[MudMover]

Originally Posted by motomaverick

...wherein I moved from Manza to Grand i10. So considering your driving style what are your usual cruising speeds? I know you face more of single carriage roads but even then what were you maintaining in the Indigo and here in the Xcent. Do you perceive any sluggishness in the engine while overtaking? Is there any lag felt during roll on speeds?

If you are coming from the Manza (120bhp per your signature) then definitely you might feel sluggishness in the power in this engine. But on the whole, my experience so far on the single-person long drive I've had, is that the power is quite adequate. Yes I too have felt a lag during the roll on speeds (If I've correctly understood what you are referring to), e.g. after slowing down to 2nd gear to go over an especially high speed breaker on the B'lore-Mysore highway the engine was clearly taking some time to spool back up.

Since most of my long drives are done non-stop with just nature's call breaks, I generally like to preserve my energy levels. So, I start off my journeys in the 100-110 kmph range and then gradually start dropping the speed depending on the duration/condition of road/energy level. For e.g. I do B'lore-Mysore @100-110kmph; Mysore-Bandipur @ 80-90 kmph; Bandipur-Malappuram @ 60-70kmph. I do this just to ensure that I'm not thoroughly 'pooped-out' when I reach my destination.

[MudMover]

Today I filled my second tankful and found that the Xcent had taken 35.34 Ltr for going 806.7 kms, returning a very modest 22.82 Kmpl. This is with about 30% AC and another 40% fan only, which means 30% of the time the AC or the fan is off. I hope the mileage will pickup after the engine settles down because I'm expecting somewhere in the region of 27kmpl for the outstation drives.

[dkarthikkeyan]

That's a nicely written review but what happened after that, there has been no update for last 3-4 months , update us your experience on your xcent. how is the fit and finish, any niggles so far, what is your mileage on highway and city and your service experience(post us the service bills) and how is the AC performance.

[MudMover]

Just returned from a 1000 km Easter weekend trip to Kerala. The Xcent returned a respectable 24 kmpl with full A/C -- 915 Kms for 37.85 ltrs of diesel. Since my last update, I've installed the audio/video system from my previous Indigo and a AutoCop remote locking system. The car has done about 12000 kms and the second 'free' service cost about Rs.6000.

[MudMover]

Completed the third free service this week @ 22000 kms. I missed the 20k mark due to a variety of reasons. The service bill came to around Rs.6500, major component was around Rs.1400 for interior cleaning. I think next time around, I'll get the interior cleaning done by the car wash guys in Electronic City.

My parents have a i10 Grand Automatic back home in Kerala, and I'm totally in love with the car. The three things that I like the most about that car are:
1. You don't have to change the gear once you've slotted the gear into the Drive mode.
2. Since you don't have to change the gear a lot, you can keep your left leg fully stretched and rested against the wall of the pedal well.
3. At all times the auto gearbox tries to keep the engine rpm between 1k - 2k range, thereby giving a smooth ride.

So I've tried to replicate the above features while driving my Xcent:
1. In my daily drive, I've identified certain stretches where I can drive in a single gear without changing -- my house to the main road> 2nd gear, main road to service road>3rd gear, service road> 2nd gear till spead breakers, then 3rd gear. By doing this I have consciously cut down the number of gear changes, thereby improving my drive experience.
2. Since now I don't change gears that often, I'm able to keep my left leg freely rested in the pedal well.
3. Every gear that I use, I keep the engine rpm in the 1k - 2k range. If < 1k, I'll need to change down and if >2k I'll need to change up. So if I stick to the 1k-2k range, I can avoid the need to change gears. This has helped me to cut down fatigue in long drives and increased mileage -- I got 25.7 kmpl in a recent Bangalore-Kochi trip. I used to do Bangalore-Malappuram 300km (Kerala) in one day and then do Malappuram-Kochi 192km the next day. But now I'm able to squeeze in both stretches in a single day which is a great boon if you have to meet your in-laws AND your parents within a small weekend trip and keep everyone happy.

