[forester]

Originally Posted by forester

The Exter has taken the duty of a perfect city runabout. Compact, ergonomic, easy to drive, and easy to park.

Our Exter SX AMT has touched the 5,000km milestone within a span of five months of coming home. The average monthly running, thus, stands at 1,000km, primarily due to our relocation from Delhi to Gurugram that involved several trips over the last couple of months.



The engine has opened beautifully and despite its heavier built compared to the Grand i10 Nios, the Exter feels no slouch, and can easily overtake other vehicles with a downshift or two. The average fuel efficiency hovers between 12-14kpl for the city, and 19-21kpl on the highway.

The suspension setup is the biggest USP of the car. The comfort-oriented setup absorbs bumps and potholes with aplomb, and broken patches of road, found aplenty in Delhi-NCR, do not slow the Exter down. Ironically, despite the soft setting, the steering feedback too is quite decent. The steering also feels extremely light and easy to use at slow and parking speeds, making intra-city commutes a breeze, while weighing up reasonably well as speeds rise.

High-speed stability is impressive too and the car remains well under control even above the 100kph mark. Over the last few months, we have had all sorts of practical use cases, including a full-load (5 pax + luggage) airport run, crossing heavily waterlogged streets during NCR’s peak monsoon and a quick jaunt on the highway. Have had tons of fun with the car this monsoon season!

Got the tyres rotated in a 4-tyre rotation pattern at the 5k mark.


With its compact footprint, phenomenal all-around visibility and easy controls, the car has turned out to be a perfect companion for intra-city commutes, while offering enough confidence for occasional highway drives.



However, there are areas of improvement too:

While the front seats offer very good under-thigh support, the seatback feels a bit too stiff, causing discomfort after about an hour’s drive. As per my assessment, Hyundai could not have installed bigger seats due to the compact dimensions of the car, lest it would feel claustrophobic. But I would happily trade the sunroof for larger seats and a more powerful aircon.

What I have come to observe is that the air conditioner is calibrated to trip for a few seconds under heavy acceleration to not hamper the fuel efficiency. This is owing to the Exter’s weight - being around 50kg heavier than the Nios it is based on.

With my heavy-right-foot driving style, this momentary tripping of the AC makes the cabin lose its cool, letting humidity to settle in. If one drives sedately, the tripping is less frequent. However, Maruti ACs are significantly better in comparison, and even an Alto K10 chills one to the bone within a matter of a few minutes. The Exter’s performs 'good' if the temperatures are in the 36-38-degree Celsius zone, while the performance could be rated as 'adequate' in temperatures anything above that range.

Among its contemporaries! The compact footprint is perfect for congested cities and makes it a do-it-all household car!


The horn is a bit too meek but we have come to live with it, and the low-beam headlamp illumination is also par for the course – something most cars struggle with these days. However, the halogen setup is a boon for my eyes, which cannot tolerate prolonged exposure to white light at night.



Uniquely, it is quite difficult to clean the Exter’s exterior! With the spaced-out E-X-T-E-R badging on the hood, the Jopasu strands tend to get stuck, particularly in the sharp edges of the alphabet ‘X’ in the car’s name! Similar is the case with the rear ‘SX’ variant badging as well. The tallboy roof is also difficult to reach without standing on either the wheel or on the door sills by opening either of the doors. The black cladding also needs to be kept polished every few weeks, else it looks pale and washed out.

While the build quality feels solid, and the doors close with a reassuring thud every time, the paint quality could have been better. I can already see a few scuff marks due to minor nudges from adjacent vehicles in public parking lots.

Likeable bits also include the infotainment system that offers good bass and despite beinga basic setup, the output is nice in terms of clarity and loudness as well. The all-digital instrument cluster is pleasing to view and offers great legibility. Follow-me-home headlamps, door unlock by pulling the door lever from the inside, TPMS are some functions used on a day-to-day basis.



The presence of multiple useful storage spaces such as the large glovebox, a bottle holder just below the gear lever, and a large stowage area ahead right ahead of it to park the smartphone are thoughtful touches. All in all, it is a homely feel inside the cabin!

Until the next update!

[nadircazi]

Originally Posted by forester

The horn is a bit too meek

My friend, compared to the truck horns of a Creta or Venue, I would rate this as an advantage. I am genuinely embarrassed to use the horn on my Venue, being very judicious in invoking it.

[romeomidhun]

Originally Posted by nadircazi

My friend, compared to the truck horns of a Creta or Venue, I would rate this as an advantage.

Exactly. Hyundai-Kia cars like Creta, Seltos and Venue have horns that irritates the people around them to the maximum. I hate being surrounded by such "arrogant-horned" cars. When other countries move to "hornless" culture, here's one brand that keeps increasing the horn sound! They have to "tone" it down.

