[tilt]

Took delivery of my Ember Grey 2014 i20 Asta CRDI on the morning of Jun 6, 2014. I have read all the reviews and ownership threads here in great detail, but I do not remember seeing a 2014 model Diesel Asta, either in the Reviews or Ownership threads. So, here goes:

One lakh per cupholder:
Or, how I came to buy the i20.

Other cars considered:
Joined TBHP in October last year, site introduced to me by a family friend, Ravi Sudarsanan. Researched various cars. My criteria were:

- Hatchback. I love hatchbacks and do not like three-box cars. Hatches are much easier to throw around. Also, speaking from experience, a small hatchback can carry much more luggage than even a large three-boxer.

- Diesel (because I shall be doing a lot of long-distance driving)

- Decent pickup in spite of being Diesel (meaning lack of turbo-lag was important)

- Excellent aircon - I am a polar bear

- Bluetooth for audio & iPhone

- USB for iPhone/iPod charging and playback

- Steering-wheel controls for audio and phone

- Comfortable driver’s seat - I have back problems and need a car that seats like a go-kart - meaning, low seating with my legs stretched out. No high-seating for me - bad for my back. That rules out any tall-boy designs - I need a car that’s low and wide;

- Fun to drive with good handling at high speeds

- Two cupholders in front

- Driver’s armrest

- Should not break the bank.

With all above constraints, there were some compromises I had to make, and the best car for me turned out to be the Figo Titanium Diesel, even though it did not have the driver’s armrest.

I test drove the car at various dealers, did my best to negotiate a good deal, finally settled on one dealer and went there with my chequebook to pay the full amount and take delivery the next day.

That’s when I sat in the car for one last time to do a final validation of my decision and discovered to my utter horror that the car came with just one cupholder, and that too was placed under the dashboard in such a position that it was impossible to get a cup in there without spilling all the liquid. Once in, the cupholder would hold the cup, but it would have to be an empty cup. Doesn’t quite serve the purpose, I would surmise.

And for me, having two cupholders that are easily accessible is a non-negotiable ask.

Six months of intense research down the drain!

The second car that came closest to satisfying all my asks was the i20 Asta. The only fly in that ointment was that the reviews were uniformly bad (on TBHP) about the lifeless steering at high speeds and bad suspension. Considering almost all my driving would be on highways at highway speeds, this seemed like a deal-breaker.

But then I took the car out on a test drive. I did find the steering to be light, but not lifeless as I had feared. I have driven different kinds of vehicles of varying levels of quality over the last 43 years, and I was sure I could always learn to adapt my driving to that light steering and still make the car do whatever I wanted it to do whenever I wanted it to do it.

One final niggle was that the car cost INR 2 lakhs more than the Figo, but I wanted two cupholders, so, hey, I bought two premium creme-de-la-creme cupholders at the princely sum of one lakh each. Remember never to let me negotiate on your behalf eh!

-contd. in the next few posts after the pictures

[tilt]

Continued from my earlier post:

Various Dealer experiences:

Advaith Hyundai:
Did not have a test car available, but still insisted on coming home and meeting me to give me a quote. Strike one.

They offered me a discount of 15K on the car (when all other dealers had offered the going Hyundai rate of 20K), and when I showed disappointment, made a show of calling his boss and arguing on my behalf and then magnanimously offered an additional 5K as a special offer. Bloody liars. Strike two.

They (again magnanimously) offered me standard accessories (which every other dealer had included anyway).

After all this, their price was still the same as every other dealer.

I asked them re. the age of the cars they had in stock (I only wanted White) - they said they had two Whites in their yard, and both were 2014. I asked for the month, and they said they were all May cars.

I asked to go to the yard and see the cars so that I could PDI and pick the one I wanted. They said not possible, I would be allotted a car and I could PDI that after allotment. Strike three

I asked for VIN numbers, they refused to give me the VIN numbers until I had booked the car. I said I would not book the car until I have seen the VIN numbers, and it was a stalemate there. Strike four.

Yeah yeah, I know there are only three strikes and you’re out, but hey, Advaith went above and beyond in their efforts to screw up the order, so they deserve a fourth strike and maybe more!

I finally decided not to buy from them, because all the conversations I had with them left me feeling a little dirty and soiled, and I was just not comfortable that my purchase experience after paying would be pleasant.

Advaith’s story does not end here; read on after the next dealer experience for the continuation.

Trident Hyundai:
Brought home a test car within an hour of calling. The car was a proper tester, not an odo-disconnected impostor.

I got the quote, basically the same deal everyone was offering. They clearly said that they could not make any more concessions on the car at all, other than maybe giving me discounts on extra accessories like seat covers etc.

