[RoverX]

"You have to reach for things beyond your grasp, or what is heaven for?" - Garth Stein

Now, this isn't a quote one would normally associate with material possessions, but one can agree that ownership of a vehicle is a very aspirational concept for most Indians. Realising that dream evokes the sentiment of having arrived in life, in a manner of speaking. With that, I would like to share a brief account of when this moment arrived in my life (my father's life, to be precise); an ownership report of Our Diminutive Darling! I've procrastinated on writing this for more than three years, but here it is!

P.S. All the opinions stated here are my own, and I mean no offence or disrespect to the proud owners of any of the cars mentioned below. Also, I've lost a good deal of the car's pictures due to theft of one of my older phones, apologies in advance!

INTRODUCTION:

The year was 2007, and I had just completed my board exams. My dad, a civil engineer with the Govt. of Maharashtra, was transferred to a different department from Thane to Navi Mumbai. Since Navi Mumbai was much more accessible by road from our place than Thane, he was planning to finally let go off the local train commute after ~20 years and switch to a personal vehicle. Now make no mistake, a car purchase decision for a family man in his forties is way different from that for a corporate yuppie on the climb. It's always a head-over-heart affair, but truth be told, there weren't many cars back in the day this side of a million bucks on which one could 'set their hearts'. So the decision would be governed completely by practicality and budget, right? Heh, not so much when one has a budding BHPian as one's son!

I was the quintessential headache as well as the key influencer in making this decision. The constraints were pretty clear - it had to be a petrol hatch, reasonably spacious, and reasonably structurally sound (we were all grown-ups and NCAP ratings were an unknown quantity two decades ago). Budget was capped at INR 6 lakhs. As a typical Indian father who is a first-time car buyer, dad was veering towards the Maruti-Suzuki stable. Weird as it is, he had (and still has) a soft corner for the Omni! But I was looking for something for more than just 4 wheels and seats with a bodyshell; some amount of intangible connect.

The B1 segment hatchback market had just about started to heat up with the launch of the Maruti-Suzuki Swift (which was given a launch in a movie, no less). A hatchback buyer was being introduced to a variety of choices, from sporty and exciting Swift to mature and elegant Getz. The indecision was further compounded by several new launches that were happening.

[RoverX]

BACKGROUND:

I'd like to sum up the hatchback scenario back in 2007-08, below:

• Maruti-Suzuki:
  Apart from the Swift, Maruti had the usual Altos and Estilos of the world to offer. The pocket-rocket Alto VX 1.1 had been discontinued back in 2005; not that it would've made it to our list owing to its cramped interiors. I couldn’t digest the Estilo’s looks and the fact that Maruti tried to link it to the Zen, which had a completely different ethos! The Ritz and A-Star were still some time away and all of Maruti’s offerings in this segment screamed cheap.
  
  
• Hyundai:
  The Santro was now the Xing, and neither design was palatable. This and the fact that the car felt 2 decades old made us decide against what was a fundamentally sound car. The Getz had a lovely, mature design, sorted dynamics, and the 1.5 CRDi mill made it a proper fun hatch. We would’ve considered the CRDi, but that was costing close to INR 7 lakhs on the road; not to mention the Getz was getting a bit too long in the tooth. There were scoops of the i10 flowing in left and right as a replacement to the Santro. Must say, it looked like a breath of fresh air! The i20 wouldn’t launch until later next year.
  
  
• Tata:
  Oh, the less said about Tatas of yesteryear, the better! The Indicas of the day were either squeaking away to glory or stranded by the side of the road with their bonnets propped open. The “More Car Per Car” philosophy sadly didn’t extend beyond the space and comfort factor. The quality was abysmal, the drivetrains were horrendous, the driving position was really poor, service quality was (and still is) not up to the mark. The Vista would later fix a lot of these issues, but its launch was still a while away.
  
