re: Kia Sonet : Official Review As I shared earlier in the thread, we got a new Kia Sonet in the family. My SIL was in hunt of her first car and finally chose Sonet as the one. Why Sonet?
Apart from the phenomenal combinations of engines and gearboxes, looks and feature list were the factors which tilted the scale heavily in favor of the car. There is no denying the fact that the fairer sex has taken a huge liking to the product. Which variant and color?
Since the car has to be driven in NCR primarily, the initial hunt was limited to Petrol DCT variant. But owing to the general consensus of diesel TC being a better combination and unanswered questions on reliability of DCT gearbox, the variant chosen was Diesel Auto. The car is being registered in Kurukshetra, which officially falls out of NCR periphery as of today, just to avoid the 10 year NGT nonsense rule.
Since aesthetics were very important factor in the decision making process, the only variant in consideration was top of the ladder GTX variant. Kia also played smart by not offering HTX+ for both petrol and diesel automatics.
Color chosen was black and the lady (my SIL) absolutely didn't budge on any other color except black. Alternatives
Truth be told, this was a purely heart purchase. From the moment my SIL experienced Sonet, any amount of logic or alternative purchases were only academic in nature. She got the car she loved at the first sight.
Still we did manage to convince her to at least give other options a reasonable if not a fair chance.
Brezza was rejected outrightly for the dab interiors. Not even test driven.
Tatas are a strict No-Go territory due to after sales issues.
Ecosport and Honda WRV were given a miss.
Only Venue was given a real hard look to see if it cuts the ice. But as I mentioned earlier, the decision was actually made much earlier. And even if I put my rationalist hat on, I believe that the chosen car ticks most of the boxes. Delivery Experience
Folks have shared their ordeals with Kia and our experience is also on similar lines. Kia has to improve pre sales engagement. Period!!!
Since we had to get the car registered out of NCR, the dealer was Aryaman Motors Karnal. Delivery experience was 5/10 and the only plus was that the dealer stuck to the originally shared waiting timelines. Rest of the processes during delivery were awfully time consuming and didn't feel like we were spending around 15L.
It is important to point out that the experience with Allied Motors Gurugram was overall better when we were TDing the cars. Had it not been the switch to Diesel variant, the car would have been bought from Gurgaon. About the Car
I am quite sure that the moderators are in process of thread baring the details of Sonet in the official review. I will let the best in the business folks do that. What I am trying to share in this micro review is how I felt the car to be.
Just for setting the context, my family has all Maruti garage with Ritz petrol being my primary car.
My in-laws have Innova and Polo TDi with Polo being the primary car and Innova only doing highway and social trips.
I have a fair experience on all these cars and I can't help comparing them with the new ride. a) Looks: Enough said. The car is a looker and black color on the car looks majestic. The GTX variant red lines look classy on Sonet. We have experienced glares and wows in the last week every time Sonet is taken out. This baby is right now an attention magnet. b) Interiors: I will not go into the hard and soft plastic things but the overall interior ambience is elevated compared to anything in our current garage. The car is put well together and my initial hunch is that rattling should not be an issue in the long run. The doors open in multi stage action and they have good heft as far as weight is concerned. The initial wow factor will take some time to settle down. c) Feature set: For someone whose definition of cars consists of steering, engine, brakes and gears with AC thrown in for comfort, it was an overwhelming experience just to figure out the number of features in the car. I am absolutely sure that I don't know all of them. The electronic gadgetry on this car is just at another level and God bless the mods for taking a shot at decoding the ICE.
Ventilated seats, mood lighting and sunroof have been a hit with the family. The branding of BOSE on speakers have given the family some bragging rights irrespective of the sound quality they produce. To me, they just sound nice with a good thump. Someday, I will try to understand when audiophiles mention the lows and mids.
The ability to use rear view camera while driving was something that I personally took liking to. In the same breath, the auto IRVM is pretty cool and functional at nights.