The Bangalore traffic has been very supportive in my driving experiment so far -- everybody just overtakes from the side and zooms away, as a result I'm always travelling behind every traffic block which clears up by the time I crawl up to it! Problems are -- Drive time increases by about 15-20 mins max, co-passengers might get irritated thinking that you are in no hurry to reach anywhere, possibility of eager beaver two-wheelers to scratch in their hurry to overtake.

...but all said and done, I still want something which is a diesel, an automatic, has cruise control and costs less than 15 lacs...

[MudMover]

Mods, please move this thread to the Long Term ownership reviews category.


UPDATE

I see that I had last updated this thread at the service @22000kms. That has been my average annual usage of this car and today I stand at around 95000kms. Over the years below are some of the happenings with this car:

1. The xcent seemed to keep scrapping the road on the stretches that I drive on and the most common fatality is the underside of the front bumper. For this reason, I've had to replace the entire front bumper under insurance 2 times! And another time is pending as well
2. Due to the above problem, at my last tyre change in May 2018 I changed my tyres to 165/70/R14 Michellin XM2 (up from the previous 165/65/R14) and that seems to have addressed the problem partly. I've also switched over completely to Nitrogen and altogether tyre ride quality is much better.
3. The xcent in general seems to be aging well. But now I have a child in boarding in Ooty, requiring me to make monthly trips there and I've noticed that the 1.1 crdi engine simply isn't the right choice for steep ghat section driving. The 36 hair pin bend stretch to Ooty is a killer for any engine and this 1.1 easily runs out of breath all too often making me wonder sometimes whether I need to get out and push the car up as well!
4. The average service cost is always around the Rs.11-12k mark.

An SUV upgrade seems to be long overdue, but until then the xcent needs to soldier on!

[MudMover]

Originally Posted by MudMover

An SUV upgrade seems to be long overdue, but until then the xcent needs to soldier on!

My last post on this thread had these last lines. And how prophetic they were. It's been 5 years from that post and now it is indeed coming true. My Xcent has clocked 1,65,000 on the odo and now we've booked a Kia Sonnet HTK (O) CRDI Manual. We've gone for the exchange offer with the Kia Showroom in Hosur road. Hoping for the delivery / handover soon.

[Durango Dude]

Originally Posted by MudMover

My last post on this thread had these last lines. And how prophetic they were. It's been 5 years from that post and now it is indeed coming true. My Xcent has clocked 1,65,000 on the odo and now we've booked a Kia Sonnet HTK (O) CRDI Manual. We've gone for the exchange offer with the Kia Showroom in Hosur road. Hoping for the delivery / handover soon.

Congrats, on the Kia Sonet diesel manual booking, have seen you ogling at your parents i10 automatic, why not go for an automatic diesel instead of a manual? It will make life a lot easier...especially with your high running...

[padmrajravi]

Originally Posted by Durango Dude

Congrats, on the Kia Sonet diesel manual booking, have seen you ogling at your parents i10 automatic, why not go for an automatic diesel instead of a manual? It will make life a lot easier...especially with your high running...

+1 to the automatic.

Originally Posted by MudMover

My last post on this thread had these last lines. And how prophetic they were. It's been 5 years from that post and now it is indeed coming true. My Xcent has clocked 1,65,000 on the odo and now we've booked a Kia Sonnet HTK (O) CRDI Manual. We've gone for the exchange offer with the Kia Showroom in Hosur road. Hoping for the delivery / handover soon.

Please consider the automatic this time. I have the same vintage Xcent AT and the only reason I don't think about selling it despite the low power is the AT. My petrol Xcent has even lower torque than your diesel Xcent. ATs are a big help in hill driving. You get frustrated in hills because of the frequent gear changes required in a low-power car. And Sonet has some excellent ATs in its line up.

[MudMover]

[

Originally Posted by Durango Dude

why not go for an automatic diesel instead of a manual? It will make life a lot easier...especially with your high running...

You read my mind Durango Dude and Padmrajravi. Yes, I have been in love with automatics ever since I drove my parents' i10 Grand automatic which they bought a few months after i bought my Xcent.

