If you were in the market looking for an affordable safe car, in the sense that one with the most airbags, now you could get the Hyundai i40, which has 9-airbag in total. It could have scored > 5-star Euro NCAP if there were additional star in the program. Here is the list of the airbags coverage:
- Front Passenger
- Front Driver
- Front Passenger side
- Front Driver side
- Back left side
- Back right side
- Left side curtain
- Right side curtain
- Driver Knee
Wow, that's a lot and if all deployed at once, wonder whether the mechanism will actually cause any explosion inside the car, then suffocate everyone.
The i40 belongs to the similar D-Segment the Sonata, with a smaller dimension, yet command a higher price due to different equipment level and it is designed to compete with European made instead of Japanese. Designed in Germany, to compete with the like of VW Passat, Peugeot 508 and Ford Mondeo, thus the i40 is available in the Tourer form (Estate), which is a favourite body choice.
Both the sedan and tourer version have similar engine, the Hyundai Nu GDI (Gasoline Direct Injection), which has higher compression, and in turn providing better efficiency and better output figure when compare to the Nu MPI unit. The sedan unit could provide 176hp/214Nm of power and the estate version unit produces slightly lower of power at 175hp/213Nm. Both are paired to the common 6-speeder as found in other Hyundai.
There are 2 versions of the sedan, with the one getting the "sedan plus" getting the Audio Video Navigator unit, and the standard "sedan" getting a simple audio unit. The Estate version is the fully loaded unit, even with an electronic tailgate, convenient for the grocery shopping mother. Since it has all the safety standard, and all other features one could find in other European make, it also command for a premium price, starting from about RM160k up to RM179k. Even the light switch is the European dial instead of the standard operation from the steering attached stalk.
If you asked me whether a Passat or i40...I can firmly select the VW. I would think the technology from a Hyundai is still lacking behind the Japanese, not to mention the European. Both continental and Korean cars are without much residue value anyway, and the handling of the European made is much better, and one could easily feel the build quality is much better in the Passat and the i40 interior does not look as elegance. All D-segment cars should have luxury and solid as the design language, not any fancy dials and buttons that look dated in no time. However, if one just want all the features and other nitty-gritty stuff like the sunroof, or the famous fludic design, then no harm choosing the i40. Hyundai models are now losing to it competitors, especially the Elantra and Sonata are now looking dated, thus the local distributor will need some newer models to uplift the market share.
