[ricky_1605]

Hey guys, can anyone tell me which company manufactures the OEM speakers of Elite i20?

[ricky_1605]

Hey guys, just noticed a defect in the Elite i20 Asta crdi. Want to confirm if its a manufacturing defect or just a fault in my car. There is a slope on the entrance of my apartment, suppose I am at a speed of 40-50 kmph and then push brake lightly and take left while climbing the slope. There is tuk tuk sound that I hear as if something is getting touched to the disc brake. Yesterday I got my first service done and I showed to it Hyundai A.S.S. guys, they said its normal and they have heard about it from 2-3 other owners but its normal and there is nothing to worry. Please let me know if anyone has heard about this or may be other owners can throw some light by trying it on their cars. Thanks

[cityvic]

Congratulations Aniket Da.
Looks absolutely stunning. Please upload some more pictures.

Apologies for missing the thread.

Looking forward to some more updates please.

[blackasta]

Congoes - little late to spot this thread as it's been a while since I opened tbhp (it's blocked from within my office network :( )
This car surely is premium stuff among hatchbacks - no two thoughts about that !
Now just waiting for dodo-man to post his thoughts :P

[predatorwheelz]

Originally Posted by cityvic

Congratulations Aniket Da.
Looks absolutely stunning. Please upload some more pictures.

Apologies for missing the thread.

Looking forward to some more updates please.

Thanks brother. The car just completed a 2300km Rajasthan Trip, and about to embark on a Lucknow trip. Miles are piling up on it. You will surely find more pictures as I post the travelogues.

Originally Posted by blackasta

Congoes - little late to spot this thread as it's been a while since I opened tbhp (it's blocked from within my office network )
This car surely is premium stuff among hatchbacks - no two thoughts about that !
Now just waiting for dodo-man to post his thoughts :P

Thanks! I've been waiting for dodo-man ever since I posted this thread. But he's gone invisible these days. Sob sob.

[tacho9000]

Congratulations aniket da. Joy Guru. Hope this babe continues to serve you flawlessly like predator does for you. No comments on the steering. I'd had a phone conversation with you regarding this earlier so I refrain from commenting anymore.

[me_sid]

Great buy Aniket. Pretty good looking too I must add.

Originally Posted by tacho9000

No comments on the steering. I'd had a phone conversation with you regarding this earlier so I refrain from commenting anymore.

Is their any issue bout the steering? It would be nice to know.

[predatorwheelz]

Originally Posted by me_sid

Is their any issue bout the steering? It would be nice to know.

Well, now that you asked, let me piece together the puzzle for you.

First I wrote this:

A fellow tbhpian from Kolkata described the power steering to be "Dead as a Dodo".

It was obvious that the man with the dodo comment was on the forum. Moreover, blackasta knew him. The plot thickens:

Now just waiting for dodo-man to post his thoughts :P

To which I reply:

I've been waiting for dodo-man ever since I posted this thread. But he's gone invisible these days. Sob sob.

And then dodo-man decides to come out of anonymity.

Originally Posted by tacho9000

No comments on the steering. I'd had a phone conversation with you regarding this earlier so I refrain from commenting anymore.

So now you know!

But on a serious note, is the steering actually dead as a dodo? If it was, I wouldn't have enjoyed putting on 5K+ miles on it, would I? Here's what I really think about the steering:

Originally Posted by predatorwheelz

Its not a natural handler. I agree the steering is too light to give feel at highway speeds. The ride is very good. The handling is neutral at speeds, but would have been better with a feelsome steering.

However if you compare the Elite with the earlier i20, I would say Hyundai has done a pretty good job. And look at it this way. On weekends my wife takes it into crowded West Delhi markets for shopping. She loves the light steering, allows her to park into tight spots without working up a sweat!

