Hyundai i10 Kappa2 : Test Drive & Review

[benu9714]

I drove my i10 Asta Automatic from Kolkata to Bhubaneswar and back over the last 5 days, just after the 1st service at 1,200 KM.

My comments :

- It's a nippy car, no handling issues, even with standard tyres
- Comfortable seating for me and my wife for 8 hours at a stretch
- 15 KM per L, with Auto gearbox and A/C on all the time - commendable.
- The tiny boot takes 4 airline size cabbin baggage bags, enough for 2 people, but not more.
- Glove box and storage areas are small, but then we are used to the large spaces in a Nissan X-Trail. For this tiny car, I guess those provided are OK. Wish they would give a net bag behind the front seats, though.

One thing : if you are running at or below 60 KMPH, with gearbox in D (drive), and you want to speed up (to overtake a truck or climb a hill), it is necessary to click the "Overdrive Off" button on the gearshift so as to put the gearbox (effectively) in 3rd gear. If not, the engine develops a deep hum - signs of lugging. When put in 3rd gear in this way, the engine revs happily and speed picks up fast. The switch can be pressed again at close to 80 KMPH and the car will run happily in 4th.

Before taking the car out on this 1,250 KM run, I have had no problems with it except that :
- There was a thud from the rear left door. I took it to the workshop and it was fixed in 5 minutes. Apparently the door adjustment was not exact.
- Mileage in Kolkata, with A/C on all the time, has been 8 KMPH until the 1st service, after which I took the run to Orissa. maybe it will improve now !

Now that my inhibitions about hitting the gas pedal are over, I am sure I will be able to use the car's nippy engine, auto gearbox and small size to carve my way through Kolkata traffic without hitting anyone and enjoying myself at the same time.

[blackasta]

Nicely written review of the chart buster car - this was long overdue!
One question that I asked a couple of i10 owners and could not get an answer - does the usb port offer full ipod controls transfer to the HU when an ipod usb cable is used?

[misquitas]

Originally Posted by Stratos

Other Points:

Hyundai also offers 3 year “cashless” ownership programs : Click here for more information (Hyundai offers cashless ownership on Santro / i10. And rolls out 3,000,000 Indian car).

Checked up the "cashless ownership" thread you had referred to and DieselFan has reported that this offer is not available on the VTVT engines.

Originally Posted by Stratos

- India is the sole production & export hub of the i10.
- Addition of a diesel variant could shoot the i10 sales sky high. If priced right, of course.

If, according to Sidindica, the Hyundai does produce an I10 with a 1.1 litre 3 cylinder CRDi motor with 163 nm torque and that too in India, what stops it from selling this variant in the country? The diesel I10 is already in our territory, so why should it not be sold in our territory? Is there any way that we could "import" this car from its manufacturing plant?

Originally Posted by Stratos

- Steering rattle is a commonly reported problem by i10 owners : Click here for more information (Hyundai i10 & i20 plagued with steering noise issues).

Apparently, Hyundai has taken /is taking steps to rectify this issue. Check out a detailed thread on this topic at:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ml#post2274456 (Hyundai i10 & i20 plagued with steering noise issues)

Originally Posted by Stratos

Also available with the cheaper, 68 BHP 1.1L iRDE Santro engine.

By the way Stratos, are you sure the I10 VTVT delivers 79 BHP and the IRDE2 delivers 68 BHP? According to the official I10 site, it is 80 BHP for the VTVT and 69 BHP for the IRDE2. If so, the power-to-weight ratio for the I10 would be 93.02 BHP/tonne and not 91.86 BHP/tonne as you have suggested.

Originally Posted by Stratos

The Santro gets a proper dead pedal, but the more expensive i10 doesn't! Shocking.

More shocking is the fact that the I10 variants from Magna and below (D-Lite, Era and Magna) do not have intermittent wiping. Wonder why Hyundai opted to leave this basic feature out of these variants.

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by misquitas

If, according to Sidindica, the Hyundai does produce an I10 with a 1.1 litre 3 cylinder CRDi motor with 163 nm torque and that too in India, what stops it from selling this variant in the country? The diesel I10 is already in our territory, so why should it not be sold in our territory? Is there any way that we could "import" this car from its manufacturing plant?

Yes, though Hyundai is making this diesel i10 in Chennai for some export markets, they are unable to launch it in India due to the high import costs for the engine. As you may already know, all CRDi engines of Hyundai are imported. The i10's price, already being a little higher as it is, would be pushed further up with this diesel engine.

