The steering wheel that seemed nice and loaded — but not very precise — at low speeds, now suddenly felt extremely over-servoed. The front wheels would abruptly track the road with a mind of their own and just before I shed speed, they would get back in line, just like that. A relatively high ground clearance coupled with a short wheelbase doesn’t help matters at triple digit speeds, making the Rio feel top-heavy and prone to some body roll and twitchiness around corners.

On bad roads, and thus consequently at a much reduced pace, the Rio shows its strengths. With the motor sending a chunky 19.3 kgm of torque to the rear axle, the little Premier shows that it’s got a big heart. Chucking it into all the potholes that I could see, and I did see many, the Rio simply took those craters in its stride without even the slightest of protest from the McPherson struts at the front and the multi-linkage suspension at the rear. And yes, I couldn’t get enough of those compact dimensions, which from the rear appear to be not much larger than those of the tiny Nano.

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