[me_sid]

I have a couple of things to add, stray comments like these are best ignored. Its your car, its your money, so as long as you are happy dead dodos can be roasted and relished. Coming back a little lighter steering actually helps in today's street conditions, and am sure at higher speeds it does give you a much better feel.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by predatorwheelz

Here's what I really think about...

Time to articulate my personal opinion about the car, having driven it a part of the way from Delhi to Lucknow and back the last weekend (and yes, predatorwheelz needs to put up that travelogue soon too!).

1. There was a full complement of 5 passengers on board, all of us healthier than usual Indian standards. Add to that some luggage in the boot, and we had a really loaded car. With all that, it accelerates quite satisfactorily, and the engine doesn't appear strained at any point. However, it does need to be kept on the boil at 2000+ rpm for it to feel the happiest, and there is not enough pulling power at 1500 rpm and below in #4, #5 and #6 gears. So, effectively, to maintain a decent pace on the highway, I found myself swapping constantly through 4 sets of cogs, whereas in my own car, I am usually happy to use just 2 sets for most of my long-distance cruising.

2. The clutch action is smooth and the gears shift effortlessly. The double-H pattern takes a little getting used to, and a couple of times I've slotted into #6 while trying to reverse. But I guess it's only me that is not used to 6 forward speeds, and a left-and-up dog-leg shift into reverse. Another issue I faced a couple of times was of slotting into 4th from 5th while trying to shift to 6th, but I realized I wasn't paying attention to the gates. Mistake not repeated subsequently.

3. The steering is light, effortless and delightful at city speeds, and progressively loads up as the speed increases. At speeds above ~100 km/h, the weight of the steering, I felt, was heavier than what I would like. At speeds less than 100 km/h, steering feedback is mighty good though. The steering wheel is tilt AND telescopically adjustable, and feels really nice to hold, chunky, with thumb supports, and steering mounted controls that work well.

4. The suspension behaved really well for all the work it had to do, what with the unusually heavy load it was made to carry. The car didn't sag at the back, and body control was decent - no wallowing over wavy roads, and very little body roll. The only grouse was the sharp bump-thump over irregularities, and I suspect the 55-profile tyres have a very big role to play in this. On the rare occasion that I've missed slowing down for potholes, I've mentally gone *ouch* for the tyre sidewalls, but mercifully the Goodyear Assurances held up without complaint. Not once did the suspension bottom out.

5. The brakes are also very good, with sufficient stopping power to handle the load. I would have rated them excellent but for 2 issues. First, the boost is not as much as I would have liked, and it takes a very firm push on the pedal to haul down the speed in the fully loaded car rapidly. With light load, the brakes feel just fine though. Second, somewhere on the way, there had been at least 2 occasions when I felt the brake pedal to be too heavy, and released and reapplied the pedal to find stopping power improving remarkably.

6. The headlights are bright enough for driving all night (which we did), though the alignment of the beams could do with some adjustments at the next service (and I could do with the static bending headlamps of the European spec car too!). The front fog lamps do their job adequately in fog, but no, they are NOT auxiliary driving lamps! For even the fully loaded version of the car to have rear fog lamps missing is certainly ridiculous, especially where there are 3 pairs of tail lights as a part of the design, and one pair of these could well be allocated for high-intensity bulbs for use in fog. Not sure what the car gets in its European specs.

7. Seats - at least the front seats - are comfortable, but not great. Spend 6+ hours non-stop at the wheel and you certainly figure out what's missing. In my case, I thought there wasn't enough lumbar support. After a long time, my lower back protested a bit. Tilted the seat back backwards, and there's no shoulder support when the lumbar area is being supported. Somehow, I didn't find a perfect seat set-up while driving, though predatorwheelz appeared comfortable while he was at the wheel. I put it down to the way I am built, and a long history of back pain. As per reports from wife and daughter, the rear bench is fairly comfortable though somewhat cramped for 3 passengers, but then, what does one expect from a small hatchback? Leg space was reported to be sufficient though.