  
• General Motors India:
  Opel had packed up from India by 2006. Chevrolet was badge-engineering other models back in the day, and the Spark (Daewoo Matiz), Aveo UV-A (Daewoo Kalos) and Optra SR-V (Daewoo Lancetti) were their hatchback offerings. The sexy-looking SR-V was priced stratospherically and hence automatically out of contention. The UV-A didn’t quite feel special enough, not to mention the Chevrolet brand was somewhat of a question mark in India. The Spark’s connection to the Matiz was actually quite endearing, since the latter was cute and cheerful car, and Chevrolet did a good job modernising it. But the car felt quite cramped, the one time we rode in it.
  
  
• Ford:
  The Ford Fusion was in a no-man’s land in India, because neither the large hatch nor the compact crossover segment was particularly flourishing back then. It was in a similar boat as the Chevrolet Optra SR-V. Naturally, it was out of our contention. The Figo wouldn’t launch until much later, and we all know how great a product that was.
  
  
• Škoda India:
  The Fabia was launched as Škoda’s fourth product in India after the D-segment sedans Octavia, Laura, and Superb. This car brought previously unheard levels of quality and sophistication to this segment, and was a very attractive offering. This was a wild card entry to my list, having launched pretty late in our purchase journey.

All things considered; we had almost zeroed in on the Maruti-Suzuki Swift when the Hyundai i10 broke cover in December 2007, followed by the Škoda Fabia in April 2008. As mentioned before, these two cars reinvented the concept of a hatchback offering in India, and they skyrocketed to the top of my consideration (much to my dad’s dismay). Now began the saga of test drives, and since I wasn’t of legal driving age back then, the driving impressions were mostly from my dad while I pored over the finer details like overall refinement, quality, features, etc. We had the following observations:

• Maruti-Suzuki Swift:
  + Fresh, funky design in a sea of the proverbial dabbas.
  + Proven G13B engine was a great performer and reasonably efficient.
  + Nimble handling and compact dimensions were perfect for the city.
  - Atrociously drab and claustrophobic interiors – the Gen 1 Swift felt terribly cheap inside.
  - Limited rear seat room and tiny, oddly-shaped boot.
  - Hard-edged ride which contributes to sprightly handling.
  - Large blind spots due to thick A and C pillars – my dad who spent his motoring time around Ambassadors and MM540s found it difficult to navigate.
  
  
• Hyundai i10 iRDE:
  + Fresh design inside and outside that felt like a major upgrade over the Santro.
  + Ergonomically near-perfect, good visibility, and city-friendly dimensions.
  + High-quality interiors and smart packaging due to tallboy design.
  + Proven and refined drivetrain.
  - Limited cabin width and small boot.
  - Bumpy ride and spongy brakes.
  
  
• Škoda Fabia 1.2 MPi:
  + The most mature design among the three; made it feel half a size larger than the Swift. The wide haunches and rear three-quarters were actually similar to the Swift (which in turn was reminiscent of the Mini).
  + Build quality of the highest order; instilled confidence in the longevity of the product.
  + Spacious and practical interiors with many clever touches; largest boot among the three.
  - Pricey – Variant for variant, the Fabia was INR 1 to 1.2 lakhs costlier than the competition.
  - Škoda was a huge gamble in terms of ASS levels; appalled to see that the condition hasn’t quite changed.
  - Wheezy 1.2 MPi engine was very leisurely in hauling the metal above it, resulting in poor fuel economy, too. The 1.4 TDi / 1.6 MPi variants were way out of reach.

And thus, in a delicate battle of the head and the heart, the Hyundai i10 emerged victorious! Next steps were deciding on the trim level and colour. The i10 was launched in some cheerful colours like red and yellow (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, anyone?), but like most conservative Indians, they were immediately vetoed and a very conservative Sleek Silver colour was chosen. As for the feature list, there was some disagreement over the must-have features. Hyundai’s variant line-up back then included D-Lite, Era, Era Plus, Magna, and Magna (O). The Sportz and Asta trim levels were introduced with the more powerful 1.2 Kappa variant. As I like my car interiors to be stock, my preference was for the trim with the integrated music system, which was only available in the Magna. The Magna (O) trim brought ABS and dual airbags, as well as an optional sunroof. We opted for the safety features, but gave the sunroof a miss since it’s terribly impractical in the Mumbai heat. And thus, in the May of 2008, we brought home our darling Hyundai i10 iRDE Magna (O) at around INR 5.8 lakhs OTR.

