At the conclusion of The Pioneer’s leg of Hyundai’s ‘Great India Drive,’ a word of thanks to the all new Hyundai i20

This is not about our adventures in and around Bhopal visiting some tremendous historical sites at the heart of India and then discovering that Madhya Pradesh’s capital has some of India’s finest museums and collections of artifacts. But this is about the car we took there, the third-generation Hyundai i20 and a sort-of re-evaluation of the car. I owned a first-generation i20 and it was a superb drive but it was never asked to do what we made this little car do, driving close to 2,000 kilometres over six days, a total of nearly 36 hours of drive time.

Usually, a little hatchback like the i20 is not the ideal car for a long road trip, with luggage and for those like us trying to document the journey. Not only did the car surprise me with its spaciousness, it was more impressive in the way it tackled the roads. Now, the roads, both, those run by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the state government in Madhya Pradesh are excellent but during one of our days exploring historical sites near Bhopal, a local friend advised us to see Gayaspur and Satdhari, the former an ancient temple carved into a hill and the latter a collection of ancient Buddhist Stupas. The problem is that the sun was setting and to get from point A to B in short order didn’t mean just driving quickly, (we also visited Heliodorus’ Pillar inside the town to Vidisha) but also depending on Google Maps.

Now, I love Google Maps and I sometimes wonder how on earth we managed before Brin and Page did their thing. That said, on this particular day and possibly for one of the first times, it was asked to plot a route between these three sites. And it did so not with any aplomb. It plotted a route through the narrowest alleys of Vidisha, which despite being the Chief Minister’s constituency, has some really narrow passages inside town and like elsewhere in small towns of India nobody follows any rules. And to make matters worse after Vidisha, for a long time we were on a love road constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, which suddenly ended. One minute tarmac, next minute a path which wasn’t really a road but where tractors went. It was barely in between the fields, in fact, the mustard and rice crops on either side of this path often had the odd group of plants growing between the ruts. And it was rutted and wet. It was not a path that you would want to take a small SUV-shaped vehicle let alone a hatchback. But somehow, this i20 with its dual-clutch gearbox, an automatic gearbox isn’t the ideal way to go through such paths, but it made it, and not once did I hear the heartbreaking ‘clank’ of the car bottoming out. Again, there was never a struggle for grip in muddy and rutted roads, other than maybe once or twice but within a second or two, the traction control kicked in and the car effortlessly lifted itself out.

I believe that 99.9 percent of the i20’s in this generation that will be sold in India over the next four-five years will never be able to do what this particular car has seen and done in the past week. And it did these in the crowded roads of Vidisha, the narrow lanes of the old city in Bhopal, the broad boulevards of the new city, the state highways with some crazy drivers and the most entitled people in India, wrong-side motorcyclists and tractor drivers, as well as in some brilliant highways. A big shout-out to NHAI for the brilliant NH46 between Bhopal and Gwalior, which other than the bypass at Guna was one of the best highways I have driven on in India.

The i20 did all this and averaged 15.4 kilometers per litre, which with a extremely smooth dual-clutch box and the 120PS 1-litre Turbo was impressive. This engine could be a bit thirsty in the city but it was impressive because it delivered all this power, with economy and comfort. More importantly, it did so without complaining even once. I liked this car when I drove it in Delhi for the first time, but after this past week I love it now. It is in my opinion the finest mass-produced hatchback ever sold in India. Because it doesn’t pretend to be something it is not with its body style and delivers everything and more. Impressive.