New Verna Focuses On The Thrill Of Driving

Ride and handling is the biggest area of improvement on the fifth-gen Verna

- Sirish Chandran

IF THERE’S ONCE CRITICISM we’ve levelled at every generation of the Verna, and the Accent that preceded it, it is that they’ve hardly been any fun to drive. Of course they weren’t easy on the eye either but the fourth-gen Verna addressed that problem, and in any case there were never any complaints on powertrain or the crucial value-for-money equation. No, if Hyundai were to appeal to customers who enjoyed driving as much as being driven, they needed to address the dynamic shortcomings of the Verna and that’s precisely their focus area for the fifth-gen Verna whose prices will have been announced by the time you read this (we’ve recommended ₹50,000 less than the equivalent spec Honda City, let’s see if Hyundai agrees to that).

Super Body Structure

Good ride and handling starts with a torsionally rigid body structure. It’s the reason why a decade after its launch the Polo (and Vento and Ameo) still set the ride and handling benchmark – its static torsional rigidity of 180,000Nm/° has still to be matched. The torsional rigidity leads to better dynamics, less squeaks and rattles and of course improves crash safety numbers.

Hyundai has gone the same way with the new Verna, increasing the percentage of ultra high strength steel on the all-new K2 platform from 13 to 50 per cent, of which 8 per cent are hot stamped steels used in areas to improve side impact protection. You also get the option of six airbags while ABS is of course standard.