The petrol Magna 1.2 retails at 4.22 Lacs ex-showroom Chennai. Assuming a price increase of 80,000 for the diesel engine, the ex-showroom price of i10 1.1CRDi would be around 5 Lacs. At those prices, the car would surely be a niche player.

[benu9714]

Originally Posted by blackasta

Nicely written review of the chart buster car - this was long overdue!
One question that I asked a couple of i10 owners and could not get an answer - does the usb port offer full ipod controls transfer to the HU when an ipod usb cable is used?

Yes, it does. All functions, such as track selection, volume etc are now done from the center console. Nothing can be done from the iPod itself.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by benu9714

Yes, it does. All functions, such as track selection, volume etc are now done from the center console. Nothing can be done from the iPod itself.

Great. Thanks for the information.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by Stratos

I did read about the rattling issues from the steering, but we did not encounter any such noises during our test.

The rattle will not be there on brand new cars. It starts only after the car has run for a some kms and after a bit of wear and tear. The rattle can be felt and heard only on bad roads.

Hyundai and Mondo India( steering systems manufacturer) can easily wash off its hands by saying that the rattle is minor and it should be ignored, but the fact is the rattle is from one of the car's critical systems- the steering. Hence it should not be and cannot be ignored. Besides, the rattle only increases with time.

[sidindica]

All variants come with intermittant wiping, it could be that they dont have variable intermittant wiping. This is the d-lite model.

[supremeBaleno]

Nice detailed review, Stratos. Would have been complete with FE details. Given that "kitna deti hai?" is a big deal in our market and is high up in the list of priorities for most buyers than say handling/ride, I think it would help to have a dedicated section for FE in the "official tbhp reviews". Would make for a truly complete review.

Originally Posted by benu9714

if you are running at or below 60 KMPH, with gearbox in D (drive), and you want to overtake, it is necessary to click the "Overdrive Off" button on the gearshift so as to put the gearbox in 3rd gear.

I am not sure how effective the similar D-3 gear is in an A-Star, but need to try this out once to see how helpful it is with overtaking. I am yet to fully get used to overtaking with an AT.

Noticed that the city/highway FE reported by benu9714 for his i10-AT is inline with what Samurai also gets on his i10-AT. Wondering if it is normal to have such a huge disparity between city and highway FE figures ie. city FE being close to half that of highway FE ? With other cars I have observed that highway FE would be like ~35-50% more than city FE. Eg. FE figures for my Baleno are 12 and 16kmpl respectively - highway FE is ~35% more. If I drive on the highway keeping speeds below 100kmph, I could up the FE by 1-2 kmpl, which would mean atmost 50% more than city FE.

Any inputs on why this disparity for the i10-AT ? Also, is this disparity seen with the MT models also ?

@beny9714, what was the OTR price of the i10-AT Asta in Calcutta ? Must have been ~7lakhs odd I believe.

[supertinu]

Nice review Stratos. Thanks for sharing the details.

I haven't been following hatch back pricing in a while and was pleasantly surprised to see that i10 is actually more expensive than Figo/Swift/Ritz which are definitely notch above in the segment in terms of size/space. Despite this the volumes that i10 is selling is commendable. Goes to show how Indian consumer is more overall product quality conscious and not just price driven.

[aniketi]

Originally Posted by misquitas

Aniketi, looks are always subjective and each person has a different notion of a "good-looking" car. More important than just a "Good-looking" car, it should be a "Good" car, which it is, by most parameters. Nearly all tall-bodied hatches would never win beauty contests and they were never meant to be "eye-catchers". Tall bodied cars are meant to be as roomy as possible with easy ingress and egress. Most people who buy tall hatches don't always buy them for their looks, but for their practical/functional aspects -- easy ingress and egress, better driver's view of the road, taller sitting position -- something that "shorter" cars may not have.

My wife, many of my friends and I think that the Swift is no "eye-catcher" anyway, so much so that my wife refused to even consider a Swift, when we wanted to buy a car in December 2010. But that does not mean others will not love the looks of the Swift and I fully respect their opinions.



I can't compare the top-end variants of the Swift and I10, but I had compared the I10 1.2 Magna and the Swift LXI when we bought the I10 in December 2010. I found out that the I10 Magna had more/better features than the Swift LXI and was a better buy. For me, ACC and alloy wheels mean nothing and I don't miss either of them anyway.

