[Masda]

Before I start my review, let’s flash back to November 2008. I had a 3.5 year old Santro which was now beginning to show signs of ageing at 62K. Though no serious issues, but the minor niggles were just beginning to bother me. We had just started our family and a recent job change meant I no longer had the luxury of time –- time to visit the service center every other weekend. Maybe some of you may not find my behavior strange, but I am one of those who just cannot tolerate their babies (read cars) suffering with even the slightest of problems. It was also that time of the year, when auto companies come out with really tempting offers. Also, with wifey completely supporting the idea did a quick check on finances and began my search for our brand new stead! Here’s what was on my list (in the order of priority):

1. Suzuki Swift (Diesel) – I drive around 80 Kms a day and around 150+ on weekends, so a diesel seemed apt. But the price and wife’s dislike for anything diesel made me look only at petrol cars.
2. Fiat Palio 1.6 – With the Swift (D) ruled out, I still desired a powerful hatch that was also an upgrade from my Santro. I still love the looks of a Palio but when I actually visited the showroom, uneven panel gaps, poor plastics just completely turned me off. Maybe it was just that car parked in the showroom (because I still believe FIAT makes high quality cars). But stories about poor state of TATA A.S.S. were the real deal breaker.
3. Hyundai Accent – at 4.99 ex showroom, this seemed like a steal. But then reality hit – parking hassles, bumper to bumper Delhi-Gurgaon traffic, adventurous bikers fighting for every inch of space and in the process nicking your car, demanded a smaller, more agile car. Besides this was going to be a our daily use mule, one that could faithfully carry us to and fro from office, on weekends be able to do the runs to my parents and in-laws (though in Delhi but far apart), and on vacations be ready to do some spirited driving on the hills or fast lanes.
4. Hyundai i10 – This was it! Wife loved the looks -- at first sight! I was not particularly impressed initially (my heart was still wanting the Swifts and Fiats), but liked the refreshing beige interiors, cheerful IP (compared to my Santro), and a peppy engine that had 80 horses. Besides, with the exchange of my old car, this seemed like a good deal. Settled the deal with MGF.

Experience with the Dealer: Disappointing, to say the least!

• MGF was preferred because they were offering 25K more than Hans Hyundai for my old car; besides my previous car was also from them. I was going to trade in my car plus some cash as down payment for my car. Rest was going to be financed by a bank.
• Being end of year sale, I got good discounts and freebees – car cover, gear lock with on-road price of 4.20 for Magna 1.2.
• The salesman was courteous and helpful till this point.
• Since I was getting better interest rates from Bank of India, decided not to go with MGF recommended bank (ICICI or something). Here’s when my troubles started. From here on till the time I got my RC, it was going to be rough.
• The deal was that I would drive in to the showroom on the day of my new car delivery, i.e. 3rd January 2009, and walk away with a new car.
• But on 28th December, almost more than a week away from my new car delivery, I get a call from this fellow saying that I have to surrender my old car now, otherwise they will deduct 25K from my car’s value because the car will depreciate if sold in new year.
• This was something I had not planned for – how am I going to manage without a car for one full week? Plus, I was thoroughly disappointed with MGF, because they went back on their promise that I need to surrender my old car only the day I get my new one.
• I was sore upset, though had little option but to give away my car. Thankfully, dad wasn’t going to need his car that week, so borrowed his.
• So come Saturday, 3rd January, I was all set to take delivery of my spanking new i10. Excited as I was, I went to the dealership at 10:00 in the morning expecting to see my new baby arrive at the showroom from the warehouse. Lo and behold, the dealership informed me that due to some ‘unavoidable’ circumstances the container trucks were stuck, and my car would arrive only by evening.
• Anyways, came back home fuming at the dealership and almost regretting my decision to go again for a Hyundai. After a few stern calls, however, was assured that my car was going to arrive that evening but because of the remaining paper work and all it would be best if I collect it on Sunday, i.e. 4th!
• Waited it out and then finally took delivery of my car.

Some pics from the ‘D’ day:

ICE ICE Baby!




Dad posing with the new car:

Me driving it home: Yipee!


