Can someone explain to me why car magazines love the Hyundai Getz so much? Wheels gave it “Gold Star Car” in 2007; SHEdrives gave it “Best First Car” in 2007; it even got the NRMA/RACV/RACQ/AA “Best Small Car” in 2003 and 2005. I can’t for the life of me see why. Someone sideswiped my car, and the smash repair place has given me a Getz to drive for now. Now I know I can’t expect a loaner to be a particularly nice car, but I used to own a 2004 Echo, and I’ve spent enough time driving Pulsars, so I think I have a point of reference.
From the moment you sit down, you notice how cheap it feels. It has that hard, nasty, cheap plastic they’ve chosen for the steering wheel and dashboard. It isn’t comfortable, either. I’m not tall, but the seat feels too high. The gearstick seems a long way away down where they’ve placed it. It doesn’t feel good to drive, either. The brake pedal has very little travel and doesn’t give proportional resistance. The turning circle is too big for such a small car. The engine doesn’t deliver, either – you put your foot down and wait for something to happen; at least with an Echo, when you put your foot down it revs eagerly, and you definitely feel the pull at 6,000 rpm.
Sure they’ve thrown in lots of features, like power windows, power mirrors, audio controls on the steering wheel (which are on the wrong side – they belong on the left) and an MP3/WMA compatible CD player. But it doesn’t change the fact that that the car is lacking where it matters; extras don’t make a bad car better.