OWNERSHIP EXPERIENCE:

The car served us admirably, ever since. It was a no-nonsense ownership experience, meaning there wasn’t much to rave about, yet very little to complain. The i10 has been a perfect little city commuter while handling the occasional long-distance duties. We have taken several trips out of the state in our little darling, to Goa, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh. But these trips were too few and far in between, and the car was mostly relegated to the bumper-to-bumper ordeal of the ever-growing Mumbai traffic, which it took in its stride very well. Of the 14 years that we had the car, I was away from home for around 7 years for education or work, and the wretched COVID claimed around 2 years, which is part of the reason why the car had a limited running of ~65,000 km. I low-key regret not being associated with the ownership of our i10 as closely as I would've liked!

So Good:

• The i10’s narrow dimensions made it nimble enough to weave through the narrowest of gaps in urban traffic, and the light controls made easy work of tiresome drives. Tight turning radius, too!
• The placement of the gear shifter on the dashboard was PERFECT! The shifter was always a flick away from the steering wheel and freed up space on the centre console. Shifter action was one of the best in the business, too!
• Putting the front seat recline adjustment lever on the opposite side was a stroke of brilliance! Almost Škoda-esque clever thinking here - why fumble around the tight gap between the seat and the door to locate the lever, when there's a much easier and dignified way to adjust the recline!
• Interiors were tastefully appointed and of a higher quality than the segment standards. There wasn’t a soft-touch surface in sight, but the plastics used were not shiny or scratchy and their tactile feel was of the highest order. They held up very well throughout the 14 years of ownership.
• Generous glasshouse meant excellent visibility all-around. Placing this car on the road and in parking spots was never a problem despite the lack of any modern-day aids like parking sensors or reversing camera.
• The front seat design was pretty smart, and the lack of adjustable hear restraints was not a bother.
• The 1.1 iRDE motor was extremely refined, rev-happy, and linear in nature. It did not have any top-end performance, but low-down torque was better than expected in a small naturally aspirated petrol engine. Gearing was spot-on, too, and the car cleared most speed breakers in the second gear (albeit when lightly loaded). I sorely miss this free-revving nature on my Tata Altroz i-Turbo.
• Switchgear operation was of a terrific quality and felt well-damped – power window switches, AC controls, music system controls, steering column stalks, etc. Even the levers to release the bonnet and drop the rear seats worked smoothly. In comparison, the switchgear in most competitors worked with an irksome plasticky ‘click’.
• The AC recirculate function had a proper electronic switch, which was inexplicably replaced with an archaic slider in the facelift model.

No Good:

• The light steering was a boon within urban confines but gave zero feedback. It didn’t instill a lot of confidence at high speeds.
• The beige interiors were airy for sure, but the beige dashboard gave off a terrible reflection on the windshield and hampered visibility. This was probably one of the reasons why the dashboard colour scheme was changed to dark brown / slate in the facelift model.
• This was one of the few budget hatches back in the day to get a 4-speaker setup, but the audio quality was absolutely crap. As soon as the volume level crossed 7/8, there would be all sorts of undesirable pops and crackles.
• The instrument console was backlit in green, which looked very dated. This was replaced by a nice looking blue-white backlight in the facelift model.
• The car was severely under-tyred, and kept chirping away to glory at every moderately tight turn.
• The A-B-C pedals were placed very closely, and used to foul with shoes above size UK-9. There was some space to the left of the clutch pedal to rest the left food, but no proper dead pedal.
• The clutch operation, although light, had a long travel and had a dead zone for the first couple of inches of travel.
• The headlamps had a weak throw and were quite useless in the rains. Similarly, the horn was meek-sounding.

