[motorworks]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Bought the Elite i20 Magna+ MT for my wife about a week back. For the price and the discounts on offer, I think it is excellent value for money.

My search was initially for an automatic with a budget of around 6.0-6.5 lakhs, and I had started with the WagonR 1.2L ZXI AMT. When the BS-VI version was launched recently and the OTR came to Rs 7.27L without any discounts, I had to re-think hard. The practical side of me didn't want to pay so much for a WagonR AMT (no offence!). I considered the AMTs in VXI & VXI (O) briefly but the lack of features for nearly 7 lakh rupees OTR put me off.

Shifted my attention to Hyundai and considered the Santro Sportz AMT initially. The updated Sportz AMT, with a reverse camera & seat belt pretensioners on board, came to Rs 6.31L minus discounts. The Grand i10 CVTs in Magna & Sportz variants were next, at Rs 6.86L & Rs 7.47L respectively (minus discounts). The deals were tempting, but I was wary of the news of the all-new Grand i10 launching in August.

I had a long talk with wife & Dad over this situation, and wife reassured me that she was quite comfortable to drive a manual. That brought the XCent S MT into the picture at Rs 6.74L. We decided to TD the XCent. The minute she got into the Grand i10, she felt it was perfect for her. I showed her the XCent which was standing next to it, but somehow she didn't like it. Just on a whim, I told her to get into an Elite i20 standing next to the XCent. She was immediately taken in by the space inside and the fit and finish. She came outside and checked all 3 cars carefully, and the first thing she pointed out was that the Elite i20 had bigger tyres than the i10 twins! After a short 15-minute TD of the i20 petrol with her eagle-eye observations, she was quite happy. I told her to get into the XCent's cabin afterwards, and she immediately got out after getting in, remarking that it felt quite small now!

The Elite i20 it was. For our budget, the Magna+ MT. Colour chosen was Typhoon Silver as it was the easiest to maintain. The car was nearly 7.45L OTR, but discounts and good relations brought it down to a smidge under 7L (all-inclusive) with zero-dep insurance and the deal was sealed.

For the rupees paid and considering the pricing of other cars in it's range + features on offer, I thought it was a steal.


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Your post sums up exactly what I went thru about 8 months back!
I was looking for a hatchback for my wife, whose daily ride is not more than 10-15 kms. She used to have a Brio manual earlier and the idea was to get a car that was easy to drive around without much hassle. We explored all automatics first, since I bought a Creta 1.6 diesel manual last year, an automatic would have given us the flexibility to shuffle cars when needed. And our budget was around 6.5 lakhs. For that kind of money the only automatic that was available was the Tiago. We did test drive the car, but it just did not seem like a 7 lakh car! We did not even visit the Maruti showroom to explore the Swift and the Baleno, at least to me the newer Suzukis were just not cutting it in terms of build and overall quality levels. We even briefly explored the Polo, but was not convinced about the new 3 cylinder engine. Enquired on free style, but that did not work out either.
So it was down to the Grand i10 and the i20. Post all discounts, the difference between the 2 was around 50k and at that time in December 2018 the variant that was on sale was Magna Executive which missed out on some features. My wife was completely bowled over by the i20. She found it quite big and spacious on the inside and it had all fundamental features covered, except the rear wiper and defogger. Compared to the Magna that is on sale now, it lacked remote key, Bluetooth connectivity, fog lamps and some other small extras. We went ahead and bought the car for about 6.7 on road Bangalore after all discounts. At that kind of price I think it offers fantastic value for money. Post the purchase, fitted the car with some aftermarket matte black neo alloys and black roof treatment from 3M. The car is now a stunner!