[AbidIqbalShaik]

The wireless Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay were introduced in Verna in 2021. All Hyundai Verna E and S+ models manufactured in 2021 have these features. I got to know about this 2 months ago when a Hyundai sales executive informed me about it. I don't usually believe sales guys so I asked him to send proof. He sent me the picture I am attaching here.





My prediction is that mid variants of all Hyundai models will get wireless Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay in the near future. Hyundai is replacing old 8-inch infotainment units with new 8-inch infotainment units that have wireless phone projection capabilities. Old infotainment units are usually phased out when chipsets (processors) for those models are no more manufactured. Semiconductor factories usually phase out old fabrication process (say 14nm or 12nm) when they introduce a more advanced fabrication process (say 10nm or 7nm).

The 8-inch infotainment from Hyundai with wireless phone projection capabilities is a newly developed unit. Therefore, Hyundai got a chance to implement new features in it. Hyundai is not offering wireless Android Auto and wireless Apple Car Play in high-end variants because these models come with 10.25-inch infotainment, which is an old unit compared to the 8-inch infotainment system. Hopefully, Hyundai will develop a new 10.25-inch unit soon with wireless phone projection feature.

[rkv_2401]

Originally Posted by AbidIqbalShaik

Semiconductor factories usually phase out old fabrication process (say 14nm or 12nm) when they introduce a more advanced fabrication process (say 10nm or 7nm).

Off-topic, but no, they don't. Here's a link to a video covering TSMC's Q1 earnings report -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_8ovOjhN1Q

- at 12:53, you can see the split up of revenue garnered by each wafer - despite the demand for 7nm and smaller processes by computer manufacturers who are selling nearly every device they can produce, and a plethora of electronic devices(smartphones, consoles, PCs and laptops) using 7nm or more advanced processes, they only make up 49% of all revenue. The lower fabs are still a great use for something that doesn't demand cutting edge technology, say, 28nm or 45nm would be more than good enough for a car's infotainment system - power draw doesn't matter in this scenario, and these systems don't require vast amounts of processing power either. Even 150/180nm fabs are still being utilized.

[Tapish]

I will be taking a test drive of the IVT SX variant this week. The better half has fallen head over heels on the starry night colour. I may have to look at paint protection options if we go that route. (PPF is too expensive, maybe an Opticoat should do).

Anything in specific I should watch out for?

[Tapish]

Hey guys,

Sharing some good news. Booked the SX IVT variant in starry night shade with Concept Hyundai, Ahmedabad. Delivery will be by next month end.

Had TDed multiple options including City V/VX CVT, Nexon EV, Rapid AT but nothing came close to Verna in refinement (City was there), features and overall value for money. Verna also felt better built than the City and the engine gearbox combo seemed made for each other.

Hopefully will be able to share a detailed review once I get the car.

Would need feedback on two things - I plan to change tyres immediately to a slightly higher profile as well as better grip looking at Perfinza 195/60 or Yoko S drive. Any feedback would be great.

Also, would need some paint protection for the shade, not looking for expensive options like PPF but is there a basic protection that I can get from 3m/ similar?

Tapish

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by Tapish

Would need feedback on two things - I plan to change tyres immediately to a slightly higher profile as well as better grip looking at Perfinza 195/60 or Yoko S drive. Any feedback would be great.

You can use 205 width tires without any problem however I suggest you to leave it alone if it's coming with Bridgestone ( they are good) and replace at 40K kms once they wear out.

That vehicle needs 0 accessories post purchase, Use the money instead for fuel and enjoy.

[Mr.RaghavDhir]

I went for Perfinza 205 after using Ecopias that came with the car after about 5000 kms. Once I rode the wider tyres I realised what I was missing. Braking and overall grip improved drastically. You can go with 205s without any problems.

For my starry night verna I went with ceramic coating from detailing devils, it’s been holding up well with very little swirl marks. My car is June 2020 and ceramic was done within a week of purchase.

[Mr.RaghavDhir]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

You can use 205 width tires without any problem however I suggest you to leave it alone if it's coming with Bridgestone ( they are good) and replace at 40K kms once they wear out.

That vehicle needs 0 accessories post purchase, Use the money instead for fuel and enjoy.