So, coming back to the car:

• It’s a 1.2 liter Magna

Positives:

• 80 BHP (nice, but will come back to that later)
• Power Steering (EPS)
• Power Windows (All)
• Auto Down and illuminated driver’s side window switch
• Headlamp leveler
• Tachometer
• Tilt adjust steering – excellent feature for those long & relaxed highway drives
• HVAC – decent cooling. The light beige interiors make it work harder. Absolute chiller at nights, no matter what the outside temp is.
• Neat cubby holes for mobile phones/ipods/water bottles
• Wheel Caps
• Rear parcel tray
• Almost 0 blind spots, commanding road view. Large rear view mirrors give you a good coverage of what’s happening at the back.
• Overall build and finish – truly best in class
• Excellent quality of plastics
• Very good paint job
• Very good fit and finish – no uneven panel gaps
• Good solid feel about the shell – a huge reassurance on our roads
• Looks (subjective, but I really like the front and side stance of the car)
• Wrap-around headlamps
• Body colored bumpers
• Body colored rear-view mirrors
• The lines on the car are smooth and the side profile gives it some character

Negatives:

• No dead pedal (this is the most I miss from my Santro)
• No 60:40 rear seats
• Puny 155 R13 stock tyres
• Small little boot that won’t let you carry even those medium sized suitcases (in-cabin luggage) for your holidays. Duffel bags/backpacks are essential.
• Soft suspension setup (gets the car to lose composure over broken roads at high speeds >80 kmph). Though the car feels great on straights and well laid highways. I have done 140+ on straights and it feels rock solid!
• Extremely long radio antenna; hits the ceiling on mall ramps, especially the ones at Gurgaon. Workaround: fold it down. This however, has been fixed in the new i10.
• Clutch – hard and heavy (will be sharing more a little while later)
• Beige dashboard reflects a lot of sun back into the windshield – you really need good glares in this car. This again, has been fixed in the new i10.
• The green illumination on the IP is a dampener on the otherwise cheerful interiors.

Reading on the odometer (as of date): 64000 KMs

My usage pattern:

• Minimum 45 KMs per day (on weekdays) in heavy traffic; probably this explains the heavy clutch
• Office is in Gurgaon, and the daily commute is really painful with heavy traffic right from the toll to the office parking
• Weekends are busy for the car and it averages around 100-150 KMs on Sat-Sun
• Vacations mostly involve driving down to locations. So far, the car has been to Agra, Neemrana (Rajasthan), Nainital, Ranikhet, Mussorie, Dalhousie, and Chandigarh (some of these locations have been visited multiple times).
• Coming back to the 80 BHP question -- Overall performance on the road:
• The i10 is a very capable car. It is a good city commuter, and not too bad for those highway runs either.
• The third gear can stay with you from 20 to 80, minimizing gear shifts but then bringing your efficiency down if overused.
• I’ve got the best from this car by keeping the engine revving at 2500 RPM, and keeping it steady at 70 KMPH. The efficiency achieved under these conditions was 22 KMPL.
• However, Average Efficiency:

• Highways – 18 KMPL (not so sedate driving + 100% AC + fully loaded boot)
• City – 14 KMPL (very sedate driving + traffic + 100% AC on)
• So are 80 horses enough? Well, yes and no. If you are one of those who live life in the fast lane, you might struggle in this car if the vehicle you are trying to overtake is also burning rubber. Let me explain. If you are cruising nicely at 90 on single carriageway, and you need to overtake a bus also doing 90, you probably need to calculate for at least 15 seconds of buffer to avoid hitting head-on to oncoming traffic. And 15 seconds seem forever, in those quick overtaking moves –if you know what I mean here.
• [Some owners may differ on the above, but I usually like to avoid close calls on our roads so always keep an extra buffer while overtaking.]
• The story becomes completely different at 60 KMPH. Slot it down and off she goes!

Maintenance so far:

1. Clutch cable – changed thrice. Yes you read it correct THRICE!
2. Clutch overhaul – done once at around 45000 KMs. The pressure plate was changed.

The clutch cable in fact broke once leaving us stranded on the road. Thankfully I was close to home and the break down service responded fast.
Apart from the clutch, nothing else has been repaired or replaced

Replaced pressure plate:

Closer look:

Comfort:

• Overall a comfortable car to drive and be driven in (this is based on my wife’s feedback)
• With 3 adults, the rear bench gets cramped – not cool for long drives
• The road view is good and confidence inspiring for the driver
• The front seats are not uncomfortable but would advise a pillow for long highway drives to support your lumbar
• Rear leg room – Decent but definitely not at par with an Indica!
• Head room – ample. Being a tall boy design, you will never feel claustrophobic.

Overall Experience:
Call me a Hyundai loyalist or an emotional fool, I have grown to respect the i10 Kappa. Leaving the clutch problems aside, it has given me 64000 KMs of quiet service. It has reached a mark where I usually turn them around but the story is a little different with this one. I continue to grow fonder with this lovely machine! Sharing a few more pictures after the service done yesterday.







PS: I'm sorry about the picture quality; guess I messed up the quality while trying to resize them.