I asked to see their yard, I was taken there the next morning and shown all the cars (four of them) that they had, and I was given the VIN numbers before we went.

I PDIed all four (only two were White, but by then I had decided that colour was not important, only the age of the car was) and decided on the newest of them, an Ember Grey one. The two Whites were April cars though, not May. I was informed by Trident that all of them were received in the yard in May. That’s entirely possible if the cars were manufactured close to the end of April I suppose.

Also, during the PDI I had some pointed questions on the ICE Unit and Bluetooth, so they summoned a couple of techies from inside the building who came driving down in another car with a USB key and demoed the whole thing to me out there in the yard and answered all other questions I had, very patiently I should add.

On the whole, I found the whole experience to be very professional, very businesslike, no grovelling, no flattery, no nothing.

I decided to order the car and went there the next day to give them the cheque and place the order.

Advaith Hyundai Redux:
While I was at Trident, paying for my car and waiting for my ride back, the salesman from Advaith calls me and asks to come home and meet me with an attractive offer.

I said that I was no longer interested in anyone coming home and wasting my time and giving me exactly the same offer that everyone else has already given me, and that anything they needed to say, they should say it over the phone.

The salesman said that they could not say it over phone or over email tr tex, but that I should trust him to give me a great offer personally at my house.

I told him not to bother coming all the way. He said he just happened to be in the area and that he could met me. I said I shall not be home for at least an hour, and the guy says he will wait outside my house for as long as it takes since he is already there and that he had a great offer for me. No amount of my telling him that I was not interested (because he would not give me the offer over the phone) could dissuade him; so I gave up and said “Whatever!”).

I came back home in an hour, he was not outside. I had lunch, and an hour later he calls me from outside the house. At that point I told him that I had already bought the car from someone else and that he was just wasting his time. And this is when the drama started.

He said “Sir, I am waiting for the last two hours outside your house, you told me to wait, and now you have wasted my time; please come to your balcony and see, I am right outside, please let me come upstairs” etc. I told him to go home and he left, saying I had wasted his afternoon, and that if I were buying the car from someone else I could have told him not to come etc. Reminded me of the tears and filmy-dialogues and drama when I dumped my third girlfriend!

Anyway, fast forward to June 18, around three weeks after buying the car, the team-lead from Advaith calls me and asks when I would be booking the car. I tell her in no uncertain terms that I shall never again deal with Advaith and that I shall advice all my contacts to do the same, because of the bad experience I had and the kind of information I was given. She took that to mean that the salesman had provided me bad service and apologised.

Couple of minutes later, the salesman calls me and shouts at me asking how I could say he gave me bad service when he came all the way to my house and I spurned him etc. I told him that I never used the term “bad service” or mentioned him by name, and that I was generally unhappy about the whole experience, including his coming home when I specifically asked him not to. He got upset and hung up on me. Strike five, anyone?

And that’s where it stands as of this writing.

So, Advaith, I am never again dealing with you for anything. If any of my acquaintances has had a better experience with you than I did, good for them.

Now on to the car itself.

[tilt]

Part III:

Impressions on the amenities/features included:
I have driven the car a grand total of 1100 kms until the time of this writing, a mixture of highway and city driving. The one glaring issue I notice is that Hyundai have included a lot of features in this car purely to tick a few boxes and palm the car off as a high-end, loaded car. Most of these so-called features have been implemented in a half-baked/crippled way. The problem is that most customers in India may not have experienced such features before to know how they are supposed to work (you don’t miss what you don’t know about); and Hyundai is taking full advantage of that fact. I, for one, feel short-changed.

Driver’s seat:
Comfortable, height-adjustible, good thigh- and lateral-support, but no lumbar support. Pity. Makes long-distance driving a bit of a pain-in-the-back - literally! I need to find a small bolster or cushion of the right size and firmness to use as lumbar support.

Other seats:
The wife said she felt comfortable both in the front passenger seat and ion the rear seat, but she’s a small woman. Please note that the shotgun seat is not height-adjustible.

Bottle Holders:
No bottle holders in the doors! That too in the highest trim level! Tsk, tsk, Hyundai.

