[Dodge_Viper]

This might be quite a long report.

Background:

Our first car came in year 2000. A simple, elegant Hyundai Santro LE. After serving us for a decade with 1.75 lakhs on odo, we had to sell it since maintenance costs kept on growing (Including chassis which started to rust ). It was a pain to see her go, after all first car has a special attachment to everyone. Santro had served us extremely well. It was fun to drive car, comfortable for family of 4, good responsive engine, good mileage and adequate boot space. But nothing is forever alas, we had to bid goodbye to her.

Then came the decision to buy another car in late 2011. Initially I was under impression to stick with Hyundai, but seeing so many good options available I began listing one by one. I had to keep in mind the likes of Supreme Court(mom) and High Court(younger sister). So with this, the hunt began. Budget was finalized and based on that it was decided that our next car would be hatchback only

List of petrol options considered:

The above title may seem confusing, hence explained it later. I had listed almost every hatchback present in market which were within budget, out of budget and way out of budget. I am yet to understand how this happened to me. Who would list down a 10 lakh rupee car, test drive it, bring quotations when you know your budget is 5 lakh. I did.

Below is the list of options listed/tested manufacturer wise. I won't go into the technicals of each car, rather keep it as why it was considered and why it was turned down.

Maruti:

Alto/A-Star:

Why: Breeze to drive in city conditions, K10 engine highly fuel efficient, a major plus point.
Reason for turning down: Myself being 5 11' ,I found insides little bit cramped. Getting in and out was ordeal for me. Long drives were going to be difficult.

WagonR:

Why: Extremely spacious and fuel efficient. Large boot. CNG option available factory fitted.
Reason for turning down: Boxy looks not to my taste. Somehow I felt tyres were too small for its size and shape.

Swift:

Why: Absolutely brilliant engine. Fun to drive. Better quality interiors of the new generation Swift.
Reason for turning down: Braking performance poor. Base variant which was somehow under budget had barely any features. Higher variants were going out of budget. Long waiting periods.

Ford:

Figo:

The test drive Figo which was given to me was the most terrible test drive vehicle I ever saw. Now come on, test drive vehicle will be the "First impression is the last impression" vehicle IMO. How can a dealer keep such a shabby car for test drive. Every spare was rattling and car was not washed for ages. Reason given was - it is due for its service.

Result: Ruled out. Figo couldn't make an impression on me, in spite being a good car.

Hyundai:

i10:

Why: 1.2 kappa2 engine was very much refined. High list of equipments even on the middle variant. Trusted Hyundai experience. Spacious interiors. Very much easy to drive in city.

Reason for turning down: Nothing as such, hence shortlisted.

i20:

Why: Again extremely feature rich good car. Bigger and spacious than i10.
Reason for turning down: Middle and top variants were out of budget. Not so fuel efficient 1.2 engine was of concern.

Nissan:

Micra:

Why: Looks. Airbags standard, a major plus point. Funky colors to select from.
Reason for turning down: Nissan service network, a major concern.

Honda:

Brio:

Why: Good, refined, reliable and efficient Honda engine. Superb interior. Top notch quality inside.
Reason for turning down: The only concern was its rear. Safety was an issue plus tiny boot. Still Brio would have almost made it to my garage, but mother nature had something else in mind. IIRC Thailand floods had affected Honda sales at that time. Hence the sales representative lady who was a good friend of my friend, advised to hold back.

Volkswagen:

Polo:

I went to test drive Polo with a friend. After the initial formalities we went out for test drive. I sat first and adjusted my seat for my comfort. My friend who sat behind me said, hey dude how much back you will push your seat. There is no leg space left.

Ruled out.

Chevrolet:

Kill me for this, but I don't like Chevrolet logo. This is the reason Beat, Spark never made it to the list. I may sound stupid, but that is true. Yes, given the money I am ready to neglect Camaro and buy something else.

Petrol vs Diesel War:

During the hunt, a higher than IIM/IIT level question was floating around. Will Sachin Tendulkar reach century of 100s or petrol will reach its century of price. This threw me into a dilemma of whether to go for diesel or stick to petrol. I had a hard time convincing mom to let me stretch our budget by going in for loan. But no. Finally SRT won, and I lost.


Final Showdown:

After a great ordeal, it was time for finalizing something. So i10 it was, 1.2 Sportz. Selected the sportz variant because of considerable list of features and was perfectly within budget.
Color selected was Garnet Red, which was love at first sight.

Dealership and Delivery Experience:

Had gone to Sharayu Hyundai initially to get the quotations. They didn't offer much discounts and we had bad experiences with their service in the past. Friend of mine suggest Modi Hyundai at Thane. He knew a person there and assured the experience will be better than Sharayu.

