Hyundai Verna(VGT) test drive(torture drive)

[tsk1979]

Thought of starting a new thread as this was not a short sit in the car or a short drive. This was a complete test which enabled the showroom guy to travel from one window to another without any effort on this part and he also discovered that it is possible to land on the hand brake from the back seat and that is not a very comfortable position.
But before we delve into the nitty grities, lets hold a 5 second silence for the poor soul who will drive into a maroon Verna very soon(the car had PDI done and speedo disconnected, so you know ).

Looks
Its not ugly. Its no beauty contest winner either. Normal looking. But then its all subjective.

Interiors :
Much has been said, and this topic has been dissected to no end with posts ranging from nominating kim for UN secretary general to a Jihad against hyundai. After sitting in and driving for some time, its hard to understand whats so much to fuss about.
This car costs around 780,000 on road. For that money you get decent interiors with power windows. 3000rs more will give you remote locking. You get a HVAC.
So you get nothing much more or much less than other cars costing this much. Otherwise the seats are okay, the interiors are roomy and nice, the glovebox is reasonable and you get nice cup holders too.
The seats offer good back support, and adjustable steering will be a hit with shorter drivers, but under thigh support(as is the case with most indian cars) is lacking. But its not too bad. My wife also found the seats comfy and driving position comfortable. The clutch gets a dead pedal for company which is a welcome feature on long drives.
As for legroom, with seat fully back I cant drive this, I have to move it a little forward, and considering I am 6'2" this is really good. I guess a guy upto 6'4" will feel at home. Definately better than the octavia in interioir space.
Ditto for the boot. Big and roomy enough, though not the biggest in class maybe. But then you dont want to sleep in there, right. If thats what you need the skoda marketing guys know the place.
Apart from that you get the standard power point(if they had given couple more if would have been good) etc., etc.,
Back seat is also comfy for long drives, and just like the getz you dont get a feeling of being locked up in a cell. A marked improvement from the accent(crdi costs 25000 less than the verna, which is surprising, who in their right minds would buy crdi now, unless given a hefty discount).

Engine gearbox and Performance
This is what everybody wants to know is it really as good. Are the 110 horses from somalia or Iran?
Well for starters these are quite horses. Silent. Very undiesel like.
When I started the car, it felt as if they had given us a petrol one by mistake, its that quiet on the inside, however outside, there is a slight clatter.
Next step was to slot into reverse and take out of the dealership. Not so entertaining, as I am not used to this type of raise ring for reverse gearshifts.
So after backing out etc., and engaging first gear, one thing was certain, the gear shift is smooth and not taxing on my shoulder. ditto for all the gears.Nothing too sporty, but not bad either. When you are changing gears frequently, it wont be a cause for complain, unless you are a nitpicker.
If you have the misfortune of driving tata cars, you will love the gearshift(as my case) so your judgement may be biased.
But I wont bore you here. Lets go on to the horses part.
And there is just one thing to some it up. Bl**dy hell.Forget the petrol cars. Forget the city's and fiestas and balenos. This thing is torque personified.
Slot into second, bring up the rpm to 1800 or so. And then flloor it.
You are pushed back against the seat, as if a weight has been pressed against your chest. This thing is a puller, it goes like an electic train on steeroids.
5th gear at low speeds? Floor it, slow initially and then it pulls.
Unfortunately the speedo was disconnected, but when you feel the push you dont need to look at the speedometer.
The way she pulled from 1200rpm in fifth gear to 3000rpm is really really astounding. After 3000rpms in 5th gear the hyundai sales guy started showing signs if premature heart attack.
She is dangerous in hands of a maniac taxi driver or a torque addict.
Kudos hyundai for making such a beast.
These horses are from Iran, and definately non vegetarian. 100/100 for the performance. And as I write this, I actually feel sorry for the guy who will buy this brand new car and try to run in for the first 1000kms without knowing that almost all the corners of the rev band have been exploited.

Handling, Ride, Braking.. On the road.
To test this we went to a newly formed colony with new roads with curves and potholes in the middles of the curves.
The good part : Its great on potholes too, you can drive it fast over bad roads and it wont flinch. The ride is actually on the softer side. So its really nice on your butt.
But, this translates to a poorer handling. Mind you its not bad, she is stable and planted on curves at high speed with even potholes encountered on curves not unsettling her. The only thing unsettled was the hyundai sales guy you went from the passenger side window to driver side window and vice a versa. Serves him right for not buckling up. After all its a test drive.
So if you really like fast exists on flyover turns, beware the tail, it likes to swing a little bit. Nothing too much. I did some real sqeely turns on bumpy pothled roads, and there was just a little talehappiness.
She will be a joy to drive on curves, little skittish and playful. But since she's a FWD with loads of torque... its okay. A tail swing is easy to control in FWD cars. There is a little amount of torque steer though, but I am not too sure as did not test for it properly. But 24kgm is quite a bit of torque.

