Hyundai Santro: Hyundai Santro is a legend in India when it comes to an affordable and practical hatchback for first-time car buyers.
Hyundai has now decided to revive the Santro, which was highly successful in the lat 90s and early 2000s, in a spruced-up facelift, in an attempt to appeal to the emotions that a brand name can evoke and also to meet the requirements of present-day motorists.
The renewed model features new looks, a good dose of smartness and some improvements in drive as it continues with its value-for-money proposition.
Familiar Yet Fresh Design
The new-gen Santro retains the small and huggable design. It’s not a big departure from its roots, but it gets modern touches that include a waterfall-like front grille, swept-back headlamps and clean body lines that give it a higher-grade appearance.
Tall-boy design Tall-boy structure continues to make entering adn exiting the eeco an easy affair, that your elders and family would appreciate.
It’s not a flashy or aggressive design at all, but neat and well executed nonetheless. In the city, it’s all about utility but with a bit of glitz, especially in dual-tone and subtle chrome highlights of the higher-end versions.
Relaxing Yet Intelligent Interior
Slide into the cabin and the Santro feels very well built and ergonomically designed. The cabin is light and airy due to its upright stance and the large areas of glass.
The dual-tone dashboard appears quite upmarket for the segment and Hyundai’s legendary fit and finish is visible.
Space is unexpectedly good, particularly up front, and rear-seat legroom and headroom are sufficient for adults of average size.
The new Santro comes with a host of features including a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support, rear AC vents which are a segment-first, steering-mounted audio and phone controls, and rear parking sensors. It’s well equipped too, and doesn’t feel barebones, especially in the Sportz and Asta variants.
Practical storage solutions can also be found, such as cup holders, doorlet pockets and a relatively large boot (235-liters), for taking day-to-day shopping or a weekend away’s worth of luggage.
Silk Smooth and Great Performance
The Hyundai Santro comes with a 1.1-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that makes 68 PS and 99 Nm of torque.
The engine has been tuned for city use and feels peppy and refined. It is no performance machine, but there’s more than enough power for commuting, brief overtakes and gentle highway motoring.
It is available in 5-speed manual and 5-speed AMT. What you won’t: The manual gearbox has a quality feel to shifts, is easy to use, while the AMT brings the convenience of an automatic at a budget barely higher than manuals (although shifts take a bit longer, at times).
Hyundai also provided a CNG model for those wishing to lower running costs and this helped make it a big hit among fleet operators and money-conscious families.
One of Santro’s strong points is its fuel efficiency – from 20 to 30 km per kg for CNG and around 20 km per litre for petrol, depending on how one drives.
Ride and Handling
The Santro is no slug on city roads. The suspension is well-damped for soaking up the bumps, and the car feels solid even at modest highway speeds.
Handling is light, which is ideal for city stonkerin’ as well as squeezing into small bays when parking. But it doesn’t provide a lot of feedback, something you might feel in enthusiastic cornering.
For braking, it gets disc and drum brakes on the front and rear respectively with ABS and EBD limited to the top end variants.
Dual airbags, rear parking sensors and safety features alike come across as standard, though base trims contain less.
Pros:
Intuitive and ergonomic design; pocket sized.
Smooth and environmentally friendly drivetrain
The cabin is quite roomy with rear AC vents and a touchscreen infotainment system
AMT and CNG options are available at a reasonable increment
Great for going around town with light steering and easy of use
Cons:
AMT is mediocre against the competitors.
Comfort in the back is good for two, snug for three adults
Not a lot of boot space, when compared to modern hatchbacks
Missing a few touches of modern safety tech on lower trims
Hyundai Santro: Final Thoughts
The Hyundai Santro continues to be a great bet for those looking for a value for money, comfortable small hatchback.
It’s not going to turn heads with high performance or fancy design, but it hits all the right notes where it actually counts—practicality, cost of ownership, and usability.
Whether you are a first-time buyer or want a dependable second car, the Santro ticks many of the right boxes.