The reincarnated Santro has turned one. And ever since it went on sale in October last year, it has kept the sales register running well for Hyundai. If you look at the product and the segment it targets, a good response from consumers was more-or-less inevitable. However, if you rope in the distressing phase that the automobile industry is under for the past year or so, Santro’s performance becomes even more commendable.

Well, even Hyundai thinks so. That’s why it has conceived an Anniversary Edition of its least-expensive offering in India. Based on the Sportz trim, the special version is available in manual and AMT guises. With the three-pedal arrangement, the asking price is Rs 5.17 lakh. If you want the convenience of the Automated Manual Transmission, you will have to shell out Rs 5.75 lakh. In case you are wondering, both Anniversary Edition iterations cost nearly Rs 10,000 more than the Sportz variants.

Compared to standard Santro Sportz, the celebratory derivatives are slightly different in form but are the same in function. Hyundai has garnished them with wheel covers finished in gunmetal grey, bodyside mouldings, black OVRM caps, chrome strip on the boot lid lip and gloss black painted roof rails. For thick heads, there’s an “Anniversary Edition” badge at the rear too. Indoors, the all-black ambience is livened-up with Aqua teal inserts, and a new fabric seat design. Finally, only two colour options are available – Polar White and Aqua Teal. For the record, the latter debuted with the Grand i10 Nios.

Powering the Santro’s special edition is the same 1.1-litre, 4-cylinder petrol engine that does duty in the rest of the range. The motor produces 68bhp/99Nm and, depending on the variant chosen, comes with a 5-speed manual or a 5-speed AMT. Unfortunately, Hyundai is not offering a factory-fitted CNG kit with Santro’s Anniversary Edition. The rest of the package remains identical to the standard Sportz trim.

In our market, the Hyundai Santro locks horns with the Tata Tiago, Datsun Go and three Maruti Suzuki products – Celerio, S-Presso and WagonR. If you had to put our money down on one of the above, which would it be?

Note: All prices mentioned above are ex-showroom Delhi.