Upgrades Done:

• The default 155/80R13 MRF ZEC tyres were upgraded to 175/70R13 Bridgestone B250s. This helped with the skittish feeling at high speeds and made the steering a tad bit heavier.
• The headlamps were upgraded with Osram Rallye 100/90W bulbs, which make driving at night that much safer. The high beam throw improved greatly.
• Leatherette seat covers were installed as the light, towel-like material on the seats would get soiled very easily. The front seat covers had a storage pocket at the back.
• Roll-up sunshades were installed on all four windows. The housing was screwed onto the doorpads and the shades themselves came with a clip to be latched on to the top edge of the window. The operation worked reasonable well, but the clips made some noise over bad roads.
• The factory horn was replaced by a Roots Wind Tone 90 horn, which gave out a very satisfying paarrrpp. This was necessary, since absolutely nobody would give way to the tiny i10.

Things that did not age well:

• The AC performance had dipped a fair bit around the 10-year mark, despite cleaning the AC filter and getting the compressor / evaporator serviced regularly.
• The power window motors were beginning to pack up and had got noisy.
• Hyundai petrol engines are never known to be particularly fuel efficient, and this car was no different. The car returned around 11.5 kpl in the city and 17 kpl on the highway with a moderate load. On a full load, these numbers would dip a bit.
• Several electrical gremlins that cropped up after the accident (covered below).

[RoverX]

PICTURES:

I’ll take a pause now and do some pictures do the talking, now. As mentioned before, I lost a good chunk of the car’s pictures to the theft of my phone, and they were some of the most picturesque shots of this car. Nevertheless, I think the ones that I have capture the essence of my narrative.

The i10 came wearing quite contemporary clothes for 2007-08, and had several interesting design elements. The chunky front bumper, slim front grille, subtle chrome garnish, etc. made for a fresh new look, which says a lot for a car that was a successor to ugly ducklings, Santro and Santro Xing. Eagle-eyed BHPians would have noticed that the rub strips on the doors and front and rear bumpers are black in some photos while silver in others. As part of the repainting done post my accident, I decided to get them painted in the body colour since it lends a cleaner look to the panels. Ground clearance of 165 mm and the soft suspension (especially at the rear) meant the car bottomed out on occasion when fully loaded. It also made the ride pretty bouncy over uneven roads, and bump recovery was poor. This necessitated one to drive the car extra sedately as the ride could induce motion sickness in passengers.

There is no pretense of being sporty in the design, yet it's been crafted quite smartly. Again, we have to compare the design against its contemporaries at the time. I read several reviews of the i10 and the number that stuck with me was the drag coefficient of 0.32. This was pretty impressive for a tall-boy hatchback and implied performance and efficiency gains for the small 1.1 litre engine. This view also shows how weedy the 155-section tyres are.

A very inoffensive side profile. The fact that these 13-inch wheels do not look out of place on this design is proof of how compact this car is. The i10 had good enough headroom, thanks to the tall cabin. One can see how much further the tailgate opens above the car's roof, when opened! Note that the rear door handle is placed slightly above the front door handle. There are subtle creases on the front fender and the rear door, and the latter subtly flows into the rear bumper. The door handles would have looked much more coherent if these creases were a single line, cutting through both the door handles. This little detail has bugged my OCD for 14 long years! This design detail was incorporated in a much more pronounced way on the last-gen Santro sold here, albeit overdone.

Another measure of how dinky the i10 was. The entry to my parking space requires me to circle the building, navigate a narrow driveway (which is half taken up by bikes on the right, we can spot a white Honda City in that space, above). With the i10, I never broke a sweat doing this exercise and backing up into my space. This, with two scooters already parked in the space. These compact dimensions were part of the reason why I wanted to relegate this car strictly to city duties and upgrade to a diesel SUV (The perfect 7-seater SUV / MPV under 25 lakhs)!

