[blackasta]

sad news folks - my front bumper's left side got scraped by a tata sumo (call center cab) today while I was driving to office ! That too when he overtook me from left!
Once I reached office, I did an initial damage analysis, and its only the plastic bumper that has been scraped. No metal involved.
Any ideas on what to do next?

[aks_karthik]

Congrats,
same thing happened to me today itself while on the way office.gifted some scratches.nothing major
Check my thread.
No worries.it happens in metros.
Post some snaps.

[blackasta]

what can I say, my share of bad luck!

[blackasta]

Well its not as bad as I initially thought. Some rubbing with the soft cleaning cloth did away with the white superficial scratch marks (have to inspect in detail tomorrow when there is daylight) , and I noticed 2 small paint chips in the front bumper. Placed my thumb for reference and clicked these pics.





What do you suggest people? small putty work and touch up paints when I go in for my first service?

[aks_karthik]

It won't be fixed using rubbing compound as there's a paint chip off there.
Just try with some black color permanent marker and wax it for time being.
It might give a good finish.Not able to see it easily.
Try touch up in Service station.but be sure they won't spoil it more.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by aks_karthik

It won't be fixed using rubbing compound as there's a paint chip off there.
Just try with some black color permanent marker and wax it for time being.
It might give a good finish.Not able to see it easily.
Try touch up in Service station.but be sure they won't spoil it more.

Thats what I am most afraid of . A touch up paint requires to be of the exact color of the car, and here the stone black color has kind of mica type something in it. So ordinary black would be a disaster.
Better to keep it that way till first service and talk with the service advisor for a quality patch up job.

[blackasta]

Couple of queries people:

1. Could anyone please help me with sunfilm configurations? Also, anyone know of dependable installers in Kolkata?

2. Today while cleaning the car with water, I found some grainy stuff sticking to the bottom part of both front doors. They feel like sand particles stuck with cement or something like that (Now I did drive via areas where intense flyover construction is going on)! They DO NOT go away with a water-only wash, and I did not persist with rubbing, as I might damage the paint. What do I do? Shall cleaning with a car wash solve the problem? Or some other measure has to be taken? The grains are near invisible to the naked eye and can only be felt by passing ones hand over them. Help!!

[ampere]

Congrats on the new purchase. Every fourth to fifth i10 I see is in Bangalore is an AT nowadays! I just got the Sportz AT (deep ocean blue) 2 months back. The more I drive, the more I like it. Although its for my wife, I too sneak a drive over the weekends .

FE figures are in the range of 9-10. But the comfort of driving it in the city is just way-way above anything else. As I mentioned in another post, I have not stressed it enough, as its the second car.

Any pointers on long drive/highway experiences ?

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by ampere

Congrats on the new purchase. Every fourth to fifth i10 I see is in Bangalore is an AT nowadays! I just got the Sportz AT (deep ocean blue) 2 months back. The more I drive, the more I like it. Although its for my wife, I too sneak a drive over the weekends .

FE figures are in the range of 9-10. But the comfort of driving it in the city is just way-way above anything else. As I mentioned in another post, I have not stressed it enough, as its the second car.

Any pointers on long drive/highway experiences ?

Thanks ampere.
I am yet to spot an i10 AT in Kolkata other than mine!

I am getting FE of around 10.5 - 11 kmpl.

Well I am yet to go on a long drive with my car, but do drive it on highways every day while commuting to office. (60-40 highway-city, total 46 km daily)

The trick is to hold the gas till 2400-2500 rpms, release just a bit, and feel the car shift up - just like a manual. Do this at around 20 / 40 /55-60 kmph, and bang you are in fourth gear! Then just gently hold the gas and zoom away!!

[ampere]

I have been trying that exactly what you mentioned. But sadly, my weekend jaunts are on bumper to bumper traffic, shopping malls etc :-(

Although I have seen that, holding the gas as you mentioned works very well. At the speed of 50/60, the rpm slowly goes below 2000, which means the machines on the 4th/5th gear. I try to hold the RPM near the 2000 edge, and accordingly keep releasing the gas.

Have not checked FE recently.

[blackasta]

One important day in the short span of owning my i10 - my car crossed 1000 kms on the odo (reads 1030 now), and my dad drove the car for the first time!

Well the 1000 mark came up exactly 1 month after I got the car. So I guess I can drive my dark knight more freely now? what say the gurus - do I hold on till first service (But they do not do any performance related tweaks right?)

But, there is a small dark cloud of question in one corner of my mind. with just home-office commute, and a couple of small errands a month here n there (no real long drives), I am touching 1000 kms a month. Maybe when I drive the car more i shall be touching around 1200 km per month. Do you people think that I should have gone in for a diesel car? Maybe the diesel verna A/T?

Now to my dad's experience - Dad wanted to grab the steering when we were returning from a relative's place, and though I drove the initial miles, he insisted that he wanted to drive. I was a little circumspective when I swapped places with him by the side of highway. He initially hitched a couple of times with the 'whooosh' acceleration (by stepping on the gas a bit too much pressure), and hard braking (both due to years of driving the M800 which is off course a M/T), but then took to the car as fish takes to water, and within minutes learnt the trick of upshifting with the throttle release process!! He switched to neutral at every stop (a good practice carried over from driving stick IMO), though tried to move the lever left and up a couple of times .

