[Vik0728]

Awesome report Samurai, Crisp and Concise.

Though I have been a loyal fan of Hyundai for a long time, my latest car purchase was a German. Personally, I feel that Hyundai products come across as a real VFM at the very first instant, but later start getting to a point of being a "Has been" sorts.

I think that Hyundai have really upped the game here by offering I20 Active. However, IMO this may only sell the way it has been positioned. "Premium" for the following reasons:

- 1lakh premium over the equivalent Elite model is just Extortion.

- Please correct me if I am wrong, but I20 Active SX costs more than Verna 1.4 CRDI (CX?) OTR Bangalore. No matter how good a hatch/cross is, in India Sedan commands a better face value, PERIOD !!

- Though it is too early to comment/judge, from Samurai's Driving experience, he did not notice any difference in the 1.4 CRDI engine. So basically, 1Lakh extra will get a Elite customer many cosmetic and few Mechanical changes.


Lastly, I am not a big fan of cross-overs/SUV's, but if I was asked to pick from the line up of Active, Cross Polo, Aventura, Etios Cross or Ecosport,..

..I will pick ECOSPORT with my eyes shut, Every single time.

[vivekn83]

I was eagerly waiting for this one thread.
This looks like a mixed bag to me personally, but would want to hear from someone on the gear ratios changes that Hyundai claims to have made on the i20 Active, especially on the CRDis.
Is it noteworthy and can it be changed on the older generations i20s as well would be interesting to know too.

[@KP]

Originally Posted by GTO

As Samurai mentioned, one purpose of the i20 Active is profits (I've already started calling this car the i20 Tatkal ).

Since the i20 Active petrol hasn't been launched in the top trim, it could be any one of the two points:

- The Elite i20 Asta petrol has an incredibly long waiting period. Thus, whatever production is there, it must serve the Elite i20 only.

OR

- The Elite i20 Asta petrol has no waiting period. Demand meets supply. What's the point of the Active then?

This is damn interesting! Are we saying that i20 Active will not have any waiting period?

[tjacob]

^^ I just checked with a KUN Hyundai dealer here in Hyd and they say the waiting period for the Asta petrol is over 2 months. They said the top variants have the highest waiting.


Nice review. I've been waiting for this almost a month.

The pricing for the Active is on the higher side, they've also removed important stuff (passenger airbag, acc,etc) from the petrol variants at least but the I personally like the effort Hyundai has put into their crossovers when compared to VW's Polo cross, which is badly done.

[RSR]

Thank you for an excellent, crisp & clear 5* review backed by nice pictures, Samurai! I've learnt all I need to know, without having to check the car in person.

I don't care much about the Active's additional cladding, other faux cross-roader bits and new interior highlights, but the 190mm GC is very welcome. Not that the Elite i20's 170mm isn't enough, but the additional 20mm gives one some peace of mind over bad roads, nasty speed breakers, steep entrance/exit ramps and other such unexpected oddities in everyday driving.

The other welcome area of improvement is the lighting. This was one of the only two areas where the new i20 lagged behind its predecessor with its lack of double-barrel headlamps and LED DRLs {the other happens to be the lack of an Asta(O) variant}. Although the Active may lack a rear fog lamp, it does better the i-gen by getting projector headlamps and cornering function for the fog lamps.

I assume the projectors are only for the low beam, while those conventional reflectors on the inside of the projectors are meant for the high beam. Is that correct?

The pricing does look too optimistic to me, especially for the diesel.

By the way, where was the test drive held? The terrain and flora give an idea that it may be a place somewhere in south-eastern Karnataka or southern Andhra Pradesh.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by RSR

I assume the projectors are only for the low beam, while those conventional reflectors on the inside of the projectors are meant for the high beam. Is that correct?

I didn't test it in i20 Active specifically. But I do own a car with projector lights, and it works as you have described. I'll be surprised if it behaved any differently on Active.

Originally Posted by RSR

By the way, where was the test drive held? The terrain and flora give an idea that it's a place somewhere in south-eastern Karnataka or southern Andhra Pradesh.

Neither, it was in southern Goa.

[aniketi]

I don't see any reason to buy i20 Active over Elite. Cost wise spending over 1 lac more is not worth it IMHO. Elite also looks smashing in colors like Red or White. Active looks little different, may be sporty as some will say. But feature wise or engine wise its almost same. Interiors are in fact better in normal Elite version with black & beige combo. Like other cross versions, i guess this car will also sell in very limited numbers. At least this looks better and not weird, something like Etios Liva Cross

[RSR]

A variant wise comparison of features of the Elite i20 & i20 Active on Hyundai's website yields the following:

1) All variants of the Active get the 20mm additional GC, roof rails, different bumpers with faux skid plates, plastic cladding and slightly thicker side door mouldings.

2) The Base variant of the Active roughly corresponds to the second lowest variant (Magna) on the Elite i20.

The Base Active loses the Bluetooth functionality, steering mounted audio controls & rear tweeters of the music system, along with electrically adjustable IRVMs found on the Elite Magna.

