[sharathjeppu]

We picked up an i10 Automatic Asta for my wife as well 3 weeks ago. Hunted for small automatics and was surprised to know that there were no choices (Just the A-Star and the i10). My wife was not sure about spending that extra money on an automatic but knowing my wife who wanted the benefits of a car without having to go through the learning pangs of manual gears, I convinced her to go for the automatic. She is now completely convinced that the Automatic gears were designed for people like her who are gear challenged. Two things about the automatic that she loves
1. The car will never stall (unlike a geared variant)
2. The car does not roll back on a slope

Having said that here's my summary of ownership so far. I will not reiterate on any of the points already covered.

1. I am not sure how many of you have read the Manual but the manual states that you can make calls using the Bluetooth system system in the car. There is supposed to be a speak button below the call "pick" and call "disconnect" button, but there's NO button. So technically, one can only redial the last number from the car controls but cannot call a specific number.

2. The Bluetooth pairing is also not consistent. Sometimes it goes into an infinite error loop saying unable to pair and one cannot cancel this when both the Bluetooth connections are on. The only way to get out of the loop is to either switch off the car or remove the battery from the phone, delete the pairing on the car and the phone and reconnect again. Weird. Fortunately, it has not created any problems with my Wife's Nokia but it has issues with my Blackberry.

3. Like Harbir, I basically considered the Sun Roof actually a headache. I am assuming that since it is motorized and has rubber beading that is exposed externally, it will develop problems at some point of time and will add to headaches and issues. However, our kids love this feature. They love to stick their heads out when we drive around slowly in a quiet neighborhood. My son of-course asked me if we can shift the sunroof more towards the rear so that sticking the head out would be easier. I also wish the sunroof controls were linked to the central power window locks.

4. The car seriously misses a climate control. After paying so much premium over the sportz, I wish they had given climate controls instead of the Sun Roof. We end up constantly fiddling with the AC controls.

5. I miss the automatic locking of the doors in this car. It has to be manually locked when you drive. I am not sure why such a small thing is not added for safety. Even in the Verna, the speed based automatic door locking is available only in the top end of the new Verna. I am not sure what is the logic. What perhaps makes it worse is that you get the time based autolock feature if you fix a Hyundai branded remote on a Sportz.

6. There is no beep when you lock or unlock the car. Again, I am not sure why this is missing. I find this useful when I need to verify if I have locked the car from upstairs. For the i10, I need to physically see it to confirm if the car is locked. Strangely, if you fit a Sportz with a Hyundai branded remote, you get the beeps included.

7. The dealer himself did not explain the functioning of the Auto gears well. I figured that he didn't actually know. For example, the button on the gear stick need not be pressed to move the gear lever between "D" and "N". This make such a huge difference in the otherwise tentative movement that one has to make to accidentally avoid putting the lever in the "R" or the "L" position.

8. The car jumps over little speed breakers unless you go over them reaaal slow. It is different with my Swift. Perhaps this is due to the weight.

9. Mileage in the city has be shocking. 7.5 to 8 in the first 2 weeks. We did a long drive and we got a mileage of 13.7 on the highway which was a little more reassuring. The last time I measured, it seemed to return a mileage of 9 which is again reassuring. I am thinking that it probably has to do with my wife's driving as she is getting better by the day.

10. It comes with only one remote key. The other key is a regular key. If you take a Sportz with a Hyundai remote, you get two. Weird!!

11. I haven't been able to pair it with my iPad. Not sure why but I think it has more to do with the quirkiness of iPad's bluetooth functionality as well.

Now for the things I like about the car.

1. My wife thinks it is perfect for her and she is glad that I stuck to my guns about buying an automatic despite being dissuaded by a few.

2. The car's driver view is well designed. The driver's view is good. Much better than my Swift with fewer blind spots.

3. The kids love the sun roof. I have come to accept it as a happiness factor for the family as a whole and am hoping that it will not give too much trouble.

4. I like the bright interiors of the car as well. For some reason it feels less cramped that my Swift.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by sharathjeppu

I basically considered the Sun Roof actually a headache. However, our kids love this feature. They love to stick their heads out when we drive around slowly in a quiet neighborhood.

IMO you need to be careful about letting your kids using the sunroof the way you mention. Look up the "bad drivers" thread and you would know that some people have lost their kids due to accidents that happened when their kids hit low-lying tree branches etc. Better safe than sorry.

Originally Posted by sharathjeppu

There is no beep when you lock or unlock the car. Again, I am not sure why this is missing. I find this useful when I need to verify if I have locked the car from upstairs. For the i10, I need to physically see it to confirm if the car is locked. Strangely, if you fit a Sportz with a Hyundai branded remote, you get the beeps included.

Look up the manual of your remote-locking system - AFAIK it is just a matter of configuring the system - no beep or beep. I configured the system of our Swift to have no beep since I hate the sound of remote-locks, reverse horns etc.

