It costs less than R70 000 yet comes with air-conditioning, electric windows and a high-tech, electronically fuel-injected engine and your friends will smile and say, as you park outside Sandton eatery or Cape Town mall, "Hey, that's cute!"
"Prime!", you can reply, and earn some more smiles with that old-fashioned catchphrase before pointing to the model name on the tail door of the chunky, high-rise minicar out of which you have just swung.
The little Atos has
The power output of the latest car is the same, thanks mainly to it being produced in India for the slow-travelling Indian market, but Hyundai SA is looking at swopping the engine, given our longer distances and higher speeds on good roads, for a 55kW unit.
The price, however, has not travelled much at all - if you wanted one four years ago the tag would have read R60 000 for the five-speed manual but back then you didn't get the air-conditioning (standard on the manual version), power-assisted steering, central locking, split and folding rear seats, front fog lights, rear wipe 'n wash, alloy-look covers on the steel wheels (in fact there were no covers at all over the painted metal) of the latest model or - most important of all - the new 1100cc, 45kW/87Nm engine with distributor-less ignition that now comes with the package.
What you don't get is the service plan that came with the previous model - but do you still get a three-year or 100 000km warranty.
Now if all that ain't good value for money, then I don't know what is!
The Atos brings a touch - a touch, mind you - of luxury into the small-car market to make life more comfortable for students, families on a tight budget, sales reps and especially retired folk looking for something inexpensive and easy to drive.
The car's big doors and high roof allow easy access to older bones and joints that protest at the crouch-and-flop movement required to get into many cars these days.
It's that "tall boy" high roof that gives the Atos the comfort edge over other budget cars; headroom in front is cathedral while in the rear not even the scalp of a tall adult will come close to the headlining despite the "theatre" seat that's higher than those up front (what a good idea!).
In fact, given its big tail door, the Atos is more of a small MPV than a car; and, like an MPV, the rear is almost vertical so rear passengers aren't going to burn their necks in the noonday African sun.
Hyundai has kept things simple in the cabin; no lack of quality, just simple. Like the instrument cluster - 180km/h speedo with total and trip distance meters flanked two dials almost as large to tell you when the engine is getting too hot or the fuel tank too empty.
Centre stack
The steering-wheel is a simple three-spoked affair that gives a clear view of the above and its column carries a stalk on the left for wiper functions, on the right for lights and indicators.
The centre stack, topped by two large air vents and switches for the hazard lights and rear demister, is similarly simple: the radio in the pictures is not standard but the air-con is and it's easy to use with simple slides to direct airflow, select fresh or recirculate and adjust temperature and the air-con button is embedded in the fan-speed switch.
Below that is an ashtray and smokes lighter and there's a large audio speaker facing backwards at the extreme ends of the fascia; a left-foot rest co-habits with the clutch pedal.
The long and upright gearshifter is part of the floor console that carries two cupholders and a row of eight coin holders - which unfortunately are all the same size and not much good for coins in our currency. Stretchy magazine pockets behind the front seats and cabin releases for the fuel cab and tail door help make up for this oversight.
There's a glove box, but it's not very big and doesn't lock, and sculpted recesses on top of the fascia but nothing there to keep stuff in place through the bends. There are, however, deep recesses like baby caves each side of the steering column - handy to keep purse or cellphone out of sight of the agents of redistribution - and drawers beneath the front seats but the door pockets are all but useless, barely wide enough to slip fingers into.
More bustle than hustle
Crash bags are not on the menu; neither are anti-lock brakes - in my book no car should be allowed out of the factory without them.
However, the Atos is so low-powered that you're unlikely to get into the kind of trouble that needs either. Launch from rest is more bustle than a hustle - all noise and not a lot of action as the rev limiter cuts in - violently! - at 35km/h in first and about 65 in second but third will go on to around 110km/h after taking the best part of 15 seconds out of your day.
Standing kilometer? Yes, we tried, and the answer is 139km/h in 35.71 seconds at sea level.
Top speed reads out at about 155km/h but, corrected, that's about 147km/h in fifth , though the 1100cc mill seems quite happy to sit there all day - or until the 35-litre tank runs dry.
What the car lacks in performance it easily makes up for in agility. The Atos is less than 3.6m long and only 1.5m wide despite being able to house four large adults comfortably so, while Mrs Bloggsworth-Fremantle is still sawing her 7 Series back and forth in the mall car park, you're already five clicks up the freeway.
You'll also make life more comfortable for street hawkers and other errant pedestrians; even without anti-lock, the Atos' front discs/rear drums and 155/70 Korean radials returned consistent three-second stops from 100km/h.
Full-size spare
The boot, however, is a bit of a disaster. Sure, the rear seats fold and tumble but the female straps of the seat belts have to be fed through the gap 'twixt squab and seatback and the other bit clipped into handy plastic holders on the C-pillar which leaves a mess of stuff on the boot floor even before you start loading.
Hyundai's media pack says the Atos will carry five adults and their luggage - hey, come on guys
There's a full-size spare beneath the lifting floor but another mess of stuff stuck (literally) underneath that - including the jack winder - and a chunk of boot space is taken up by the large, horizontal and rather fragile-looking brackets that support the rear audio speakers (which, in any case, were not connected).
Daft design, ugly to look at and stupidly obstructive to loading big suitcases etc - what were the designers thinking of?
Whatever it was, it didn't affect the Atos' looks. Chunky, high and cute (there it is again) with huge head and tail lights, a neat spoiler/third brake light above the tail door which opens to almost the full height and width of the car (pity about those speakers spoiling the effect).
Two grilles up front feed air to the engine and a modest air dam carries a pair of fog lights; lots of glass gives excellent all-round vision to the driver and lots of black plastic around the hip line means lots of protection from shopping trolleys.
Pity, then, that the guy who installed the aftermarket radio aerial used cheap screws and that one of them was going rusty already. Never heard of stainless-steel, chaps?
Hyundai Atos Prime spefications
Prices
Hyundai Atos Prime 1.1 GLS- R69 900
Hyundai Atos Prime 1.1 GLS a/t - R79 900