However, it gains auto down & up (with pinch guard) feature for the driver's power window. It also gets 15" alloys (with 185/65R15 tyres) in place of the 14" steel wheels (& 185/70R14 shoes) found on the Elite's Magna variant.

3) The S variant of the Active roughly corresponds to Sportz variant of the Elite.

The S gains projector headlamps, LED DRLs, cornering function, and 16" alloy wheels (with 195/55R16 footwear) in place of the Sportz' 14" steel wheels (& 185/70R14 shoes). However, it does lose the automatic climate control & its cluster ioniser, plus bits like leather wrap for the steering wheel & gear knob.

4) The top SX variant of the Active corresponds to the top Asta variant of the Elite, but does get the additional projectors, DRLs & cornering function.

Ignore the camouflage to see how the Base variant would look with its 185/65R15 tyres on "clean silver" alloys, normal reflector headlamps without DRLs & side indicators mounted on the fender (instead of the ORVMs):

[@KP]

For additional 1L, the following is offered -

1) 20 mm extra GC
2) DRL
3) Cornering fog-lamps
4) C-Pillar gloss finish instead of matte
5) Funky front-grille
6) Micro antenna (instead of regular one on the Elite i20)
7) Alloy spare wheel (instead of steel ones)
8) Extra cladding on the exterior
9) Sporty aluminium pedals
10) Sharp spoiler
11) Matt Roof-rails


IMO, not worth 1L. Go for Elite i20 Asta version and wait for those 2 months (even if you can't )

[miharbe]

So basically Hyundai has added some features from the Euro i20, raise the ground clearance by 20mm, gave some body cladding and raised the price by INR 100,000!

Can't see why Hyundai would have wanted to enter this segment when the segment itself has failed to take off! I dare say this might just be the first Hyundai hatchback to flop. I would really be interested to know the sales figures on this one.

This will probably cross the 10 lac barrier (on road price) and barring some novelty sales i dont see many people buying this.

I would go for the Ecosport for similar money!

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by Samurai

A welcome change! Our car had an alloy wheel spare (Elite i20 gives you a regular steel wheel instead):

First of all a superb and crisp review! Thank you. Second those pictures are very nice guess this is from your new machine. Really neutral color tone, loved it.

Coming to the car, i like the shape from front pretty proportionate and does not look out of place. Hope they keep the parts price esp the cosmetic bits similar to the elite and not charge a premium for this.

Spare seems to have been used, hope it is not the case of puncture and they put the alloy wheels in the car instead of the steel rims?

[gomzi]

Originally Posted by @KP

2) DRL
3) Cornering fog-lamps
4) C-Pillar gloss finish instead of matte
5) Funky front-grille
6) Micro antenna (instead of regular one on the Elite i20)
9) Sporty aluminium pedals
10) Sharp spoiler
11) Matt Roof-rails

Somehow I suspect a lot of the features in the i20 Active will see their way into the regular Elite i20 once sales orders die down a bit in 1-2 yrs, either as a minor facelift or as a new variant above existing ones.

The features selected below I think can be fitted into existing Elite i20's - with the exception of the front grille.

[GForce1980]

Meh. I didn't like the design at all, especially from the rear. Why didn't you consider the Ford Ecosport as a competitor? I think for the price, that is a much better buy.

[sandygordon]

Well sorry to bother fanboys of active / cross-over variants. The pic sums up my view on hatches and their pseudo-suv avatars, be it hyundai, fiat or toyota. Is a swift cross coming too ?

[Maverick1977]

I had visited one of the Hyundai stockyards on last Saturday and surprisingly there was an i20 Active standing right next to the Elite i20. I therefore got a good chance to see & compare both the cars side by side.
I personally felt that the (funky) blue upholstery didn't suit the overall persona of the car, others might beg to differ but then beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Also the projectors can be retrofitted for a mere 20K extra from the dealership itself, add 5K more for DRL's (am sure it will be cheaper outside).
Honestly I have never felt the need for DRL's in our country (come on there is ample sunshine, hilly regions might be a different story, so please excuse).
The extra cladding made it look slightly wacky when placed side by side with the Elite i20, especially since they were purely for aesthetic purposes. However being a typical Indian I am afraid that I might damage it on a speed breaker and am quite sure that replacement will be expensive. Also plastic part so unless you take Zero Dep policy, 50% money will come out of your pocket in case of replacement.

I am not sure how much an extra alloy wheel to go on to become a deal breaker. How many times have we used the spare wheel during the entire ownership period (hey is there a thread on this topic, if not can some one create it?)

The cost difference is too much for me to believe that people will up shift to this variant unless they want to drive something DIFFERENT! However if you want to be different on the road then the Avventura does the job in a much better fashion.

1 more point - The Elite i20 comes with Goodyear Assurance or Bridgestone from the factory. The Apollo's grace the i20 Active. May be they saved enough on the tyres to give that 5th alloy (kidding, no bashing please)

So I have the same question - What REALLY made Hyundai contemplate of launching this new variant given that they are not able to meet the fantastic demands of the Elite i20 itself?