If it is "India-specific", provide 2 horns - one for the "humans" and another one for the "animals" on the road.

[blue_pulsar]

Originally Posted by forester

Attachment 2604480

One question to all Exter owners. Is the latest Exter coming with a lighter color dashboard? If I remember correctly, Exter came with an all-dark dashboard at launch.

[forester]

Originally Posted by blue_pulsar

One question to all Exter owners. Is the latest Exter coming with a lighter color dashboard? If I remember correctly, Exter came with an all-dark dashboard at launch.

Yes, you are right. The Ranger Khakhi and Cosmic Blue shades which were showcased at the car's launch sport all-black interiors, while rest all body colours get the lighter ivory shade on the dashboard.

[bejoy]

We wanted to replace our 2009 Hyundai i10 with an automatic car for the city duty. Considered almost all the small cars including Renault Kiger CVT, Nissan Magnite CVT, Mahindra 3XO CVT. We have some tight parking space in our apartment and the car width had to be a limiting factor that ruled out 3XO. Finally settled on the Exter, considering the compact footprint, smooth AMT and better fuel efficiency in the city.

Got home our new Exter SX (O) AMT in Starry Night shade on September 15th. Completed 1600kms till now and did the first free service too. Did a Bangalore - Kochi round trip to speed up the engine run-in.

Buying experience:

Dealer Trident Automobiles, Hosur road. Booking and overall experience was good, nothing great. The car was bought on lease plan from my wife's company. The moment, we said lease plan, the dealer took it as excuse for not giving any discounts, just the 30K discount that was from Hyundai. Not a penny in discount or freebies.

Initial observations:

Pros:

• The engine is very refined compared to the older 1.1 iRDE engine, but not upto Honda standards.
• AMT is well tuned and smooth. After a month of usage, got used to the shifting habits and can be driven like a CVT with some planning.
• Paddle shifting is a boon on highways for overtakes. Even in the city, it helps to shift up when the car refuses if riding up a slight continuous incline.

Cons:

• No wireless Android Auto. This has become a major inconvenience, having to plug in each time. There were a few rare disconnections/resets also.
• The wheel-well liners are very thin and can cause noise of water/sand hitting the lining on slightest rain. Otherwise NVH is quite good.

Tit-bits learnt from user manual:

• To turn off the honks while locking/unlocking using remote, press and hold both the lock and unlock buttons together for 3-4 seconds.
• To revert to auto mode after changing gear using paddle shift, hold the paddle for 2 seconds.

Accessories:
From Hyundai

• Rain guards
• Scuff plates
• Mud guards
• Door edge guards

Aftermarket:

• DDPai M2 Dual dashcam. (from Amazon)

First service:
Opted for free pickup/drop from home. Basically a free washing and topup of fluids. No charges.

Some pics:

[C1985V]

Has anyone recently booked or is in process of booking an Exter?

If yes - what's the waiting period (if any). I have recently enquired and was informed that if the colour and variant I choose is in stock, the vehicle would be delivered as soon as payment and registration process is completed.

This has got me thinking is it advisable to finalise the purchase now or wait because even if let's say I decide and pay booking amount with a week and all processes are completed within normal expected time the earliest I will get the car would b sometime in December beginning so would it make sense to wait for January and see what discounts dealers are offering on 2024 models?

[GT-R]

Here’s what I would do in your position, if dealers have ready stock they would be looking to clear out inventory before 31 Dec, so I would bargain hard and strike a deal and make the payment on 31 Dec, and request that the car goes for registration on or post 1 Jan.

If you do it right you should be able to score the same discounts and yet have your car as early as possible, instead of waiting till January.

[Ankit998]

It’s been over 3 months since I brought home our new Exter. Due to constant travels, I have been unable to drive the car much but have clocked in about 2000kms. I’ve learned a lot about the car and Hyundai since this purchase.

The car buying journey actually started because of my need for a 4 wheeler, especially to make commute easier during Mumbai monsoons. With my trusty Meteor 350 being used for daily commutes, it was not long before I realised how unsafe our roads are and my family (Read: MOM) urged me to consider a 4 wheeler for myself. Living in Mumbai and my daily commute being full of traffic, the car has to be an automatic. So the search started keeping in mind a budget under 10.5L on road and I considered many options.

1. Tata Punch: This car is the segment leader for a reason.

Pro: The car is well built and feels tough, excellent seating position which felt comfortable especially after being used to driving our family’s Nexon EV. Despite the car not being crash tested to the latest norms, there’s no doubt that the Punch feels safe.


Con: Tata service remains the biggest reason why I will personally never opt for a Tata car again. We’ve faced multiple issues with Tata service, problems that were avoidable (example: service centre misplacing the key inside smart key fob and denying to compensate or replace), extremely unprofessional behaviour, rattly interiors, squeaky doors on cars that have not even been run too much. Specific to the car, I did not enjoy the drivetrain and found the AMT to be too jerky. To avoid the headache of another Tata, Punch was immediately disqualified from our choices.


