Why does Hyundai’s new i10 get five stars?

review of the new Hyundai i10 city car, you judged it on 16 criteria. You gave it 10 four-star ratings, five five-star ratings and one instance of three stars.

The average of all of these scores is 4.25. Therefore, I believe it follows that this car should have been awarded an overall rating of four stars, not five.

I feel that this makes your review misleading. Do you agree? Clive Borg

WHAT CAR? SAYS…

Our reviews editor, Will Nightingale, responded to this question by saying: “Our overall star ratings aren’t based on the mean average of the 16 individual areas we appraise. That approach would leave us with no five-star cars at all and very probably no two-star cars either.

“The necessary compromises when designing and building a car mean that improving one aspect, such as performance, usually has a negative impact elsewhere – in the i10’s case, fuel economy and CO2 emissions.

That’s why cars rarely score five stars in more than five or six areas.

“We have a rule that a car needs to score five stars in at least three key areas to be considered for a five-star rating overall. In many cases, the cars with the highest number of total stars in any given class will be awarded five stars, and those with the fewest one or two stars.

“However, we do weight qualities differently depending on the type of car we’re assessing. So, for example, a sports car that scored highly for performance and handling is likely to be rated above one that scored well for rear space or boot space – even if the latter racked up a greater number of stars overall.”