Hyundai i10 Review 2023

If you want a small car but don’t want to compromise on quality or comfort, the i10 will fit the bill perfectly for you. It may be classed as a city car but it offers more space than others like the Volkswagen Up and in fact it can easily rival bigger stuff like a Ford Fiesta.

It’s also good to drive with well-weighted steering. That means it’s easy enough to park at low speed, but not so totally devoid of feel at higher speeds that it feels like you’re driving a clown car. But its best feature is the excellent ride quality which makes the i10 incredibly comfortable. 

Hyundai as a brand is certainly on the up and the sharp design of this i10 means it’s a car we’d be proud to have sat on the driveway.

There’s no shortage of good city cars on the market with the Volkswagen Up regarded by us as the best and that’s certainly the benchmark (see also SEAT Mii and Skoda Citigo), although we’d argue the i10 is better value for money and offers more space. However, the Up is more fun to drive.

If it’s a long warranty you want, consider the Kia Picanto or Toyota Aygo but both are older designs than the i10. After something cheaper and a little quirky? Have a look at the Suzuki Ignis, although the interior is not a match for the i10 in terms of quality. Unless you are still living in 1985.

While the Hyundai i10 doesn’t have much in the way of soft touch plastics, the materials used don’t look or feel cheap. It’s on a par with cars like the Volkswagen Up in those stakes. In fact we’d go as far to say that the i10 is nicer inside with less exposed metal and a more ‘big car’ feel.

If you still have any notions that Hyundai is a budget brand, think again. The i10 is really impressive inside especially if you go for a Premium trim model, which gets nicer details inside such as a honeycomb 3D effect on the large dash panel, privacy glass plus heated seats and a heated steering wheel - rare things to find on a city car let along as standard.

Adding to the quality feel of the Hyundai i10 you’ll find that doors close with a satisfying thud and all the controls work with neat precision. Features like the soft leather on the steering wheel and gear lever - standard on all models - only enhance this.

The standard Hyundai i10 SE comes with a DAB stereo with Bluetooth which does the job, although it only has two speakers and a small 3.8-inch black and white display. If you’re going to be doing more than listening to The Archers, the i10 SE Connect and Premium models get a big 8.0-inch colour touchscreen with a bright and sharp display. It’s bigger than anything else you’ll find in a city car. You also get two more speakers in the back so everyone can enjoy Ed Sheeran with you. 

The screen is mounted high on the dash so it’s easy to glance at without taking your eyes off the road for too long. The system is easy to use and the ‘touch’ bit is responsive, so it’s not frustrating or crash-inducing when trying to navigate menus. 

Usefully, there are still buttons and controls around the display, so getting to the right menu is a doddle. We also like the standard old school volume knob rather than anything more complicated, it makes turning up (or down) what the kids want to listen to on the school run much less stressful...

The other great feature in the i10 is Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. You can control your phone through the touchscreen and listen to podcasts, music on Spotify, books Audible and use navigation apps such as Google Maps or Waze. It’s standard on all but the SE.

Measuring 3670mm in length, 1480mm in height and 1680mm in height, It may be classed as a city car, but the i10 feels more like the bigger Ford Fiesta in terms of passenger space. It’s very roomy, especially for elbow and shoulder room. You’re not going to get five burly rugby players in here, but Hyundai does say you can fit five adults in, although we’d suggest that would be quite a squeeze…

The rear seats are usable though and that’s especially handy when it comes to fitting a car seat. It means you can have a Group 1/2/3 car seat in the back and still have just enough space for someone in the front. However, if you’ve got a rear-facing seat, it’s going to be tight for room.

The Isofix points in the back are hidden away so it’s fiddly to fit a car seat, but once in, the headrest is easy to move up out of the way. Most usefully, you can easily get the seatbelt in the buckle, something we’ve found impossible in cars like the larger Mazda 2.

There’s decent storage in the i10 with a handy tray for phones and wallets in front of the gear lever, plus another above the glovebox, which has plenty of room for odds and ends such as ice scrapers or those sweets you’ll forget about for several months. There are also spacious door pockets and even two cupholders, even if they are a bit shallow.

The official boot capacity is 252 litres which is on a par with the Kia Picanto although neither are as good as the Ford Ka+ with 270 litres. The one thing you’ll notice is that the boot is very deep and not very long. 

There’s no adjustable boot floor either but you can fit a surprising amount in the i10 easily enough with room for a three-figure supermarket shop. You will struggle with a pushchair unless it’s a particularly compact design. The other oddity here is the parcel shelf which doesn’t flip up with the tailgate and can get in the way.

The Hyundai i10 was launched with two petrol engines. There’s no mild hybrid or similar in the line up and no EV either, unlike rivals such as the Skoda Citigo and SEAT Mii. 

The most popular engine you’ll find is the 1.0 MPi which we think is the perfect choice for the i10. Its 67PS may not be much to tweet about, but thanks to the fact it’s a three-cylinder engine, it has plenty of get up and go, making it nippy away from a standstill and ideal for around town.

