Opinion: Rental Hyundai i20

I thought I'd give my opinion on the rental car I've had the last 2-3 weeks, since my ride went in for repairs at Driving Range Panelbeaters, in Stikland. Yet again I was referred to Tempest Car Hire, in Bellville, who issued a silver Hyundai i20 into my care. As always - I received great service from both the panelbeater and the rental company.

I must say, its quite a step up from my 2006 Tata Indica 1.4 LSi. Weird was the fact that both rides are Silver in colour. My son got quite a kick out of it. The specific one I was offered was a 1.4i manual, upholstered seats, with roughly 24'000kms done already.

The first difference I noted when I got into the car was the seats - the driver seat offered a LOT MORE support than the Tata's church bench styled ones. It could adjust in multiple ways - offering me my ideal driving position. For me, being quite a big guy, it was a very great surprise. Next up I noticed the steering wheel height could be adjusted. A very nice touch, I must say. Then I noticed the buttons per the steering wheel - gadgets are always welcomed here! LOL!

With the seating position out of the way I scouted my surroundings and immediately noticed the electric windows and side mirror options. Also part of the panel was a button to "collapse" the side mirrors - protecting them from harm when parking - Nice!

Then I moved over to the centre console. This housed most features needing verification, such as airflow and temperature settings, the radio, cd player and unique centre display. At first I was looking for the trip features under the dials (rev counter and speedometer), but noticed the centre display shows most of these info along with the selected radio channel (or song per cd) currently playing. Also of interest was the date and outside temperature, quite a nice touch. I also found that I could select the current tank capacity, estimated distance on current tank, current litres/100kms, and such. The sound quality is real good - and offers a place for an auxilliary- or USB plug under the console.

The manual 5-speed gearbox proved to be quite solid - and steering felt quite responsive. The car is quite nippy in traffic and the more you drive it, the more your confidence grows in it. If you have the time to look under the speedometer, the ride would advise you to select the following gear in the sequence! Imagine that! I think its marked as per most economical point to change gear in normal daily driving traffic (i.e. 2nd = 10kms/h, 3rd = 30kms/h, 4th = 50kms/h, 5th = 60kms/h).

Furthermore the car offers automatic central locking when the car reaches 30kms/h and will give a constant warning when especially the two front seats are occupied, and no seatbelts are in use. The bootspace is larger than expected for a hatchback - and will easily allow the family's bags or weekly grocery shopping!

One thing I struggled with on my selected model was the rear window wiper... it just didn't want to activate when needed.

But overall, the ride and build quality on this car is fantastic. But comparing the price difference on my Tata to the i20 - what did you expect?