Quite smartly styled rear end; the rising window-line gave it a tipped-forward stance. Flat, slanting tailgate and shape of the tail lights seem reminiscent of the original Santro. The i10 had one of the best integrated rear spoiler with high-mounted stop light, in my opinion. The external boot release was cleverly integrated within the Hyundai logo. Rear defogger, washer, and wiper were provided on Magna and Magna (O) trim levels. Notice the broken wiper arm? That's the work of an enraged biker who thought I was in the wrong for honking at him when he cut me off at a traffic signal. The replacement wiper arm was ordered off Amazon. The exhaust canister was clearly visible from the rear, and as we found out later, was susceptible to kisses from the road very often. The large and obviously placed 'Baby Onboard' sticker was applied after the arrival of my niece.

I fondly remember the simplistic times when dashboards were not dominated by large screens; there's something so fundamentally pure about uncluttered car interiors. Hyundai nailed it on the head with this one, except for all that beige on the top dash. One can see the annoying reflections on the windshield that I mentioned earlier. Placing the gear shifter on the dashboard extension was a stroke of genius - not only was it ergonomically better, but also freed up more space between the front seats. A few more cars of yesteryear offered such shifter placement (Honda CRV, Maruti-Suzuki Ritz, Nissan Evalia, etc.). Note the car charger placed in the 12V power socket - the 2010 facelift had a USB Type-A outlet next to it, as well as the relocated AUX port. Tall central AC vents had limited adjustment range, and were primarily used to direct airflow to the rear passengers. One can see the retractable sunshades in this picture that I mentioned before. The quality of materials was very good at this price point, and not a thing had come loose or fallen of throughout the entire duration of ownership. Subtle design touches like the crease on the doors that runs through the dashboard in a single uninterrupted manner looks very elegant. The elbow rest area on the doors was painted brown and did not sport any soft finish. Lower half of the doorpads were painted beige and used to get soiled very easily. Interestingly, even the top-end Magna (O) variant did not get electrically adjustable and foldable mirrors at the time. It was only when the Asta variant debuted with the 1.2 Kappa engine that we saw power ORVMs on the i10. The housing for the ORVM adjustment mechanism was pretty large, and together with the thick A-pillar, would sometimes create blind spots on tight right-hand curves.

Somewhere in misty Mahabaleshwar. The i10 had been a trustworthy companion on all our outstation journeys, and never once left us stranded anywhere. The 67 BHP engine progressively kept feeling inadequate as the family grew in size and count.

Back in March 2015, on one of our trips to Tal Konkan, my sister spotted this heavily camouflaged Chevy Trailblazer and snapped a few pictures of that gargantuan SUV. I shared them Autocar India, and these were published in their scoop story for the Trailblazer. Apparently this was the first sighting of this car in India. At the toll booth, the stark contrast in the sizes of the Trailblazer and i10 was very evident!

Happy faces with an equally cheerful car!

[RoverX]

THE ACCIDENT:

Browsing through the Accidents in India subforum on Team-BHP makes one reflect upon one’s driving habits, maybe even come up with explanations of how one would’ve avoided the particular situation. But no matter how defensively one drives, there’s always an element of uncertainty in situations like these, not to mention bizarre unforeseen circumstances that can compound the problem even more.

My workplace from 2015 and 2019 was at Hiranandani Estate (Thane West), but I used to work out of client locations all over India half the time. Now Thanekars would know how inconvenient it is to get to Hiranandani Estate from Thane Station (~11 km), either by bus or autorickshaws. The frequency of direct TMT buses is far too low; and the extraordinarily long queues at the auto stands outside the station means one would end up spending close to an hour before getting an auto. Not to mention the nightmare of traffic that one encounters before hitting the Eastern Expressway. After putting up with this charade for almost a year, I decided to commute by road since it was much quicker to get to Ghodbunder Road via Kalwa (Saket) road. By mid-2016, dad has also retired from service, and the car was sitting idle at home.