100% agree on the accessories part. With ecopias i experienced very high tyre noise and ineffective braking to the extent that I even raised it during my first service but the service advisor found nothing out of place. Nevertheless ecopias are better than what most OEMs provide.

[Tapish]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

You can use 205 width tires without any problem however I suggest you to leave it alone if it's coming with Bridgestone ( they are good) and replace at 40K kms once they wear out.

That vehicle needs 0 accessories post purchase, Use the money instead for fuel and enjoy.

Thank you, I have heard mixed reviews about the Ecopia's so was not sure.

Absolutely agree with the accessories statement!

Tapish

[Tapish]

The story of our Verna SX IVT in Starry Night

Prelude

I haven’t bought a car in a long while, which is surprising since I Live to Drive, even though someone on the forum said a few days ago that Hyundai’s should not be allowed to sport the Live to Drive sticker.

I consider myself an enthusiast, but someone who will never tinker with his car nor be worried about how things work. I keep my cars stock, even though back in the day, I used to run an Automotive Accessories site. (Some of you may remember Carkhana.com) Back then, the only accessory my Esteem had was a sample car fridge that a company in China had shared as a demo product, and an aux wire that I had managed to connect to the Kenwood cassette player that was OE. Same for cleaning the car, I usually trust the neighborhood cleaner to keep things clean and will go for a detailing session once a year. I do ensure that we don’t eat in my car as also the windows are always up to ensure the car is clean though.

I do appreciate mechanical bits though. Usually you will find me wearing a mechanical watch. However, I absolutely love the pick and go ability of my quartz watches. Not having to worry, whether the watch is functional and the time is right is a flex that few people in the watch world appreciate. Just go to a watch forum and type “but a quartz” on any topic and be prepared for snares and stares from the aficionados. However, we are digressing here.

So the last car I bought was an Esteem Vxi that I had bought used in 2009. That was my first car and I learnt to drive on it. Over a period of time, the car saw pretty much all of Himachal, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and was always supremely reliable. The only one time it gave up on me was near Kedarnath, and to my surprise, even there we found a Maruti Service Center. I really appreciated the “fill it, shut it, forget it” nature of the Esteem. In 2015, a friend took it from me and from what I hear, the car still runs somewhere in the streets of Mhow.




I went abroad for higher studies and briefly leased a Mazda 3 in the US after I started working there. It was a fantastic car and I loved raking up miles in it as well as in various other cars I drove in the US.




In 2017, I returned from the US and was planning to buy an S Cross 1.6 when my brother mentioned that he is moving to a new posting and if I can wait, I could use his i20 for a couple years. It was a petrol and enthusiastic wasn’t its second name. However, I had good fun with the car in the past few years that it was with me. Between me and my brother, the car has seen everything from Ladakh to the Rann of Kutch. Like the Esteem, this car too, was utterly reliable and I never had to think twice before planning a roadtrip. In fact, last year, just after the lockdown lifted, I went to Nainital from Ahmedabad in the car. We were able to cover Ahmedabad – Gurgaon on day 1 with a fairly relaxed driving style.




So cut to 2021, I had returned the i20 to my brother and was using Ab’s Nano for city usage in Ahmedabad since Jan. Around Aug/Sep, the plans to buy a new car started taking shape. I had decided on the Honda City since more than a year now.

In fact, last year, I was pushing my brother to buy the City if I was to keep the I20. A friend had recently bought the City CVT Vx on my recommendation.



So, the search was fairly simple. I was looking at the City V CVT model that would cost around 14.xx in Ahmedabad on road. I was clear on the automatic requirement since I intend to keep this car for a long period of time and my wife is a newbie driver who will be comfortable driving a CVT.
Even so, we thought of expanding the search to be sure that we have covered all ground. Primarily the requirements were the following:

• Reliable – Of utmost importance. I intend to do a lot of road trips on this car and I can’t drive a car where I have a constant nagging feeling that things may go wrong.
• Automatic – was looking at only TCs & CVTs. AMT’s seemed too jerky and DCT’s did not score well on the reliability front
• Premium(ness) – Now this could either be in terms of how plush the cabin is and/or the features on offer, but the car had to be a step up from the i20 which is a tall ask when you see cars costing 15L on road with the flip type rear view mirrors.
• Budget was largely around 10-15 L on road.
• Sedans – Even though we had a few CSUVs in consideration, they were mostly to check off any tickboxes. Heart to heart, I always knew I have been a sedan person.
• Space was not a constraint since the rear seats will almost never be used.
• Safety – The car did not necessarily have to check all 5 stars on the NCAP. There are cars with 4*/5* rating that I will still not trust. This was more of an overarching criteria.

