The Hyundai Inster is so good on so many levels, writes Brian Byrne. So you know just where this particular review is going now, don’t you? Well, sometimes you just know.
OK, so it’s not especially beautiful. The front end has too much going on everywhere, and could drop that faux skid plate assembly that looks like it's coming away anyway. The box-on-wheels style doesn’t allow for curves or cuddliness. But it does have that other ‘C’ — cute. And there’s a bunch of visual customisations you can personalise to your own tastes.
At the most essential level, though, Inster is a people-packager par excellence. That’s one thing about a proper angular box: it’s the most efficient shape for holding stuff. Or people, in this instance. It may be officially a B-segment vehicle, but it’s tall, wide enough, clever, and has flexible seating. When required, a couple of burly six-footers can sit in the back without banging against anything and not having to pull their knees up to their chins. Right, at the longest knee room setting, the boot gets smaller, but it will still carry a couple of stacked bags of garden compost that only seem to be sold in pairs. The guy who placed those bags was impressed with the car, though he doubted it could withstand the ravages of young children. Maybe because of the light colours of the trim, but in fact it is hardwearing and eminently washable plastic, so perhaps he wouldn't need to be so worried. If you want to carry more stuff, the back seats fold properly flat, and with the passenger seat down as well, you can have something long quite easily.
The driver’s place is very well thought out. It’s a comfortable car in which to sit up and survey all around you. Square car, square visibility, nothing in the way. A centre screen and a good digital driving instruments cluster are sized not to get in the way, either. What really appeals to me is the buttons and switches set up on the centre stack for selecting radio, maps, climate and seat heating. Along with the excellent controls on the steering wheel, this makes it one of the best and ergonomically thought-out setups I've seen for many a year. Every time I got in and had used the star 'favourite' button on the steering wheel to get to the driver assistance screen to turn off the bits that annoy me, this was my happy car.
There are two battery options, with effective capacities of 39kWh or 46kWh, giving real ranges of around 255km/311km respectively. In fact, I was getting a bit more when I made a couple of trips on old, former main roads instead of motorways. In any case, it's a quick car to charge, and for suburban and a bit of country use, it's sweet and practical. It is not a hot hatch pretence in any way; the 0-100km/h sprints are around the 10-11 seconds mark, which is par with most cars in the class, regardless of powertrain.
And then we get to the bottom line. Inster is affordable as well as all the other good things. Relatively, anyhow. So for many reasons, it has already won plaudits, including World Electric Car of the Year 2025.
PRICE: From €19,345; Review car €22,845. WHAT I LIKED: Ah, nearly everything.
