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Old 9th January 2009, 15:41   #436
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I would prefer the Fabia anytime over the i20 and am ready to pay the higher price for the premium of build quality of the Fabia.
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Old 9th January 2009, 16:17   #437
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Hyundai dont have to look outside to see whats wrong. Just look at i10. These days I see more i10 Kappa on the road than irde. More power, bit lower mileage, but it sells good.
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Old 9th January 2009, 16:35   #438
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Originally Posted by Ash-NewCar View Post
I would prefer the Fabia anytime over the i20 and am ready to pay the higher price for the premium of build quality of the Fabia.
Good for you as Fabia is also available in India for some time now Would you be considering 1.4 Eleg or 1.2 Ambiente? It'd be interesting to know that.
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Old 9th January 2009, 18:44   #439
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I think Hyundai is banking on its newness and chic looks to charge a premium for this hatch. The fact is that they are saving a bunch of money on tax because of the 1.2 but are not passing on to the customer.

They will continue to do this as long as the Getz is not outdated. After that point, they will slowly start bringing the price of the i-20 down.
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Old 10th January 2009, 12:59   #440
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Over the days i have been reading posts on this thread - some outright damming the new Hyundai offering and some defending it..
Here are my 2 bits - Food for thought

Hyundai definitely has upped the game by offering class leading features in the car.. good job..
But, as a product / business strategy - launching it at 4.8 - is it worth it??
NO..
most of the people are comparing i20 with Fabia or Swift...

viz-a-viz Fabia - yes it may give the Fabia a run for its money but pls consider Fabia (all variants and engine options combined) was never a hot seller - dwindled from 1500 per month to 300-400 per month... even if i20 takes ALL the Fabia customers - so what???

viz-a-viz Swift -
Swift Zxi and i20 - prioce diff of 70ik (ex show Delhi 5.1 and 5.8)
That is HUGE ... and assuming even if it takes all the Swift Zxi customers - Zxi as a variant does not sell more than 200 units a month - compare that with 9,000 Swifts sold a month... and more than half are Diesel.
Bulk of the Swift-P sales happen in the lxi and vxi avtar -
i20 vs. Swift Vxi 1.5 lacs (ex show Delhi 4.3 and 5.8) -
will Swift-P sales be affected - HECK NO !!!

Now assume even if i20 turns out to be a super hot hatch -
WE LIVE IN INDIA - a hatch will always be a hatch and a notch will always have the "DIKKI" ...

Concluding...
i20 - brilliant offering feature wise
engine - too early to say...
Pricing - TOO HIGH.... for Hyundai to sell this car in huge nos.
less nos. = higher spare and after market servic costs..

The above views are only mine... you may chose to differ or agree... but its definetely something to poned on.

btw: this ends my 1st post in Team=BHP....

Vitesh....
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Old 10th January 2009, 13:00   #441
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i20 Diesel expected in Mid 2009? Check this..

Buy New Cars, Used Cars, Auto News and Reviews India - Zigwheels.com
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Old 10th January 2009, 13:06   #442
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Vitesh,
Welcome to team-bhp. And nice post there.

But the comparison between the Vxi and i20 Asta cannot be justified. You could instead compare the Vxi with the i20 Magna with a price difference of around 50k. Which is also huge.

All said and done, people wont really fall for the Magna. They'd rather buy the i10 Asta. And this is where Hyundai might lose out.
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Old 10th January 2009, 13:15   #443
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fountainheader View Post

But the comparison between the Vxi and i20 Asta cannot be justified. You could instead compare the Vxi with the i20 Magna with a price difference of around 50k. Which is also huge.
Sorry my bad..
not fair comparison -
still vxi and Magna - 50 k difference is still huge...
this is a pretty price sensitive segment...

Also, remains to be seem what Maruti does with the next offering...
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Old 10th January 2009, 15:17   #444
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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
That's not really saying something, is it? Anything can *kill* the Fabia . It is currently the worst selling hatchback in India. I hope Hyundai aren't benchmarking the Fabias success (or rather...the lack of it).
Not really. You forget Fusion and Optra SRV:-) Though the Fabia is overpriced. The previous 2 have much bigger and powerful engines and they still flopped. So, I don't think having a 1.2l engine in a premium hatch automatically means failure. Ofcourse, it would have been much preferred to have a higher torque engine (the 80bhp itself is more than enough, since the NHC only made 77bhp for a premium C class sedan - it carried the Honda premium pricing factor)

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A premium hatch is NOT supposed to be about compromise.
I agree but then compromise is a relative term. And whats so special about hatchbacks that does not applies to sedans and UVs, may I ask ? Why did the NHC iDSI compromise on the engine ? Volkswagen sells/used to sell the Passat in Germany with a 1.6l 100bhp engine option - so should I consider it a premium sedan or not ?

