Hyundai Inster review

Even if, for the sake of residual value, you decide to forego the test car's optional Crayola scheme, there's funk in the cabin. Example: alongside the door handles are round-end oblongs that could be stylised battery cells… except they have a + sign at both ends.

The screens and graphics are more serious minded, being lifted pretty much wholesale from loads of Hyundais – not the very latest system, but even this last-gen setup is as good as other makers' most current efforts.

The driver's screen is high enough definition that when you select round clocks they look plausible, and then at the appropriate moment other stuff such as the blind-spot cameras pops up to displace the dials.

The centre screen houses the expected apps, with a configurable tiled layout if you want. Below that are volume and zoom knobs, and between them a row of actual buttons, shortcutting to media, setup, nav, and a favourite.

What about the climate controls?

Those are further down the dash, present and correct as a full set of buttons. Cruise control, driver assist, stereo/phone and drive mode buttons and rollers reside on the steering wheel.

Odd really that when most cars have screen-only controls, the presence of the buttons doesn't just make us swoon because we'd rather watch the road than dive into menus. But also, on a cheap car, the plethora of buttons serves as physical proof that this is a well-equipped little car.

The front seats act like a bench, and as there's no centre console you can easily get to the driver's side from either door. You're separated from the passenger by a pair of cupholders and fold-down armrest. Whether the absence of a proper centre storage bin makes the slide-across facility worthwhile is another question. Having lived with a BMW i3 we'd say not.

All the storage you're left with is a bit of small-object space below the climate controls, and a trough above the glovebox – but that doesn't have a rubber mat so your nicknacks will rattle and slither about. USB sockets live there, and in the upper spec there's more in the rear and a mains-voltage socket.

What about in the back?

The Inster's narrowness means just two seats and two seatbelts. But that's not all. While there's a normal bench for the base 01 spec, the 02 spec has a pair of sliding/reclining ones. Slide them back and legroom becomes pretty palatial. It's a clever urban taxi, like the Mk1 Renault Twingo and a few other cars down the years. Of course, set up that way the boot is correspondingly tiny, albeit it has an underfloor cubby.

But like brightly coloured dashboards, sliding rear seats are a designers' brainwave that few customers actually use. Another immediate disadvantage is that the boot's floormat and parcel shelf arrangements have to work around the multiple seat positions and end up being woefully ramshackle.