[Guite]

I first took a test drive of i20 1.2L petrol about two months back. That test drive vehicle AC was faulty so we could not close the windows. So I could not judge NVH levels at that time. My latest test drive experience is not to my satisfaction but I would welcome more inputs on engine noise and NVH levels of i20 1.2L petrol.

[skanchan95]

Sorry, I had been quite busy over the past week. Hence no updates.


Here's the Update:

After a bit of halla-gulla, People from Om Hyundai visited my residence to have a look at the car on Sunday(24th October 2010).

1. Leakage inside the cabin from rear glass- a bucket full of water was poured on the rear glass. surprisingly no such leakage was noticed inside the cabin was noticed during their presence. Damage & scratch marks on the hatch door was pointed to them. They took photographs of the damage and said they will revert by Monday or Tuesday.

2. Damage to the plastic and seatbelt display on the central console - They were reluctant to agree that it was their handiwork. I showed them that the adhesive or what ever it was has its origin from inside the console which was a clear indication that it was their work. Still they were reluctant, however they took photographs and said they will revert.

3. Damage(deep scratch marks) on the alloy wheel & silver insert on the steering wheel - They agreed that it was due to their negligence while opening the steering wheel and tyre. They took photographs and said they will revert

4. Brake noise- A simple answer from them that only my car is having such an issue of brake pads wearing out so quickly. when questioned why two sets of front brake pads wore out so quickly and third set of front brake pads had to be installed? they had no answer.


Steering rattle, which the people from Delhi claimed to be dashboard noise, has returned


I did not bother telling the Om Hyundai wallahs about the steering rattle & buzzing sound from dashboard, because I knew what their answer would be.

I did not want to spoil my mood on a sunday listening to their lame excuses.

I am still waiting for their revert about the damage issues pointed out to them. It would be a miracle if I get a concrete answer from them after having come to know of their "level of competence" over the past one year!!!

[skanchan95]

Well, this is the reply I got got from the service centre((again with pathetic & lame excuses)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Om Hyundai
Date: Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 12:32 PM
Subject: Re: i20 GJ-11S-XXXX
To: Sandesh Kanchan


Dear Sandesh,

As per my representatives visit, to your place.
1. Confirmed that there is no water ingression in your car through the rear glass.
2. Regarding the damage in Console or Alloy wheel or Steering Wheel, can be caused due external sourses/material which is outside our preview.
3. Regarding brake pads: Noise issues can come if foreign materials come in between pads and disc to cause irregular wear & tear (replaced as goodwill in your case)

Regards

The brake pads have been changed thrice in the car. Yet the brake sound persists. The supposedly "competent" SAs, WM and technicians at the workshop have no idea what is wrong.

The issues which still persist are : Steering rattle, brake noise, dashboard noise(buzzing noise from the dashboard) and obviously the awful re-fitment job on the central console that they refuse to own up.

They are quick to say "only your car has such problems". The washed their hands of the whole issue of damage to the central console by saying "it is outside their purview"

[svaid]

Pretty disappointing to see the feedback from Hyundai. I think they simply do not want to take ownership of the issues that you are facing though I feel on the face value none of them is a too complex to resolve.

You can persist and wait for a positive response from them - however I feel it's not worth your precious time and energy. If Hyundai does not mind losing a good customer and getting a bad publicity - so be it.

Move on - there are other much better cars that are on offer - get rid of this one and probably the new one would give you the peace of mind that you truly deserve.

[Vik0728]

skanchan I can't believe that an I20 owner is going through such a terrible hassle and Hyundai seem to be throwing a deaf ear at you. :(

Like many here, I have been following this thread from a long time now and was hoping to read your post that eventually said "Finally, the OM Hyundai Cracks have Cracked it"!!

IMO this should not be further handled in the diplomatic way in which you have been handling. As some of the veterans here have advised, you have 2 options:

1. Move Over and Sell this Car. Being a Bhpian, I'm pretty sure you will warn(inform) the buyer about all the crap that you went through with this car.

2. Take this battle to the next level and take it to the Consumer court. Personally, I wouldn't suggest you this since this will only take much more of your already drained peace of mind.

Hoping your issues are sorted out at the earliest and you get to live everyday Driving your Car rather than Driving your Point.

[jkdas]

Originally Posted by Guite

There are so many i20 threads I am not sure where to post my query. I will be grateful if anybody can chip in. Yesterday I took a test drive of i20 1.2l Asta. The engine sounded like a sports car, not muted as I had expected but a bit throaty. Is this normal? Maybe the test car was put on steroids ?

Its not muted.

Originally Posted by himanshusharma

Dear skanchan95

Its a common problem with many service centers of hyundai.
I had a santro in which i faced the same problem of steering rattling
and the same explanation which was given to you that its coming from dashboard , was given to me (seems to me that HYUNDAI is training these workers for same lame excuses all across the country and not for servicing).
As i have received the exact same reply from 3 - 4 different hyundai service people in delhi and ghaziabad.So its not at all a problem of Hyundai dealership at your place i think its same every where.
Finally after few years of pain i decided to sell off my car and just bought a maruti .