He commented that the car is a bit too easy to drive, and one might even doze off! I snapped back by flashing my music cds
Overall, he liked driving the car very much, but was cautious and commented that he won't be driving it very frequently, lest the comfort gets to him and he forgets driving stick shift cars. He still insists that I learn driving stick.

All in all, an eventful day for me from a driver's perspective.

[balajird]

IMHO, any thing over 1500 kms per month, diesel would be a better bet. 1000 - 1200 Kms, it depends on your calculation of initial investment on a petrol / diesel, or the EMIs you pay and the fuel cost.

Apart from these calculation, there is something called as "driving pleasure", there are folks who loves to rev petrol engines and there are folks who loves the torquey diesel engines and there is another segment who loves "cars" be it petrol / diesel / LPG. .

Moreover, as your dad mentioned, you might doze off driving an auto trans, I personally always prefer to drive the stick. For me, an auto trans is only for city commute and for highways, a torquet diesel.

[blackasta]

Today I went for the first free service of my car @ 1321 kms. I followed each and everything they do at first service - found them to be adequate.

What they did for free:

1. complete wash (including under body) + wipe dry
2. wash all mats
3. inside carpet+ seat covers vacuum
4. applied 3M plastic polish to all plastic components (door step which gets scratched, side/front plastic garnishing etc,full dashboard)
5. applied 3M leather care solution to seat covers
6. Applied 3M tire shine.
7. Check all oil levels (engine/brake/transmission etc) and wiper fluid level.
8. Check and refill air to all tires (32 psi)
9. Polish a few scratches (though that did not help much - painting is required) with rubbing compound.

what they did for a charge (Rs 2123/-):
1. complete under body anti rust coat
2. Exhaust system protection coat

I asked the SA to change the oil and filter. He was reluctant from the start, and I finally managed to persuade him to change the oil @ 2000 kms, as all metal slivers should have come out by that time.

Also - I really do not know how the cleaning and coatings magically fixed a niggling low frequency rattle I was having!! I took out the SA for a spin and found the rattle to be gone. The SA suggested that maybe it was due to the loose nut holding the spare in place, which he tightened earlier. Also suggested gravels lodged in under body parts as the probable reason.

After they applied the under body coating and exhaust system coating, the mechanic took me under the concrete podium the car was placed upon, and explained to me how and where they put in the coats. I was impressed by this! The coatings took most of the time I was in the workshop - around an hour.

All in all, a nice experience for me servicing my car for the first time @ Mukesh Hyundai workshop. Look forward to the oil change after this really!

[blackasta]

Of overfilling and hissing sound!

The next day after I got my first free service done, I had to travel a good 50 kms up/down distance to get statements from a bank near my office, and decided to fill up from the trusted gas station midway.

I dorve in and asked him to fill up the tank, and though I was standing in front of the pump, i was thinking about somethign else (who knows what!), and when i realized that the pump is going on for too long - the dreaded thing is done! Normally from 1/4 th capacity. my car takes around 24.5 litres of fuel for a full tank (appx). The pump man (a part timer I guess) had pumped in 27 litres of petrol by repeatedly topping up after autocut. I urged him to stop filling, paid the amount of around 1300, and drove away. Suddenly, just before turning on the ICE, i noticed a hissing sound in the car - and took it to be a puncture. I cursed my luck, chose an empty zone, and parked my car on teh side of the road. But to my amazement, there was no puncture in any of the tires, and the sound was also not coming while teh engine was turned off. Whenever I started the car, the sound started and continued - neither increasing nor decreasing. Then I started the car, left it in 'P' mode and went all around - only to find the hissing sound (like a gas leak/small puncture) coming from near the exhaust . I thought of going back and shooting (lolz I 'm kidding - I do not even know how to hold a gun) the gas station guy for ruining my brand new car. Whatever, i drove to the bank and back - the hissing persisted (the fuel needle stuck on F after driving around 50 kms!). Drove to office the next day and back - hissing sound still there (fuel needle just below F after driving around 100 kms!!! Imagine the overfilling).
Finally yesterday night, when I started the car to get back from office, I noticed that the hissing had stopped - thank god!
Meantime tried to google some stuff out and tracked it to damaged fuel filter/ a pressure release valve letting off the petrol fumes / damaged fuel pump.
Drove to office today morning and no hissing .

could anyone let me know of the exact reason of this hissing? I promised to myself never ever to overfill again after autocut!!

Also, the car is really opening up now (the odo reads 1516 kms) - the gas pedal is responding better (car goes to 80 with the same effort I used some while back to touch 60), and the steering is getting free. Gas mileage seems to be same (though I am driving more aggresively than ever), and I shall report it again maybe after couple of weeks after full tanks (with autocut !).

[blackasta]

Crossed 2000 km on the odo today while driving around 70 kms in the day.
Also, there is a good gain in mileage - my dark knight is now running approximately 13.3 km/L!

Filled up 22.04 liters of petrol at autocut today, and the tripmeter read 294 kms at that time.
So the mileage for the last tankful comes around 13.34 liters.