Stepping out in style

An eight-seat minibus you can drive on your car licence. There aren't many big people-movers remaining on the market for comparisons but it's a bargain, says Pete Burnard...

REMEMBER that widely-ridiculed Guernsey tourism slogan, 'It's what it isn't that makes it what it is'?

If ever anyone wanted it to make sense, they could apply it to the Hyundai i800.

High, wide and handsome in its own way it might be, but what the Hyundai i800 isn't is an MPV.

Heavily based on the iLoad van, what the i800 is instead, as Barras Car Centre's Paul Guilmoto was quick to point out, is an eight-seat minibus that can, of course, be driven on your car licence.

And now, despite its commercial roots, it is available with automatic transmission, which should help broaden the appeal of an already pretty popular local people carrier.

First thing to strike you in the showroom is the price.

It's one heck of a lot of metal for the money – even with the new automatic box it can still be in your driveway for less than £20k.

There aren't many big people-movers still on the market with which to compare it, but trust me, it's a bargain.

And it doesn't feel cheap when you climb up into the driving seat.

You do climb up, too, enough to feel noticeably higher than in your normal MPV.

Still, the driver's seat is heated and there's a fair complement of creature comforts and luxury touches: ducted air conditioning with separate second-row controls, illuminated vanity mirrors, two-tone interior trim, privacy glass and a six-speaker audio system with USB and aux inputs and steering wheel controls all make for a convincing car-like ambience.

In fact it's sufficiently car-like for going the full Monty and adding leather seat facings and metallic or pearl paint to look like a pretty sensible way of spending £1,495.

Be they leather or cloth, the six passenger seats in the middle and rear rows are accessed by big sliding doors that are inherently kiddy-proof and make getting in and out easy in windy situations and/or tight parking spots.

The middle row splits 2:1 and slides fore and aft to get the legroom optimally shared between the occupants of the second and third-row benches.

There's more than enough legroom to go round anyway, ditto head and shoulder room, too.

If you want to carry eight of me – and I can think of no better use of cloning – the i800 is the answer.

Access to the third-row seats is better than in most rivals and relaxing in them is a far cry from the knees-to-chin scrunch in some alleged seven-seaters that are really no more than 5+2s.

So it's great for large families, or indeed rugby packs, but what about their baggage?

Again it trumps the opposition – you must have noticed how some third-row seats obliterate the boot and almost poke the tailgate glass out.

None of that here with a massive 851 litres – that's about four superminis' worth – with all the seats in place.

Its Achilles' heel, of course, is that while the most versatile MPVs can liberate much more luggage room by clever seat-folding arrangements, i800 owners have to take a spanner to six nuts to remove the third-row seating and improve on that 851 litres which, while impressive, is hardly enough to help with a house move.

Still, that suits some people fine; triathletes, for example, who remove the seat and get a generous five-seater that carries their bikes inside while still attracting car – rather than commercial – rates on Condor.

I'm sure I've seen a tradesman or two with i800s rather than iLoads – so I guess they can be multi-purpose if you're a white van man with a family of four or five.

So much for the who/what that the i800 will carry.

How will it carry it – what's it like on the road?

Pretty impressive, although the right-hand indicator stalk takes a bit of getting used to.

The six-speed automatic box – with manual override – comes with the 170PS version of the Hyundai/Kia 2.5 litre diesel.

Under hard acceleration it's not the most discreet of modern oil burners but it packs a hefty 324lb/ft of torque quite low down, which makes it feel quicker than the bare performance figures suggest.

At the cruise it's relaxed and refined and should provide a fine environment in which to gobble up the motorway miles.

It's commercial roots help, too. If you're designing a vehicle for family use both locally and on off-island holidays, what better place to start than with white van man's eponymous transport? Light commercials are, after all, designed both to be easy to hop in and out of and comfortable for a long haul.

Of course all that space does come at a price. It's not the ideal companion in those miserably tight car parks in which GPs' surgeries, while not alone, seem to specialise, but it's not the worst.

In terms of appearance it seems incredible but the i800 is both marginally narrower and shorter than the Chrysler Grand Voyager – a true MPV and much dearer, but probably one of the i800's few-remaining rivals.

Granted the Hyundai lacks the powerfold mirrors that can save a glass or two along narrow local roads, but since several new powerfold mirror set-ups work only when stationary, having to power down the window and haul the mirror in yourself is not that much of a hardship.

The turning circle is respectable for the size and tight-spot manoeuvres are made that bit less fraught by the standard reversing sensors.

The ride over surface irregularities is pretty good – for the i800, Hyundai have ditched the van's leaf springs in favour of coil springs for the rigid rear axle.

And thanks to its increase in engine power – 168bhp rather than 134 – the automatic i800 is quicker than the manual version both to 62mph (14.4 secs v. 17.6) and in outright top speed (112mph compared with 104).

It certainly felt more than adequate on the road.

And while big MPVs or eight-seat minibuses are not the weapon of choice for the road tester's favoured Welsh B roads (I wish, I wish), it's more satisfying to drive than you might think.

The steering feels pleasantly meaty, grip levels are high for a fairly powerful front-driver and there's less body roll than its height suggests, much less.

But two-pedal motoring does come at a price – about five fewer miles per gallon than the manual, although it's about the same as rival autos.

Taking the automatic option also curbs the i800's towing capability. The manual car's 2.3 tonne towing limit comes down to 1.5, doubtless to protect the auto box.

Still, that will handle a modern six-berth caravan with a bit in reserve and you'll enjoy the innate stability that has made the i800 an award-winning towcar.

If you can afford to trade some of the MPV's versatility – and the size of the boot means that many will be able to – the i800 is an absolute snip.

Factor in Hyundai's five-year unlimited mileage warranty, five-year roadside assistance package and five years of vehicle health checks and it looks better still.