The grille, in the Hyundai family style, is now bigger and more three-dimensional. Not much else happens until you get to the rear where there’s a new grey-plastic lower section emphasising width. The lights are more jewelled too. Standard facelift stuff, but it does manage to make it look classier.
Light and direct steering makes things feel nice and agile, the impression boosted by strong constraint of body roll and understeer. But the suspension can get bouncy at times, with a suspicion of diagonal pitching on a bumpy bend, and there’s not a whole lot of feedback through the wheel.
The i20’s facelift brought no substantial changes to the cabin of the 2014 car. Since that was launched we’ve had the funky Citroen C3 and Nissan Micra, colourful and roomy Seat Ibiza, and a generational shift of Fiesta. In that context, the i20’s all-black design and conservative shapes are entirely forgettable.
On the other hand, you would remember ugliness and infelicitous ergonomics. The i20 avoids those pitfalls. At the root of its blandness is an efficient and useable layout.
The wheel, pedals and gearlever are in the right place, though the narrow-backed driver’s seat will undermine the driving position if you’re broad-shouldered. The clocks are clear, the stalks nicely graspable, the climate is controlled by proper knobs and buttons, and outward visibility is pretty open.
The plastics are all hard and the cubbies are don’t have soft linings so anything you put there will rattle about. But assembly quality is accurate
19°C