Hyundai Xcent review, road test

Hyundai's latest offering looks like it has all the makings of a big seller. We give it the road test treatment to see if it's a winning combination.

Published on Apr 28, 2014 03:38:00 PM

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Hyundai Xcent.

The Xcent is built on the same 2,425mm wheelbase as the Grand i10 and the two cars are near identical right up to the C-pillar. That means everything, like the peeled-back headlamps, slot-like grille, angular fog lamp inserts and thick side strips are carried over unchanged. Even the glasshouse is the same. It’s only the chrome lining on the Xcent’s hexagonal grille and this top-spec car’s larger 15-inch wheels that are unique to the sedan.

The tail section doesn’t look like it was tacked on to the rest of the body as an afterthought, as in the case of the Maruti Swift Dzire. Instead, there’s a nice sense of proportion here, with the roof flowing smoothly into the boot, which has a smartly contoured bumper and an attractive lip. If anything, the boot looks a bit too tame, and the well detailed but tiny tail-lights don’t help give it presence either. On the whole, the Xcent looks neat, with styling that’s a pleasing, if slightly subdued iteration of Hyundai’s Fluidic Sculpture design language.

Under the skin, the Xcent sticks to the norm with its suspension setup – MacPherson struts up front
and a rear torsion bar. However, Hyundai has stiffened the rear suspension compared to the Grand i10 to deal with the additional weight loads sedans are generally subject to. For the record, the petrol and diesel Xcents are each 15kg heavier than their Grand i10 counterparts. In terms of safety equipment, ABS is standard only on the top-spec SX trims, while driver and passenger airbags come only on the S (O) and SX (O) trims.