Despite the perpetual state of disrepair of this route, I never felt the commute to be bothersome. Also, I strongly feel that there was better traffic sense in Mumbai (all major Indian cities, in general) before COVID, which has now gone for a toss. It was another uneventful workday of April 2017 – I left work at around 5:30 PM, and was mildly enthused at the prospect of reaching home before the traffic got crazy. I turned left onto Ghodbunder Road and the traffic was thicker than usual, so my average speed hovered around 30-35 kph. I encountered a red light just before the Kapurbawdi flyover, and was slowly picking up pace when I noticed stationary traffic in the fast lane of the flyover. It took me a while to realise that it was actually a pile-up of 5-6 vehicles, caused by a cab that made an abrupt lane change right at the top of the flyover. This might have been out of the line of sight of the following driver, leading to the pile-up. I managed to stop just in time behind a Maruti-Suzuki Ciaz, since I had just moved from a stop signal and wasn’t carrying much speed. Disaster averted, right? Boy, was I WRONG, and how!

In hindsight, I should’ve left the spot since it was neither safe to stay in the wreckage zone, nor to park by the side anywhere on the flyover. But before I could gather my thoughts, a speeding Škoda Laura rammed into my car from behind. The impact was tremendous and the bonnet of the car was lodged halfway into the trunk of the Ciaz in front of me, but the airbags had not deployed. It took me a few moments to grasp what had happened – I was involved in a car accident! Luckily, I did not sustain any obvious injuries, but had terrible whiplash that lasted for weeks (despite being belted up). The radiator had been punctured due to impact with the car in front of me. The impact was so much that the car’s frame had got bent, thus jamming the doors. I had to lean over to the passenger’s side and kick the driver side door open. When I alighted, the wreckage was heart-breaking!

Having no experience of what is the systemic recourse in case of a vehicular pile-up (I wasn’t a member of the forum until later that year), I called towing services to bring the car to Siddhivinayak Hyundai’s service centre, Dombivli. They quoted a stratospheric amount of INR 3 lakhs to replace the complete bodyshell! I was speechless at this quote, and the insurance assessment also came in as ‘total loss’. The IDV at the time was slightly less than INR 1 lakh, so we started looking for other alternatives, because we firmly believed that the car could be restored mechanically. Luckily, we found a FNG that specialised in body work like this, and this began the restoration project for the i10. This exercise involved straightening out the pinched and bent sections of the frame, the spare wheel well, and the engine bay, which necessitated stripping the interior clean. The battery mount was broken in the impact, and had to be fabricated separately. The complete restoration work cost us just under INR 1 lakh, almost 70% of which was covered by insurance. Sharing a few pictures of the car during the process:

After about 2 months and multiple niggle-sorting exercises, the car was finally restored to its original shape (for the most part). But ultimately, nothing can beat factory finish, and the car could be put together 100% like before. We had a tough time sourcing the headlamp clusters since the pre-facelift units were not in stock in most places. The ones that we got did not have a functioning beam-levelling motor. Hence, the beam adjustment was done physically during installation. After this exercise, there were niggling issues galore - malfunction of ABS, airbag, and parking brake sensors, music system backlights, rear speaker channel, etc. kept cropping up. In some places like the B-pillar, the plastic cladding was misaligned and the headliner was not properly tucked in. All in all, it took a lot of time to restore the car to my satisfaction levels. Even then, the recurrence of some of these issues (especially ABS and airbag sensors) significantly dented my confidence in the integrity of the car, structural and otherwise.

