Hyundai Verna Review: New, Bold & Brash

Brand new, bold, brash, or, as the company claims, ferocious. The new 6th generation Hyundai Verna roars back into the compact sedan segment to reassert its once-strong position. Hyundai says it will double sales of the last car. That shouldn’t be difficult since it had started to kind of disappear from the buyer’s mind anyway. So, can this new Verna defeat the Honda City, Skoda Slavia, and Volkswagen Virtus?

Exterior

In the recent past, the Hyundai Motor Group has been really killing it on design, all the brands have really been giving us some very sexy-looking vehicles, and from the Hyundai brand itself, we have heard things like parametric pixel census sportiness and seamless horizon. Lots of these nice design terms apply to the Verna. Yeah, everything is quite literal. There’s a lot going on here. You get all of that and more. It is different alright and will stand out. Alright so let's get to that seamless horizon first we have seen it globally on the Sonata facelift and on the Kona as well. None of those cars exists in our market but we finally got the nice end-to-end light, you might like it you might not but it’s there, but you know what that is only when the car is lit up at night.

So, when you have it in the daytime that’s when the DRLs are only this section and this section. So, the middle bar kind of goes off. And you know one on the EX-version which is the base variant you don't get that DRL at all so well the good news is out of the 6-5 variants to get it. Massive new Hyundai logo that’s part of the global identity we are seeing at the top end you get the led headlamp cluster otherwise of course you have the projectors and there are lots of cuts and angles on that front grill in keeping with parametric.

Alright let's talk about the parametric part in greater detail because you see so much of it all over the car, it is kind of exaggerated especially back here I mean there's a lot going on over here especially having in 2 colours maybe it's a bit of overkill the coupe-like roofline though that’s a new addition and it does enhance nice swoopy design on the site but the proportion kind of starts to go a little bit off here because you got this massive amount of muscle back here again parametric you see all these cuts at different angles and some really inexplicable giant SUV like handles I don't get that nice sleek handles kind of close to the car surface would have been so much nicer but that’s the part which I think really screams incongruous.

Alright, the tail light now you saw this with the venue facelift and you are starting to see it with Tucson and all these other cars the end-to-end connected tail light expect that on everything Hyundai going forward and the H as well you got this vertical line along with the horizontal that’s part of the signature now as you will and then you got the interesting use of LED for the brake light because it just lights up like little bullets that's kind of nicely done.

Engine & Gearbox

Inside, things aren’t that polarising, but we’ll get there. Let’s get this car on the road first. The car gets petrol engines only. Both are 1.5-litre, and the one I’m driving right now is a turbo. This 1.5 is the first car in India on the entire range to get this new engine and it is a lot more for the change obviously the focus on performance is obvious. Honestly, I didn't expect that! You know what? I'm driving in Eco mode, so let me get into the Sport model.

So the change between those 3 drive modes is more apparent at lower speeds, more so in city driving because out here on the highway at over 100 kmph you do not find it very perceptible because honestly the turbo has been tuned really nicely I am absolutely loving the low and mid-range torque that it gives you and that’s also nice in the city conditions because before we came out of the highway I was managing to go through traffic without a whole lot of gear changing. Both engines get the 6-speed manual. The turbo has the 7-Speed dual-clutch auto as the option. The claimed mileage on both versions is healthy.

Ride & Handling

Well, there are 2 things that really shine on this car for me of course the engine is nice but it's the gearbox it's been married well it's been very nicely turned it is actually the fun element this 6-speed manual has been absolutely a pleasure to drive today and the other thing that I am really liking the suspension tuning. Oh yes, the right quality and the way the car corners great work on the suspension totally not what you expect on Hyundai certainly not on a Hyundai sedan. The turbo variant gets different shock absorbers, so its suspension is a bit stiffer as compared to the naturally aspirated MPI variants. The 1.5 MPi has an IVT auto option too.

Driving on the freshly rolled Delhi-Mumbai expressway helped gauge the Verna quite well. I also managed to get time on the DCT automatic – which was also fun and has a few extras like an electronic parking brake, smart cruise control, and rear disc brakes. The other thing that really surprised and impressed me is NVH levels again something you would not expect hardly any wind noise even at fast speeds and hardly any road noise as well certainly no vibrations.

Safety Tech

The Verna also has Hyundai SmartSense. The other thing this car has is ADAS which is a first for the Verna and I have to say it's working well I'm on a great highway with fantastic infrastructure and great lane markings, so it’s been keeping in the lane on its own the steering has been doing its thing and of course, it also giving me the right warnings in terms of other traffic collision of version etc. The ADAS functions are only available on the SX (O) of the naturally aspirated unit and both transmission options of the turbos.

Hyundai claims good structural crash capability on the Verna. The car also gets 30 safety features as standard, including 6 airbags, reverse parking sensors, automatic headlamps, 3-point seatbelts for all passengers, seatbelt reminders for all seats too, and ISOFIX child seat anchors. In addition, higher variants get parking sensors, reverse cameras, tyre pressure monitoring (TPMS), auto-dimming Inside Rear-View Mirror, and more.

Tech & Interior

So, the dual screen inside kind of angled towards the driver and you got more space in the rear. Now interestingly the cabin of both versions of this Verna is slightly different from each other. So, what you get with the petrol turbo version of the car is an all-black theme with red accents spread across the cabin, so this is a very familiar site that you’ve seen with the N Line package of the car as well. that you get with the i20 as well as with the Venue, while the naturally aspirated version gets a dual tone treatment retained from the previous version of the Verna.

So let’s speak about the overall theme and the feel of the car what you get is a driver-oriented single panel for the infotainment and the instrument cluster so this obviously gives you a better reach for the screen which obviously is a 10.25-inch screen which is better than the 8-inch screen that you get on the previous version, this is quite smooth we haven't tested this properly so we’ll get to that very soon but overall I really like how Hyundai has given this a very sporty touch, especially to the turbo version of the car.

And I also want to mention the ambient lighting that Hyundai has given with the Verna, so it of course stretches from the width of the cabin but interestingly it is also added to the door panels of the car now, so at the side if you see you've got a nice cut increase that is stretching towards the end of the door panel and this entire thing gets the ambient lighting treatment.

Let's talk about the steering wheel as well, so there is a difference with the turbo version you get this rounded steering wheel it has a nice firm grip while the naturally aspirated version of the Verna gets a flat bottom steering wheel which I feel should have been given to this version of the car because its more sporty, the naturally aspirated version could have been done with the normal this kind of a steering wheel but this one should have probably got the flat bottom version.

Apart from that what is also changed on the steering wheel is that the audio control is now on the right side of the steering wheel while your ADAS functions and that button comes on the left side so what we typically see in the Hyundai cars is that the audio switches are on the left but that is now swapped to the right. A lot of these features are only at the top end of the course. The lower variants still get the 8-inch touchscreen while the base variant gets none. The digital cluster is standard on all except the one base variant.

Dimensions

The Verna sits on a highly modified version of the K2 platform but now boasts a 95 mm longer wheelbase than before while also being wider and longer. So, finally, there’s a lot more space for the rear passengers. What also counts is the cushioning of the seats and the comfort they provide. There’s also a generous knee room. The same goes for the boot space which has grown to 528-litres from the earlier 480-litres.

Verdict

So that then is the new Hyundai Verna. It is a massive improvement and brings a great amount of excitement and equipment to the compact sedan segment. It ditches diesel and does not bring anything game-changing like a hybrid. But does set new benchmarks in tech, cabin and performance terms.

Photography by: Prashant Chaudhary & Jitendra