Santroo

It is For Hyundai to name its new hatchback ‘Santro’ is a show of great confidence from the Korean brand, and it’s not hard to see why. The Santro was the brand’s first car in India, and one that’s taken a strong place in the Indian people’s hearts and minds. Moreover, it was the first solid mass-market alternative to the might of Maruti Suzuki – fresh in design, high on quality, tremendous on space and, yet, rather good value; and it set the template for all Hyundais that would follow. The other thing that resounded with Indian buyers was the term Hyundai coined – ‘tall boy’, which went on to represent not just the Santro, but a whole segment of cars (like the WagonR) which used their height to maximise space. That’s some legacy, but the Santro was eventually superseded by the i10 and the Grand i10, which were bigger and better. In its final Santro Xing avatar, it lived on in lower segments (you’ll still see hundreds of them running the streets of Mumbai as taxis) but was given the axe at the end of 2014. What is it?