Ride, handling & Safety
Something has to give, so while Hyundai has updated the rear shock absorbers, arming them with low velocity control valves to ensure finer damping and ideal spring stiffness rate. What they’ve done essentially is firm up the suspension, which has taken away the spongy ride quality of the earlier Verna, making the new 4S ride stiffer. While it doesn’t really crash into potholes or makes you aware of every little pebble on the road, the ride quality has firmed up, in effect, making the excessive vertical movement that plagued the outgoing car, a thing of the past. In situations that might make the suspension travel to its very limit, Hyundai has added a bump stopper with emboss finish that counters any ‘Thud’ noise. The environment inside the car remains composed and comfortable at normal speed, however, things transform once the car crosses the triple digit mark. If you happen to be cruising at high speeds on uneven surfaces, which are the norm for the roads in India, the firmed up suspension doesn’t really absorb all of that, which translates into an iffy ride quality. Minor undulations and dips or crests on the surface are not dealt with in a composed manner and all that travels through the chassis. However, with some added weight up-front, the diesel Verna rides better in comparison to the petrol variant.
Coming to the Achilles heel then, handling has never been the strongest points of the Verna. Hyundai has tried to address that, tweaking the suspension and the steering unit which has been tuned for better response. There is some weight to the steering as one gains speed, but it fails to send across any feedback. Employing McPherson struts at the front and torsion beam at the back, the setup is known to favor ride quality at the cost of dynamics. Although they have tweaked the rebound, eliminating the excessive vertical movement, the firmed up bits make things skittish while cornering at high speeds, where the lack of precision from the steering wheel, and a fair amount of body roll make the Verna feel, well, nervous.
Sudden directional changes aren’t as reassuringly executed as some of the other sedans in the segment have gotten us used to, and maybe due to the added weight and different suspension setup, the Diesel feels more planted compared to the petrol Verna. Braking is adequate, although ABS cuts in earlier than you’d like.
Coming back to the stronger points on the Verna 4S, where it shines and towers above all cars in the segment. This has to be one of the safest cars to be sold in the segment. The car’s rigid structure is reinforced at multiple points and made out of high tensile steel. Hyundai has added 6 Airbags, two in the dashboard, two side airbags and twin curtain balloons. ABS is standard across all variants, and the Verna 4S locks its doors automatically after reaching specific speeds, unlocking them in the unfortunate event of an impact.
This verna has got distance to empty, realtime and average fueld economy, speed sensing auto lock doors. Why can’t Hyundai provide them in hatches? These are kind of security features. They must be common across. I was in horrifying situation in my i20 as I did not have an idea about next fuel station and was running low. Santro had speed sensing auto door lock and they have removed it from next generation hatches, sick.