I had been to the Hyundai showroom to take delivery of a friend's i10. It was Hyundai's and Hyundai's everywhere within the premises. Some were decked up for delivery to potential owners.
My friend got his white i 10 Magna today.I have been tracking the dealings since the car was booked, selected and now finally delivered.The salesman has been quite courteous and well behaved since day one and has been trying to keep up with the requests by my friend (though these are not at all tall orders ).
-Like one was he wanted Bridgestone tyres and he got them.
-He wanted an Amaron battery but got an Exide.
-He wanted his car in white and got it
-He was not fussy about the delivery date and took his car today.
-He had asked for a pleasant number (not fancy or VIP etc) and got one.
The car was ICE'd with a Sony music system, as a part of the freebies on offer, that included a seat cover set and foot mats from the dealer. Insurance cost was borne by the dealer too!
I found the car quite a pleasure to drive (but nothing extra ordinary) and is a perfect city run-about car. Though with three passengers on board and the AC not on, the engine was not very, very responsive. Gears need to be changed and shifted to lower ones, if there was a deceleration. The view of the road ahead for the driver is OK and much better as compared to the A Star. In the A Star, the driver of medium height (like many Japanese are!!!
) has to try and stand up (next to impossible
) on his seat to get a better (no commanding view expected as in a Scorpio or any other SUV though ) view of the road.
The i 10's gear is quite friendly and shifts are never unpleasant. The engine sound is minimal and does not penetrate into the cabin unless the accelerator is pressed beyond a limit.
The instrumentation is quite contemporary.
But my overall feeling is that there is nothing extraordinary about this little car that may make me fall in love with it! Its just an ordinary hatchback and has no Maruti Swift like extra ordinariness !
The things about the i10 I have HATED and HATED are the single horn even if one buys this car worth Rs 4.55 L. The horn is totally inaudible and often my co-passengers were feeling that some other car elsewhere was blowing its horn. The horn is simply DEPLORABLE. Hyundai needs to do a lot of homework and offer some Rs 1 K or a little more, to give better and double horns for all variants of its cars as we drive on Indian roads, where even cattle move a wee bit faster upon audible honking !
The next bad thing that tells upon the Hyundai philosophy of being "penny wise" at the owner's or its customer's cost are the front seats sans the detachable and adjustable headrests. Are they following the Tata Nano or is the Nano following the i 10?
In this age of cut throat competition Hyundai needs to buckle up or may be some fine day it loses its customers.
The car's dash controls are all quite in keeping with the needs for a car in this segment.
I would also like to point out that the i 10 Sportz variant being sold for something around Rs 5.07 L has indicators integrated on the ORVM's as a premium feature and a dash integrated, OE Nippon music system. But this variant does not provide OE fog lamps.As a friend has also bought a Sportz variant, I was taken aback to see its front bumpers sporting the black plastic fog lamp caps with no fog lamp.Again simply DEPLORABLE !
Overall, this i 10 experience was quite OK with the dealer. There are three free services ( the schedules are as below to the best of my memory).
(1) after 2 months or 1200 kms whichever is earlier
(2) after an year or 10,000 kms whichever is earlier (oil and oil filter change recommended to be paid for but no labour charges payable)
(3) after two years or 20,000 kms whichever is earlier (oil and oil filter change recommended to be paid for but no labour charges payable)
A good point to note is that Hyundai offers chrome-like coated (is it plastic?) door levers on the interior for all 4 doors. There is also a chrome plated company logo on the steering centre. These are quite praiseworthy, as only premium cars would earlier sport these goodies.The chrome on the plastics of Mahindra Xylo's interiors (even the XUV 500 ) are deplorable, as is the quality of its other interior plastics (Scorpio included). Hyundai plastics are much better and chic.
Starting from the first pictures clicked at the godown earlier, about a week ago:
Pictures of the white i 10 Magna above, with some i 20 pictures (new and old).
I am sorry for the picture quality on my South Koren mobile, that somewhat befits the South Korean showroom- I did not carry my camera !