On the braking part, I am impressed. This did not have ABS etc., just normal good brakes. I braked very hard from around 2400rpm in 5th gear which is around 100kmph. I tried threshold braking, and it worked. If you are a little careful you can avoid lockups. For once they have not overservoed the brakes. They are good. If they only had fatter rubber. Infact though there was no tire squeel the sales guy discovered that falling from the seat is not very comfortable. He was really scared, and really heaved a sigh of relief when my wife tested the car.

Fuel efficieny
Thoguh we could not test it, we discovered that like all hyundai cars it intelligently fuel efficient. It increases its fuel efficiency in direct proportion to the number of people we ask.
The first guy said 20 on highway. The test drive chappie said 22-23, and the third guy said 25. For the fear of breaking limca book of records, we did not ask any further.

To sum it all up...
Good car. Nope, great car.
Its easy to make a car which is comfortable for tall people. or comfortable for short people, or comfortable for just men to drive, or comfortable for women.
This is an all rounder. Even when you put the seat belts, they dont bite. My wife found the driving position, gearshift etc., extremely comfortable. Ditto for me. Hyundai has actually taken pains to make a good car. And put a lot of thought. If only they had put some more effort into the exteriors, or given a little more from the goodie basket to the diesel version, or put in fatter rubber, etc.,it could have been near perfect. But thats not to be.
Its the best diesel below 12 lakhs. I have driven the octi, and it comes nowhere close, neither in driving comfort and as far as performance is concerned, she will embarres some petrol heros too.
These are the good things.
Among the bad.
1. No alloys on such and expensive car
2. No mp3 audio system(though they guy said they will give audio CD).
3. 14 inch. Even top end petrol gets 14 inch alloys not 15. The wheel wells look like the old indica ones, a little too big.
4. Some feature cutting in the diesel version
5. Narrow rubber
6. Somewhat bland exteriors.

I for one welcome the the new diesel performance king, one which has the potential to shake baleno and VTEC thrones too!


PS: Though I really really feel sorry for the guy who will buy the maroon verna very soon, I assure you that the car never exceeded around 3200 rpm in the entire drive, neither did I hammer her very bad on potholes. Also during braking tests, the tire squeel was almost minimal, no locking, and during handling tests also, I just sqeeled her once.

[rahul_intlad]

Absolutely fantastic both your test drive as well as the write up,Test driving as it should be.Although the hyundai guy may not think so.

The title actually gave me different ideas.Fantastic man.



What would happen when the elantra crdi comes with 150 bhp engine and would the sonata crdi come with a 200 bhp engine........

The hyundai sales guy would surely not want to be the co-passenger.

[iraghava]

Good review Tanveer!!

Have been asked today by a friend to TD the car tomorrow & decide whether he should buy it or not! I intend to test the car FULLY, including areas that you may have left out as a measure of mercy to the poor salesman!

And since you know the way I drive GOD help the Hyundai dealer & his sales person(s) HAHAHAHA Insert evil, maniacal laughter here.............

[veyron1]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

I for one welcome the the new diesel performance king, one which has the potential to shake baleno and VTEC thrones too!

Why shouldn't it? Just look at the numbers; the Vtec managed 106 horses from a 1.5 litre engine. And about 132 Nm of torque. The Verna VGT pumps out 110 Bhp and 237 Nm. From a 1.5 litre engine. And it's a diesel. Yes, it's turbocharged/intercooled, but it's a diesel.

I had expected the car to be good. Just not this good. After my T.D, I expected the 0-100 runs to be under 12 secs. And ACI confirmed it this month by giving a 11.23 sec. timing. Although there are no official figures, I'm assuming the top whack to be close to 185+. Actual. After all, I've pushed the car to 170+ myself. In a VERY short stint. Open roads, and 180+ would've been easy. I've said this, and I say this again. The car is worth it just for the engine.

One quirk though; didn't anybody notice that you have to depress the clutch even in neutral for the engine to start? Hyundai calls it a "safety" aspect.

P.S- Do we really need a separate thread for the tests...?

[koolncrazy]

Hey Tsk1979,

Great review!!!
Just wanted to know one more important thing..

Whats the price of this Verna???