8. If there's one thing I disliked about the car, it was the unnecessary hand-holding it was trying to do. Hyundai probably thinks most drivers using manual gearboxes are stupid and incompetent, and need to be told when to change gears. So this rather irritating display on the MID kept telling me to shift up or down the gears as per the whims of the car. Now, instead of that, if the display was made to show what gear the car is in, I would have been happier, and not swapped into the wrong gear inadvertently the few times I did. Add to that the reminder on the MID about the front wheels not being aligned to straight ahead position every time the car is started up, and it gets overbearing. OTOH, there's no DTE or FE display, which is a sore point in comparison to cars of a similar genre.

[predatorwheelz]

Thank you for putting up your driving impression dada. It always helps prospective buyers to receive a non-biased (you don't own one), expert driving review. Lets analyze your comments, also basis the fact that I had done a road trip with just 2 people on board, earlier in the month.:

But before that!

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

predatorwheelz needs to put up that travelogue soon too

He will, once you give him the remaining photos .

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

we had a really loaded car. With all that, it accelerates quite satisfactorily, and the engine doesn't appear strained at any point. However, it does need to be kept on the boil at 2000+ rpm for it to feel the happiest, and there is not enough pulling power at 1500 rpm and below in #4, #5 and #6 gears. So, effectively, to maintain a decent pace on the highway, I found myself swapping constantly through 4 sets of cogs, whereas in my own car, I am usually happy to use just 2 sets for most of my long-distance cruising.

I had earlier written:

The gearing is quite good, so one doesn't need to constantly shift as long as one keeps the engine on the boil. Even the sixth gear, which I used to regard as an unnecessary gimmick, has proven its use when highway cruising.

Yes, it took harder work keeping the engine on the boil. With a full load, the engine was unhappy whenever you let the turbo off steam. This wasn't so much of an issue in our earlier trip.

One thing I realized in both trips is that the sixth gear is only useful if you have an arrow straight expressway with no chance of gearshifting. In normal dual-carriageway highways, you constantly have to downshift to keep the engine in its powerband.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

The clutch action is smooth and the gears shift effortlessly. The double-H pattern takes a little getting used to, and a couple of times I've slotted into #6 while trying to reverse. But I guess it's only me that is not used to 6 forward speeds, and a left-and-up dog-leg shift into reverse. Another issue I faced a couple of times was of slotting into 4th from 5th while trying to shift to 6th, but I realized I wasn't paying attention to the gates. Mistake not repeated subsequently.

My Verna also has a left-and-up dog-leg shift into reverse, so didn't have so much of an issue getting adjusted to the additional gear shift. The rest of the problems get sorted with practice anyway.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

The steering is light, effortless and delightful at city speeds, and progressively loads up as the speed increases. At speeds above ~100 km/h, the weight of the steering, I felt, was heavier than what I would like. At speeds less than 100 km/h, steering feedback is mighty good though. The steering wheel is tilt AND telescopically adjustable, and feels really nice to hold, chunky, with thumb supports, and steering mounted controls that work well.

More feedback for Mr Dodo Man. Dude, you'll never really hear the end of this!

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

The suspension behaved really well for all the work it had to do, what with the unusually heavy load it was made to carry. The car didn't sag at the back, and body control was decent - no wallowing over wavy roads, and very little body roll. The only grouse was the sharp bump-thump over irregularities, and I suspect the 55-profile tyres have a very big role to play in this. On the rare occasion that I've missed slowing down for potholes, I've mentally gone *ouch* for the tyre sidewalls, but mercifully the Goodyear Assurances held up without complaint. Not once did the suspension bottom out.

Yes, my respect for the suspension has gone up after the last trip. The last i20 rolled even with one passenger on board, in city speeds. This one displayed mature ride and handling. Besides, with just 170mm of ground clearance, I thought the car would be a sitting duck on that Sitapur-Bareilly stretch. It didn't bottom out even once.

