New HYUNDAI I800 review at a glance:
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Advantages: Eight seats, festooned with kit and caboodle, extremely competitively priced, thrusting, dependable power base, a band could perform a gig in here rather than it just transport them to one, massive fuel tanks

Disadvantages: A few minor safety concerns (just two airbags being the biggest), jelly-like ride quality unless wedged with passengers, drive and feel sometimes akin to a van’s

Summary: A well thought-out, practical, spacious way for eight people to travel under the one long-ish roof. For the money Hyundai is asking, nothing touches the i800 in terms of value for money multi person motoring. Sound build quality, large fuel tank and strong diesel engine add to appeal, however question marks hang over safety kit.

New HYUNDAI I800 Review:
Good news for all provincial cab firms looking for an alternative private hire vision, as we give you the Hyundai i800 eight-seater MPV to add to your fleet of airport shuttle service vehicles. Powered by a four-cylinder 2.5-litre CRDi diesel engine and measuring slightly shorter than a National Express coach, the Hyundai i800 is a people carrier set for previously unchartered waters for the ambitious Korean car manufacturer.

Affording eight fare-paying occupants at not overly close quarters – plus all their suitcases with the minimum of quibble – the i800 will courteously taxi anybody and everybody from front door to terminal with considerable ease and comfort. And that’s predominantly down to the fact that it’s fundamentally designed and constructed like a minibus.

All sharp, angular, block-like ergonomics ensure that streamlined and wind-cheating the Hyundai i800 most certainly isn’t, however when it comes to versatility, adaptability and cleverness, there’s no arguing. Hyundai is thinking bigger than ever before, and bucking the trend by applying that thought process to inside the box.

Its set-square borrowed exterior shape means acres of space inside, and moreover the addition of a further seat over rivals. And a seat that isn’t made of shiny red plastic and found in the corner of a GP’s surgery waiting room next to a stash of early learning toys.

851-litre of boot area – even when rammed to bursting point with eager holiday-makers aboard – means that one purpose isn’t traded-off against the other in the Hyundai i800; offering the sort of load dimensions that some current big-boned estate cars couldn’t match.

Splitting and folding this way and that, the rear benches have more uses than a Swiss army knife. A feat repeated in the centre row seating where individual pews can shimmy forward or back to expose enough spare room for a stable of straw donkeys and stash of duty free. Accessible by sliding doors, occupants can make an eloquent exit however questionable the driver’s parking at close quarters is. Although with a turning circle of 5.61m for something so gargantuan, low speed maneuvering excuses will fall on deaf ears.

A calming two-tone interior, six speak sound system, zonal air-con vents and privacy glass will help the most weary or restless of travelers unwind, whilst electronic reversing sensors, ESP, traction control and a bum-heating cockpit seat help the driver out and are discovered as standard on the i800 MPV. As are alloys, remote locking and a CD player.

Elsewhere the i800’s interior will be resilient to everything thrown at it, as is undoubtedly a place where functionality is king. However as a people carrier the i800 is let down by a distinct lack of airbags; relying on just the two front ones to protect the innocent. On a car that’s dedicating its existence to looking after large groups of people it should have side and curtain airbags at the very least. Something of a manufacturer oversight which may well mark it down against its contemporaries.

Rear-wheel driven, the Hyundai’s 168bhp-generating CRDi unit summons 289lb-ft of torque which ensures that even a fully laden i800 will get the occupants to their destination on time and unruffled. Despite its bulk – 5,125mm in length, 1,920mm in breadth - and power the model returns some 33.2mpg on the combined cycle and boasts a 75-litre reservoir, allowing the i800 to journey 560 miles before needing to reacquaint itself with a petrol forecourt.

As is the story with all Hyundai’s, the i800 has the manufacturers’ five year/unlimited-mileage warranty to provide long term security.