I am planning to go for a diesel one for my next car in the near future and would like to know as much as i can abt any new ones..

Heard Maruti is coming out with Baleno Diesel!!
Any one heard abt it??

Thanks anyways..
Koolncrazy

[airfoil]

Nicely written. Does Hyundai offer ABS/Airbags on the Verna as options?

I remember reading somewhere that while production of the Accent will continue, the CRDi will no longer be offered.

[condor]

Tanveer - good review, though the title gave other ideas.

Looks like the sales guy has discovered that there's a new roller-coaster in town.

[filcord]

Originally Posted by veyron1

One quirk though; didn't anybody notice that you have to depress the clutch even in neutral for the engine to start? Hyundai calls it a "safety" aspect.

The Getz has this feature too. Since I anyway had developed this habit of pressing the clutch to start , it posed no problem, but my driver had to call me on my cell for help the first day he drove it, he thought the battery had died!

Great review TSK.
How is the seating position on the Verna - is it high like the Getz or low like the Baleno? (If you have driven these two cars).

[ballkey]

"best diesel below 12 lakhs".

Interesting. So the Verna is better than the Elantra & Octavia. So what othe r diesel sedans are there below the C-class? According to GTO, the Verna is quicker than the Laura. Superb? Maybe, but still too expensive. So is this the best thing below the C-class?

Wonder what would Tata's response be... A 250Nm Dicor Indigo?

[tsk1979]

1. The seating position is slightly lower than getz, but you dont get that sitting on the floor feeling. Its pretty comfortable.
2. All new hyundai cars have the feature of this clutch depress start thing.
3. Elantra is a gen old. So the low end performance is definately not going to beat a new gen VGT. 11.2 sec for a 0-100 sec means its the performance leader

[abhibh]

Verna is not faster than Superb. Super 0-100 is around 10 secs. Secondly Verna 0-100 timmings will be simmilar to old Elentra and it sure can beat octavia (90 PS one) and laura too

P.S. I am not a skoda lover but still like put some light not this point. I not being biased too

Originally Posted by ballkey

"best diesel below 12 lakhs".

Interesting. So the Verna is better than the Elantra & Octavia. So what othe r diesel sedans are there below the C-class? According to GTO, the Verna is quicker than the Laura. Superb? Maybe, but still too expensive. So is this the best thing below the C-class?

Wonder what would Tata's response be... A 250Nm Dicor Indigo?

Originally Posted by koolncrazy

Whats the price of this Verna???

I am planning to go for a diesel one for my next car in the near future and would like to know as much as i can abt any new ones..

Heard Maruti is coming out with Baleno Diesel!!
Any one heard abt it??

The price is 735996 on road may be around 8 lac depending upon the city.

Yes Maruti is coming out with Baleno diesel in 1.9 JTD 75 BHP engine.

[Steeroid]

Great job, tsk - the best review yet on the Verna! We need to get our members a sticker of a dusty boot-print with the lettering 'Tested by Team BHP' on it so that they can stick it on the car's rump after we test it

Coming back to the topic - I havent driven the new Accent in the diesel avtar, but from the rave reviews here I guess its a giant killer. First veyron and then you... Too bad about the rest of the car though - no car is worth buying just for the engine.

PS: MODS (TSK INCL) dont you think we need to reduce the number of Verna threads on thsi forum?

[garvit2002]

hey nice writeup man . your review i making me curious abt the car but lets see what will it do in actual road condtions ...

[Shan2nu]

Wow, 110bhp and 237nm is definately happening!!! These Hyundai diesels keep getting better by the day.

Still remember the Tucsan test drive. It was fun riding the wave of torque. This one has the power to boast about as well.

Will take a test one of these days. Should be a blast in the roll ons.

Shan2nu

[veyron1]

@Steeroid: Nah. The rest of the car isn't AS bad as people think it is. It's just not as lavish as the petrol xxi, that's all. Besides, once you're tucked in, you'll forgive one and all...and that mutha of an engine will keep you entertained. The boost is addictive to say the least, and the acoustics of the turbo spooling up is just pure music....perhaps that's why Hyundai didn't provide a dual-din standard on the VGT.

Here are some pics from our test...took the courtesy of taking them after the vehicle sputtered to a halt on an empty tank. I twiddled thumbs for about half an hour. Poor sales guy. Had to tolerate my driving for 100kms, and then had to walk another half km to get diesel for the car...

Veyron2: Dayum. Where's that afterburner switch?




Boot space is on par, if not better, than others in segment.



Guess what we saw en'route?