In-Car Entertainment Unit:
When the ignition is turned on, the ICE unit does not return to the state it was when powered off. I am usually in Bluetooth (Media) mode, not in Radio mode; but when I turn the car on, it always turns the radio on, and I have to press the Media button again. This is the first car I have driven that does this. Quite inconvenient, I must say. Even the other Hyundais I have rented in the US and Canada worked properly. Cost cutting with lower-level specs? Just providing a half-baked feature good enough to check off a box and charge a premium?

iPhone 5/Bluetooth/USB for music:
The car is not compatible, period. Well, that’s not completely correct. I am able to pair the iPhone 5 with Bluetooth, and I can receive calls. My issue is with music. The music does play over Bluetooth, but the steering wheel controls do not work for skipping songs. The only thing I can do is change volume. For everything else I have to use the iPhone itself. So, the USB and steering wheel controls are not of much use to me. Another half-baked box-check feature.

One more negative with the iPhone-Hyundai combo is that while playing audio through Bluetooth, there is no song info on the display; it only shows “MP3 Audio” and that’s it. Half-baked box-check.

Connecting the iPhone5 to the USB is another story altogether - it just does not work at all. It keeps giving me an error saying unable to read USB device. I either have to connect it to the Aux port (which is something I do not want to do - I want to connect on USB and charge the phone while listening to audio, and not have to use more than one cable), or use Bluetooth.

Upon asking the people at the dealership they tell me that the USB works ONLY with a USB-key and not with phones. I am guessing that it is a software problem where it is somehow configured to read Windows-compatible FAT or FAT-32 partitions only and not any other kind. Bad Hyundai, bad!

One point I am completely unable to accept is that the built-in USB port does not even charge the phone! I discovered that to my utter chagrin when I was on the highway en-route to MAA. I was merrily using Google Maps on my iPhone all the way and my wife noticed suddenly that the battery was down to some very low percentage level while it was plugged into the USB port. I had to plug the phone into the cigarette-lighter port with an adapter to have it charge! One more half-baked box-check feature.

Am I the only i20 owner with an iPhone/iPod? How come I have not read about this on tBHP at all?

Bluetooth/Phone integration:
This is another example of an half-baked feature added on purely to tick a box. I can receive calls, I can redial the last dialled number, but I cannot call anyone else because the phone-book does not download into the system. I still have to have the phone in my hand and scroll through contacts and click on the contact to call them. This means, it is no longer hands-free; or most importantly - eyes-free! I have to take my eyes off the road to do all this, or park the car on the shoulder.

DTE & Fuel-Economy indication:
Not there. Others have mentioned this, and I too found this to be quite limiting. Apparently it is no longer possible to enable this at the service centre either.

Audio quality:
Not too shabby. I am not an audiophile, but am not a complete noob either. My music sounds great to my ears and that’s all that matters. People talk about the rear speakers not being loud enough, but since my rear seats are never going to be occupied, it is a moot point for me.

Automatic Rain-Sensing Wipers:
I keep the wiper control stalk in the “Auto” position. Every time I turn the ignition on the wiper wipes once. That’s bad. The wiper is not supposed to come on at all until there is moisture on the windshield. That’s how my car in Canada behaved, and every car I ever rented behaved, including other Hyundais. Half-baked box-check.

The dealer tells me that I am supposed to keep the wipers in the “Off” position and turn them to “auto” when it starts raining. What’s the point of rain-sensing wipers if I have to do the sensing? Like I said, this is the only car I have driven that behaves this way.

Automatic Ambient-light-sensing headlamps:
They work, but it takes a second or three before it realises there is no light and switches the headlamps on. I was halfway into my dark underground parking garage before the lights came on. A quicker response would be appreciated.

One issue I did notice with the auto-headlamps is that when I start driving in the dark (say just before dawn) and the day slowly lights up, the headlamps do not go off - they stay on. I have to manually switch them off and flick the stalk back to “Auto” for the lights to go off and stay off until it gets dark again. Another half-baked feature to tick a box.

Turning Radius:
A little too wide for my liking. I feel as though I am driving an 18-wheeler semi whenever I am trying to get into or out of my parking spot. Will take some getting used to. However, it is an issue only when there’s a need to manoeuvre in tight spaces. Does not affect regular driving in any way.

Turbo-lag:
Feel it even in first gear in crowded city-driving. Takes a while to get to1800 RPM even in first gear, but is sweet once it gets there. However, I was warned enough about this by more experienced tBHPians, so I do not have a right to complain.

Room:
The car feels quite roomy inside - at least in the front. I do not have to keep hitting my passenger’s thighs every time I want to change gears, plus our shoulders do not touch. That’s good.

Radio Aerial:
The i10, a smaller and cheaper car gets a stubby aerial while the i20 and the Verna get the archaic long twisty one. Funny how Hyundai thinks.

My problem is that the aerial hits the cross-beam in my parking garage, and it’s gut-wrenching when I am backing up, to hear that awful sound of the aerial getting snagged in the wrong direction and then releasing. I am sure it is going to break off very soon.

