[boniver]

Originally Posted by PrasannaDhana

Wow! I am happy to see an young man opt for a legendary pre-owned small hatch.
Enjoy the car, wishing you thousands of safe and comfortable km in it.

Thank you so much for your wishes, Sir! Yes, I should stop my mom from driving a manual steering car, but she is determined to drive. Therefore, I go out with her early in the morning and let her drive on long open stretches of straight roads with minimal turns. She is well versed with the pedals and all now so she doesn't mess anything up, but in case a tight turn does appear, I help her steer the car.

Originally Posted by vsrivatsa

Excellent thread - very well written and articulated and a very mature decision taken of going the pre-owned route. While many of the readers took a ride back to the past with your thread, I kind of went into the future a little bit as I am a father of a three year old and wondered what I would do when my son turns 18 (which is still more than a decade away...)

Thank you for the kind words! I think you should stop worrying about your son, since there's also a chance that he might not like driving/owning cars at all! We even have a thread on the topic (The Cheapest Generation - Why Millennials aren’t buying cars or houses).
Either way, 15 years is a long way from now, so you should definitely stop worrying

Originally Posted by aditya.86

Excellent thread Boniver!
Brings back memories of my Santro which was gifted by my dad when i was in 3rd year of engineering in 2006.....One of the best 1l engines of those times and used to be something else with a free flow.

Glad you liked the thread, and I'm happy to have rekindled such happy memories! A free flow would be great, but I'm currently shying away from all such modifications which would bring the car under the scanner of the local cops/govt. Anyway they don't like cars older than 15 years, don't want to give them a reason to pull me up
I checked your gallery out, and your Santro was extremely good looking!

Originally Posted by livetodrive

Congo to another WB 24 (Barrackpore) registered 15 year old Santro owner from another one......Words will fall short to share so many stories. So ending here and wishing you more happy miles and hope , as you said government remains kind to us to preserve this gem.

Hey, thank you so much! I didn't know about other WB24 registered vehicles on this forum, so it's great to hear from you. I actually live very close to the Barrackpore RTO, so I'd love to check your car out if you come here for your car's CF or something. If your car was registered in Barrackpore from the beginning, we might even have had similar or very close registration numbers! Hope to be in touch with you, Sir!
Those are some very impressive statistics. Why don't you put up an ownership thread too? Would love to read it! Your car looks great, and the wheels look really good too.

Originally Posted by knrn

It felt great to read your thread. I too learnt how to drive in 2003 on a santro. Both me and my father loved the car so much that presently we are on our third santro model 2007.....Reliability par excellence. I have driven it even up to the mighty rohtang pass. This car makes you appreciate the small things in life. Still my daily driver. Nothing can beat the cosy feeling of sitting in a small hatch and driving on a rainy day. Your thread really brought out the nostalgia in me. Happy driving and enjoy this wonderful vehicle.

Wow, there must be something about this car that made you buy it three times! Is there a travelogue/report about your car at Rohtang Pass on this forum? Would love to read it and go through the pictures! I'm so glad I could rekindle so many happy memories on this forum. Thank you for your wishes, and I wish you countless more miles with your Santro too!

UPDATE: There's a reason I decided to sit up and complete this thread ASAP after letting it lie on the assembly line for half a year. I got my Santro home exactly a year ago (on 23rd November, 2018), so I wanted to go on a road trip with her today. We decided to go to a place called Shantiniketan in WB where someone in the family owns a farmhouse. We couldn't go to a hotel since I really wanted to take my pet Labrador along on this trip. Unfortunately, we got to know that someone else has gone there for the weekend, so we shelved that plan. By then it was 9am and we still hadn't decided on a location. Decided that it'd be too late to go anywhere, and that we should just go on a long drive to some far off dhaba for lunch, and drive back. BHPian NaXal recommended an alternative route to Hotel Hindustan on NH-2 that passed through many villages, and we decided to take that route.

It was a lovely 3-hour drive through wonderful, empty village roads. My father enjoyed the drive a lot, and I maintained a speed of 50kmph all throughout, barring the slowing down to let the occassional goat/hen pass. Reached Hotel Hindustan and had a sumptuous meal! Heartfelt thanks to NaXal for recommending this route!

Returned via NH-2 (Durgapur Expressway) and it took us a shade over an hour to get back home (~70kms). I maintained speeds of ~100kmph all throughout the highway and it didn't feel uncomfortable at all. Also gifted my car a free Fastag from a Fastag kiosk at Dankuni toll plaza. Experience narrated here (FASTag: All you need to know about procuring & using it!).

The current tankful involved a lot of driving (60% highway, 40% city) and I achieved a mileage of 16.3kmpl, which is the best I've gotten till date, and also much better than my usual average of 10-11kmpl. Would have definitely used an emoji here had I not exhausted my 2 emoji per post limit *bangs head against red wall*

Now, time for some pictures!