Went with him and met the representative. Promised me that he'll give the best offer possible. The initial breakup was given as below:

Ex-showroom price: Rs.453,205
Insurance, tax and ext warranty: Rs.65748
OTR: Rs. 518,953
Discounts: Rs.50000 (Including 20k loyalty bonus)
Final OTR: Rs.468,953

I was ok with the offer. He frankly said don't go in for free accessories, instead take as much as cash discount as possible.
Finalized the deal, paid token amount and came home happily. Went back few days later to pay the full amount. And boy, I was in for a surprise. While doing all the paper work, he went away in between looking confused and came back after a while. Here came the surprise, he increased the discount amount(Maybe since it was nearing end of year season kind of. I had no issues in taking delivery at year end).
And so this was the full and final OTR price breakup:

Ex-showroom price: Rs.453,205
Insurance, tax and ext warranty: Rs.65748
OTR: Rs. 518,953
Discounts: Rs.63000 (Increased cash discount to 43k+20k loyalty bonus)
Final OTR: Rs.455,953

Since availability was not an issue, I could get the car anytime. I wanted delivery on my birthday, but few dudes in our galaxy were here and there on that day(NOM, I myself believe in all those things), hence settled for another day - 18th December, 2011.
As promised car was ready on 18th morning. Puja ceremony was performed professionally by them. One funny incident occurred, instead of sticking MH 43 they stuck MH 04 on number plate. Luckily I realized instantly and changed it there only, else I would have landed in big trouble. Customary photographs were done and then thanked everybody present there. Distributed sweets and came driving home happily.

Initial impressions:

Major usage is in city, with occasional highway runs.

What I liked:

Interiors:

• Roomy cabin, comfortable both in front and rear
• Driver seating position very much comfortable
• Well laid out dashboard, all controls easy to reach (AC and music)
• Steering wheel hold is great
• Quality of interiors excellent. Plastics don't look cheap
• Storage spaces well laid out, particularly the small space below the AC controls. Useful for keeping tid bits
• ABC pedals well laid out
• 12 volt ports well placed and easy to reach
• Electric mirror adjustment a boon. Decent sized side mirrors
• Adequate boot. Boot lamp is an advantage
• Side AC vents shuts completely. No worries about dust getting in
• Location of USB port is good. Doesn't interfere with anything
• Better sounding OEM speakers. Only front speakers are good, rear speakers are of strict average quality. Integrated music console controls are easy to operate. Can be operated without taking eye off the road
• Absence of dead pedal is filled by roomy space on left side. Can comfortably rest your left foot there
• I particularly like cars with slightly sloped dashboard since one cannot keep much things on it
• Cubbyhole behind parking brake and in between seats is useful, can be used for keeping wallet. Easily accessible again
• Gear shift indicator a welcome addition. Found it very useful

Exteriors:

• New generation i10 looks better than old one
• Headlight and tail light design crisp
• Rear wash wipe a blessing, specially for a hatchback
• Body colored door handles smooth to operate

What I didn't like:

Interiors:

• Door pockets are useless. Cannot put bottles
• The cubby hole below parking brake is of limited use. Can't really keep things since it fiddles with parking brake. Rest 2 can store max 1 litre bottles
• If a passenger tries to control AC, gear stick comes in between. Can get cumbersome when driver changes gear and passenger operates AC at the same time
• Glove box of ok size
• No 60:40 split seats
• 225 litres boot still not adequate

Exteriors:

• Tyres. The only thing which I hate. Extremely under tyred

Regarding drive:

City driving is bliss, low end torque helps to pick up speed quickly. Feels like driving a bike sneaking into gaps. Effortless to park. Very easy to maneuver around. Very much responsive steering. Absolutely brilliant gearbox. Extremely smooth.
Ride feels bumpy. Rear passengers suffer while going over speed breakers and potholes.

Highway driving has some disadvantages main culprit being skinny tyres otherwise it cruises smoothly. I try to restrict myself to 100-110. Not sure if it's my driving style, but with load, engine struggles for power on steep slopes even when AC switched off.

Fuel efficiency:

Initial fuel efficiency suffered. Till the first service, it used to return 10-11kmpl in city even without AC. Highway drives returned at max 13kmpl.
Only after the first free service, mileage improved. Since then it returns a decent fuel economy of around 13.5-14.5kmpl in city and around 15.5-16.5kmpl on highways.

Add-ons:

Headlight quality is worst. Changed to 90/100 Hells bulbs.
Horn was pathetic. Immediately added additional Hella horn.
Installed Turkish tower seat covers.

Planned Upgrades:

175/70 R13 rubber with alloys. Wanted to do it on day 1 after reading TBHP review, but was out of budget. Hence still pending.

Upgrade speakers, add sub. Again thanks to TeamBHP my ICE budget doubled, so it is on hold as of now.

I pray Hyundai launches after-market DRL integrated fog lamps for i10 like they have in the new i20. That would be on top of my list.

After sales service Experience till 15k kms:

First free service @ 1500 km was done from Modi SC. Very efficiently done. They insisted on applying a coat kind of something on engine. Protected from dust and dirt. Charged 1200 for that, but it looked good. Professionally done. Car was delivered immediately after 3 hours. Thoroughly cleaned and polished.

Second free service after 6 months had to do from Sharayu due to some reasons. Changed engine oil. And as usual they continued their legacy of pathetic service. Delivery was delayed by few hours, car was not well kept. This was the end, I decided never ever to visit this service center.

Third free service after 12 months I was back to Modi. As expected very professionally done. Installed genuine Hyundai rain visors from their workshop for Rs.1250.

Overall there were no issues whatsoever. A minor loose connection of speakers which was immediately fixed. No additional service costs apart from oil change. No maintenance costs till now.

I would highly recommend and rate 9/10 to Modi service center of Thane. They are very much committed people and do everything as they promise. Every problem is duly noted and fixed.

Some pics of my ride:

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!