Man, I had two Santros and was pretty happy with it and a.s.s. .All these makes me rethink my idea of getting a i20!

[Lalvaz]

Hmmm, having been a very satisfied Hyundai Santro user for over 5 years, I was hoping to buy a new I 20. However, after TD'ing the I 20, I found the petrol sluggish, the diesel too expensive, and the prices of both a tad too high, and a woefully inadequate AC. Also found the Swift VDi with ABS to be a better bet, and after reading your list of woes, I'm glad I chose Swift.

[mahirS]

@skanchan damn man its just a sorry situation you are in and a shame for hyundai motors. if i were you i would have shown hyundai's A.S.S. and warranty my *** and taken it to a proper mechanic of my choice and sat my butt out with him and got my stuff fixed.

i guess i have done the smart thing by not pursuing the matter any further after i got the urethane bush replaced. My rattling had reached mad levels as i could hear the rattling clicks if i twisted the steering wheel left and right in quick succession. after replacing the bush it turned into more of a faint rattle...has been like this for the past 6 months now so i dont think its gonna get any bad. moreover i spoke to an independent mechanic who advised that the eps steering should never be turned even by slightest of degree if the engine is not running. so since i have not done that maybe that's the reason why its still a faint sound.

now just a had a little query that have your brake calipers been replaced too? as wear of break shoes can also be caused by a caliper which is not adjusted properly. perhaps could be a manufacturing defect.

[wildon]

Originally Posted by jkdas

Man, I had two Santros and was pretty happy with it and a.s.s. .All these makes me rethink my idea of getting a i20!

Even the A.S.S guys admits that, they are having a tough time at workshop with problematic i10's and i20's.

[skanchan95]

well, from what I have come to know mine is that mine is not the only case where they managed to damage the car.

Some time back, there was this Verna CRDi which had engine trouble. This car belonged to a local goon in a nearby town(I came to know of this from some friends). Inspite of several visits to the workshop, the "competent" Om Hyundai could not rectify the engine issue in the Verna . After one of these visits when the car was being taken back, one of the front wheels came off!!!! Luckily the car was at a slow speed and there was some damage to the car. The goon got so pissed off that he went and dumped the car at their dealership, abused the workshop wallahs and using his muscle power, managed to get back the full amount refund for the car from the dealership and bought a new Verna from Rajkot.

Just because of the fact that I have been nice to them so far, the SAs and WM took things for granted. I talked to some fellow i10 & i20 owners in my town, they too agree that Om Hyundai's service standards are not upto the mark. A close friend's i10 too has some rattle issues from the tail gate which the workshop is not able to isolate and solve. Even he too was given the explanation "it is normal for 2-3 years old cars. ignore the rattle". For these jokers, just because they can't fix it, they call any rattle "normal".

I have had enough and I have decided to something about it. I gave enough chances Om Hyundai to rectify the issues and am sick of their silly excuses. The people in the Regional Office disconnect my phone calls and do not answer any e-mails or SMS. One of the persons from RO, Ahmedabad whom I was talking to, proudly had team-bhp stickers pasted all over his car, and now he doesn't even bother to talk, he quite calmly disconnects the calls. Since some people from the Regional Office are followers of Team-BHP, I will only post about what I am doing only after I complete the entire process.

Mahir,
The other day I was thinking may be the workshop wallahs managed to damage some part of the front disc brake system, hence the early wear of the brake pad, but there is no way to know. Even if it is proven that there is some fault in the brakes, they will again simply was off their hands by stating "it is outside our purview". "we are competent enough, we did not do this".

They had changed some thing called as "brake liner" once, apart from the brake pads(thrice)

[mahirS]

brake liners are a part of the brake pads only in case of front disks. but since it specifically mentions brake liner its safe to assume that they changed the liners on the rear drums which is certainly a waste as you say the sound is coming from the front of the car.

Take my advice and take it to an independent mechanic for the brake , these guys have obviously taken it too far and cannot be trusted anymore

[skanchan95]

Yeah, when for the first time when the brake noise was brought to their notice, they said it was coming from the rear brake drums and they replaced the brake liners and the entire brake drums set . At that time ,the complaint was that the brake noise used to start after the car ran for about 60-70 kms at a stretch, the brake noise used to come while braking to slow down the car. They promised that by replacing the rear drums they have would solved the problem. On drive back, while nearing home, the sound started again. From the next visit onwards, the circus of replacing the front brake pads began. The front discs were replaced once(apparently under "goodwill"). No one from the workshop knew what exactly is the cause of the brake noise was or why the brake pads were wearing out so soon. They merrily replaced the brake pads.

I am afraid showing it to an independent garage may worsen the situation. I have a very good friend who is a WM in a Maruti authorised Service Station and from where I used to get my Swift serviced without any issues. Just because I visit him to say Hello and that the car stands parked outside his Maruti service station, the "competent" Om Hyundai works manager says he has a problem with that. I would not be surprised if tomorrow that Om Hyundai WM stoops low and claims that I got my car opened up in a Maruti service station.