As for the tyres, I have always felt anything below 60 profile is not suited to Indian highways. For now the Assurances are new. Lets see how they hold up after 25-30K kms.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

First, the boost is not as much as I would have liked, and it takes a very firm push on the pedal to haul down the speed in the fully loaded car rapidly.

This I've faced in the Verna as well. Especially in my first Kol-Del drive when we had 5 people and luggage. Probably a Hyundai characteristic, you get used to it after the first few times.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Second, somewhere on the way, there had been at least 2 occasions when I felt the brake pedal to be too heavy, and released and reapplied the pedal to find stopping power improving remarkably

This now, is worrying. (After reading your comment) wifey told me she's faced the same issue twice. She had to release and reapply the pedal to find stopping power. Further googling revealed a professional tester faced this in a magazine review (its there on youtube). So its not a problem with my car, its with Elite i20s in general.

But firstly, having driven 90pct of the 6700 kms the car's done till now, I've never faced this problem. Secondly, what could this be due to? If its a booster issue, its a mechanical problem and should have appeared more frequently. Can't be an ABS sensor issue, since the speeds were not enough to justify wheel lock up. Could be the car objecting whenever someone other than the owner drives it! Heh heh.

Nevertheless, will get the brakes checked on the second service.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

6. The headlights are bright enough for driving all night (which we did), though the alignment of the beams could do with some adjustments at the next service (and I could do with the static bending headlamps of the European spec car too!). The front fog lamps do their job adequately in fog, but no, they are NOT auxiliary driving lamps! For even the fully loaded version of the car to have rear fog lamps missing is certainly ridiculous, especially where there are 3 pairs of tail lights as a part of the design, and one pair of these could well be allocated for high-intensity bulbs for use in fog. Not sure what the car gets in its European specs.

Thanks for all the wonderful tips on fog-driving. Helps to travel with the man who wrote the article on driving in the fog!

I would concur with you that the headlights were bright enough for all night driving. If Vinijosep is reading this, for stretches across the night we had dense fog. The pic SST posted is taken in one such condition. The headlights didn't feel inadequate.

Fog lamps on Hyundais have always been ornamental (rather than functional). I've never considered them serious driving tools anyway. Though I do agree that a rear fog lamp is a must.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

7. Seats - at least the front seats - are comfortable, but not great. Spend 6+ hours non-stop at the wheel and you certainly figure out what's missing. In my case, I thought there wasn't enough lumbar support. After a long time, my lower back protested a bit. Tilted the seat back backwards, and there's no shoulder support when the lumbar area is being supported. Somehow, I didn't find a perfect seat set-up while driving, though predatorwheelz appeared comfortable while he was at the wheel. I put it down to the way I am built, and a long history of back pain. As per reports from wife and daughter, the rear bench is fairly comfortable though somewhat cramped for 3 passengers, but then, what does one expect from a small hatchback? Leg space was reported to be sufficient though.

Predatorwheelz wasn't as comfortable as you thought. See the highlighted portion in my earlier quote:

Comfy, broad and well designed seats. A welcome break from the i10's thin perch.
My only grudge with the seats is the thin lower back cushioning, something that troubles you when you spend 3 (or more) hours behind the wheel. A design defect?

Quite spacious rear seats. Only the Asta comes with adjustable head rests.

Admittedly I don't have a history of back problems, so for now I make do. But Hyundai should seriously look into this feedback for the next model.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

If there's one thing I disliked about the car, it was the unnecessary hand-holding it was trying to do. Hyundai probably thinks most drivers using manual gearboxes are stupid and incompetent, and need to be told when to change gears. So this rather irritating display on the MID kept telling me to shift up or down the gears as per the whims of the car. Now, instead of that, if the display was made to show what gear the car is in, I would have been happier, and not swapped into the wrong gear inadvertently the few times I did. Add to that the reminder on the MID about the front wheels not being aligned to straight ahead position every time the car is started up, and it gets overbearing. OTOH, there's no DTE or FE display, which is a sore point in comparison to cars of a similar genre.