Tyre-pressure:
The dealership had pumped up the tyres to 40 psi. I got it down to 33. No, this is not a complaint or anything, just thought I’d mention it in passing.

Centre arm-rest:
There is no centre arm-rest for the driver, but there is a pull-down arm-rest on the side of the driver’s seat. Feels like a cheap cost-cutting measure. It does interfere with the handbrake and more importantly, makes it difficult to put on the seat-belt. I have learnt to push it up and out of the way every time I sit in the car or get out. No biggie, just something I did not expect.

Door unlocking request button:
Needs a few tries to work. Easier to unlock using the key and pull the door open. Looks like one more of those half-baked box-check features.

Reverse-lamp:
European style - only one reverse lamp, on the Left. The Right contains the fog-lamp instead. I have seen this on almost all cars sold in Europe.

Reversing camera & audible sensors:
Works. The camera display obscures the Left third of the inside rear-view mirror, but there’s a button to turn the display off. I am used to reversing without these aids, so I continue to do so, but I did test them out and here are my impressions:

The sensors are a bit pessimistic, meaning, they make you believe there’s less distance than actually is to the object behind you. However, that’s good for people who depend on the sensors I would presume.

The camera display - many other cars I have driven in the US and Canada have the display guide-lines turn with steering input to show you where the car would end up, but the i20 lines stay straight. However, the distance seems to be pretty accurate. I was able to back in almost up to the Red line and there was a couple of inches maybe between the bumper and the wall.

Air-con:
Car comes with automatic climate control, seems to work passably well. Aircon was on 15.5 degrees all the way from BLR to MAA, from 6 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Car was reasonably cool. No vents in the back. However, for me that’s not a biggie since the back seat will never be occupied.

Quick notes:
Glove compartment knob feels very flimsy and feels like it would break off with the slightest pressure.

Doors do not lock by themselves while moving. Need to check with the service centre if this can be enabled in the 2014 models because some of the features can no longer be enabled by the service centre post-purchase.

Push-Button Start:
Works as advertised. One question though: what happens if that goes kaput for some reason? How do I start the car with the key? I do not see anywhere to stick a key in and turn the car on.

[tilt]

Part IV:

Driving the car:

City Driving:
Turbo lag even in first gear, cannot take speedbumps in second gear, pickup in second gear can only be measured with a calendar, not a stopwatch.

Requires first-gear to climb fly-overs in dense traffic. No way it can be done in second.

Very easy to steer.

Thick A-pillars, causes big blind-spot. Thick B-pillars too makes it difficult to do shoulder-checks in an acute-angle intersection.

Ground clearance is not a problem. No bottoming out on Bangalore’s street-mountains.

Highway driving:
All other reviewers were spot-on - this car is a pleasure to drive on the highway.

I just completed a BLR-MAA-BLR round-trip (Jun 8 to Jun 10). I did not feel that the steering was too light as mentioned in most reviews here; to me it felt absolutely perfect at highway speeds. The wishy-washiness and non-confidence-inspiring steering that others mentioned was not felt by me (or maybe I instinctively adapted to the light-steering).

The suspension did not feel too soft either to me, but hitting a speedbump at anything higher than walking speeds does result in a loud thud.

The dealers had mentioned to me that Hyundai had listened to the feedback of customers and done some work on the suspension and steering. Maybe they did.

Fuel economy:
Ever since I took delivery of the car, the automatic climate control has been permanently set to 15.5 degrees. All my driving since I took possession of the car has been with this setting.

Also, my driving style is not to baby the car - I have been changing gears aggressively to ensure that my revs never fall below 1800. This has been the case even on the highways - I downshift down to third or even second if needed and put pedal to the metal in order to accelerate as quickly as possible. This means, occasionally, for very short periods of time, my revs have gone up to 3500. The majority of the cruising however, has been at around 2500 rpm.

The reason I mention the above two points is that the fuel economy numbers you see below were measured based on this.

Measured from time of delivery till the time I arrived in MAA, a mixture of city and highway driving with majority being highway: 400 kms and around half tank used (approx. 23.5 to 25 litres), making it approx. 16-17 kmpl. Remember the car is brand new, had only 31 clicks on the odo when I started the MAA trip.

It’s now Jun 20 (10 days since the MAA trip) and since Jun 10 I have driven around 75 clicks in the city and I just filled Diesel this evening. My average fuel economy has dropped to 14 kmpl (from the time I bought the car till this evening). However, I should note that my city driving has not been aggressive, but sticking to within 2K RPM with very few very short 2500 RPM stints just to overtake a stupid slow lane-hogger.

