Overview

I HAD a few friends who, in the early years and pre-kids, were addicted to tiny cars. They proudly turned up at work with new examples of some of the most diminutive cars ever produced in volume by some key industry players, including the Honda Scamp and Z, Daihatsu 360, Suzuki 800 and Jimny (LJ540), and Subaru Rex.

People who bought these were either really cluey about car ownership (unlikely at aged 18) or just cheapskates (the Daihatsu 360 was the cheapest new car in Australia).

Those buyers were likely guided to the showroom lured by price and low-cost ownership. At under 3m in length, the cars’ occupant comfort and safety were residual concerns.

Clearly their owners were a bit left of centre, boasting of how many mates could be sardined inside, how their love life had taken on a new dimension (literally) with the intimacy of the tiny cabin, and how their cars carried the furniture when they moved house. Their exaggeration was inversely proportional to the size of the car.

As an apology, it was a different time with different attitudes. It was a mad, free-expression era now gone, buried under the weight of political correctness, woke and a me-new-now outlook that appears to have sucked all the fun out of things like the ridiculousness of 3m long cars.

Don’t go looking for those cars now. Most of those featured in the 1970s and 1980s have subsequently corroded to rust and eroded to history.

But while the era has gone, elements of the kei-size cars remains, albeit in shrinking numbers.

The EV trend has created opportunities for car-makers to stretch their imagination and to abandon the complexity, and physical size, of the internal-combustion engine.

Witness the GWM Ora, Fiat 500e and now the Hyundai Inster. The latter is Hyundai’s smallest model – seriously, I thought the Venue was small enough – and also one of its cleverest.

The Inster deserves praise. It’s probably the most sensible car for the city and suburbs.

The more I drove it, the more it made sense for the urban motorist. Its size slips into any CBD mayhem, copes with squeezing into tiny car bays and yet it accommodates four adults with as much cabin room as some mid-size cars.

It is safe, has desirable infotainment and communication features, is comfortable, quiet and even quick off the mark. And priced from $39,000 ($42,500 for the Extended version tested) plus on-road costs, it’s affordable.

Hyundai took a light-hearted approach when designing the cabin, appealing to the youth market with its pastel colours and plenty of tech-rich features. But it’s equally as appealing to more mature buyers and, in fact, perhaps more relevant given its economical ownership and small size.

The cabin is dominated by two 10.25-inch screens, particularly the centre monitor that sits high for excellent visibility for the driver while on the road. The screen ahead of the driver appears analogue with its circular gauges, but it’s a clever ruse.

The instrument panel actually looks like it could be on a far more expensive car, thanks to its clarity, presentation and comprehensive information.

Better news is the common use of manual buttons for everything from ventilation to seat heating (ventilation is standard on the Extended) and radio selection. Too often car-makers have taken the cheap option of directing occupant fingers (usually the driver) to the distractive task of hunting and stabbing the touch screen.

There’s some space for personal items but there’s no door bins for bottles and no central lidded box. There is only a usable glovebox and a small storage area in the centre of the dashboard.

There’s Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, along with satellite navigation with over-the-air upgrades, Hyundai’s Bluelink connection included (Hyundai’s first model to get this in Australia), vehicle-to-load connection to power external appliances, and recycled PET seat upholstery.

Cabin space is excellent. As said, it will rival some bigger cars for head and leg room, although it’s narrower than the mid-size cars. So four adults are as comfortable as in bigger cars but you won’t fit anyone else.

The boot is as unexpectedly spacious as is the Inster’s rear seat room, with a generous (given its size) 280 litres expanding to 351 litres when the rear seats are slid forward. Fold the rear seats flat and there’s 1059 litres, as accommodating as many bigger cars.

The Inster doesn’t get a spare wheel, only a tyre repair kit, so stay in the suburbs and call roadside assist if you get a puncture.

Driving

It feels too small to be such a solid on-road performer, steering with the confidence of a mid-size SUV rather than an automotive fingerling.

Much of this can be attributed to the relatively long wheelbase (2580mm) to a stubby length (3825mm) which places as much of the weight at the centre of the car while being low and well distributed across the 1610mm width.

It also gets similar suspension of Hyundai's bigger models, but most of the feeling of being well balanced and solid on the bitumen is that it’s a bit more portly than its ICE rivals and it uses an electric power steering unit with faster computing power.

For the record, it’s 1405kg (for the Inster Extended Range version tested here) which is about three times the weight of the Daihatsu Max 360 (515kg) that my mate drove in the 1980s. What was he thinking!

The Inster drives like most of its EV rivals, with a very responsive accelerator (rheostat?) and that tight, though light, steering feel.

The accuracy of its steering betters most rivals and this adds to its cornering prowess and more importantly, adds to the fun factor of the car. If you’re going to spend an hour or more a day behind the steering wheel while commuting, you may as well enjoy it. Or at the least, reduce the boredom factor.

It will cruise easily at 100km/h and has an extra kick for fast overtaking. The ride is also good – better with a couple more people aboard – and the electric drive means it’s hushed pretty much all the time, allowing some appreciation of the above-average audio.

It gets all the latest infotainment and comms features, with extra plugs (USB and C) visible ahead of the front passenger.

I’d also point out that visibility and seat comfort rate well, the former no doubt attributed to the compact dimensions of the car but also to the deep windows and clear rear-vision camera.

Hyundai doesn’t list a 0-100km/h time but it’s as quick as some of the briskest traffic light rivals.

The Inster Extended Range has a claimed 84kW/147Nm (up from 71kW/147Nm of the base model) and a range of up to 360km (up to 327km for the base model) from the 49kWh battery (42kWh for the base).

It topped to 340km when charging for this test with Hyundai saying its 10-80 per cent time is only 30 minutes. 

Hyundai has a five-year, unlimited distance warranty. The battery warranty is eight years or 160,000km (an industry average).

The Inster only needs to visit the service department once every two years and will cost $655 each visit, or $327 a year which is pretty cheap.