JUST how basic is basic? Younger drivers may not credit this, but ask your granddad about paying extra for a heater in his new car. Or a radio, for that matter.

And don't even think about seat belts, electric windows or heated door mirrors. And what exactly is climate control, Bluetooth or air conditioning?

How times move on, snd in the case of the little car tested today, how affordable motoring can be bordering on fun with all the bells and whistles thrown in too.

For the amount of cash some silly people pay for a brake upgrade on their Fantusy Thunderer GTX you'll find Hyundai presenting you with a supremely sensible car capable of taking a family of four (five at a squeeze) anywhere they need to go, in some comfort and for not much money.

Designed in Germany and built in Turkey, this latest i10 follows on from the first one that proved a smash hit in the government's old car scrappage scheme - where you got a £2,000 rebate for trading in the old banger for a new car.

That ended some years ago but so many people bought an i10 (it felt as though they were giving them away, almost) and enjoyed the experience that the model is now firmly established in the league of best budget buys.

Deservedly so, you'd have to say. Here is a car honed to make it so easy to drive you can hop straight in at the dealer and drive home without wondering for a moment how things work.

That does not happen in every new car. Finding reverse, or Radio 4 can be an exercise in applied reasoning that would tax Stephen Hawkin's brain cells. In the Hyundai things happen the way you expect them to.

This new version is a big longer and wider than before, but a bit lower (designers think that makes a car look more grown up and attractive) and it offers a little more room for people and a bigger (quite generous) boot.

Prices range from £8,705 for a base model with 1.0-litre petrol engine to a 1.2-litre with automatic gears and everything including the kitchen sink for £12,760.

Not may of the pricier model will be leaving a showroom soon but lots of i10 buyers are going for the larger engine in a fairly upmarket trim level, just like the Premium grade of the test car.

It's not hard to see why. In performance terms the car deals perfectly well with the cut and thrust of town work or keeping up with the semi-legal speeds of a motorway drive. It also showed 50mpg on its (standard fit) trip computer.

A nicely positive gearchange and softly precise clutch helped smooth forward progress and the ride remained decent enough on everything but the odd ridge, which generated an unexpected thump. Can't have everything, I suppose.

You can, though, have most of it if you take the Premium trim level. Standard kit includes alloy wheels, air conditioning, electric windows in all four doors, electrically heated and adjusted door mirrors, remote central locking, Bluetooth (which paired with my phone in seconds) and a sound system with steering wheel controls that was good enough to forget (that's a compliment).

A nice touch are the front fog lights that come on for sharp bends taken slowly; useful if you're nudging into a strange driveway at night and certainly not expected in a car at this price.