 with a slightly more expensive three-door which it sells as the i20 Coupé and the i20 Active, a version of the five-door with two things which are higher: the ride height and version-for-version pricing elevated by around GBP2,000. Having seen the success enjoyed by HME, Ford has borrowed Hyundai’s suffix for its own competitor, the Fiesta Active.
All-petrol line-up
Hyundai offers the i20 with a selection of petrol engines but no diesels. The base unit is a 75PS 1.2 which costs from GBP13,995. This is followed by an 84PS version of the same engine plus a turbocharged 1.0-litre which produces 100PS and can also be ordered with Hyundai Motor Group’s own seven-speed dual clutch gearbox. The last of these is the combination I tried. There is also a 120PS version of the three-cylinder turbo which comes solely with manual transmission. Priced at GBP18,425, that’s the dearest variant.
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By GlobalDataIt’s coming up for two years since I last drove an i20. That one had the same engine but back then there was no DCT option. The new gearbox makes a big difference, masking a relative lack of torque. It’s not perfect though. The compromise is less refinement than what’s normal for a torque converter transmission. This manifests during parking when the lack of creep means you’ll be using the handbrake and left pedal to prevent rolling into adjacent cars. There can be uncomfortable seconds wondering if the biting point has been reached as you ease off the brake pedal. Occasionally, there will be an abrupt shunt on downchanges from speed too.
The upside of a DCT in a small car is better economy than what’s possible with a heavier torque converter transmission and so it proves in this case. The i20 averaged almost 50mpg and on a trip to Cornwall that rose into the 50s sticking to the 70mph limit of the M5.
You would grow to admire the i20 for the spaciousness and handiness of its interior too. It has a typical Hyundai look with blue lighting, much dark grey and black plastic (most of it the hard stuff), a deep cubby bin behind the handbrake, two USB sockets in the centre console, decent sized door bins and large windows. The back isn’t as squeezy as the exterior looks suggest and what’s more, the doors open to a wide angle, easing egress and entry.
The facelift and new transmission definitely lift the appeal of the i20 in a segment rammed with rivals. Handily cheaper – although not that much cheaper – than a Polo, it’s obvious why the word about its abilities continues to spread.
Life cycle
Now that the i20 has had a facelift, there aren’t likely to be any more major changes. The platform has only been around since 2015, so HMG will inevitably use the same architecture when it comes time to replace the IB series i20. That should happen in early 2021, India likely being the first market, with cars for Europe likely landing here by the middle of that year.