Haha, tell me about it. I'm one of the last batches of old-school driving, who didn't need the car to tell them when to change gears or align steering. In fact even how to reverse!

Secondly, the lack of basic needs like a DTE or FE display have been mentioned by me in an earlier post.

1. No Distance-to-empty meter - Everytime the low fuel light goes on, you drive in to the petrol pump to discover only 38 ltrs (out of 45 ltr capacity) have been used. Without a DTE, there's no way you'll stretch those precious 7 litres.

2. Just dump all the buttons! - I believe Hyundai appointed separate teams while designing the car. One for modulating the start/stop button operation, one for the stereo, one for the lights, one for designing auto-unlocking etc. They never spoke to each other. And the team responsible for auto-locking went on un-announced leave.

Confused? Here's what happens actually. You get into the car, press the start button to start the car, press the lock button to lock all doors, press the stereo power button to start music, and drive off. The first signal has a waiting of over a minute. Like a responsible citizen you stop the car. Immediately the doors unlock, lights come on, music stops. So you press the start button again to activate accessories mode (stereo starts), lock button again to lock the doors and (when the signal turns green) the start/stop button. If you've already started the car, the doors don't autolock anyway, so no escape from button pushing.

The next signal again has waiting of over a minute. So you press 3 buttons to get things to work! And so on.

This particular routine got so infuriating that I stopped turning off the car totally at the lights! Then I discovered auto-unlocking can be turned off. One less button to press! I'm not saying features are bad, just that they should coordinate well with each other.

3. stupid exclusions? - My other Hyundai has vanity mirrors on both driver/passenger side sunshades. Both mirrors come with a sliding plastic cover. Makes it look and feel upmarket.

A friend's car has lights beside the sunshade mirrors. Helps his missus when she adjusts her makeup before an evening party.

The Elite i20 has a cheap mirror on the passenger side, and none on the driver's side. No sir, drivers should not have vanity!

[nitindangoria]

Hi everyone,

I have just bought the i20 elite sportz (o) and I find the headlights not as powerful as my old Vista's.

Could somebody guide me as to how to make them brighter without compromising on the electrical warranty. An electrician suggested me to install a relay ( cut out ) and install 135/135 halogens.

Thanks in advance.

[predatorwheelz]

Originally Posted by nitindangoria

Hi everyone,

I have just bought the i20 elite sportz (o) and I find the headlights not as powerful as my old Vista's.

Could somebody guide me as to how to make them brighter without compromising on the electrical warranty. An electrician suggested me to install a relay ( cut out ) and install 135/135 halogens.

Thanks in advance.

I found the headlights adequate for any driving condition. You may read the above posts for my (and SS-Traveller's) impression.

However this is a personal opinion. If you want brighter headlights, I'd suggest save the warranty and don't install a relay. Instead, go for Osram Nightbreaker bulbs in 60w form. They are a stock swap and won't require any rewiring. They are significantly brighter.

[racer_ash]

135/135 is really over the top. Pls switch to Philips or Osram in the same 60/55 configuration. Anything higher will blind oncoming traffic when high beams are used, not to forget the fact that they are illegal too.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by nitindangoria

Could somebody guide me as to how to make them brighter without compromising on the electrical warranty. An electrician suggested me to install a relay ( cut out ) and install 135/135 halogens.

Most headlamp reflectors can safely take in 100/90 W bulbs without the reflectors blackening or melting in the long run. With 130/100 W bulbs, the reflectors may not last long if you do frequent night drives wherein the bulbs would be doing duty most of the time. That said, both of these bulbs are illegal as racer_ash has pointed out and the cops here really do not bother with these. Please use the high beams with these bulbs judiciously.

Adding the extra relay and harness does not void the warranty since the stock harness is not cut and taped but in the event of an electrical failure, the service center may point out this aftermarket addition as a cause of failure. I suggest you take a call suitably.