To make sure I got my information right, I downloaded the Swift brochure from the official site and compared the features of the LXI versus the I10 1.2 Magna. The I10 1.2 Magna has the following features that the Swift LXI lacks:

1. Electric ORVM
2. Coloured door handles
3. Coloured door mirrors
4. Front/rear power windows
5. Central locking
6. Tachometer
7. Sun visor (co-driver)
8. Day/night rear view mirror
9. 12V accessory socket (2 nos)
10. Gear shift indicator

For me, these 10 features on the I10 are far more important than ACC and alloy wheels. I don't mean to be rude to Swift owners and I'm sure the new Swift would be a much better package. I was, however, forced to post my views merely to react to the contention that Swift is "better" than the I10. Both cars address a different section of customers and there is no point comparing apples with oranges.

Dont take it personally dude. I am just saying that i find Swift more attractive. Many will agree that Swift looks more sporty & dashing than i10. Not all though. Its everybody's choice after all. I agree that base model of i10 has more features than Swift base model. So if you are happy with your i10, i dont have any problem at all So enjoy your car

I hope you are not facing steering & AC issues which are reported by many in i10 & i20.

[misquitas]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

The rattle will not be there on brand new cars. It starts only after the car has run for a some kms and after a bit of wear and tear. The rattle can be felt and heard only on bad roads.

The I10 used by Stratos for the test drive had logged over 5200 kms (as can be seen on one photo) and so, it is not a brand new car. Has any of the face-lift I10 owners complained of this steering problem? It could well be that the Kappa1 and IRDE1 car could have been plagued by this problem. Let's hope the face-lift I10 cars have been relieved of this steering rattle.

Originally Posted by sidindica

All variants come with intermittant wiping, it could be that they dont have variable intermittant wiping. This is the d-lite model.

The intermittent wiping facility (a wiper sweep every 4-5 seconds) is certainly not present in D-Lite, Era and Magna variants. In fact, the official I10 website also confirms that intermittent front wiper is not present on these three variants.

Originally Posted by aniketi

Dont take it personally dude. I am just saying that i find Swift more attractive. Many will agree that Swift looks more sporty & dashing than i10. Not all though. Its everybody's choice after all. I agree that base model of i10 has more features than Swift base model. So if you are happy with your i10, i dont have any problem at all So enjoy your car

I hope you are not facing steering & AC issues which are reported by many in i10 & i20.

No offense taken, mate. My I10 has crossed 3500 kms and there's not a squeak or rattle from the car so far. As mentioned earlier, it could be that Hyundai may have rectified the problem with the face-lift I10s and only time will tell if this is true or not. As far as I am concerned, if (and I hope not) the problem does occur on my I10, it will still not be a deal breaker for me (even if it cannot be rectified by Hyundai Service) as long as it does not compromise on our safety. I have driven cars with various kinds of rattles and that did not rattle me, as long as I knew that the car would not pose any threat to me and my family. Also, it is something that I would live with, as I believe that no car is free of all problems.

Besides, I would rather accept a steering rattle in my I10 than being financially rattled by a call from an official service centre, asking the customer to pay Rs 26,000 for various replacements in a car that had done barely 25000 kms, as was recently experienced by a member on this forum.

And no, I never had any AC issues with the I10 and in fact, have found it superior to the Alto, Wagon R and Ritz. It is altogether another issue that I almost never switch on the AC in my I10 here in Goa.

[fz_rider]

Great report Stratos ! Kudos !
I agree with you, that i10 has really smooth gear-shifts . In-fact , I've come up with these (gearshift) terminology :

Swift/Ritz : Smooth
Jazz : Super Smooth
i10 : Ultra Smooth

But I won't say it's got the best gearshifts. The gates are not well defined , or may be the gear shifts are so smooth that one can slot it in wrong gear . I found the gear-shifts a lil inconsistent (may be wrong ) . For me , Jazz is best when it comes to gearshifts .

[Guna]

Great review!
We have a i10 in the family (pre-face lift) and it is a great car. Some of the minor issues are:

• Gear shift on the dash makes you stretch your arm a bit, it a is bit high as well
• Clutch is bit too close to the seat, and has a long play. Combination can really hurt the ankle with long drive.

[adimicra]

Originally Posted by misquitas

By the way Stratos, are you sure the I10 VTVT delivers 79 BHP and the IRDE2 delivers 68 BHP? According to the official I10 site, it is 80 BHP for the VTVT and 69 BHP for the IRDE2. If so, the power-to-weight ratio for the I10 would be 93.02 BHP/tonne and not 91.86 BHP/tonne as you have suggested.

AFAIK, it is 80 PS=79 bhp (approx) and 69 PS=68 bhp (approx).

Nice review. I10 is a very well-rounded car with great interior quality,refinement and and ease of driving.