Hyundai HB20, Brazilian Spec: Here She Comes Now Singing Moanie Moanie

by Marcelo de Vasconcellos

Published: January 3rd, 2013

hyundai hb20 brazilian spec here she comes now singing moanie moanie

The fluidic design of the HB20 has impressed Brazilians greatly. The car has already broken into the top 10, and Hyundai claims there are 24 thousand people who have already ordered one and have plunked down some money. Undeniably, the car is a looker. In my opinion, the side is the highlight. That swoosh is very appealing. As for the front, you either like the corporate mug or you don’t, and I don’t. The back has some problems. This is a problem in Brazil. We are into backs. This one makes the car look narrower and taller than it really is and some of the lines are clashing. In general, the car is well-built, but it’s not perfect. The example I drove had misaligned doors.

Inside, Hyundai promised that the HB20 would be competitive with higher segment cars. At first glance it is. The shapes and some color are there. However, after a more tha perfunctory glance, the plastics reveal themselves. They are hard and look cheap. They’re no fun to touch, either.

The seats are ok, but the fabric on them is cheaper than on competitors and even on lesser cars. The switchgear is not a notch above the competition, as Hyundai has claimed. Those found in a Volkswagen Gol, for example, feel more solid.

I had been to the dealer. I had sat in a few. Finally, I got to drive it. Equipped with the same 120 hp present in other Hyundai-Kia products and a 5 speed manual, the car never felt specially lively or obedient. The steering lacks almost any feel and I felt it was quite tiring for anything but city driving. Push the car over 90 km/h (56 mph) and it gets so light that I didn’t feel I wanted more.

The car does not want to be pushed. It creaks. It shakes. It moans. Moans. The suspension arms are too short for Brazil， and it reaches its limit (with a thud) at almost every speed bump at almost any speed. Minor potholes turn into major problems. In the twisties the car feelks like it wants to roll over. There’s no point driving the car hard, it’s not built for that. In the city, drive with care, or the car’s protestations will be your constant companion.

#Brazil #HB20 #Hyundai #MarceloDeVasconcellos

Marcelo de Vasconcellos

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4 of 22 comments

Corntrollio on Jan 03, 2013

8 km/L? Isn't that under 19 mpg? And that's on petrol. If you use E85 or E100, you're down by a quarter, it seems. Of course, with many commenters on TTAC, they'd complain both about the poor gas mileage, but praise the lack of environmental regulations in Brazil to raise it.

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- Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Jan 03, 2013
  
  Gasoline in Brazil is really E30 so the rule of thumb is that if you run your car on E100 it'll do 30 percent less. This varies of course. so yes 8km/l means 19 mpg. If it were pure gasoline you'd probably get 10.4 km/l which would be about 25 mpg. THis is due to cars not using technologies like Variable valve timing of direct fuel injection in Brazil or even multi valve engines (much). There are rather stict environmental regulations in BRazil. All makers have switched over or improved the engines in recnt years cause the next phase is set to start this year (or next, I forget). Basically we follow the Euro regs and we are 2 steps backs. So if Euro regs are in phase 5, Brazilian cars basically have to comply with what would be the Euro 3.
  
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Athos Nobile on Jan 03, 2013

"The suspension arms are too short for Brazil， and it reaches its limit (with a thud) at almost every speed bump at almost any speed." Are we talking about suspension travel here?

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- Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Jan 03, 2013
  
  Yes Athos, thanks. Also Brazilian cars have some sort of dampner that muffles the sound when they reach the end. French cars were universally panned for not having this feature when they first got here. So, even though the travel was enough, they made a sound as if the car was breaking very often, because very often in Brazil the suspension reaches its extremes in Brazil. From what I've read, and heard this is not the case in the Hyundai. In Brazil you need more suspension travel to allow for bad roads. Then you need more control so the car's handling is not ungainly. Hyundai did a bad job of this.
  
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