2014 Hyundai i10 1.0 first drive

The new Hyundai i10 is the successor to a city car that has played an important role in the Korean manufacturer’s growth over the past half a decade.

During the life of the current i10, which has been on sale for five years and in turn replaced the Atoz introduced in 1999, Hyundai’s market share in Europe’s competitive A-segment has grown from 3.3 per cent to 5.6 per cent.

The i10 is currently Hyundai’s biggest seller in the UK and accounted for nearly one-third of the firm’s 74,000 sales last year.

However, Hyundai believes there are more conquests to be had. Industry analysts predict the city car category could grow by 25 per cent to 1.6 million units by 2016, which makes it vital for Hyundai’s i10 to remain competitive and contemporary against a glut of talented rivals such as the Volkswagen Up (not to mention equivalents from Seat and Skoda) and Fiat Panda.

Hence the arrival of this new i10 – which will go on sale in the UK as a five-door only – is predicted to capture 6.4 per cent of the European city car market in 2014, its first full year on sale.

The Hyundai i10’s price will start from £8345, narrowly undercutting the entry-level five-door VW Up’s list price of £8560, and on a par with the Up’s sibling, the Skoda Citigo.

Two petrol engine variants are available, a 1.0-litre and a 1.2-litre petrol, and three trim levels: S, SE and Premium.

Here we sample the i10 in Premium 1.0 equipped with a manual gearbox. In the UK the smaller-capacity engine is expected to account for about 60 per cent of i10 sales, with the majority of buyers opting for well-specified cars.

The derivative we tested costs £9995, and adds 14in alloys, Bluetooth connectivity with voice recognition, a multi-function steering wheel, LED daytime running lights, front fog lamps, rear audio speakers and door mirror indicators to the i10’s fairly healthy standard specification. Satnav isn’t included as standard equipment on any of the trim levels.

Unlike its predecessor, the new-generation i10 is a European car through and through. Based upon an all-new platform, it was designed and engineered at Hyundai’s technical centre in Rüsselsheim, Germany, and comes off the company’s recently expanded production line in Ízmit, Turkey.

Hyundai has set about improving the car’s desirability for European buyers via measures such as offering more space, making the design more appealing and improving the ride, handling and NVH qualities.

The car feels exceptionally grown-up for a city car. In most cars of this ilk, the thrum of the three-pot engine creates a characterful soundtrack that can become tiresome on longer journeys. In the i10, the isolation of engine noise in the cabin is excellent; you have to press on with some degree of aggression before the 998cc triple sounds at all harsh. There’s also little in the way of external wind noise thanks to a low drag coefficient and some detailed aerodynamic refinement, such as careful sculpting of the wing mirror mounts.

A 0-62mph time that only just dips under 15.0sec might suggest that this i10 variant holds little in store for the enthusiastic driver. While the 998cc engine might be lacking in accelerative urge, it delivers what power it has very smoothly.