Best car in small segment

To understand the magnitude of the i10 as a new contender, we need to rewind about five years back in time. Those of you who have a profound interest in cars would recollect that Korean cars were considered in a league of their own when it came to aesthetics. They were crowned the ugliest cars on the face of this planet almost unanimously. Like that was not a big enough accolade, these cars featured poor technology, were flimsily put together and drove like metallic incarnations of disappointment itself. That was also the time when Hyundai was emerging on the global automotive scene as a powerful player, and even though the company didn’t have an authentically well-engineered car to its credit, most small and midsize Hyundais were known to do their job reasonably well. Yet for most international auto journalists, bringing out the topic of Korean cars still meant that it was time to crack jokes. And it wasn’t very different in India either, where there weren’t too many quality offerings to begin with. Hyundai’s small cars went down well with the market because of their low cost and economical running, but nobody was confident about the more expensive offerings of the company – a segment where technology and sophistication take prominence over economy. Somehow Hyundai cars didn’t quite match the high European standards of quality, technology and design.