2. Hyundai Exter: I was immediately intrigued by this car in 2023. It looks nowhere as imposing as the Punch and looks odd from certain angles but I quite liked the boxy design and especially the front.

Pro: Super refined engine and an AMT that is honestly quite good. The car has a good sense of space, the seating position and well defined corners make driving through traffic very easy. Fit and finish levels were excellent. While engine performance isn’t strong, I found it better only compared to Punch.

Con: This car is a guzzler, especially for its size! Test drive vehicle was barely delivering 8 kmpl and even after driving sedately (trained by an EV after all), I barely managed to get 11 kmpl. I found the rear suspension to be a bit soft and with a full load of passengers, it gets bouncy especially at higher speeds. Since this car will be used by a family of 3, I was not too bothered about this. Misc: I don’t know why Hyundai couldn’t provide a washer-wiper on the SX version, at least provide that instead of a sunroof..


3. Citroen C3: Love the way this car looks! Unfortunately I could not get a test drive but a close friend did let me drive his. The turbo petrol is explosive and I would have loved to spend the extra $$ on it, but considering my driving style, I was perfectly okay with the NA engine. I heard a rumour that the parent company that has brought this car into India isn’t doing well but was willing to take a gamble and opt for this car. However Mom and Dad were uncertain about Citroen service and this car was dropped from consideration.


4. Hyundai Aura SX Plus AMT: I never really liked the car due to its oddball styling. The rear looks like an afterthought. The dealership I was in touch with was offering me a starry night version of SX Plus AMT for 10L OTR Mumbai. I almost closed the deal however once again seeing the car in person, at the showroom made me immediately change my mind.


After a great deal of negotiation with the dealer Sai Auto Hyundai, Powai, we agreed on a good price for the Exter SX AMT model, the SA assigned to me was very courteous, friendly and prompt. The SX AMT is the most VFM version with ONE flaw: no washer wiper. I feel this feature is far more important than a sunroof or even cruise control and it is this one missing feature that made me upgrade to the SX(O) AMT. The dealer was willing to make the change and switch to this model and I also got a great deal of discounts while also opting for additional accessories (bumper corner protectors etc). Took the delivery on 31st July 2024.


Driving experience: Very easy to drive, with brilliant visibility. The Tata Nexon EV which my father drives has a serious visibility issue that is the tree trunk thick A piller which has posed a problem multiple times. Compared to that, the Exter has far better visibility.

Since the car is still relatively new, I find the throttle to be a bit too over active and sensitive, with the car jumping forward (sometimes with a wheel spin).


I am still experimenting with mileage and so far the car delivers > 8 kmpl for the most part. My commute to work is 10km one way, and during days with heavy traffic, the car returns 9kmpl. Best I’ve got is 17 kmpl on a day with barely any traffic.


Planned upgrades:

1. Dashcam: Absolutely mandatory and very important considering today’s traffic conditions.

2. Headlight: Stock headlights are mediocre, I plan to upgrade to brighter, more powerful lamps but not LEDs which don’t seem effective and instead dazzle oncoming traffic. I am open to suggestions

3. Horn: Stock horn sounds meek when inside the car but is actually quite loud when standing outside. It is also a very irritating sound and one short honk is enough to dispatch daydreaming commuters… Currently I am on the fence about this upgrade and may postpone it.

4. Sunfilm for the sunroof: I don’t like the sunroof and will never use it, period. I prefer to keep the cover open to let light in and will maybe paste a good film on it that limits heating within the cabin. I really wish there was an option to opt out of the sunroof in the SX (O) version.

To sum up, I’d say that this car has been a delight to drive and is perfectly suited to those living and commuting within crowded cities.

A more comprehensive review will be up after the first 5000kms.

[noopster1008]

Dear all,

I have Exter SX AMT (clocked 24000 km in 15 months). Well, everything else is great about this car (within the segment) but one thing which now I have realized that it has no underbody/wheel arch insulation. This creates a lot of road/tyre noise.

Please enlighten me about 'Damping'. Would it solve any purpose ? I am thinking damping the Wheel arches and floor. Where to get this done in Delhi/Gurugram/Jaipur ?

Any other solution ?

Another question is - Should I change the tyre size from 15 to 16 inchs ?

Thanks in advance.

Noopster

[C1985V]

Finally booked SX (O) AMT and will be getting delivery soon. Got a decent discount (according to me). Will write a proper review/experience post delivery and using the car for a couple of long distance trips.

Regarding accessories - had read regarding front armrest on this thread, has anyone bought it? So a video on YouTube where the person mentioned that it comes in way of handbrake (perhaps he has installed it incorrectly)