Small cars, and this one is only 3,565mm long, are often designed primarily for town use.
This new five-door, five-seat saloon is quite simply more than adequate for long-distance motoring with two people and a mass of luggage.
I would hazard that four adults can be carried without complaint for the sort of inter-city journeys of a couple of hundred kilometres that have become so popular abroad, without undue discomfort, and five people could easily be persuaded to take journeys of an hour or so.
A small but significant pointer to the long-distance habits of the car is the comfortable 'rest' for the driver's left foot. If the driver can sit in relaxed comfort with controls, pedals and the less used foot nicely supported, it means the designers expect their product to be far more than a small buzz-box.
I had great fun on the open road and found the power steering to be razor sharp and light, accurate and well suited to swerve around the more unusual holes, ridges and other unexplained differences in the roads surfaces. For the life of me I didn't expect the little 1.1 single overhead engine to be so willing to pull, provided that the gear shift lever was stirred with ambition and enthusiasm, and I would show no surprise if 100km/h could be bettered in less than the time of 15.2 seconds that foreign journalists have reported.
Not only is the car quite short, but at 1,540 mm it's quite high as well. Batting around my usual bits in Ta' Qali, doing rapid directional changes made me feel delightfully confident that this little vehicle was more than happy being thrown around like a demented chicken, and the brakes were more than up to the task of bringing the car safely to rest from 70km/h hands off the steering. With the optional ABS, I'm sure that it would cope with dramatic stops from even higher speeds in complete safety, hands off the wheel, of course.
Subjectively, I loathe the modern dictum that makes so many cars into slab-sided objects that makes both driver and passengers find difficulty to look through the side windows. I know the Ralph Nadurs of this world say that the high-sided creatures provide more safety in unwanted situations, but in reality, high sides go with a high tail to be more aesthetically pleasing, which then makes it impossible to enjoy the gentle art of going backwards at anything other than a crawl.
The corollary to this is that it takes hours of practice to reverse the thing into one of our delightfully short parking bays.
The i10 goes backwards easily and, if so desired, fast. Having spent years taking part in skilled driving tests round the bollards, both in forward and reverse, I thoroughly enjoyed racing this car around in backward gear, and to prove the point parked in ever decreasing spaces in the busy town of Naxxar, neatly, easily and first time each time.
The interior décor of the test car was compatible with offerings from other manufacturers costing far more, and even the entry level model with manual steering would be light enough for most drivers to enjoy to the full. After all, rack and pinion steering has been around for decades longer than power-assisted, and none of us used to complain of unduly heavy steering in much heavier cars 40 or 50 years ago.
It's all to do with geometry, leverage and balance, and my much loved 1955 Aston has no power assistance and, abroad, ladies still race this very heavy car without complaint.
The i10 has adjustable steering, power windows front and rear, and the car tested had air-conditioning, and as a relatively sporting motorist, I liked the rev counter in this interesting package.
The manual gear change was just a trifle slow, but the gear shift was an absolute delight.
The back seats fold down to allow an enormous hold, but with all seats in place the boot allows a very useful 225 litres to be carted around.
Crumple zones, decent seat belts and front airbags help keep the occupants safe in an incident, and the sub-frames as well as the 'B'and 'C' pillars will help to stop the car from collapsing downwards should a roll or inversion be the order of the day.
At a glance
• Engine capacity: 1,086 cc
• Max power: 66bhp at 5,500 rpm
• Max torque 99Nm at 2,800 rpm
• Max speed: 155km/h
• 0-100km/h: 15.2 seconds
• Dimensions: length: 3,565 mm; width: 1,595 mm; height: 1,540mm
This new five-door, five-seat saloon is quite simply more than adequate for long-distance motoring with two people and a mass of luggage.
I would hazard that four adults can be carried without complaint for the sort of inter-city journeys of a couple of hundred kilometres that have become so popular abroad, without undue discomfort, and five people could easily be persuaded to take journeys of an hour or so.
A small but significant pointer to the long-distance habits of the car is the comfortable 'rest' for the driver's left foot. If the driver can sit in relaxed comfort with controls, pedals and the less used foot nicely supported, it means the designers expect their product to be far more than a small buzz-box.
I had great fun on the open road and found the power steering to be razor sharp and light, accurate and well suited to swerve around the more unusual holes, ridges and other unexplained differences in the roads surfaces. For the life of me I didn't expect the little 1.1 single overhead engine to be so willing to pull, provided that the gear shift lever was stirred with ambition and enthusiasm, and I would show no surprise if 100km/h could be bettered in less than the time of 15.2 seconds that foreign journalists have reported.
Not only is the car quite short, but at 1,540 mm it's quite high as well. Batting around my usual bits in Ta' Qali, doing rapid directional changes made me feel delightfully confident that this little vehicle was more than happy being thrown around like a demented chicken, and the brakes were more than up to the task of bringing the car safely to rest from 70km/h hands off the steering. With the optional ABS, I'm sure that it would cope with dramatic stops from even higher speeds in complete safety, hands off the wheel, of course.
Subjectively, I loathe the modern dictum that makes so many cars into slab-sided objects that makes both driver and passengers find difficulty to look through the side windows. I know the Ralph Nadurs of this world say that the high-sided creatures provide more safety in unwanted situations, but in reality, high sides go with a high tail to be more aesthetically pleasing, which then makes it impossible to enjoy the gentle art of going backwards at anything other than a crawl.
The corollary to this is that it takes hours of practice to reverse the thing into one of our delightfully short parking bays.
The i10 goes backwards easily and, if so desired, fast. Having spent years taking part in skilled driving tests round the bollards, both in forward and reverse, I thoroughly enjoyed racing this car around in backward gear, and to prove the point parked in ever decreasing spaces in the busy town of Naxxar, neatly, easily and first time each time.
The interior décor of the test car was compatible with offerings from other manufacturers costing far more, and even the entry level model with manual steering would be light enough for most drivers to enjoy to the full. After all, rack and pinion steering has been around for decades longer than power-assisted, and none of us used to complain of unduly heavy steering in much heavier cars 40 or 50 years ago.
It's all to do with geometry, leverage and balance, and my much loved 1955 Aston has no power assistance and, abroad, ladies still race this very heavy car without complaint.
The i10 has adjustable steering, power windows front and rear, and the car tested had air-conditioning, and as a relatively sporting motorist, I liked the rev counter in this interesting package.
The manual gear change was just a trifle slow, but the gear shift was an absolute delight.
The back seats fold down to allow an enormous hold, but with all seats in place the boot allows a very useful 225 litres to be carted around.
Crumple zones, decent seat belts and front airbags help keep the occupants safe in an incident, and the sub-frames as well as the 'B'and 'C' pillars will help to stop the car from collapsing downwards should a roll or inversion be the order of the day.
At a glance
• Engine capacity: 1,086 cc
• Max power: 66bhp at 5,500 rpm
• Max torque 99Nm at 2,800 rpm
• Max speed: 155km/h
• 0-100km/h: 15.2 seconds
• Dimensions: length: 3,565 mm; width: 1,595 mm; height: 1,540mm