Hyundai Reina

On the inside too, Hyundai has gone the conservative path by designing the cabin with not much flair and with limited equipment levels. The all-black cabin looks sporty with the fine streak of silver lining flowing across the width of the dashboard.

The Hyundai Reina has a simple and plain driver’s cockpit with a three-spoke steering wheel from Tucson (sans the audio and Bluetooth controls) and an analog instrument console. There is a sense of design element shared with the Elantra when it comes to the center console, with the asymmetrical trapezoidal shape for the infotainment system, which here is a 1-Din unit with physical buttons and Bluetooth support, and not a touchscreen unit. The trapezoidal theme continues for the AC vents above and panel for the manual AC controls below it, albeit they are more symmetrically designed.

Despite its compact footprints, the segment-best wheelbase ensures that there is no dearth of space inside the cabin of the Hyundai Reina.

While all the new generation Hyundai models are nothing short of head-turners, the same cannot be said about the Hyundai Reina with full conviction. The compact sedan looks a bit basic, and what turns the matters against it is the limited list of cosmetic features that make it look even plainer.

The Hyundai Reina looks quite smart with Hyundai’s familiar cascading grille with rounded lower edges adding some element of style. However, the sweptback headlamps, which look inspired by the previous generation Accent, look a tad too basic, thanks to the absence of any kind of LED treatment, something which gradually is becoming a norm in the segment. There are no fog lamps either, and the front bumper comes with a sleek horizontal air dam at the bottom.

The side profile of the Hyundai Reina looks proportionate as if the sedan doesn’t feel deliberately truncated. There is a smooth and dine character line flowing from the edge of the front headlamp to that of the tail lamp. However, there are no alloy wheels either, and the Reina does away with simple plastic caps for the 15-inch wheels.

When viewed from the back, the Hyundai Reina looks easy on the eyes again with sweptback tail lamps and a clean look for the boot lid, which comes with few character lines to prevent it from looking boring.

Riding on 15-inch steel wheels, the Hyundai Reina is bestowed with Macpherson struts with stabiliser at the front and coupled torsion beam axle at the rear. Along with a softer setup for the steering, the suspension too is on a smoother side, which imparts plush levels of ride quality on the go. However, the driving enthusiasts will feel the overall experience a bit toned down and a bit uninspiring, for the lack of precision in its steering and suspension damping setup.

Under the hood, there is a 1.4-litre four-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol engine which sources the power to the front wheels of the Hyundai Reina. Offered with both the options of a 5-speed manual as well as 4-speed automatic transmissions, this engine produces 95 PS of maximum power and 132 Nm of peak torque output. The engine has a praiseworthy claim of 25.8 kmpl of fuel efficiency output.

For an entry-level offering, the Hyundai Reina covers just the basic level of safety equipment and has got not more than the availability of dual front airbags and ABS for all four wheels.

The Hyundai Reina emerges out as just an okay option for the average family-oriented car buyer, by covering the basic grounds of a fuel-efficient engine and comfortable cabin. We do wish that Hyundai equips the Reina with few more comfort and convenience features on board to make the package more appealing to a wider audience.