What’s Inside?

The cabin is quite a stunning piece of design, and first impressions are definitely great. While the materials certainly don’t feel as premium as something you would expect to find in more expensive luxury cars, there’s a sense of genuine quality and thought-through design aesthetics in the cabin. 

Other car designs often boast of cockpit-like cabins and only approximate the feel, but the Avante’s design is clearly styled from ground up to be properly cohesive and comprehensive. The digital instrument cluster and central control panel form a coherent wrap in the driver’s field of view, and the centre console’s lines blend right across to the driver’s side door panel. The steering wheel is at once familiar and unique in that it’s round and not some odd shape, but the spokes give it the effect of an airplane cockpit’s yoke rather than a conventional steering wheel. 

A select number of colour options such as the Intense Blue of the car driven here even have unique interior trim colours, with the driver’s side of the interior highlighted in a lighter shade of gray to highlight the design.

Hyundai’s four-door coupe ethos is slightly different from what most people would expect, and rather than a high shoulder line, much of the car’s interior switches are placed quite low down in the car. The door handle pulls and power window switches for example, are lower along the door than usual. 

The effect is that even though the car’s styling makes it look low and cosseting from the outside, the interior actually feels very spacious and airy, helped by the sunroof overhead. The front passenger gets a grab handle along the edge of the centre console, but it’s really designed as a surround for the driver’s cockpit. 

The front seats also feature ventilation and heating elements, a feature that until a short while ago wasn’t found in cars of this price range. The Elite version gets heated rear seats too, though the only reason you might ever use them is when starting from a cold morning in Cameron Highlands or Genting. 

There’s Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, but the car has no integrated GPS navigation. 

The rear seats are a little more pedestrian but they are really comfortable and legroom is excellent. The sloping roofline doesn’t realy cut down on interior headroom thanks to clever design, and anybody under 1.8 metres will do fine in the back.

There are also aircon vents for the back. The bench splits 60:40 and folds for expanding the 474-litre boot space.

Continue to Page 3: How does it drive?

Page 1: Intro
Page 2: Interior
Page 3: Driving Experience
Page 4: Conclusion and Video Review

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