THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE PREVIOUS I10 BUT THAT HASN’T STOPPED HYUNDAI GOING AND DOING ONE BETTER ANYWAY SAYS ROHAN JOSHI

At the press conference for the new i10 Kappa, people threw around sentences like “history is being re-written,” and the advertising bangs on about the “laws of automotive engineering re-written.”

Er. No. Hyundai’s doing nothing of the sort. What it is doing is releasing a new engine for the i10, the 1.2-litre Kappa, and it’s available in a bunch of new variants. If you invent a car that runs on hydrogen you had rewrite the rules of auto engineering. The new Kappa engine doesn’t do that.

Instead, it takes what Hyundai already knows about the laws of automotive engineering and refines it further, distilling it into a product that’s a better version of an existing one which is pretty damn good in its own right.

So how is this new 1.2-litre engine better? For a start, while it adds 100 cc to the previous i10’s 1.1 litre capacity, it doesn’t add much weight, because the engine block is made of lightweight aluminium instead of the previous car’s cast-iron block. It’s also quieter and smoother than the previous engine because it uses a metal timing chain instead of timing belt. Hyundai also says that they expect this engine to be 4 percent more fuel efficient than the previous one. So all in all, the Kappa is brilliant for an engine in this class. Power is up from 66bhp to 79bhp, which gives the i10 a lot more lasting power at higher speeds. You can settle in comfortably at 110 kph, and the horsepower feels like it could cheerfully keep you company all the day. Torque is also up to 111NM, from 99 NM earlier, and while the earlier i10 was no slouch at nipping into gaps from a standstill, this one positively lunges into them.

Hyundai’s also offering the Kappa with a four-speed automatic gearbox, and if you are the sort who likes to give the left leg a rest in the city, I’d recommend it without any hesitation. With cars in this segment, you worry that an auto box could be sluggish, but that isn’t the case here. Shifts are smooth, and if you put your foot down, the engine revs well past 5000 rpm before shifting up.

If you are going to use the i10 on the highway though, I’d recommend the manual, because in a car of this capacity, you need to be able to drop a cog on a demand whenever you want to overtake. Be warned though, highway users, make sure you get fatter tires than the standard 155/80s. You will need the extra grip to keep this light car on the straight and narrow.

So how much more are you going to have to pay for this fitter, better Kappa? Not a lot. Hyundai’s out to give the competition heartburn with a starting price of Rs 3.99 lakh for the cheapest Magna trim. At that price, you could do a lot worse. And you sure as hell couldn’t do better.