Driving the CRD Hyundai Matrix

If you’re wondering what the big fat deal is with having the somewhat dated Hyundai Matrix as our lead story, it’s not because we’re running out of content or that the bottom may have just suddenly fallen out of our industry and swallowed up all the cool cars in the process. You see, this here is no ordinary Matrix. This is its coal fired sibling that comes preaching the promise of healing us all from the rising fuel costs that is paralyzing the average motorist. Ahhh, relief, I hear you saying. After bearing the brunt of record breaking fuel prices over the last few months, even just the sound of the word "diesel" leaving your lips acts like soothing balm being rubbed deeply into a scalded and cracked motoring public’s tortured soul.

In this ever surprising little motoring beat we bop around to, in absence of an all-new model, there nothing like a good nip, tuck, facelift or new engine variant to get you splashed across the pages of your favorite daily. Hyundai has heeded the calls of their customers and brought in a 1.5 liter, Common rail diesel engine that churns out a reasonably healthy 82 horses and a 176nm of torque. For that alone they should be applauded. Pause. If you’re the lazy type of reader, I’ll do you a favor and cut to the chase. This is the best version of the Matrix I have ever driven. There you go, now you can go back to reading about wire tapping and destabilization plots.

You’re back? I don’t blame you. Okay, let me tell you more about the car then. Actually, Hyundai is really lucky that the public is tiring of the stale main news events and can spend more time scouring through the rest of the paper, because aside from the new engine, there’s not a lot else that’s special about this car. That’s not intended as harsh, its just there is no single area where the Matrix shines. It does everything well, but there’s nothing that really grabs you by the root of your hair and drags you down to the very flashy dealership in Makati for a second look. And that’s quite sad. Sad because I feel the Matrix is an honest attempt from Hyundai and I was hoping for it to field more pressure on more established names like Honda.

Two design features are trumpeted. The driver’s instruments are housed in a giant frog’s eyelid that breaks the surface of the dashboard, while the gear lever is mounted at the base of the center console to create more floorspace. Sadly, other manufacturers got there first on both counts. Hyundai’s biggest hurdle here is that buyers will automatically draw the inevitable comparison to the Jazz. There’s no question that the Matrix offers tremendous flexibility plus plenty of obsessive, compulsive storage bins for tidbits like mobile phones, coins and the like, not to mention loads of passenger space — but these features are also paralleled in its competitor’s models. And then some. Cue diesel. Now we’re talking. This is a product planning manager’s dream. Finally! Now, Hyundai has found a unique selling point. But is it enough?

Safe to say that the CRD (Common rail diesel) Matrix behaves exactly the same way as its petrol powered siblings. Where things start to come alive though is under hard acceleration. Normally, a diesel engine is characterized by its generous portions of torque early on in the rev band. This means you get a massive shove off the line only to flatten out midway through the engine speed, which by this stage, means assigning the rest of the duties to a turbo to keep everyone going forward. The Matrix, however, misses out on the shove bit. Maybe its the whole Euro emissions thing that keeps everything strangled — regardless — there is a noticeable dead spot from anything under 3,000 rpm.

Once you creep into the 3-4,000 rpm zone, the Matrix jumps out of its designer skin and leaps forward like a taunted animal. With a modest 82 turbo-charged horses bolting from underneath that Italian designed hood, it still manages to hunt down Civics and Corollas and dispatches them with contempt. For as long as you can keep it in its sweet spot, the Matrix is impressively quick and makes light work of a spirited drive home. Its fun and reasonably economical all at the same time. But that’s not the way these cars are meant to be driven now, are they? Honestly, as much fun as I had with it, for practical purposes, the Matrix should really come with a different engine mapping system that gives you the goods on take off even if it means sacrificing the higher end stuff, which obviously only represents a small percentage of your daily drive anyway. Realistically, it would be better to tool around town with a nice surge available on tap from low rpm so that you can punch yourself quickly into the little gaps that open up in traffic.

The CRD version will only be offered in a 5-speed manual. Although this is the most logical choice for any vehicle that can’t crack a ton of horses, the shifting is let down by a rubbery and vague feel in its action. This tended to dampen the whole driving experience as I constantly ended up fidgeting with the stick, clumsily trying to wedge it into the correct gear. It lacks that positive feel that you need to be able to keep your eyes on the road instead of the gear lever. The clutch is light enough for city driving and the steering makes it very easy to putter around our cramped quarters.

Design is subjective so I’ll leave that up to your tastes as to whether it was worth Hyundai paying internationally renowned Italian automotive design gurus, Pininfarina, gobs of hard earned Won to pen them a design that could help to ease them into the driveways of most European homes. It is no secret that the Matrix was developed primarily for the European market and this could be where it will have its work cut out for itself. If it can’t cut the mustard over there, it will struggle even more here. So far, its neither here nor there which is probably a direct result of its flirtation with polarizing markets. It’s not clear about its roots and feels somewhat diluted in its approach — it doesn’t feel Euro or Asian, it feels almost generic. Sort of like Antarctica. You see, a Euro car has its own appeal and buyers are happy to make compromises based on the reward of a certain brand or model’s strengths. Vice versa for Asian brands. At the risk of repeating myself, the Hyundai comes to the table with nothing really new or innovative.

The good news is, locally, nobody else offers a small car with a diesel engine and Hyundai will no doubt want to ride on that wave. Good for them. Problem is, at 678,000 pesos, it doesn’t come cheap. That is encroaching on the top-of-the-line Jazz territory already, with ABS, SRS and CVT with 7 speed mode thrown into the deal. When you look at it like that, the Jazz is music to a buyer’s ear. Hyundai really needs to pull a rabbit out of its marketing department’s hat if it is serious about getting some serious volume out there. A free servicing package wrapped up in a 3 year, 100,000 km warranty should do the trick. Who knows, maybe then you might eventually see the Honda Jazz singing a different tune.