TPMS is useful feature also along with super classy headlamps. White lights look phenomenal. The low beam throw was good and the high beam was fantastic. However, I felt that the headlamp throw of our Polo is better compared to Sonet. I don't know if it is due to yellow color thrown by halogens in Polo. As for Ritz, the headlamp discussion should not even figure the name of older Marutis. They still use ancient lanterns. d) Drive: The car was driven around 250 kms the day it was delivered from Kurukshetra to Gurgaon. Folks who know the region will be aware that NH44 (formerly NH1) is under construction and the traffic flow is very heavy towards Delhi. Since I was given the responsibility to safely drive the car till Gurgaon, I had to be careful to ensure that the car gets to home without any damage.
The TC automatic immediately impresses the driver when in traffic. The left leg resting on the perfect dead pedal and the hands not jutting out to change gears felt heavenly. The car is good on power and the gearbox has a good combination with the engine. The car accelerates rapidly even in normal mode though the car manages to shield the speeds that you are driving in. You have to be above 100kmph to feel the quickness of the drive. The gearbox does get a little confused for a moment if you press down the pedal to metal, but since the engine has enough grunt that moment is quickly taken care of.
Truth be told, if you are driving between 80-120kmph on highways, this car doesn't break a sweat and can run all day long. The sixth cog takes care of the tacho reading even when you are at say 115kmph. Beyond 120kmph, you first need to take care of the constant alarm blare before anything else.
Another highlight of the car are the NVH levels. Its hard to believe that you have a diesel under the hood. The refinement levels of engine are top grade and the only clatter that you hear will be those moments when the rpm goes above 3k mark. Compare it to our Polo or Innova, the difference is day and night. Full marks to Kia/Hyundai on upping the game!!!
However, I have to confess that Petrol DCT gearbox was more involving in drive as compared to this Diesel TC combination. However, its much better than any CVT iteration on other cars which have rubber-band impact.
Another point that I felt was that even though steering weighs nicely as speed goes up, but there is less steering feedback. Our Polo is the benchmark in the garage for steering feedback and I guess Polo still takes the cake for an involving and engaging drive.
The MID showed the mileage for 250km trip to be 18.5kmpl where the first 150 kms were on traffic laden highway and the last 100 kms on wide KMP expressway.
The high GC was a boon and it will take some effort to scrape this car's belly. e) Seat Comfort: Front seats comfort is at par. Ventilated seats does elevate the experience though. I am 5 feet 10 inches and 72kg and my frame fitted perfectly on the front seats. Coming from Ritz, Sonet's seats are at similar height levels. Ingress-egress should not be an issue. You walk in and out of the car.
During the trip, the rear seat had 2 adults and a kid. Their feedback was that the car was very comfortable on road undulations. 3 adults will be a squeeze on rear seat though. My initial feeling was that the rear seat is slightly low on under thigh support. My friend has Nexon and I feel that none of the competitors can challenge Nexon on that. f) Suspension: There is some firmness at lower speeds but the ride flattens out as the speed builds up. It's not as stiff as say Seltos but this car will keep majority of the owners happy - it's a right mix of comfort and handling. At the same time, its not a car to be thrown into the corners like a Polo. The car didn't bottom out during the entire trip and didn't throw off the folks seated on the rear seat like my Ritz does on road undulations. g) Boot Space: Pretty usable layout and it gobbles up quite an amount of luggage. The light in boot area helps too. Confession: I have to take it off my chest now that I have shared a brief about Sonet. I have driven a fair share of cars including the automatics. And I was quite upbeat about driving the new automatic Sonet. But after driving it, for the lack of better words, I just felt bored. I don't get bored even when I am driving my spartan Ritz. I am not condoning the car Sonet. It's great for what it offers and God willing, I will be driving her more in the coming years. But I just didn't feel satiated like after say driving our Polo.
This is the first automatic car that we got in the family and I have been singing praises for benefits of automatics on numerous threads on this very forum. But in my heart, I am confused. I have to get a new car myself in 2021 which has to be automatic so that wife can also drive. She doesn't like hatchbacks or sedans. Under the 15 Lac umbrella, will I be able to get a car which can qualify as a "fast automatic"?
Last edited by headbanger : 29th October 2020 at 02:43.
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