[Harbir]

I have no problem with the sunroof apart from the bite it takes out of the headroom. But I am a bit surprised that in India the fascination most people have with sunroofs is sticking their heads out while the car is in motion. half the people under 25 who have ridden in the i10 have wanted to stick their heads out of the sunroof in our car. Weird.

Also, the i10 is EXTREMELY cramped compared to the swift, which surprised me by being the first small car in experience that had all the room that my 6'3" body needed and wanted in the front seat. the i10 is absolutely not spacious enough for me.

[Harbir]

i drove a manual i10 magna today, the very car that turned me onto the i10 in the first place. some notes about that.

1. the non height adjustable seat is MUCH better than the height adjustable seat. the height adjustable seat has an extremely poor mechanism which does not keep a consistent and level angle of the bottom squab while travelling along its range of adjustment , and at no position is it angled exactly right and as good as the non adjustable seat. I am getting temped to have theight adjustable seat removed and get a non-adjustable seat fitted. The throttle pedal problem may be related to the thigh not getting adequate support from the adjustable seat.

2. the manual i10 is VERY zesty compared to the automatic which is quite slow and sluggish in comparison. the manual car picks up its skirts and scoots at the slightest provocation in almost any gear. a very zippy car, that properly feels like a 80hp car of this size should feel. the automatic will move quickly if you give it full throttle and the time to rev up into the higher parts of teh rev range, but the manual nips and zips right off the bottom of the rev range.

If you want a fun to drive car, don't buy the automatic. but its convenience and low stress is unbeatable

3. the shift level location, shift feel, shape of the knob etc, are really wonderfu. it feels really great to shift in this car.

4. This car DEFINITELY has both much better ride quality than our car and also much less road noise. I can only think that its because of the tyres (MRFs on this car, Kumhos on ours). Worth a switch to find out?

5. This car has 6100km but already had a creaking sound coming from the back. very worrisome.

[blackasta]

Harbir - if you want a better ride, check out the 175/70R13 spec tires. If you want superior handling many times better than the 155/80R13 tires, try 185/60R14. I have the latter on my i10.

[sbiswas]

Congratulations. Enjoy your new car. The i10 AT indeed feels like a gift from heaven in city traffic.

Originally Posted by Harbir

1.The throttle pedal is too high. You must tilt your foot way up to get on the throttle pedal and then keep the calf and other muscles of the leg in a very tensed up state to maintain that position. its very fatiguing.

2. Most of the premium level sweeteners in the Asta are complete garbage. They are obviously penny and dime junk:

The reverse parking sensor is useless.
The blue-tooth function is also completely useless.
The sound quality is extremely poor.

I will agree with you. The Sportz model is VFM unless you want ABS/Airbags.

I also found the reverse parking sensor useless and irritating as it goes into panic mode if there are obstacles on your side and also when there is at least 2-3 ft space left at the rear. A reverse parking cam would be more useful IMO if you need assistance.

Bluetooth works flawlessly with my Nokia 5230, never had a problem. But the manual shows a talk button on the steering which does not exist on the Indian version.

I'd say sound quality is decent for the average listener. The doors chatter at high bass. If you are a music buff you need to dampen your doors as well.

Originally Posted by benu9714

I did not want a sunroof, but had to pay for it anyway because it comes as a package with ABS.

Nope, there is Asta model available with or without a sunroof. I opted for the one without.

Originally Posted by Harbir

1. The car is getting 10.0km/l in delhi driving.
2. I am disappointed that the car doesn't have the instrument panel dimming feature.
3. The handbrake is a disappointment.

That's a pretty decent figure given i10 AT's record.

I also feel the lack of instrument panel dimming feature. It was there in the previous kappa version. I do see a place on the panel as well as in manual for a sliding switch - probably available in the exported models. There is a button which turns off the lights of the music system though.

Never had issues with the handbrake. I'd suggest you get it checked asap.

[entropy]

Hi Harbir

Congrats on your new car. Over the time I hope this car would be the one that you'd like most as far as A to B commute goes in our crowded cities and lanes. We got our Asta AT in Aug/08 and so far there hasn't been a single niggle. (Has ABS/Airbags but none of the new BT/parking sensor). The size and convenience are its USP I guess.

I'm 6ft 1in and agree to some extent with you about the pedal. Over the time I think you'll get used to it and since the run is limited to city I guess it is bearable. Do post your FE after run-in is complete. I'm averaging about 7.5 kmpl.

Once again congrats and have a wonderful time with your little toy.

[Harbir]

I believe that the asta automatic cannot be had without a sunroof. there is certainly no pricing information for such a beast on the hyundai website or on the pricing sheets floating around various dealers.

