Sedan option offers diesel power
New Zealand may be the only country in the world that sells both the Hyundai i40 sedan and its slightly larger sibling the i45. Rob Maetzig asks why.
Is this a little like having two television sets in the same lounge – one slightly larger than the other? Or two ovens in the kitchen, one electric and the other running on gas? No way, says Hyundai New Zealand. Its decision to offer both the i45 sedan and the slightly smaller i40 sedan is all to do with meeting market demand.
Mind you, it seems we’re the only country that does this.
Primarily because the i45 – also known as the Sonata – is a softer-riding sedan developed for Asian and American markets, and the i40 was designed in Germany to meet European tastes. They are not sold together anywhere else.
They were for a short time on the other side of the Tasman, but supply issues prompted Hyundai Australia to drop the i45. This didn’t need to happen here, simply because our market is so small that supply problems don’t normally exist.
But anyway, let’s get back to question of market demand.
Last week, I asked Hyundai NZ sales executive Conrad Healy why the company would bother offering two sedans so similar in size and looks that if you parked them side by side and squinted, you’d probably have trouble differentiating between the two.
‘‘That’s easy to answer – it’s because one is diesel and the other is petrol,’’ he replied.
‘‘Not only that, but we see the i40 and
this the i45 as different sedans that appeal to different tastes. In that regard, they complement each other.’’
It is true that the i40 is slightly smaller than the i45, but not overly so. It is 80mm shorter, which is about half the length of your average ballpoint pen, the wheelbase is 25mm longer, and the vehicle is 20mm narrower, which is less than the width of a human thumb.
Roof heights are identical, and the amount of room in the boot is 505 litres, which is 18 litres less than the i45.
So there’s not much difference – not really. And the exterior and interior designs are similar too, both very much in keeping with Hyundai’s ‘‘fluidic sculpture’’ design philosophy that all its product now follows.
The big difference therefore is the powertrains. The i45 is only available with petrol engines, and while the i40 is also built with petrol power and is available as such here in wagon form, Hyundai New Zealand has chosen to opt only for a 1.7-litre turbo-diesel under the bonnet of the sedan.
It’s a very good unit. It’s exactly the same as the engine aboard the i40 wagon that was launched in New Zealand last year, and it develops 100 kilowatts of power and – more importantly – a flexible 320 Newton metres of torque from just 2000rpm.
This diesel boasts what Hyundai calls Blue Drive technology, which uses a number of initiatives, including an intelligent stop-go system which shuts down the engine when the car is at a standstill, to reduce fuel consumption by up to 20 per cent. The official combined urban/rural fuel use figure is 6 litres per 100 kilometres.
And the i40 sedan is a fine-handling car.
The i45 has recently had its suspension refettled in the interests of making it a better ride, but I haven’t driven the facelifted model yet so I don’t know what it is like.
However, I do remember driving the i40 wagon a year ago and being very impressed with its European feel – and I think this sedan version is even better.
Maybe it was because my test car was an Elite model shod with 18-inch wheels and tyres rather than the 16-inch versions on the entry model, but I found the sedan’s road manners to be beautifully composed. Naturally, the i40 sedan’s interior is identical to the wagon’s – apart from the fact it has the boot rather than a load-all rear, of course. That means when you sit in the driver’s seat you are presented with exactly the same dashboard layout and level of specification as the wagon.
It’s one of the best around, and what I like is the thickness of the steering wheel, and the appropriate location of many of the controls.
For example, instead of having to feel around somewhere near the dials cluster to change various information modes that show such things as fuel consumption, average speed and distance to empty, with the i40 the control is on the steering wheel. Even at the base level, specification is high, with standard