HYUNDAI I40 CRDI ± ELITE SEDAN

items including air conditioning, full connectivity including Bluetooth, paddle shifters for the six-speed automatic, hill-start assist, keyless central locking, and even a glovebox cooler.

Our Elite model also gets front and rear parking sensors and a reversing camera, the 18-inch alloy wheels, pushbutton start, leather upholstery, 10-way power operation of both front seats, seat warmers front and rear, rain sensing wipers, dual-zone climate control air conditioning, and automatic de-fog.

The vehicle also has a nicely designed central screen and ‘‘supervision’’ cluster that offers all sorts of information including average fuel consumption, distance to empty, and average speed – all of which can be controlled by that button on the steering wheel.

The challenging thing about Hyundai deciding to add another sedan to its fleet of medium-sized offerings is that the segment is slowly shrinking. Whereas it held a 13.3 per cent share of the total new car market in 2010, last year this had reduced to 10.1 per cent as the number of sales fell to below 8000 for the first time in many years.

However, Hyundai’s share of the market segment increased by 34 per cent last year, thanks to the sales performance of the i45 sedan and the i40 wagon. Addition of the i40 sedan will obviously add to that, because there will be customers out there who don’t want a wagon, but who do want a diesel.

And if they do choose to buy that way, with this new model they will be assured of what is a very good car.