After this, the car's running also dropped significantly. I moved out of the state to pursue my MBA, followed by the pandemic. The usage of the car was limited to occasional trips around the city, and then for medical visits around the time of my niece's birth. We faced some routine repairs over this time - the shocks were replaced around 50,000 km mark, front brake pads and rear drum brake liners were replaced, cabin air filter was replaced and AC coolant was topped up, etc. Then there were the time-honoured Hyundai problems like the steering rack noise issue and loose disc brake caliper pin, but these were fixed by Hyundai ASC quite early in the car's life-cycle. After the 60,000 km mark, the exhaust pipe gave away due to rust, resulting in the exhaust end can suspending quite low to the ground.

[RoverX]

CONCLUSION:

Those of you who have made it until here, I salute your tenacity! After 14 years and ~65,000 km, the i10 had to make way for a larger, comfier, safer, and more feature-rich steed. The arrival of my niece automatically necessitated an upgrade to a safer car; not to mention the frequent issues cropping up meant I couldn't run the risk of having my family stranded anywhere, even during a short intercity trip. And I also understand what a few readers must be thinking - this guy doesn't seem to have a particular emotional connect with his car - and I agree, I won't pretend to be overtly attached to it. Because what the i10 was, was a supremely reliable commuter, with a few tricks up its sleeves. That's not to say that I don't miss the car - after upgrading to the Altroz, I've missed the dinky dimensions, the refinement, the fit and finish, the free-revving engine, etc. But without resorting to emotional superlatives, I'd like to mention that it was also the first set of four wheels in the family, a thing of immense pride for my parents, and joy for us. I also escaped the accident unscathed in this car. For that, and the many more happy moments it gave us, I'm really indebted to Our Diminutive Darling. We bade adieu to her in October 2022 through OLX Cars, and I hope it has found a worthy home that cherishes it as much as we did.

Thank you all for patiently reading through this long thread. Signing off with some parting shots:

My dad handing over the keys to the OLX Cars executive. It was a sentimental moment for my parents, even my mother who usually doesn't care about material possessions like vehicles. But even she shed a tear when the car took the left turn out of our apartment complex and our lives.

My last glimpse of this view. Resigning from duty at 64,152 km.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[sudeepg]

Beautifully written. I enjoyed reading your report.

I am not a fan of the iRDE engine. My uncle had bought this car with this engine about the same time you bought it. Back then, it was a desirable car, albeit with a very weak engine. I was not impressed with its drivability, but nevertheless the cabin feel was great. They have that car even today and the cabin does not feel like it has aged much. That was one thing about Hyundai back then - Their cars had much better fit and finish over the Maruti's.

Sometime in 2013, we bought an i10 Sports Automatic for my wife. I thoroughly enjoyed that car. It had a good engine, good transmission and very good interiors. It was super easy to drive it around the city, although fuel efficiency was not all that great. But it never felt underpowered in city. Highway runs though required one to be a very sedate driver. You cannot overtake easily in this car. Regardless, it was a very practical car.

I miss my i10 even today.

[Aakash]

Ah now I miss my i10. I call it my “Humblebee”. Because of its humble and sedate nature. It’s in pristine condition even after 11 years. Not a single squeak or rattle so far *touchwood*

IIRC, Humblebee hasn’t yet surpassed 30000 kms owing to the fact that it’s a manual transmission and my folks are senior citizens who don’t drive much (the stress on the knees) and I temporarily left the country.

Can’t wait to drive bee once I’m back. Planning a big trip on it so fingers crossed (and wallets empty because bulk buying accessories for the trip )

[Shreyfiesta]

You have a killer writing style. I read through the whole write-up in one sitting. What a journey.

The first-gen i10’s virtues are that it comes with decent cabin space, good quality interiors and a super silent drivetrain. Here goes my story. We were seriously considering the i10 while looking out for a daily-drivable hatchback back in 2010, but ended up buying a Figo. An i10 in Alpine Blue always used to be an eyeball magnet for me when I was a kid. 13 years later when I went to the driving school to take my DL, instructor randomly brought me an i10 in exact same spec (though not in good shape) for the conduct of my road test. Just how I got to drove one of my childhood favourite hatchbacks by coincidence.

