There have been a lot of discussions and debates as to where the new Hyundai Santro will sit in the hierarchy of the offered vehicles in the country by Hyundai. From what little we know, the new Santro might just more evolutionary than revolutionary as it loos far too similar to the ageing Hyundai i10. This might be a bit of an issue for customers as the same old shape might not be appealing to everybody and this leaves it open from attack from the Suzuki Ignis, an urban hatchback that is not just better looking than the Hyundai, but also way cooler to behold.
Now I’m not making any statements on the actual quality and execution of the cars, and Hyundai’s have always been better built and better equipped than Suzuki’s at competing price tags, but there are a few subtle differences as to why the Ignis might be the better overall vehicle:
- Looks: The Ignis looks more aggressive and sportier than Hyundai Grand i10. The reason I bring the Grand i10 in the comparison is because the Santro might borrow many styling cues from its bigger cousin and the basic shape of the vehicle also remains largely similar to them, as evident from the leaked spy shots online. The Ignis also has more in the way of customisation as Suzuki offers it with a variety of different paint schemes and decals to make it look just that much sportier.
- Power: The Ignis has a 4 cylinder, 82bhp engine which is on the heels of the Grand i10 with 83bhp. However if we were to suspect than the Santro might not feature the same state of tune as the Grand i10 as if the power outputs of the engines were to remain the same, than the Santro might eat into the Grand i10’s marketshare. Also since the Ignis uses a 4 cylinder configuration as opposed to Hyundai’s current line of 3 cylinder engines, the engines are also much smoother on the Ignis.
- Drivability: When Matt Watson from Carwow drove the Ignis, he was particularly impressed by how it was to drive the Ignis. The car’s natural driving position is high up, which gives the driver a commanding view of the road. Also, since the Ignis is a bit boxy in overall aesthetics, it has decent outdoor visibility as well. The downside to this is that the car exhibits a fair amount of body roll. Coming to the Santro, since it’ll borrow a lot of the design elements from the Grand i10, it is faced with the same visibility issues related to the fluidic design and a claustrophobic interior, owing to the small window openings.
- Ground Clearance: The Ignis was originally designed as a 4 wheel drive version, so even in the front wheel drive variants; you get a decent amount of ride height, so areas with lots of potholes will benefit from the jack up ride. However Hyundai’s have been adamant on getting that sleek look and so apart from the i20 active, all the present models will likely have less ground clearance. This is especially true of the EON, which many uses report to have very low ride height to clear big potholes.
So there is my two cents as to why the Ignis might be the better overall vehicle. Perhaps the biggest problem with the Santro is that it is just another product. It sits at where the i10 used to sit and that is already confusing place to be in, since the price difference isn’t really a lot.