We considered the following cars:

• Honda City – was the leading contender till we test drove the Verna. The Verna felt better built and was a much better package overall. The V variant was pretty basic. The seats on ZX were drool worthy though, except that the ZX was crossing 17 on road.
• Nexon EV – We did a test drive and were floored. The only catch was a sub 300 range. We parked this for the next time or when we buy another car in the garage.
• SCross – would have seriously considered if not for that antique 4 speed Auto. One reason for considering this was a better bad road ability. Even though I never felt out of place driving the Esteem/ i20 everywhere, I had the odd Spiti/ Chandratal trip in the back of my mind.
• Sonet – Tested out the Diesel Auto combination. Was a great experience though the cabin space was the same as the i20. The wifey also vetoed it since she could smell diesel in the cabin. Kia’s attitude of take it in 6 months or leave it didn’t help matters either.
• Rapid AT – Has been a long time favorite and we had tested it last year when we were looking for another car for my brother. The downsides were the reliability and that the cabin looked dated. The huge gap in pricing between the entry (Rider/Plus) and the acceptable (Ambition AT) variant didn’t help either. The features on offer did not justify the increase and being a Skoda, I did not want to take a chance with non OE fitted stuff.
• Vento – was too expensive for what it offers. The AT was only available in the Highline Plus variant and that was way more expensive compared to all the above options. Add to that, the hideous brown/ gray color scheme. My wife sat in it for a whole lot of 30 seconds before saying “this looks bad”. Mind you, we had gone to the showroom in a Nano.

The Verna

I had always been fond of the Verna and the Elantra’s styling and somehow both of them appeared “tighter” than the competition. Maybe it’s due to the coupe like roof that tapers into the boot.

However, I’ll be honest, the Verna was not on the list when we initially started out. Not for any specific reason, just that it was never talked about anywhere. In fact, on the day of the delivery, I told my wife that I have just bought a car that no one really recommends to anyone on the forum and it better be good. Even in the polls and posts asking for feedback, people were comparing a City and a Creta/ Seltos rather than a Verna. The only thing I had in the back of my head was that the Verna has the same engine/ gearbox combo as the more expensive Creta/ Seltos siblings, which in my books is always a better thing.

One fine day, while we were out shopping, on a whim, I drove into the Concept Hyundai showroom to enquire about the Verna. Parallely, I also wanted to check out the Creta since I knew the Creta also had the same engine/ gearbox combo. A Verna MT was there on display and my wife was sold on the car. The Sales Manager Samir Malik gave us a fantastic deal on the car and I asked him for some time to consider. Concept did not have an IVT for test drive so we went to another dealer who had one in stock. Since the look and feel part had already been approved by the better half, the only consideration was if the gearbox was well mated to the engine and if the rubber band effect was controlled. I took a longish test drive and came back duly impressed with the smoothness of the combo.I read up all I could on the car, the 2017 variant review and all videos I could find and it seemed a go!

The final frontier to cover was the color – like I have said earlier, I don’t do too much maintenance of the car and hence wanted a silver. The wifey, on the other hand was sold on the Starry night shade. Finally, heart prevailed over the head in this one instance and we finalized on the starry night shade. One fine day, I was scrolling the forum and happened to show my wife the picture of an Audi A3 in a similar shade. I think there was no looking back on the colour from there.

On the variant, things were simple, the SX had everything we wanted and was within the budget. SX+ did have ventilated seats but I have in general had good experience with fabric seats and the premium was steep.

We booked in early Sep, and got delivery in late Sep, which was super quick since the car went into production after we ordered. Samir and team were super helpful and allowed me to remove any non-essentials from the OTR price. I did take the insurance from them though, since they were pretty open about the prices there.