[manub22]

My first car i10 Sports red color, now clocked more than 16 years. Its parked in my hometown, after completing 15 years I couldn't get a chance to renew it. Its UP registered, my hometown is in UK, and I'm staying in TS.

As the registration is expired I'm checking ways how to renew it now. Don't want to sell or scrap it off !!!

[RoverX]

Thanks a lot everyone for your kind words and sharing your i10 moments!

Originally Posted by sudeepg

Highway runs though required one to be a very sedate driver. You cannot overtake easily in this car.

Very true, driving the i10 iRDE on undivided single carriage highways used to be a nightmare, especially at night!

Originally Posted by Aakash

Ah now I miss my i10. I call it my “Humblebee”.

What a cute name for an equally cute car!

Originally Posted by Shreyfiesta

An i10 in Alpine Blue always used to be an eyeball magnet for me when I was a kid.

Yes, the Alpine Blue was a very eye-catching colour in the i10. In fact, most of the exuberant colours that Hyundai chose for it - Electric Red, Alpine Blue, Virtual Yellow - they suited the car's cheerful character very well.

Originally Posted by manub22

Its UP registered, my hometown is in UK, and I'm staying in TS. As the registration is expired I'm checking ways how to renew it now. Don't want to sell or scrap it off !!!

I think the process would for re-registering a car would be similar to that of state transfer - procure the NOC from the old state's RTO and apply for re-registration in the new state. BHPians can advise if there are any more steps to the procedure.

[drive1987]

Dear RoverX, many thanks for your detailed write-up and this comes at a time when I'm looking to buy a cheap, city friendly, easy to drive automatic car for my use in Bengaluru.

On OLX, I find a lot of i10s. I want to restrict my budget to max of 3 lakhs and in that range I'm finding plently i10s of 2009 & 2010 models which have done around 60k-75k Kms.

What would you say? Shall I go ahead and get one? Will I be able to get it serviced at an authorized Hyundai Service Station, would the parts be available?

Looking forward to your opinion please. Thank you in advance.

[capnemo]

Originally Posted by drive1987

On OLX, I find a lot of i10s. I want to restrict my budget to max of 3 lakhs and in that range I'm finding plently i10s of 2009 & 2010 models which have done around 60k-75k Kms.

What would you say? Shall I go ahead and get one? Will I be able to get it serviced at an authorized Hyundai Service Station, would the parts be available?

I own a 2015 model i10 with a manual transmission. The 3L price seems too high for a 2010 model. I'd advice you to hunt hard for a better specimen.

I can't speak about an automatic, so I'll let OP answer that perspective.

Keep an eye on the air-conditioning for any models you inspect. The ac is a constant complaint in many of the older Hyundais, as far as I've seen - including my own.

[RoverX]

Originally Posted by drive1987

On OLX, I find a lot of i10s. I want to restrict my budget to max of 3 lakhs and in that range I'm finding plently i10s of 2009 & 2010 models which have done around 60k-75k Kms.

What would you say? Shall I go ahead and get one? Will I be able to get it serviced at an authorized Hyundai Service Station, would the parts be available?

Looking forward to your opinion please. Thank you in advance.

Hello, drive1987! As capnemo rightly said, 2009-10 models with 60-75k clicks on the odo for INR 3 lakhs seems like a stretch; you should be able to find decently maintained models for around INR 2 lakhs (but we know how inflated Bangalore's used car market is). Please go for the newest 1.2 Kappa Auto model that you can find; that engine made the car surprisingly quick and damn easy to drive in city confines. You will still be able to get it serviced at Hyundai ASC, but part availability could be an issue, especially with pre-facelift models. I've faced this problem back in 2017-18 as well and might more so be the case today.

Originally Posted by capnemo

Keep an eye on the air-conditioning for any models you inspect. The ac is a constant complaint in many of the older Hyundais, as far as I've seen - including my own.

Along with that, please check the service history to see if the steering rack and front disc brake issue has been rectified.