Flying around in the Hyundai i20

LIVING on a small island on the extreme western seaboard of Europe, most bulky items that are offered for sale here have to come by sea.

Every time I see a car transporter carrying new cars to a local garage I am reminded of the various species of geese I see every morning in green areas along the Grand Canal feeding furiously after making their long journey to Ireland.

However, unlike the birds that come from the North of Europe, the cars tend to come from warmer locations and of course they won’t be going back home in the autumn.

This week’s test car – the Hyundai i20 – was made in Turkey. It’s not in the least bit bulky. In fact, it’s very neat and should help the Korean company to climb further up the new car sales graph, a graph which is expected to really grow this year.

The i20 has been described as a

‘super mini’ or a

‘mega-mini’. But I doubt if Hyundai want to use the word

‘mini’ at all as this is decent sized car in its own right. I’m not mad about car companies who use numbers to describe their car and find that names are simpler. However, Hyundai are not the worst offenders and they work from i10 up, so the i20 is their second smallest car.

This is a car that will challenge the likes of the Ford Fiesta, Renault Clio, Volkswagen Polo and the newly launched Opel Corsa. It’s a decent size and I reckon there is enough room in the back seat for three adults. There is also plenty of head and leg room for front and back seat passengers.

My test car was white and looked great for a few days. But the wind and rain in January meant that after a week I was driving a very dirty car. White and Ireland don’t really go hand and hand. There was only a limited amount of sunshine in January, but I was able to absorb any rays that came my way thanks to a full-length retractable sun roof.

The entry level 1.2 petrol version starts at

?¬15,995, while the entry level in the diesel is the 1.1-litre and that will cost you

?¬17,495. You may have noticed that most car companies are now really pushing PCP and in the case of the i20 the figure is

?¬169 per month.