Motoring World The Resource Centre

Date: 01/05/2015 Page No: 52 Location: Main Circulation: 103000 Edition: National

52 I MOTORING WORLD I May 2015

Special Feature

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GLOBAL BRILLIANCE

Hyundai has become one of the few manufacturers that designs a single car for all its markets — and succeeds

Copyright of the article is with the publication

Designing a car is easy. In fact, designing one of those cars that goes up on

the bedroom wall of boys

is the easiest. It's got to look great, sound great and go like it's tail is on

fire. Designing a car for the masses is a little more difficult, because it

has to have space but not look like a box on wheels. It has to be practical

and thoughtful but be inexpensive. And the designers have to do this two

years before the car actually goes on sale. Then, think of the designers at

Hyundai who designed the Verna.

They designed a car that would be

sold in markets as varied as the USA, Europe and India, and they made it

one of the best-selling cars in all of the

markets that matter.

Those i20 tail-lamps are the prettiest tail-

lamps you'll see on a hatchback

anywhere

'Make in India' is a concept

that is promoted by the current

government, and car manufacturers are working towards it themselves.

However, back in the early 2000s, not everyone thought of India as a

global manufacturing hub — except

for Hyundai. Not only that, Hyundai promised India that the country

would get the same product every

There's so many premium and thoughtful touches in the Verna, it's hard to know where to begin

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THE i20 ACTIVE'S APPEAL BEGINS

WITH ITS DESIGN

other market got, so along the way

the India-market i20 was sold with a bewildering array of segment firsts:

a 1.4-litre petrol engine, a six-speed gearbox for the diesel, six airbags,

disc brakes all around... Some of these

features still aren't available on the competition's products.

It seems hard to top a story like

the i20's, but incredibly, the Verna

manages to do so with ease. It is sold in more markets than the i20, including the all-important US market. Not only that, it has consistently remained

among the top sellers in that market and India, where it remains the only car in its segment to ignore the excise

benefits offered by engine size and

still remains one of the best sellers. The i20's appeal begins with its

design. When it ousted the Getz, it was

a big leap of faith for Hyundai because

it let go of the 'Getz' name which was

a trusted one, and that's never easy for a manufacturer to do. It means starting

from scratch again — except, in the i20's case, it just picked up where the

Getz left off, and then took off, as far

as sales are concerned. It was modern, it was full of features, and with that diesel engine coupled with the six-speed gearbox, it went quicker than

any of the petrols in the segment — it had performance that was truly global.

The fluidic Verna may have

retained the name of its predecessor, but what changed was everything else. It didn't look the same, either on the inside or the outside. It changed for

the best, though, and the market loved

it. It was fresh, it was modern and more importantly, it never let go of the

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Look, ma, no tail pipe! The Verna

has some design elements that

few others can pull off

things that made it a favourite — the

long list of features (including first-in-class features like diamond-cut alloy

wheels), safety, powerful yet efficient

engines, especially the diesel, which offered refinement that rivalled some

petrol-powered cars. Despite those

great looks and a coupe-like roofline, it never ignored the rear seat occupant,

cosseting them with lots of legroom

and fine leather upholstery. The i20's design has grown

up even more since then, with the

second-generation Elite i20 looking

like it came out of Europe. And it has

— it's been designed at Russelheim, Germany, at Hyundai's design facility. The front has gotten more aggressive yet pretty all at the same time. From

the side, the silhouette hasn't changed much but at the rear, the Elite i20

can make you go weak in the knees. Those triple-barrel tail-lamps have

not usually been associated with something with a Hyundai badge on

it, but we're coming to accept that

great designs are becoming the norm with Hyundai. Kia, Hyundai's other

brand, proved it a while ago, and the

lessons learned are being brought to the masses with the likes of the Elite

i20 and Verna. However, Hyundai isn't content to

rest on its laurels. It isn't a matter of just staying ahead of the competition;

to truly progress you need to challenge

yourself. That is something that Hyundai has done over and over

again. The Fluidic Verna is still a very

current, modern design, but Hyundai chose to update it yet again with the

'Fluidic Sculpture' design philosophy

to give us the 4S Fluidic Verna. Look in the mirror at the current Verna,

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and you have to look really hard to

realise that it isn't a Sonata or Elantra following you — that's how much

of a difference the update has made. The chrome grille, the creases on the

bonnet, the LED-effect tail-lamps, the hidden exhaust tip, they're all design

elements that elevate the sophistication of the already good-looking Verna.

Oh, and they've retained that alloy wheel design that nobody else has

put on their segment competitors,

even a year-and-a-half after Hyundai

introduced them on the Verna. The Elite i20 may be plenty good-

looking, but Hyundai has been hard

at work with it as well, constantly looking for ways to elevate its design.

You see the result on these pages — the i20 Active. It's called that because it is a crossover hatchback, meaning active people (this means you!) can go a lot further off the beaten path than

the Elite i20 would allow. This also

means that in traffic, the people who come closer to admire the i20 Active

will stay at arm's length because of the aggression in the design — a

useful feature for the commute, no

doubt. Where the Elite i20 is a pretty car, the i20 Active is one with more

aggressive good looks than prettiness.

The new bumpers contribute a lot towards this, with the front offering

a silver faux skid plate-cum-bullbar and big, round fog lamps. The matte

black plastic additions on the side in the form of a faux running board, wheel arch extensions, and rub strips

for the doors also offer hints that the i20 Active won't shy away from an

excursion off tarmac. Finally, the large rear bumper picks up where the front

bumper left off, with a faux silver skid plate and a matte black lower half

with big round lighting elements that house the reversing lamp and reflector.

The i20 Active takes the design a step ahead with exuberant contrasting colours that liven things up

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HYUNDAI COMPETES ON EVERY SINGLE PARAMETER WITHOUT COMPROMISING ON ANYTHING The i20 Active takes the alloy wheel

design one step ahead — these are

truly wheels that any car a class above would be proud to be wearing.

And judging from their 16-inch rim diameter, that's probably true because

most sedans a class above also run 15-

inch rims. The Elite i20 and i20 Active

are the only hatchbacks that have a

rim size equivalent to global markets — more evidence that Hyundai

treats the Indian market the same as any other.

On the inside, the i20 twins have

enough space and quality to compete

with the best, whether it is kneeroom or boot space that is being discussed.

The goodies don't stop here; there is a 1GB hard drive on which you can

load your music. There's no need to

carry any other media device along.

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That's not to say that there aren't other

options; discreet aux-in and USB ports

are available, and pair your phone via

Bluetooth, and the excellent steering-mounted controls can play your

favourite tracks right from your phone

with no trouble at all.

The Indian car buyer is one of

the hardest nuts to crack. He wants everything in his car — efficiency,

power, good looks, space, reasonable service costs... everything — because

it is the most expensive thing he'll ever

purchase. Hyundai competes on every

single one of those parameters without

compromising on anything, and that makes it a truly global manufacturer.

It may 'Make in India', but sit in a Hyundai 4S Fluidic Verna or an i20

Active, and you could be sitting in a

Hyundai anywhere on the planet.

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