[volkman10]

Gearing for a festive season launch the speculated ' Santro' spied on test,







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[volkman10]

Hyundai's 'New Santro' likely to be its first car with Hyundai's AMT, will be positioned between Eon and Grand i10 . Test drive continues , now seen with Mahindra's KUV.











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[DriveOnceMore]

I am somehow getting a feeling that it would be some stripped down variant of Grand i10.
Something like what Nissan did to Micra to make it Micra Active.

[volkman10]

More details of the Santro as the interiors get spied.

the interior, while the 3-spoke steering wheel with audio controls looks similar to the one on the Grand i10, the instrument cluster, however, is different. It is likely that the Santro will get a dual-tone black and beige dashboard and the power window switches will find their place behind the gear lever. The dash-mounted gear lever from the Grand i10 is likely to be carried over to the Santro as well.

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[vinair]

Looks like the 'cam shell' inspired dashboard is making its way back! Look closely and it does have a striking resemblance to the original Santro dashboard!

[rish_arora]

The 4 Cylinder engines (1.1 and 1.2) options were the X-factor for Santro and i10.

Why is that all manufacturers these days are switching to 3 cylinders engines and bringing in the poor NVH and drivability for a mere increase in Fuel Efficiency?

I own a 2008 i10(bought for around 4 lakhs) and a 2017 Tata Tiago (bought for around 5.5 lakhs). The real world city fuel efficiency is more or less is same, but i10 is better to drive and has enough power for city drives whereas Tiago feels a little sluggish in comparison.

[Contrapunto]

Why the KUV 100? Is that the vehicle Hyundai is benchmarking it to?

[jeeva]

I really wonder what's the actual purpose of the whole camouflage thing in the auto industry. To hide or to scream for attention?
It reveals more of what perhaps was intended to be hidden.

[Jeevith]

Originally Posted by volkman10

More details of the Santro as the interiors get spied.

This appears to be an automatic variant. Close look at gear knob seems to suggest so. Guessing this will be an AMT?

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by jeeva

I really wonder what's the actual purpose of the whole camouflage thing in the auto industry. To hide or to scream for attention?
It reveals more of what perhaps was intended to be hidden.

It prevents you from seeing the three dimensional design elements. You can only get the overall shape but you miss the cuts and creases that add a lot to the design.

But the really clever ones camouflage their car to look like an existing model or even like a competitor - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ml#post1914886

[chiranjitp]

Originally Posted by volkman10

More details of the Santro as the interiors get spied.

It is nice to see the Santro brand making a comeback in the Indian market, Santro was the car that established the brand Hyundai in India. It seems the interiors would be more upmarket than the Eon & the old Santro.

From the scoop photos I could notice the following things:

• The door lock is integrated with the door handle, Eon has these cheap pull up door locks.
• The gear knob seems to have been lifted from the Grand i10.
• The steering wheel is also lifted from the Grand i10 & is equipped with steering mounted controls.
• Overall the interior design & quality looks nice (like most Hyundai cars).

I am really hoping that the 1.1 Liter engine from the old Santro makes a comeback in this car. I have exclusively driven the old Santro, the old 1.1 IRDE i10 & in both the cases, the 1.1 L engine has impressed me. This engine has lots of low end torque & low end torque is very important for a car that is meant to be primarily a city car. The kappa engine is no match for this engine when it comes to city drive-ability. The 1.1 L engine also has a nice bassy exhaust note .

[Rshrey22]

Originally Posted by rish_arora

for a mere increase in Fuel Efficiency?

Not just fuel economy, 3 cyl unit is cheaper to build, which is the primary reason why most manufacturers are shifting to 3 cyl engines now, even in the slightly premium segments (Ford Ecosport).

[rish_arora]

Originally Posted by Rshrey22

Not just fuel economy, 3 cyl unit is cheaper to build, which is the primary reason why most manufacturers are shifting to 3 cyl engines now, even in the slightly premium segments (Ford Ecosport).

The manufacturers are trying to squeeze in more & more features and they have to keep the production cost in check to survive in the price sensitive market, so it makes sense. But personally, I would prefer a better engine any-day over the Gizmos/Features that are on offer these days. (Start-Stop button, Fancy ICEs, etc.)

I hope that Hyundai's 3 Cyl unit is peppier enough to meet the standards set by 1.1 or 1.2 engines 4 Cyl units.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by rish_arora

I hope that Hyundai's 3 Cyl unit is peppier enough to meet the standards set by 1.1 or 1.2 engines 4 Cyl units.

Not if Hyundai is going the fuel-efficiency route, nothing comes close to the 1.1 Santro engine peppiness and as long as one wasn't aiming for a speed above 80 the engine was perfect, a perfect little city car. Its a shame that these family of engines including the 1.3 litre Getz engine which could literally leave almost any naturally aspirated engined cars of today gasping for breath.. are discontinued. A few reasons why these engines were good are :

- SOHC (Single Overhead Cam) - In short simpler, lesser effort and fantastic torque, albeit at a slight loss of FE.

- Clutch was programmed to release the train early and clutch pedal had fantastic calibration (instant response) albeit at a slight loss of FE and lesser longevity to the clutch components although there are people who've driven the Santro for 1L kms without a clutch change.

However, todays engines of Hyundai cannot match the drivability because :

- VTVT - If you see this badge then rest assured that the engine is not explosive, but powerful. The difference is that you won't have instant lift-off, but rather a programmed, contained response. Almost every Hyundai engine from the 1.2, 1.6 and 2.0 with VTVT feel and respond the same according to power-to-weight.

- DOHC - VTVT with DOHC, yup. Better fuel efficiency and better reliability at the cost of peppiness. Double overhead cams would mean more leverage but more complexity in how the engine moves, in short not operating the train as quickly and telepathically as one would like.

Hyundai has transformed their car designs, their reliability has improved by leaps and bounds and today it would seem that nothing can stop them from increased sales, however in the long run I hope they kill off these DOHC, VTVT engines only to replace them with smaller turbocharged engines (like VW did) or to make cool old-school NA engines with bigger capacity and tuned ONLY for grunt. I'd love such a machine.

[Rshrey22]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

- Clutch was programmed to release the train early and clutch pedal had fantastic calibration (instant response) albeit at a slight loss of FE and lesser longevity to the clutch components although there are people who've driven the Santro for 1L kms without a clutch change.

No doubt in the durability of components of the first gen santro. My 2002 1.1 l santro's clutch lasted 1,65,000 km before completely giving up.

Although I consider it a mistake of not replacing it on time but despite that it kept on going even though the car was driven daily in Delhi's harsh traffic.

I had to let the car go due to 15 year ban for the petrol cars in delhi, otherwise it would still have been a great daily driver.