The one fly in the ointment here is that you may find it a little strained at motorway speeds. Not that most people will buy an i10 for its motorway prowess, but if you do intend to spend the majority of the time rocking the national speed limit , the four-cylinder 1.2-litre with 84PS is the better choice.

Both engines come with a five-speed manual gearbox as standard which has a nice positive shift. As an option, there’s an automated manual transmission or AMT, which costs an extra £500. 

A lot of small cars are fitted with similar gearboxes instead of a ‘proper’ automatic, mainly because they are lighter and cheaper. The problem is they are sluggish and jerky, making for a less than pleasant driving experience. The i10 auto is the same so we’d stick with the manual, unless you must have an automatic.

The Hyundai i10 feels more refined and is quieter than many other city cars. A lot more in fact. There’s better insulation from road noise than many others. As we’ve mentioned, it’s more than a match for cars in the class above, stuff like the Suzuki Swift. There’s not much wind noise and even at motorway speeds, the little i10 feels like a bigger car. 

The 1.0-litre MPi engine is smooth and quieter than many other three-cylinder engines, such as the Aygo, C1 and 108. It still has a zesty and keen character that makes it fun. One thing we did notice occasionally is that the engine can seem to bog down a little, so you might need to give it more revs when pulling away. 

It’s no surprise that the 1.2-litre is smoother (thanks to the extra cylinder) and so it doesn’t need to be worked as hard, for instance when joining a fast-flowing dual carriageway (rare these days) from a short slip road. 

City cars have come a long way in recent years and are no longer the basic A to B transport they once were. The i10 comes with what Hyundai labels ‘SmartSense’ safety features and it certainly boasts a comprehensive list.

As standard, all Hyundai i10 models come with a host of acronyms. There’s FCAA or Forward Collision-Avoidance Assist which uses a camera at the front to detect other cars and also pedestrians and cyclists. It will warn you if an impact is imminent and automatically brake if the driver doesn’t.

There is also Hyundai’s e-call system, which will call the emergency services if you’re unfortunate enough to be in an accident and the airbags are deployed.

The i10 is fitted with high-beam assist, which automatically dips the main beams when another car is approaching or it detects streetlamps. Other features that are rare in the city car class include a TPMS tyre pressure monitoring system and hill-start assist control.

Of course there is also all the standard safety equipment you’d expect such as electronic stability control (ESC), plus front, front side and curtain airbags. There are two Isofix child seat mounting points in the back and a mount for a top tether, although it’s not that obvious at first glance.

This Hyundai i10 hasn’t been crash tested by Euro NCAP yet the two previous models both achieved a four-star rating so we’d expect this model to gain five stars given the level of active safety kit that comes as standard. There’s no spare wheel in the new i10, there’d be no room in the boot, so instead you get a tyre repair kit. Fortunately, Hyundai’s five-year warranty includes roadside assistance.

Hyundai performs exceedingly well in the annual Honest John Satisfaction Index, coming third in the latest survey. A number of its models were also rated some of the most reliable used cars you can buy, suggesting you should have very few issues with the little i10.

The i10 makes a decent first car thanks to the fact it’s cheap to run, although insurance ratings have gone up compared to the old model which was group 2A.

The Hyundai i10 SE and SE Connect with the 1.0-litre MPi engine are now a group 5A, with the AMT automated manual model classed as a group 3A. The takeaway: it’s more expensive to insure.

Compare this to other cars such as the Ford Ka+, Smart Forfour and Volkswagen Up which are all Group 1E and it would make a big difference in the price of insurance for a young driver who has just passed their test. 

This generation i10 was first launched in early 2020 so you’ll pay £150 a year for your VED regardless of what model you choose. No model in the i10 line-up emits more than 130g/km of CO2 so the first year VED rate for every model in the range is £175.

If you’re looking at the Hyundai i10 as a company vehicle, the SE is the most affordable with a 25% BIK rate while the SE Connect with the 1.2-litre engine is 27%.

While the Hyundai i10 SE comes with all the basics, the SE Connect is the model to go for, if only because it gets the proper colour touchscreen (the black and white one is very 90's…) and includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto plus adds two more speakers in the rear. 

SE Connect replaces the basic steel wheels with proper 15-inch alloys and adds features like the rearview camera but if you want all singing and dancing, the Premium is really impressive.

It gets luxuries like heated front seats and even a heated steering wheel, something that’s rare in many high-end premium cars let alone small city runarounds. It also adds front fog lights, LED daytime running light, rear privacy glass and 16-inch alloys. Do you need all these? 

Not really, but if you thought like that you’d be driving the same car as Fred Flintstone. So if you can find a Hyundai i10 Premium model that’s not much more expensive than an SE Connect, it’s well worth it.

There aren’t many options, but the metallic paint at £550 is something you should expect on most used models, although the £500 two tone roof is much rarer and not worth paying extra for.

Another rarity is the additional Tech Pack which was a hefty £1000 option when new. This adds navigation, LIVE services, a wireless charging pad, Bluelink and Intelligent Speed Limit Warning System. Again, we wouldn’t be paying extra for this on a used car.