Hyundai i10 review - Reliability & safety

Hyundai is known for making reliable cars, and should owners run into any trouble, it also offers a competitive warranty. It’s a shame the latest i10 couldn’t perform better than its four-star predecessor in crash tests, although that’s because the tests have become stricter; the i10 still offers a decent array of safety equipment.

Hyundai i10 reliability

Hyundai describes the i10 as a 'brand new car from the ground up'. However, the i10's engines are largely the same as those used before, and we've little reason to expect any issues. On the whole, owners seem to be happy with their cars.

Hyundai’s baby seems to have fallen out of favour with owners, dropping 17 places from its 2021 position in our latest Driver Power new-car survey. It still scores an above-average position for value, in 20th place, but there are some rankings at the bottom of the table for major factors such as the powertrain, interior and exterior, which suggest owners were hoping for better things in these areas.

The car’s overall place in the chart was pulled up by two surprising highlights of ownership, however. The i10’s navigation system was rated highly enough to give it a number-one position in the whole survey, while the city car’s switchgear and controls were judged to be the fifth most user-friendly overall.

Safety

Even the entry-level 1.0-litre Advance trim comes with an impressive host of safety features, from lane keep assist to autonomous emergency braking and driver attention alerts. It even includes 'eCall’, which automatically alerts the emergency services in the event of an accident.

The latest i10 scored three stars in Euro NCAP crash testing, which was a disappointing result, but was also partly down to much tougher testing being introduced at the time. Euro NCAP commented that the dashboard structure could pose a potential risk of injury in a head-on collision and that the dummy driver's body was able to 'submarine' under the seatbelt..