Second report: Compact on the outside, spacious on the inside and feature-packed, the Exter has been the perfect city car.
The Hyundai Exter has been my daily runabout for the past two months and in typical Hyundai fashion, it has been a fuss-free ride. Its compact dimensions make it perfect for the city and the added ground clearance compared to similar-sized hatchbacks makes it a lot easier to drive on the uprooted roads of Mumbai. So its been my office commuter and also a weekend ride thanks to a spacious interior.
However, a lot of friends who I’ve driven around with find the styling unusual. Yes, it has a mini-SUV look with the cladding and the upright rear, but it’s a bit awkward to look at from certain angles.
AC performance is excellent even with low fan speeds. Rear vents help cool the cabin faster.
Still, once inside, there’s no complaints; the tall-boy stance translates into a good amount of room in the cabin. Occupants measuring over six feet face no issues with headroom, and the backrest angle is decent too. It’s smooth to drive and has a light clutch with a slick 5-speed manual gearbox. The AC is very effective; sure, it’s slightly cooler in Mumbai right now and a cabin this size doesn’t take much to cool, but even at its lowest fan speed the AC is super quick to cool. The audio system too sounds good and has all the expected connectivity features.
The fuel efficiency hovered around the 9kpl mark, which, for a small city car, is rather low.
Then there’s the ride quality and ground clearance that allows you to be a bit more relaxed over some of the poorly maintained roads. Interestingly, while most TPMS’ have given us a false reading, this one has even picked up a slow puncture. And being a direct reading system, you get a reading of the exact pressure value too. The Exter is well-equipped to say the least, with ESC, wireless charging and even a sunroof, but the painfully long traffic jams with the car idling would have been a lot more comfortable with a centre or even a driver armrest.
The TPMS proved hugely helpful in detecting a slow puncture. Also shows exact tyre pressure.
And speaking of painful traffic jams, it’s taken a toll on the efficiency of the Exter. With a conservative driving style I got just over 9kpl at best. I’m sure it could be more but not with the current level of traffic thanks to all the freshly dug up roads all over Mumbai. Amongst all the long termers in the Autocar fleet, the Exter gets a lot of things right. It’s packed with features, gets good room on the inside, has all the power you need to overtake in the city and has the solid Hyundai reliability. However, its highway manners are what will be tested soon along with its bootspace and highway efficiency. That is if I can manage to keep it with me.
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