Conclusion:
Do I hate the car? No.

Do I love the car? No, but I do like it.

Would I recommend this car to others as a good buy? Certainly. Why? Well:

- It checks the boxes with respect to features (though half-baked, most of them),

- it’s a great car for the highways and a pretty decent car for the city (as long as you are not afraid of pushing a bit in first and second gears),

- the driving position is comfortable with everything within easy reach,

- the aircon is fantastic in Bangalore and pretty decent in Madras,

- the speakers are better than decent (from the driver’s seat that is),

- it has pretty decent luggage room even with the rear seats up, and great luggage room with them folded (the seats split 60-40),

- it has a very decent flickability factor (yes, there is some body-roll, but hey, where’s the fun in driving a perfect car)
the car feels much more luxurious than it is.

To whom will I NOT recommend this car? To anyone who likes to sit like sitting on a straight-backed high-chair or anyone who likes the tall-boy design that you walk-into, not climb into.

Cheers.

[Vid6639]

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

[phamilyman]

Congrats on an interesting and well written initial ownership report. However, it misses the pictures of the almighty cup holders costing one lakh apiece

Having said that, I wish I could thank you many times over for your thread - I really appreciate your eye for detail and your honest practical feedback on these check box features provided by the company without any thought. This is very useful for all prospective buyers.

Interesting choice of ACC temperature - polar bear settings I must say. Surely that converts to your less-than-stellar FE as well?

pickup in second gear can only be measured with a calendar, not a stopwatch.

I was laughing hard while reading this

We should have more triplogs and posts from you - hope you are now truly well settled into BLR and India!

[tilt]

Mikka nandri Phamilyman. I keep forgetting to take pictures of the interior of the car. I shall do so ASAP and post them here.

Re. temperature, yes I do like the cold. Re. fuel economy however, I am not sure it's a factor yet, because the car has yet to go in for its first service; and I have read here that mileage does improve after the first or second service; so I shall wait patiently until that happens and see if there's any improvement.

Also, like I said, I do not baby the car, I do keep it in the torque band, which means I am seldom higher than in second gear in the city. BY the time I shift to third I have to shift back into second or even first.

And yes, I am settling down pretty satisfactorily, with a lot of information provided by the good and knowledgeable folks here in this forum.

Cheers

[mav2000]

Superb review and one that I enjoyed reading. Love the sense if humor.

[blackasta]

Good crisp review with a keen eye for details.

Get your ICE unit checked - the radio resets, the audio pairing incompatibility, the nonfunctional steering buttons all point to a supposedly bad ICE unit, or a VERY bad design.

[AbelAFC]

Why didn't you consider the Polo? I know for a fact that the half-baked features you found in the i20 were kept in the oven longer by Volkswagen. Also, I love the stock audio in the Polo.
You wouldn't have been disappointed.

[Kumar R]

Hi tilt, I read with interest your very exhaustive review and have one question because it concerns your emphasis on the twin cup-holder -- did you consider the VW Polo? - it has an excellent set of twin cup holders in front (one of the aspects I love about the car).

[_raVan_]

Congratulations on your purchase and great writeup

Originally Posted by tilt

Push-Button Start:
Works as advertised. One question though: what happens if that goes kaput for some reason? How do I start the car with the key? I do not see anywhere to stick a key in and turn the car on.

If it goes kaput, you just have to tap the Start Button with the key, and it will start.

[drmohitg]

Excellent thread and absolutely loved your style of writing. Many many congratulations on your new ride. would love to know how did you narrow down your search to only the Figo and the i20? Did you consider the cheaper and I guess equally competent cousin, Grand I10? Or the Swift perhaps? What was the final OTR for the car that you paid?

[Vik0728]

Congrats on your latest acquisition tilt and a good one at that.

I had the exact same feeling that you have mentioned, during some long drives in my bro's I-gen I20 (1.2 Sportz). Features were all there for the reader but it seemed to fall short of expectation in the real world. For example, I-gen I20 Sportz has a Tilt & Telescopic steering column, but somehow I could not find the best position even after numerous adjustments. But by far, it was eons ahead of Punto.

Nevertheless, you have got yourself one of the best VFM diesel hatch available currently.

Drive Safe.

[Sebring]

Congrats on your purchase. Even I found dealing with Trident a tad bit more professional with full transparency regarding the deal.
The sales team leader at Advaith tends to hold back offers and freebies, till she has no option at all, so its quite tedious for the customer. But, I finally bought my car from Advaith as they bettered the Trident offer by a good margin, and service center is close by.