2005 Hyundai Getz GL review from United Arab Emirates

Nil.

A very good value car ($7,600 OTR here) which feels and looks well put-together.

It's spacious inside and manages to look attractive too though the bodywork as a whole is rather "tinny."

The interior, seats and trim are fine. The trim and dash material being particularly good for this class of car. Only the choice of carpet material lets it down a bit.

The suspension feels good; nice and firm all round with good damping and the brakes seem up to the job so far and do not show any signs of dust accumulation on the front wheels.

Middle-East export Getz GL's come with skinny 155 section tyres which were exchanged at 400kms for a full set of 175 section tyres (wider) which improved the already good handling and added a decent amount of grip along with an improvement in braking feel and all round security on the road.

The standard (Kia supplied) single tone horn is too weedy and polite-sounding. So was replaced with a pair of Bosch twin-tone units.

The gearbox is very easy to use and makes the car very simple to drive. Though the choice of widely spaced gears doesn't help those who like brisk progress or spirited driving. (over-geared for good highway economy no doubt).

Engine-wise the 1340cc 12v is well designed and has a super-smooth, barely audible idle with the a-c off. Once under way it also revs smoothly all the way to the red line, but the biggest frustration is that the factory tune seems to be set on the weak side (economy bias again?)...and below 3,500rpm the car doesn't pull willingly at all, it's almost like a slight hesitation and is even worse with the a-c on. Once past 3,500-4,000rpm it's fine and gets into it's stride.

If you like to drive sedately it probably won't bother you, but try to press-on a bit and it can become a bit of a pain, as to make decent progress you have to wind the thing up to try and keep the revs above the rpm mentioned.

Despite it being a small car it's still a hefty 1,050kgs kerb weight (300kgs heavier than a 1986 1.6 GM Astra I previously owned) which naturally affects the economy considerably if you are trying to accelerate this mass regularly.

Though on the highway it's refined and a good cruiser.

The poor pulling power below 3,500rpm is the only real bad point I feel the car has, other than that they are a good little runabout.