I took a 3 hour highway drive a couple of days ago in the asta and found it not very suitable. the closeness of the pedals to the seat mean that I at 6'3" have my thighs lifted off the seat squab and all my weight is on my bottom. after about 1.5 hours, my bottom starts to get numb and uncomfortable.

this is really not a suitable car for tall people. Its also not suitable for highways speeds above about 95km/h. at triple digit speeds, the transmission starts to hunt. it keeps upshifting to 4th, then the slightlest change in throttle position provokes a downshift, which is immediately followed by an upshift and on and on it goes. in developed countries where you can stick to a speed for miles and miles, this would be ok, but in India where you need to modulate the throttle atleast a tiny bit constantly, this doesn't really work.

Unless you don't mind the car constantly shifting ang burning fuel, the effective comfortable cruise speed of this car is about 92km/h. doesn't bother me since highways I travel are heavily enforced on the 90km/h limit

[Harbir]

My wife doesn't know it, but I must admit here in honesty that I have offered the car around to some aquaintances to buy off us.

I find the car's throttle position problem so problematic that it is neither suitable for long drives nor for stop go traffic. Instead of making me feel relieved, it starts making to want to open the door and throw myself out so as to escape the agony that the wierdly placed pedals cause.

it seems to work ok for my wife, but if you're tall, DO NOT BUY THIS CAR.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by Harbir

My wife doesn't know it, but I must admit here in honesty that I have offered the car around to some aquaintances to buy off us.

I find the car's throttle position problem so problematic that it is neither suitable for long drives nor for stop go traffic. Instead of making me feel relieved, it starts making to want to open the door and throw myself out so as to escape the agony that the wierdly placed pedals cause.

it seems to work ok for my wife, but if you're tall, DO NOT BUY THIS CAR.

Are you selling it because it is mostly driven by you and by not wife (she seem to be fie with driving position)?
Did you try pushing drivers seat to the back most position and perhaps, to a higher position and drive?
Pedal positions (and other ergonomics) are less of an issue in an automatic compared to an MT where the positions of the clutch and gear stick come in to picture.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by Harbir

My wife doesn't know it, but I must admit here in honesty that I have offered the car around to some aquaintances to buy off us.

I find the car's throttle position problem so problematic that it is neither suitable for long drives nor for stop go traffic. Instead of making me feel relieved, it starts making to want to open the door and throw myself out so as to escape the agony that the wierdly placed pedals cause.

it seems to work ok for my wife, but if you're tall, DO NOT BUY THIS CAR.

Originally Posted by Guna

Are you selling it because it is mostly driven by you and by not wife (she seem to be fie with driving position)?
Did you try pushing drivers seat to the back most position and perhaps, to a higher position and drive?
Pedal positions (and other ergonomics) are less of an issue in an automatic compared to an MT where the positions of the clutch and gear stick come in to picture.

It might sound like a snide remark - but if it is for your wife what are you doing driving it all around the town! And secretly planning to sell the car off!!

[Harbir]

its mostly driven by my wife. but I do have to occasionally drive it and I dread it when I do. Any time its more than 20 minutes, it becomes a pain.

In the last 3 weeks, I have driven it only twice, once of a 150km highway and rural road trip and once I got stuck for more than 1.5 hours in nearly stopped traffic between faridabad and delhi. on that occasion, I was so uncomfortable, I wanted to set the car on fire.

My wife is also not all that impressed with it for the reason that due to the route and times of her commute, she turns out to appreciate the convenience of automatics far less than myself. She notes that compared to the manual i10, the automatic is sluggish, the engine has to work hard for the car to move quickly and the racket and NVH of the engine is overwhelming when the car is asked to move quickly.

she is content to use the car for now but I know that if I sold it and bought something else and absorbed the financial loss for the crime of having guided her to this car, she would be satisfied. but she is happy to drive it for now.


and yes, I've pushed the seat all the way back, tried every variation of seat height and backrest angle. Its no good.

I don't know when this car will be sold, but I suspect it will be as soon as something new in the market catches my wife's attention. I hear the mini is coming to India, I think I'll buy that for my wife and she can drive this i10 auto till then.

[supremeBaleno]

Couple of queries :

1) Does the A-pedal position differ between the manual and AT i10 ? The brake-pedal would ofcourse be wider in an AT, but I would think the A-pedal wouldnot/neednot change.

2) Ergonomics differs from person to person, but still I don't remember reading here about anyone having an issue with the A-pedal of the i10_AT. So, something different in your car ? And which could be possibly fixed, without having to sell the car and absorb a loss or worse set it on fire. :-)

[Harbir]

more than 1 person has confirmed in this thread that the pedal location is painful for them.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by Harbir

more than 1 person has confirmed in this thread that the pedal location is painful for them.

Are they 6' + drivers too? Guess I would (thankfully) never find out 'cause I stand a measly 5'9" - both my dad and uncle who drive the car regularly now do not complain of any such issues - and they are of almost same height as mine.