[noopster]

Originally Posted by anilkalvani

Exactly. My Vento AT gives better mileage (9-10kmpl) than my daily drive i10 AT (5-6kmpl). I need a small AT because of the narrow roads i have to drive in. Diesel is the icing on the cake. Won't be less than 9kmpl i feel with 100% a/c with the worst of driving conditions. For sure.

The i10 in general is reported to be a big guzzler so I can imagine your pain. Small consolation but even the Vento AT delivers no more than 6 kmpl in crawl speed Mumbai traffic. Personally I think a diesel AT hatch will fill a perfect void in the market and would not mind trading my daily ride in for this. Waiting for some first hand TD reports.

[abhi413]

Hyundai might just have got itself a new customer in me. Have been waiting for a small Diesel AT for too long now, just hoping there are AT + ABS / Airbags options across variants too.

[KPS]

Having owned a Santro Auto (2006-09) and now a i10 Auto (2009 till date) this will be a very interesting option. Frankly if this is true, Hyundai would have played their master card in the urban commuter warfare! Convenience and mileage would be a combination very difficult to beat.

Look forward to the launch of this car.

Cheers

KPS

[CARDEEP]

Originally Posted by ecosport

Would a 1.1L diesel be able to deliver enough power through a lossy torque converter? Autocar reports a 0-100kmph timing of 20s+ for the MT. AT timings would be worse.

Wouldn't mating the AT to the 1.1 CRDI result in a double handicapped car?

Are you sure all the facts in ACI report are correct? On the top of the same page (http://www.autocarindia.com/auto-rev...-361833,4.aspx) they have commented as under:

The most significant thing about the Hyundai Grand i10 is the U2 1120cc, three-cylinder engine which makes its debut in this car. This 70bhp diesel engine is also the first to be manufactured locally in Hyundai’s plant near Chennai. Although brand new, this motor is essentially the i20’s 1.4-litre engine that has sacrificed a cylinder in the interest of better fuel efficiency and better packaging.

If i10 Grand is 1121cc 3-cylinder mill, 4-cylinder mill will be 1495cc mill, which I believe is the older Vena CRDi (I could be incorrect with the specs). I really doubt about the proof reading done at ACI this time.

However, I have no doubt on the Fiat sourced MJD's superiority.

[ecosport]

Originally Posted by CARDEEP

Are you sure all the facts in ACI report are correct?

There are not many test numbers available yet. But this one from zigwheels is not too far ahead of autocar. They report a 0-100kmph of 17.5s. Still, one of the slowest hatches around. I still think, an AT with this engine would make it a crawler.

[RSR]

Originally Posted by ecosport

I still think, an AT with this engine would make it a crawler.

Not necessarily. Hyundai's 4-speed torque converter is pretty decent when it comes to flat-out acceleration compared to the manual. Proof? The same ACI test figures for the Verna which reportedly has the same gearbox.

Verna 1.6 CRDi manual does the ton in 10.54 seconds with a 6-speed gearbox. The 4-speed AT with the same engine does the same in 11.19 seconds. A difference of a mere 0.65s. Top speed is almost the same (190 kmph against 191 kmph for the manual). All are ACI figures. This is very good by torque converter standards.

Moreover, an AT can better drivability to a good extent if it kicks down smoothly. The driving experience on the 4-speed Grand i10 AT shouldn't be too different compared to the 5-speed manual. It may even be slightly better.

In the end, a sub-1 million rupee diesel AT which hits the ton in ~ 20s or so, is still a million times better than no sub-1 million rupee diesel ATs at all, which is the case today. Hyundai should introduce this AT, along with the very quick 1.2 Kappa AT on the Grand i10 as soon as possible, IMO.

[girishglg]

This move by Hyundai if true and happens soon enough is really getting into virgin territory with a small diesel hatch auto. That said the pricing would be crucial as this would touching the next segment for the higher trims.

Generally Hyundai had a mid variant with all the required bells and whistles san a few safety bits (read airbags etc) which might be priced correctly to take away a huge chunk of this unsatisfied segment. They can probably throw in a safety pack as option to this variant for the concious ones who would shell that extra bit for it.

On the same note, was wondering whether a CVT can be plonked into a diesel motor and if so some others such as Nissan/ Renault can immediately bring on their hatches with this transmission.
Any thoughts?

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by ecosport

Would a 1.1L diesel be able to deliver enough power through a lossy torque converter? Autocar reports a 0-100kmph timing of 20s+ for the MT. AT timings would be worse.

Wouldn't mating the AT to the 1.1 CRDI result in a double handicapped car?

We shouldn't expect performance from tiny cars. This should be used primarily for inner-city running errands where bumper-to-bumper crawls galore and one hardly gets to exceed 40-50 kmph. That said, occassional highway runs will not be too bad either. My tiny puny 68 bhp A-Star AT keeps up with bigger cars on highway. I'm sure a diesel i10 would better it.

