“Verna” is a household name in India since 2006, although its roots are associated to Accent which arrived as early as in 1999. The car received its first significant upgrade in 2011 that became known as Fluidic Verna, and saved the sedan from losing its much cherished crown to equally established names like Honda City, Maruti Suzuki SX4 and then-newcomer, Volkswagen Vento. It continued to enjoy a reasonable share of market sales but it was only until sometime back when battle ground took up the heat. And to make the situation from bad to worse, Honda had readied City Diesel while Maruti Suzuki was all-set with SX4 replacement, the Ciaz. Though the Verna, by no means, has been an all-rounder but it successfully did the job of satisfying the demands of majority of customers in the targeted segment using good ol’ Hyundai formula. i.e. striking design, incredible amount of features and comfort at a cut-throat price tag.
With this facelift, the company has made a serious effort to iron out a few of the major issues this car was always criticized for time and again. But then, it comes at a cost of dearer price tag. Hyundai is primarily aiming to retail New Verna to married couples who are in their 30’s – 40’s and are attention seekers as well as tech savvy. To go along with this branding philosophy, it has also thrown in a new “4S” moniker as prefix (on lines of all the latest Hyundai cars). The 4S is supposed to stand for Style, Safety, Speed and Sophistication. However, just like Elite i20, there’s no apparent ‘4S’ badging on 4S Fluidic Verna whatsoever. As a matter of fact, the car remains substantially unchanged and for casual onlookers, only the face is going to appear unique at first sight.
Globally, this face isn’t all-new per-se. From the beginning, fourth generation Verna was sold with similar shaped headlamps and grille in China. This exact facelift (4S) rolled out there early last year. For Indians, it’s truly a welcome change. Verna now looks much more mature than earlier. Even though Hyundai has decided to retain its flamboyance, but it’s now disguised in the tinge of subtlety. Projector-equipped headlamps have borrowed cues from that of more upmarket Sonata (which in turn seems inspired from Genesis saloon). Front wing-shaped grille has gone wider that radically contributes to enhance the presence while sharp boomerang styled foglamps instantly exude sportiness. All in all, such upgrades have helped making the front-end fuller and premium.
Rear profile, on the other hand, has least amount of transformation whereas designers have left side profile untouched totally (if stunning diamond-cut alloys are overlooked). Tail lamps look familiar, unless you spend a moment to observe carefully. They offer LED-like effect
ala Audi et al. The edges elongated on the fender now also bear a wing-like pattern. Bumper is slightly reworked too, with the most prominent update being nicely chiseled reflectors which appear somewhat in-tune with design of the stoplamp area of tail lamps assembly. Surprisingly, Hyundai has done away with the exposed dual tail pipes; instead, there’s now only a single tailpipe modestly tucked under the skin. You’ll also find a less cluttered tailgate, which has been achieved by keeping the amount of badges to minimum.
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