30 November 2025

This tiny Hyundai is hands-down the cutest car on the market

30 November 2025 | By James Coleman

If only it were a little cheaper. Photo: James Coleman.

The Coleman family went through the multi-faceted pain that is moving house recently and, normally, Providence smiles upon us to make situations like these a little easier, and my test car for the week will be something with ample space – like a seven-seat SUV, or dual-cab ute.

Not this time. We ended up with a car that’s about as small as a car can be before it’s legally a motorbike. Or sold in the toy section at Coles. The Hyundai Inster Cross.

But the 3.8-metre-long, matt-green hatch was also impossible to be mad at, if only because of how heart-meltingly cute it looked.

Photos: James Coleman.

Angry blocky eyebrows fail to counteract the effect of its wide-eyed headlights, coupled with laughably large roof racks and a muscly skid plate – it’s like when your child puts on their school uniform for the first time. Genuinely, tear-jerkingly oodgie, goodgie, goodgie.

It also took with enthusiasm to being an errand car – ferrying cleaning supplies between the two houses, and swallowing six boxes of pizza and several more of garlic bread and cinnamon scrolls for the hardworking movers.

It might only have four seats, but slide the rear-most forward, fold them flat, and the Inster does its best impression of a very mini minivan.

There are two versions of the Inster: the standard Inster from $39,000, and this Cross version, from $45,000 – so it’s not exactly a cheap toy.

Hyundai also likes to call it a “light SUV” – while somehow keeping a straight face. In reality, it equates to some plastic cladding around its face, bottom and wheel arches and a Roof Basket Option Pack for “further versatility and style”. However, tick this box and your range will drop from 360 km to 293 km – so it better be a good picnic in there.

And that 360 km is the ‘Extended Range’. The base ‘Standard Range’ comes with a slightly smaller battery (42 kWh, compared to 49 kWh) and 327 km of range.

But talking about these figures is largely pointless. A brisk wind can change everything. As it was, I couldn’t make it the circa-285 km between Canberra and Sydney in my Extended Range without stopping to charge at Pheasants Nest.

Granted, the highway is as much out of its comfort zone as moving house. The Inster is a city car. And at that, it’s as much of a delight as it looks.

There’s obviously the size, perfect for ducking down stormwater drains and through carpark barricades. It’s not overly urgent with how it delivers its power (definitely not at Tesla levels), but combined with the size – and the fact all its weight is in the battery down low between the wheels – it’s as nippy as a field mouse.

Photos: James Coleman.

The interior is almost as joyous as the exterior, with its preschool-round shapes and highlighter-green inserts. There are other colours available – like Obsidian Black and Newtro Beige – but even the seats are two-tone dark grey and ‘Amazonas Khaki’, which I assume also serves a useful purpose in making it easy to hide accidents (from the drinks, obviously, which can be placed in two cupholders built into the front row cushion).

Hyundai could have gone all annoyingly futuristic with the tech too, but no – if you’ve been in any car from the last 10 years, chances are the buttons in here will fall to hand very easily. The touchscreen is largely there for your camera view and navigation, and pressing the drive-mode button on the steering wheel will bring up four simple settings: Eco, Normal, Sport and Snow.

That said, the incessant bonging from the speed limit alert and driver-monitoring system gets wearying – especially as nine times out of ten, it’s wrong. You also have to plug your phone into the USB port to use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto because, oddly, there’s no wireless option for a 2025 car.

I’d also like to see a version $10 K less, if Hyundai’s truly to have a chance at luring more city dwellers (cuteness only gets you so far).

But as it is, I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much on walking up to a test car, and apart from the Porsche 911, few have attracted so many glances from passers-by. God knew I needed some cheering up that week.