Infact, on April 13th 2024 I had finalised on a Hyundai Exter AMT from the same dealer Trident Hyundai Kudlu gate Hosur road. I was totally blown away by the features of the Exter. Infact, the Exter had some of the features which I had seen on an Alcazar which I had taken for a test drive last year while waiting to pick up my Xcent after service. Can you believe it?! Sun roof and steering mounted cruise control on a 12 lakh car same as a 25 lakh car. I was dead set on the Exter...as I drove home from the Trident Hyundai showroom, I said to myself "I DESERVE AN AUTOMATIC!".

So I was dead set on the Exter and I was ready to pull the trigger. It was just a matter of slamming the booking amount on the 15th of April.....then a few things started happening...first like a few drops, then a trickle and then a downpour...

[MudMover]

...1. As I was driving back from the Trident Hyundai showroom room, I took a short-cut and it was a narrow kachcha road. On that rough road I had to drive slowly to avoid scraping the bottom of my car. I saw a Taxi Xylo zoom past me disregarding the rough road and as if saying to me "See you later 165/R14"! Yup, I was really fed up with these small 165/70/R14 tires and the Exter was again 165/65 and just R15. Come on! You're upgrading just one more inch only? Seriously?!!
2. Then all of a sudden I found myself BEHIND a Driving School car BEHIND a quarry lorry. I would've been stuck in that position for ages, but a quick downshift and the diesel engine just propelled me past in a jiffy. I said to myself "Fat chance of doing that in a petrol AMT"!
3. Then the shocker...the next day April 14th, Iran attacked Israel. It then struck me that if the Middle East went down the toilet, i would be stuck with two petrol cars - my wife's Celerio petrol manual and the Hyundai Exter...and a huge petrol bill. So I felt that it would be better to stick to a diesel.

The cheapest diesel suv-type thing turned out to be a Kia Sonnet HTE Crdi diesel starting at Rs.9.79 lakhs. Our budget was Rs.12 lakhs, so the Kia diesel automatic was waaaayyyy out of our budget. Since we were not taking the Exter, we felt let's not deny the children the Sunroof option, so we moved up to the Kia Sonnet HTE (O) Crdi diesel @ Rs.9.9 Lakhs. The children were thrilled, they had anyway loved the Kia Sonnet and now they were going to get it!!

On April 15th, by 9.30am I pressed the button and emptied up all my shares before the market woke up to the Middle East developments. And then I dreadfully drove up to the Kia Showroom to get my Xcent valued. The question in my mind was...would they value my car same or somewhere near the Rs.2.1 lakhs that the Trident Hyundai guys had quoted?

[MudMover]

In the end, the KIA showroom quoted an exchange value of Rs.2 lakhs and l felt that it was a fair deal, because the Xcent had started to show it's age.

Issues
1. Though the engine was still running smooth and noiseless, at start-up now there is a sound of a rattling - I was told at the last service that there is some problem in the turbo.
2. For quite some time, while on highways at high speed I could hear a kind of moaning sound coming from near the front AC vents. On the last trip to Kerala in April '24, at the end of the first leg from Bengaluru to Nilambur (300km) as I came down the Ghats the AC suddenly failed. Had it checked by a local car AC guy who found nothing amiss, but asked me to keep a watch on the temperature gauge on the next leg of the journey from Nilambur to Kochi (195km), which was uneventful.
3. My second after-market central locking fitment resulted in both the remotes ending up partially working. This would lead to a decision in our Kia Sonnet purchase -- to go for a variant with factory-fitted accessories!
4. One of the front AC vent handles broke and then showroom said they couldn't find a spare.
5. All four shock absorbers were in need of replacement. I had fitted 'Rogerab Car Suspension Cushion Buffers' on all 4 shocks two years back to increase the height and soften the ride. Don't know how far they helped.


Sharing a couple of photos of my Xcent as on date, these were taken for the various showroom evaluators.













These were some of my first trips in the Xcent:


At Chikmagalur, 2014


On the Ghats down towards Goa, 2015

The overhead TV screen was a source of entertainment to the back seat passengers on many a long trip




The 491 litre boot could swallow a loadful of vacation luggage at one end ...

...and spit it out at the other end of the trip!


The Odo also did it's share of swallowing!