I make it a point that only company trained technicians work on the car(including our old Accent & Swift) and that's why I haven't shown this issue to others(including my Maruti friend). The number of visits to the workshop validate this. But just looking back at the incidents in the past year, I really wonder if these Om Hyundai guys were actually trained by Hyundai or is Hyundai actually monitoring the performance of these technicians, SAs and the WM.

For any problem they simply say "replace it". I just wonder what about cars whose warranty ran out? These guys will simply loot the owners in broad daylight by saying "oh, this part has to be replaced, no other way to repair it"

[skanchan95]

After seeing that I could not get anything done for my concerns at the Regional level, I have decided to take the issue with Hyundai HQ. I have complied a 15 page report(with photographs) on the circus that has been going on with my car for the past one year.

I have put in lot of effort and time compiling this report inspite of my busy business schedule. I also now have videographic & photographic evidence proving that there is water leakage inside the cabin from the rear glass.

I intend to send the hard copy of this report, photographs & CD to the National HQ, Regional Office in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and to the factory hoping that atleast someone sitting above these people at the national level will have sympatheic view of what the "competent" Hyundai workshop in Junagadh did to my car and the issues which still persist and the workshop is unable to repair.

I asked for the said addresses from the Ahmedabad Regional office. The rather irritating and frustrating reply was "contact cr@hmil.net for all your concerns and to look in the manual for the addresses".All of us who who have raised issues with Customer Care, Hyundai , already know how awfully hopeless they are. The i20 manual does not contain any such addresses that I was looking for.

Anyway, after a lot of searching, I found the addresses of Hyundai HQ (Delhi), Hyundai Marketing & Sales HQ(Delhi), West2 Regional Office(Ahmedabad), West1 Regional Office(Mumbai) and the Factory Address in Tamil Nadu. However, I still am confused as to whom to the address these reports to (which designation). Any advice regarding this from the members is welcome.

All that I want is to get the issues addressed and repaired. I also want some sort of action to be taken against the workshop for the awful "revenge" repair job that they did on the car.

[kadanaJ]

If after showing them al the evidence they do not address your issues try threatening them that you will go to Times of India (or any other major newspaper/News Channel) with your story, including all the photographic and videographic evidence.

Let these guys know you're serious, I'm sure they wouldn't want a story like this, with all the proof you have collected, leaked to the press.

Don't let these guys walk all over you.

Best of Luck!

[nanduchitnis]

[quote=skanchan95;2088225]day). Dislikes

The beginning of the troubles
First service – The car was taken for its first service (16-10-2009, 1458 Kms . The car’s steering had begun rattling when it had clocked a mileage of approximately 600 kms. Whenever I went over a rough patch of road it made a “kat kat kat” sounding noise.

Steering rattling increases/2nd service
The steering rattling sound thereafter became more louder as time went by and the car clocked more kms on the odometer. We took the car to the workshop again with the same complaint during its 2nd service(24-03-2010, 8,849 kms) . This time they installed a Urethane pad & yoke spring in the steering assembly.

First Steering rack Replacement
For a while it looked as if they were right and the rattling sound was not coming any more on rough roads. However, after running for a few kms, the sound returned again with the same loudness while going over rough roads. The same brake screeching sound too came back. Angry, Irritated, frustrated, we went back again to the workshop(15-05-2010, 12,328 kms).

The most shocking and disguisting behaviour and reply
Inevitably, the steering rattling began again. The same was reported to the workshop and the area manager. The works manger drove down to my residence on September 18th and we jointly took a TD of the car. He drove the car. In front of us, he accepted that the steering rattle had returned. He even jotted down what had to be reported back to the company – “Steering rattle has returned. Customer says the rattle will increase with time”.

Four days later and many calls later, we get an e-mail stating and I quote:
The problem stands as per standards, preview(should have been purview) of suspension noise!!!! When this WM was angrily confronted on phone, why the sudden change in statement and how the distinct noise of steering rattle magically transformed into suspension noise, he said “I could not hear any noise. Aap aaram sey baat karo”. Now what more


My Take

1. Firstly this steering coloum issue...It is life threatning. DO NOT RISK YOUR LIFE DRIVING THIS CAR.
2. Is it possible to return the car to the factory, Chennai to get them to sort out the car`else replace the car?
3. If all fails, drag them to Consumer Court.
4. DEFAME the car. Give it to the dhobi for free put big stickers defaming i-20 ...the Maharaja of Kapurtala turned all his Rolls Royces to garbage trucks because he was insulted in London when he went to the RR show room.
4. I am, now was a big fan of Hundai having owned the Santro for 10 yrs. The car performed flawlesslesy all over India. Now with mass production we get lemons...so some OEM of Hyundai is the culprit...so many i-20's have steering issues?
5. Now I wld recco sell the car but that wld be ehical provided you make a declaration to the next owner.


Capt Nandu Chitnis