Page 65 - Car South Africa (February 2020)

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Hyundai Atos

1,1 Motion

Hyundai’s revived Atos has once again set its sights on the ever-important budget segment

Price: R159 900 0-100 km/h: 14,50 seconds Top speed: 155 km/h Power: 50 kW Torque: 99 N.m CAR fuel index: 6,84 L/100 km CO : 127 g/km
2

Comfy and well- Superior to its direct Let’s hope they can Good-value
equipped Atos is a rivals. Pity the bring in enough runabout
welcome addition driving position is to meet the Peter Palm
to this segment so compromised inevitable demand
Gareth Dean Terence Steenkamp Ian McLaren

uirky in design, packaging its compatriot Kia Picanto – estab- has paved the way for this name- such a compact package, even if
and name, the original lished itself as a viable entry-level plate to resume its role from the those plastic wheel covers will
QHyundai Atoz (yes, with a alternative to the likes of the long- departed i10 as the entry-point require cable ties to lock them in
z) arrived in South Africa at a time in-the-tooth Volkswagen CitiGolf to this thriving Korean brand. place in our market.
when our market still featured the and Toyota Tazz. Together with the Built on a new K1 platform, the Praise was not as forthcoming
likes of the Fiat Uno and Daewoo Getz and original Tucson, the Atos modern Atos may have retained about the new Atos’ interior pack-
Matiz. Its tall, narrow stance may played a signi cant role in the rise the relatively tall (1 560 mm) aging, notably its xed driving po-
have divided opinion, yet few ar- of the Hyundai brand in SA. stance of the original 1999 car sition. With no adjustment offered
gued against its plucky character Discontinued in 2013 (the i10 but is thankfully both longer (by on the steering column and only
and basic but functional interior. assumed the mantle as sole 115 mm) and wider (by 120 mm) a traditional fore-and-aft plus
By the time the rst signi cant budget contender), the recent de- than before. Available in just one backrest-rake movement available
update arrived in 2005 (together velopment of an all-new Hyundai derivative for now, the test team on the nevertheless comfortable
with a name change to Atos), the Santro – Atos as we know it – for was universal in its praise of the driver’s seat, all testers, short and
littlest Hyundai had – along with the all-important Indian market level of character and quirk within tall, noted compromised seating

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