Test: Hyundai Bayon

The award for the most confusing car of the moment goes to the Hyundai Bayon, a crossover in the B-segment. In itself, the model is not crazy, were it not for the fact that the Koreans in that segment are already represented by the Kona. It will remain available alongside the Bayon and will be within five centimeters of its new brand companion in all dimensions known to us. The only difference (at first sight) is that the Bayon is available with 100 hp and manual transmission or 120 hp and automatic transmission, while the Kona is only available with 120 hp and a manual transmission. And as a hybrid and electric version of course, but that’s another story.

Platform of the i20
Yet in that last sentence lies the fundamental difference between the two cars. The reason that the Bayon is not in the price list as a hybrid or electric version is that it is on a completely different platform. The same platform as the brand new Hyundai i20 and as soon as you step in the similarities between the two are unmistakable. Not a shame in the least, it means that the Bayon has modern digital instruments and also an excellent multimedia system that works easily. The seating position is nicely adjusted and although the seats won’t win any prizes, they support sufficiently well for longer journeys. It does, however, feel a bit cheap. This is not only due to the quality of the material, but also to the fact that the fuel cap has to be unlocked with a lever at the bottom of the driver’s seat and that only the side window there opens and closes fully automatically at the touch of a button. So you have to hold the other buttons and we don’t see that much anymore. In the back and all the way in the back, the Bayon has slightly less space to forgive than the Kona.

Electro-hydraulic
The Bayon is standard equipped with the six-speed gearbox, which Hyundai has named ‘Intelligent Manual Transmission’. The clever thing about it is that the clutch pedal is not directly connected to the clutch itself, but to a computer. Once you kick it in, you’re basically telling the car that the clutch is to be operated by an electro-hydraulic system. This allows the car to disconnect and switch off the engine when coasting without driver intervention, just like many cars with an automatic gearbox do. In the beginning it is especially strange that the digital tachometer sometimes drops to 0 when rolling out, while the gear stick is still in gear and your foot is not near the clutch. However, you get used to it pretty quickly, especially because there is only a very slight delay when coupling. Due to this system, however, there is also no feeling left in the clutch and you get used to it less quickly. After a week you still regularly drive away with too many revs. This is on the one hand because the point of application is difficult to feel and on the other hand because the pedal always follows your thoughts for a fraction of a second. After all, there is an extra step between you and the actual link. But it turns out to work in practice, the Bayon scores almost 1 out of 18, although that is partly due to the 48 Volt Mild Hybrid system that lets the starter motor help a little bit when driving. That is not much and the performances are therefore rather modest.

Comfort

The Hyundai’s chassis is less convincing. They mainly aim for comfort and in principle there is of course nothing wrong with that. The Bayon handles bumps and bad road surfaces easily and the reactions in the carriage at load changes are good-natured but outspoken. The price for this is the relatively limited grip reserve, it does not have to go very fast to let the nose slide away and when braking hard, the nose dives very enthusiastically towards the asphalt. So convincing in fact that the rear wheels no longer contribute much to the braking effect, resulting in a remarkably long braking distance. The Bayon needs almost 40 meters to come to a stop from 100 km/h.

The Bayon costs €27,000 and is equipped with attributes such as blind spot sensor, heated seats, reversing camera and electrically folding door mirrors for that amount. Also standard is a five-year warranty.