What comes to your mind when I say Hyundai. Whole bunch of gizmos, great design,
comfort, maybe a little bit of luxury, but what about driving dynamics? That's
something that we never talk about with Hyundai in the same breath, do we? That, changes today.
Alright then, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first ever Hyundai car with a sporty edge and
that's not something that we regularly associate with the Korean automaker, but this is a new
chapter that I'm personally quite excited by. Now, I know why you guys are here, you want to know how
this drives, so we're going to skip all the exterior and interior bits cause we've already
talked about in the walkaround video that's already live on our YouTube channel, of course
we're going to talk about it a little later, but we're going to go straight to how this drives,
starting, of course, with that engine under the bonnet.
But I like my bad news first and that's exactly how I'm going to do it for this video too.
The engine is exactly the same as the standard hatchback, but that's what the
N line is all about. So you get that, 1.0-litre, three-cylinder turbocharged engine, you get 120hp
under your right foot and it isn't very brisk, but it's sort of, it's powerful enough to keep
you happy at almost every circumstance. That said, that's not what the N line is about. Yes,
you've got those visual bits and the inside and outside are different, but
Hyundai has also tuned the chassis of this car to make it a lot nicer to drive and that's where
the differences really start to become noticeable.
Okay, first things first, let's talk about the suspension setup, cause Hyundai has tom-tomed that
all around the place and talk about how much stiffer it is, how much nicer it is,
so is it any different on, well, on tarmac as compared to
the 30% difference that they've talked about on paper? Yes, it is!
For starters, it is definitely stiffer, it feels a lot more confident
on highway speeds and that's been an Achilles heel for Hyundai, remember? All those memes
about how boaty Hyundai cars in general ought to drive, this negates all that nonsense in one
nice sweeping shot. This feels pliant, it feels comfortable, but it feels really really solid,
it feels planted, it feels German and that's a massive, massive accomplishment for Hyundai.
Now, over some slightly bad roads or potholes, you might feel the car a little bit too stiff, but
that's a good thing because that stiffness over bad roads translates to very, very good driving
feedback and I've driven it fast on highways, I've driven it on some twisty roads really quickly and
this feels really, really nice to drive. It feels like a different car as compared to the standard
i20 and that's what the N line is all about. Small tweaks to make this a different experience,
a slightly sportier experience, for that petrolhead audience that exists in India today.
The other change, of course, is the steering feedback. Now steering is much stiffer,
and that again is very unlike Hyundai because on the normal car,
it's light and easy to drive in the city, but these weighs up well,
it feels very, very confident, you can get into corners really fast, you won't feel the lack of
confidence that you would on some other hatchbacks that they make at higher speeds especially,
and on the whole, that suspension, this steering, this chassis can take so much more.
You know what,
that 1.0-litre engine, Hyundai might not tune it out of the factory, but I can guarantee you
there is somebody in India already working on solutions
and there are solutions available in general, I'm guessing, internationally for this engine
to bump up the power. I don't think it should be very difficult to make
maybe 30 odd more horsepower from this and that would really make this car an absolute fire.
Along the other things that Hyundai has really talked about is that exhaust note. And yes,
it's slightly raspier than the standard version, slightly louder, but it's not
inside the car, it's definitely not noticeable and even outside, it doesn't feel that much louder
than the standard car. It's not something you can show-off your friends, or something that people
will notice when you drive past them. Yes, on the downshift on the inside, especially if you have
the music completely turned off, you can hear that bit of grumble and bit of rumble once in a while,
but it's not a big difference. Should you put an aftermarket exhaust on it? Of course you should.
Not that it's illegal but, well, you can have a little bit of fun anyways, isn't it?
So, now that we know how it drives, let's quickly talk about what's been changed otherwise.
First things first, Hyundai has done a damn good job of visually differentiating the N line
with the normal car, something other automakers have failed to do in the past.
This alone will bring in buyers as you get a set of very cool new and more aggressive bumpers,
side skirts, cool new wheels, a spoiler and those dual exhausts and specially for India,
apparently, you get those red accents too.
The changes are on the inside as well. A set of new
seats with black leatherette and red accents all around, a new steering wheel too, one that feels
as chunky as a nice big bar of Toblerone, and red ambient lighting and coloured plastic bits.
And then the fact that you get a cabin that is Packed to the Rafters with tech,
like that big touchscreen, the digital instrument cluster or the plethora of connected car apps,
all help make it a very, very good package offering its money's worth in 2021.
And that brings us to our verdict should you buy one or not?
Well, considering the fact that this is only about Rs. 50,000 more than the standard car,
I think it's a no brainer. You have better looking front bumpers and rear bumpers, you've
got an infinitely better-looking set of wheels, you've got this cool overall design on the outside
that makes your car look a lot cooler, you've got these nice, cool interiors, you've got a suspension
setup that genuinely, genuinely has impressed me. Great steering feedback, a decent engine with some
potential, nice automatic gearbox, a whole bunch of tech on the inside. 15,000 bucks
more? I'd pay for that! And I'd pay for that and I'd ask you to pay and get one of these so that,
when Hyundai sells enough of these, they can eventually get the i20 N which of course,
is the full blown, red blooded, hairy chested, hot hatchback, so everybody who's a
complete fan and fanatic of fast fast small cars can go and buy those. Until then though, we'd have
to be content with the N line and this isn't the only one that Hyundai will launch in India.