I have now driven the car for about 300 km in a mix of highway and city:

The good –

1. Fantastic Value for Money – at the same price as some hatchbacks or sub 4m SUV’ish hatchbacks, you get a proper C sedan with a proper engine/ gearbox combo.
2. Features – now before some members say that these are gimmicks, I would stick my neck out to say that features are what keep a car interesting for a longer period of time. The SX variant has cruise control, sunroof, cornering headlamps, wireless Android auto, etc. In contrast, the City V had a manual D/N IRVM which is ridiculous for a 15 lakh rupee car. I intend to keep this car for 7-8 years and don’t want to feel bad about any missed features.
3. Safety – the body shell is stable and the same car had been rated 5* in the six airbags version. The SX has two airbags and should be fine.
4. Smooth – The CVT is super smooth and the rubber band effect is well controlled. There is reasonable power on tap for overtaking maneuvers on the highway. The manual override would be helpful for this as well.
5. Looks – the starry night shade with the chrome belt line looks super premium.

The bad –

1. The elephant in the room – the front grille. I was a fan of the earlier variant’s horizontal slats. This one seems a little overdone. The only saving grace is that the color is a muted chrome and not a blingy one.
2. The IRVM’s do not auto unlock – I was used to the feature in the i20 and miss it a little bit every time I have to manually press the button. I don’t think Hyundai would have saved a whole lot by removing this feature considering that the IRVMs are still auto operated.
3. The door pads do not have any padding – if not leather, a basic fabric padding should have been provided.
4. Paddle shifters would have been nice

I made no changes to the car after we bought it. I was thinking of changing the tyres to something like Michelins/ Perfinzas but decided against it since after 9 months of driving around in a Nano, road noise is the last of my concerns.

I got a great deal on original 3D floor liners and got them for Rs 999. They are not custom fit but cover the floor well and stick well to the floor below. Will update on their performance in some time.

Happy to answer some questions on this.

Here are some pics for you all to enjoy.







Best angle to view the car IMHO


The silhoutte masks the length


Tapish

[Akshay6988]

Originally Posted by Tapish

The story of our Verna SX IVT in Starry Night



The good –[list=1][*]Fantastic Value for Money – at the same price as some hatchbacks or sub 4m SUV’ish hatchbacks, you get a proper C sedan with a proper engine/ gearbox combo.[*]Features – now before some members say that these are gimmicks, I would stick my neck out to say that features are what keep a car interesting for a longer period of time. The SX variant has cruise control, sunroof, cornering headlamps, wireless Android auto, etc. In contrast, the City V had a manual D/N IRVM which is ridiculous for a 15 lakh rupee car. I intend to keep this car for 7-8 years and don’t want to feel bad about any missed features.

Many congratulations Tapish on your Verna, she's a beauty ! I love that coupé style back of the car, and I still admire it whenever I see a Verna on the roads. We had shortlisted verna also, but mum found it difficult while getting in and out so had to reject it. What you said about features is 100% true. These features make ownership a pleasant affair and you also don't have to get any aftermarket accessories. Wishing you many happy miles of ownership

[Tapish]

Originally Posted by Akshay6988

We had shortlisted verna also, but mum found it difficult while getting in and out so had to reject it. What you said about features is 100% true. These features make ownership a pleasant affair and you also don't have to get any aftermarket accessories. Wishing you many happy miles of ownership

Thanks Akshay, I see you have the Creta. How has your experience been with the Creta?

[TrackDay]

Originally Posted by Tapish

The story of our Verna SX IVT in Starry Night

Congrats on the ride

I had seen the Verna when I was checking out new cars last year and had seen a starry night shade in the showroom. Truth be told, that color looks fabulous and the pictures don't do it justice. One has to see it in person to witness that beautiful color. Congrats once again and wish you many happy miles with the car

[nimishlalwani]

Congratulations on the Verna, Tapish! The car looks amazing in the Starry Night shade. Wish you a lot of fun road trips in the Verna

[rpm]

Congrats on your new Verna, Tapish.

Guys, ever since we bought the car (a little over a year now), I have been noticing some rubber stretching sound from the steering rack when the car is turned off after driving. Is this an issue that needs attention or is it normal behaviour? Any insights into what causes it (even if it is not an issue)?

[gollabhat]

Originally Posted by rpm

Congrats on your new Verna, Tapish.

Guys, ever since we bought the car (a little over a year now), I have been noticing some rubber stretching sound from the steering rack when the car is turned off after driving. Is this an issue that needs attention or is it normal behaviour? Any insights into what causes it (even if it is not an issue)?

I second that. I have been hearing the same sound as well. Any pointers would be very helpful.