[misquitas]

Great mid/long-term review and enjoyed reading it from beginning to end. Your I10 certainly is excellently maintained and looks in great shape as well, given the latest photos of your car's interiors. You FE is also commendable. Was a bit surprised though that the clutch cable was changed thrice and the pressure plates changed once in under 50,000 kms.

By the way, have you been satisfied with the service costs and other maintenance expenditure? Also, what are those fitments to the right of the gear? Don't have them on my I10.

[GTO]

Thanks for sharing this thoroughly unbiased review, Masda! It's reports like this that make Team-BHP the community it is today.

The clutch cable problem was obviously due to faulty installation. Sure, I'd say product quality if it happened once, but three failures indicates (to me) a problem with the way it was fitted.

Nevertheless, a single issue in 64,000 kms is definitely stuff to brag about. For you, and for Hyundai. For those who come to me for advice on a "no-nonsense, thoroughly reliable car for long term use", my recommendations were usually the Japanese brands. Now, I include the Korean too (in particular, Hyundai). The i10 is a bigger brand builder for Hyundai than the Sonata, Santa Fe or any of their more expensive cars. Primary reason : Thousands of people every day witness the sheer quality of this car, and how it's the best in the segment. Marutis & the like can only dream on. And that new Kappa2 engine is an absolute jewel. Have you take a spin in one?

Drive safe will you.

Originally Posted by Masda

I'm sorry about the picture quality; guess I messed up the quality while trying to resize them.

Use the XP resizer tool, or any of the suggestions mentioned here

[misquitas]

I don't know if other I10 owners have mentioned this before, but one of the very few (repeat, very few) things that I'm not too pleased about my I10 Kappa2 are:

1. Whenever I want to fill air in the spare tyre, I have to remove the entire tyre by unlocking the central bolt (which takes ages to unscrew) and removing the 'cover' that houses the jack and related stuff. This is because the nozzle/valve does not face upwards.

On the other hand, the nozzle/valve of the spare tyre in my Alto 800 LXI faces upwards and it is extremely easy to fill the spare tyre, as and when necessary.

2. Another thing I wish that the I10 had were more cubby holes in the dash. Other cars (like Ritz, for example) have a useful "shelf" below the dash and this allows one to place various little objects (like mobile phones, etc.). Even my Alto has a little slot above the glove lid on the dashboard that allows me to keep a mobile phone. The rounded dash of the I10 is quite useless and the only space available on the dash is a little slot below the rotary switches.

Technically though, there is another slot available to me on the dash. I have installed a Alpine HU which occupies only half of the space allotted to a larger 2-din player. This 'additional' slot can also be used to store small objects. These slots became very useful to me during my recent Goa-Mumbai-Thane-Goa trip when we stored the many tickets and the loose change we received at the toll plazas along the way.

In this regard, the dash of even the Santro is designed neatly in such a way that allows one to place a mobile on top, without the fear of it falling or rolling over as it has a flat dash with a protruding edge.

But these are little things that I can easily adjust to and the I10 continues to impress me every time we get into the car. Like GTO has said, the I10 is one heck of a car.

[Masda]

Originally Posted by misquitas

Great mid/long-term review and enjoyed reading it from beginning to end. Your I10 certainly is excellently maintained and looks in great shape as well, given the latest photos of your car's interiors. You FE is also commendable. Was a bit surprised though that the clutch cable was changed thrice and the pressure plates changed once in under 50,000 kms.

By the way, have you been satisfied with the service costs and other maintenance expenditure? Also, what are those fitments to the right of the gear? Don't have them on my I10.

Thank you, misquitas! Overall, I am satisfied with service costs. Apart from the clutch overhall and a fused headlamp bulb, I have not changed anything else in the car. I am actually surprised that even the wiper blades still clean just as new! Also to add, there is not even a single squeak or rattle. Considering, the amount of highway travel done, this is commendable about the way Hyundai has put it together.

That fitment to the right of the gear--that's the gear lock that I got part of the deal. Neat, isn't it --matches with the interior beige. :-)

[Masda]

Couldn't agree more on the highly inconvenient orientation of the spare tire nozzle. The central bolt does take ages to unscrew and then the tire itself needs to be lifted. Really troublesome for other motorists also in the queue for air. Probably Hyundai engineers did this to free more space for the jack, but it sure has made things less convenient for us. Thank you for adding this one!

On more cubby holes--I'm actually OK with the existing number. I too do not have a double DIN installed so use the extra space for toll tickets or coins. I also feel more cubby holes mean more dust and grime settling into them over a period of time, unless you have a portable vacuum cleaner.