This news is heaven-sent for me, provided Hyundai really launches it. Another good thing is, although I never liked i10/Santro at all in the past for their looks, I really came to like the Grand i10 (except for the sticking-out-like-a-sore-thumb-taillamp). They should have given slightly bigger but flush-fitting taillamp unit.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by RSR

Not necessarily. Hyundai's 4-speed torque converter is pretty decent when it comes to flat-out acceleration compared to the manual. Proof? The same ACI test figures for the Verna which reportedly has the same gearbox.

Moreover, an AT can better drivability to a good extent if it kicks down smoothly. The driving experience on the 4-speed Grand i10 AT shouldn't be too different compared to the 5-speed manual. It may even be slightly better.

+1

Driving an autobox is very different from driving a stick shift. You have to know how to control the shifts with your gas pedal, and you might just be the fastest one out of the blocks!

Not bragging or anything, neither am I a fanboy as I very well know the limits of the engine,transmission, chassis, tires and brakes. Just that 4+ years of ownership has taught me how to extract the best performance out of my kappa1 engined i10 AT, while maintaining average FE around 12.5 kmpl.

[Drivethru]

At the outset it does sound unbelievable. To the best of my knowledge and from what I heard development of diesel auto transmissions requires a high r&d budget. Which is the region the cheapest diesel AT car is a HYundai verna which sells for more than 13 Lacs OTR price in Bombay. Kudos if Hyundai can sell a diesel at around 8 Lacs. petrol AT hatches are selling at 6-7 lacs depending on the make and technology. I don't see great volumes if Hyundai I10 diesel AT is priced close to 10 lacs or above.

[miharbe]

This is a great and much needed move by Hyundai. It's such forward thinking that has propelled them to become a force to reckon with in the Indian car market in such a short time. This is bound to shake up the market and bridge the long disconnect between customers and manufacturers. I for one cannot understand why this was so difficult to do earlier even for Hyundai. Nevertheless it's still first mover advantage to them. I might just buy my first Hyundai soon! Hope the pricing is sane and more than one variant is offered.

P.S. I always thought Honda would release the diesel at with the amaze given the amount of research and development they did inhouse on diesel technology. However they probably may bring the at option with the new city and may not want to cannibalise sales since they would be sharing engines.

[KPS]

Originally Posted by anilkalvani

Exactly. My Vento AT gives better mileage (9-10kmpl) than my daily drive i10 AT (5-6kmpl)....

Originally Posted by noopster

The i10 in general is reported to be a big guzzler .....

Originally Posted by KPS

Having owned a Santro Auto (2006-09) and now a i10 Auto (2009 till date) ........
KPS

I have been consistently getting a mileage of around 8.5-9 kmpl. The reason is that from gears 1-3, I never cross 2000 rpm on the tacho. If you do hard driving, the mileage drops dramatically. On the highway I have got a mileage of around 16 kmpl.

Cheers

KPS

[ampere]

Originally Posted by blackasta

Not bragging or anything, neither am I a fanboy as I very well know the limits of the engine,transmission, chassis, tires and brakes. Just that 4+ years of ownership has taught me how to extract the best performance out of my kappa1 engined i10 AT, while maintaining average FE around 12.5 kmpl.

Originally Posted by noopster

The i10 in general is reported to be a big guzzler so I can imagine your pain. Small consolation but even the Vento AT delivers no more than 6 kmpl in crawl speed Mumbai traffic. Personally I think a diesel AT hatch will fill a perfect void in the market and would not mind trading my daily ride in for this. Waiting for some first hand TD reports.

Originally Posted by KPS

I have been consistently getting a mileage of around 8.5-9 kmpl.

Same here. 8-10 when driving on packed city roads. And 12-13 when on open city roads.

[goingelectric]

The launch of a diesel AT would be quite welcome indeed. I bought a Honda Brio AT a few months ago and have logged just over 5000 km (probably would have held my purchase if I had known this was going to happen, though!). My FE figures are nothing to write home about but I guess they may add value by mentioning.
City (daily commute, A/C on 100% of the time): Mostly bad back roads with massive pot holes followed by a decent stretch where she can stretch her legs to 70-75 (9-11.5 kmpl as indicated by the cluster and confirmed on a TF2TF basis).
Highways (2 return runs to MAA from BLR): Onward (downward gradient and not going above 100) - 18-22 kmpl, return (upward gradient and not going above 100) - 16 - 19 kmpl (as indicated by the cluster and confirmed on a TF2TF basis).

Although I would like my FE numbers to be high, looking at some numbers posted by ampere, KPS and Blackasta I think my Brio is slightly ahead of the curve in terms of FE. I have also read in other threads where folks with the A-star AT get FE numbers that would leave the rest of the AT owners with a bit of envy.

The question now is whether the Grand i10 D-AT would give us better FE numbers (both City and Highway) than an A-Star AT, with better ride and handling than it's older siblings and keep running costs low because it's diesel. We'll just have to wait and see.

[vb-saan]

I find the price point discussed here quite high for a small city car. But what is exciting is the possible impact of this move –other manufacturers see an opportunity and come up with Diesel+AT combination in the B and C segments.