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Originally Posted by GTO View Post
But remember that the NHC was cheaper than the outgoing OHC. No one thought that the NHC was over-priced at the time of its launch. The only time that the NHC started looking over-priced is when cars like the SX4 came around and offered more power / features for a lesser price. That's about 3 - 4 years AFTER the NHCs launch.
Not really. The Honda City 1.3Lxi/1.3DX was about same price as NHC iDSi base model IIRC. It also had a fabulous 90bhp engine that easily whipped the iDSi. It was extremely fuel efficient as well and Delhi had hordes of the 1.3l OHCs everywhere. I remember feeling that NHC is worse than the outgoing OHC and somewhat unjustly priced - as I bought my car some months before launch of NHC and had looked at OHC in detail around that time including several test drives.
BTW, the NHC provided the least power (77bhp) among all competitors (atleast C class vehicles) available at launch - Lancer (85bhp), Ikon 1.6 (92bhp), Baleno (93bhp), Esteem (85bhp), Accent (94, 103, 82CRDI), Astra (~95bhp), Corsa(88, 92bhp), Siena (100bhp), Indigo P (85bhp).
In other words, in paper specs, the iDSI 1.5l city was just about the lowest bhp engined sedan you could buy in early 2004. The original NHC looked ugly to the extreme and also didn't have that much features till the 2005 NHC ZX was launched. However, the torque and gearing actually made NHC a decent city drive ...

In sum, yes, I also would be happier with a higher bhp/nm engine (one option was to go for a turbo and still meet excise exemptions). But unless we have more test drives and so on, it is probably premature to say the engine by itself will doom the i20 (driveability, perfomance, mileage). The features including safety ones it provides are not present even in D segment sedans - so, I don't see why someone wont buy it over a Swift ZXi by paying the difference of features that the swift can only dream of - not too mention the advantage in build quality, interior space and comfort which were just about the only advantages the NHC had over the OHC 1.3. To top it, the i20 looks way better than the Swift IMO while the OHC absolutely killed the NHC in looks department.

Cheers,
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Old 10th January 2009, 15:56   #445
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Just saw on OD first drive of i20 (on CNN IBN):

0-100kmph time: 13.6s
FE: 13.9kmpl in city, 19 kmpl on highway run

Very decent figures isint it?
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Old 10th January 2009, 15:59   #446
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very decent , im glad that the kappa did justice to the shape of the car, now suddenly its appearing to be a very decent package
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Old 10th January 2009, 18:01   #447
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
A 10 - 15% premium is HUGE in the hatchback segment.
I couldnt agree more. IMHO this whole premium pricing business is happening because Hyundai has continued with the Getz (unlike in other markets). This way they are not doing either car any good. They could (almost) get away with this strategy with the Santro/i10, but this needs some relook by Hyundai (Maruti as well).
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Old 10th January 2009, 18:34   #448
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Overall seems to be an awesome package for the price. Also the OD is pretty decent for a hatchback.
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Old 10th January 2009, 18:38   #449
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joslicx View Post
Just saw on OD first drive of i20 (on CNN IBN):

0-100kmph time: 13.6s
FE: 13.9kmpl in city, 19 kmpl on highway run

Very decent figures isint it?

it is pretty good in terms of mileage part. but i want a hyundai vgt diesel engine in a hatchback with abs. where is it? i was waiting like hell for i20 diesel... and i have to wait more...


BTW: test drive available now?
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Old 10th January 2009, 19:12   #450
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
That's not really saying something, is it? Anything can *kill* the Fabia . It is currently the worst selling hatchback in India. I hope Hyundai aren't benchmarking the Fabias success (or rather...the lack of it). .
Well, they want to sell ~1250 cars a month (15k a year). They want to obviously take away Fabia & Swift market-share.

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
A 10 - 15% premium is HUGE in the hatchback segment. Search through the Team-BHP What car section to see for yourself the number of deals that have been broken over as little as 15,000 - 40,000 rupees. The sub 5 - 6 lakh segment is VERY price sensitive.
They're not going after the low-budget buyer in this case. And by this theory, the Jazz is already history? Surely Honda will be charging a premium for it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
Plus, let me get this right : You mean to say that a potential customer is going to pay 10 - 15% more for inferior performance, lesser fuel-efficiency and a non-Maruti?
Wow. Did you TD it or read any reports before coming up with this theory of lesser fuel effiency? Infact, I expect it to offer more FE than a Swift. My cousin's ZXI gives 11-11.5 at the MAX - Minimum was as low as 9.5 kmpl. The performance of the kappa may be inferior - but it is good enough. And yes, people will definitely pay more for a non-Maruti hatchback if it is better built and offers more.

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post
The Swift petrol is criticised for its lack of low-end torque. Look up our test-drive section or the many ownership reviews.
Maybe it is. But I've driven my cousin's ZXI many times so I know its pretty good. And all I'm saying is - the i20, while not as fast as a Swift nor as "premium" as the Fabia, is a good overall package at an in-between price.
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