2020 Hyundai Verna is on sale at a starting price of Rs 9.31 lakh and holds several advantages over arch-rivals like Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and Honda City in various aspects
The facelifted Hyundai Verna went on sale late last month and is available at a starting price of Rs 9.31 lakh. The refreshed model comes with a range of changes that work well to induce a lot of freshness into the third generation of the South Korean C2-segment offering.
Basically, the refreshed Verna not only gets several styling updates but also comes with a range of new engines and many new features. Combined together, these updates have made the Verna a compelling buy. To give you a perspective, the Verna offers 27 more features than the Maruti Ciaz. Let’s discuss these features in detail in this post here.
1. Exterior Design
Speaking about the exterior design, the 2020 Hyundai Verna features a highly updated front-end. It has a new pair of headlamps that are sleeker than before. Also, it features a new cascading grille that is wider than before and stretches between the tail lamps. Also, the car comes with a new set of bumpers, new tail lamps and a new set of alloy wheels.
Also, the new Hyundai Verna gets a shark fin antenna, electric sunroof, twin-muffler design, dark chrome finish for the front grille and cornering lamps. These are some features that are not present on the Maruti Ciaz. Design is subjective to personal tastes and we believe that the Ciaz will impress everyone who likes long cars with understated elegance. The Verna, on the other hand, looks way bolder and bits like the electric sunroof and twin-muffler design will definitely appeal to the young and athletic way more than what the Ciaz does.
2. Interior & Features
Next, let’s come to the interior of the vehicle. Compared to the Ciaz, the Verna isn’t anywhere as spacious. However, like the exterior, the interior of the Verna is bolder than that of the Ciaz. Also, it comes with many more features that the biggest sedan in Maruti Suzuki’s lineup misses out on.
Among the features advantages that the Verna now enjoys over Ciaz are ventilated seats, standard telematics (the same are available as an optional accessory on Ciaz), side and curtain airbags, wireless charger, telescopic adjustment for the steering, HD display for the touchscreen infotainment unit, Arkamys premium sound driver, digital cluster, tyre pressure monitoring system, Emergency Signal System (ESS), smart trunk opening (another feature that is available as an optional accessory on the Ciaz), driver rearview monitor, escort function, cooled glove box, impact sensing auto door unlock, sliding function for front armrest, luggage net, ECO coat technology for air conditioning, rear-seat armrest pull strap and front and rear USB charger.
3. Powertrain
Finally, let’s now talk about another area in which the 2020 Hyundai Verna holds a clear edge over the Maruti Ciaz. It is worth mentioning here that the Maruti Ciaz is now available only with a single engine option in the form of a 1.5-litre petrol motor. This is a part of the company’s K-series of engine family and replaced the 1.4-litre petrol engine in the pre-facelift version.
The petrol engine option of the Maruti Ciaz puts out a maximum power of 104.5PS and a peak torque of 138Nm. Transmission options include a 5-speed manual transmission and a 4-speed torque-converted automatic unit. Earlier, the Maruti Ciaz was also on sale with two diesel engine options – a Fiat-sourced 1.3-litre unit and an in-house-developed 1.5-litre unit.
The 1.3-litre diesel engine used to come with a SHVS mild-hybrid system, which is something that was not given on the 1.5-litre diesel option. However, the petrol variant gained the mild-hybrid technology back when the 1.4-litre unit was replaced by the 1.5-litre motor. Compared to just one engine option of the Maruti Ciaz, the Hyundai Verna is now available with as many as three engine options – 2 petrol and 1 diesel. Also, all these engine options are completely new motors.
Basically, the Hyundai Verna is now being sold with a 1.5-litre naturally-aspirated petrol engine that has a maximum power of 115 PS. It has been on sale with two transmission options – 6-speed manual and CVT. Another big advantage that the Verna has over the Ciaz is that unlike the Maruti rival, it’s still being sold with a diesel engine option. While the pre-facelift Verna had a 1.6-litre diesel engine that was compliant with BSIV emission norms, the new 1.5-litre motor is BSVI compliant.
It produces a maximum power of 115 PS as compared to 120 PS before. Another highlight of the new Verna is that the diesel engine is on sale with both 6-speed manual and 6-speed automatic transmissions. However, there’s no availability of SHVS-like mild-hybrid technology on any of the engine variants of the Verna.
Finally, let’s come to another big highlight of the new Verna – the third engine variant. The 1.4-litre turbo-petrol engine is currently the most powerful motor in its segment. The motor comes mated to a 7-speed DCT which can be used through steering-mounted paddle shifters, a yet another first in the segment.
In comparison, like we said, the Ciaz is being sold only with a naturally-aspirated petrol engine that features a 5-speed manual transmission and a 4-speed torque converter unit. Also, compared to the 120 PS of the maximum power of Verna Turbo, the Ciaz offers only about 104PS. Hence, it’s clear from our above report that the handful of advantages that the Verna holds over the Ciaz help it easily better the hot-selling Maruti model in several aspects.