What are you waiting for? Let's go!


Driving on empty bridges


Through empty, picturesque villages




Driving on the completely empty NH-2. Notice the fuel gauge; it remained at the same position even after 80 more kilometres!


Looks so young, even at the age of 15!


The new Fastag adorning her windshield


Crossed 96000 kms somewhere along the way and decided to reward her with a fresh, full tank of petrol!


Petrol prices are on the rise again, kill me!

All in all, a good day for both of us. A proper road trip is coming up in early January, when my sister visits us. Looking forward to it!

[knrn]

I wasn't a member of team bhp when I did the Rohtang trip so wasn't particularly attentive to clicking pics. And a travelogue without pics is boring. Anyways. The santro is one of the best examples of FILL IT SHUT IT FORGET IT AND DRIVE cars. So you will find yourself with plenty of opportunities to drive. A word of caution. Santro and all hyundais tend to leave the road and start flying once you cross 90 kph. And it is really sensitive to any abnormal wear tear and malalignment in tyres. It will make you a tyre expert through your ownership. If your tyres are 3-4 years old or are worn out replace them and feel the difference. Rest it is a really nice car to enjoy. Especially in the ghats. You might feel a little lost compared to the biggies on the highway but it's very zippy up to 90 and in the ghats curves. Hope you really enjoy and learn fine skills on this vehicle. An absolute delight to own

[mh09ad5578]

I too owned a 2005 black santro Xing for three years from 2010 to 2013 did about 1,18,000 km on it , then handed over to my dad who did another 15k kms till 2015 and later sold to a close relative. It was a pristine model with 12k kms on it when we brought it. An absolute joy to drive and own. I don't remember any major repairs on it, just general service and oil changed at the FNG. The car was super zipy and super practical. Never let me down and the quality of paint is really good even now with proper detailing it looks brand new! My dad still scolds me for selling it. And in Karnataka it demands quite a good premium. I was shocked to see my neighbour and his brother brought two for around 2lakhs each though they were low run less than 40k examples.
Enjoy the ride, it's a fun Go kart!

[BeemerBug_06]

Good thread about the Trusty Korean Tall Boy! You got yourself a nicely maintained example of the Santro Xing. I'm sure the tall boy will be by your side for a long time to come! Your car reminds me of the black Santro Xing we had in the family for a while, although it was maybe a few years newer to your car. The car does not belong to us anymore, but I do know where it is ! The Santro was very reliable, never let us down. The only disadvantage of having a Black Santro in Bombay, besides the car interior getting hot was that people often mistook it for a Kaali-Peeli taxi

[boniver]

Originally Posted by knrn

The santro is one of the best examples of FILL IT SHUT IT FORGET IT AND DRIVE cars. So you will find yourself with plenty of opportunities to drive. A word of caution. Santro and all hyundais tend to leave the road and start flying once you cross 90 kph.

Yes, I agree with your assessment. Have taken the car to low three digit speeds, and the experience wasn't particularly inspiring. Well, since I've only taken her to the highway a couple of times, I won't be crossing the 80kmph mark very often.

Originally Posted by mh09ad5578

I too owned a 2005 black santro Xing for three years from 2010 to 2013 did about 1,18,000 km on it , then handed over to my dad who did another 15k kms till 2015 and later sold to a close relative. It was a pristine model with 12k kms on it when we brought it. An absolute joy to drive and own. I don't remember any major repairs on it, just general service and oil changed at the FNG. The car was super zipy and super practical. Never let me down and the quality of paint is really good even now with proper detailing it looks brand new! Enjoy the ride, it's a fun Go kart!

Thanks for your wishes! I agree with all the points you've made. Please share photos of your car if you have any.

Originally Posted by BeemerBug_06

Good thread about the Trusty Korean Tall Boy! You got yourself a nicely maintained example of the Santro Xing. I'm sure the tall boy will be by your side for a long time to come! Your car reminds me of the black Santro Xing we had in the family for a while, although it was maybe a few years newer to your car. The car does not belong to us anymore, but I do know where it is ! The Santro was very reliable, never let us down. The only disadvantage of having a Black Santro in Bombay, besides the car interior getting hot was that people often mistook it for a Kaali-Peeli taxi

Thanks Nikhil! It's impressive how you manage to track down all your ex cars haha. Yes, let's hope the Santro stays with us for quite some time and that we do not have to part with it to comply with any ruling that the government might pass :/

UPDATE: As mentioned here (Team-BHP Stickers are here! Post sightings & pics of them on your car), I finally ordered the Team-BHP sticker set. Used only one sticker out of it, the one that I have absolutely fallen in love with. Messed up the alignment in my first attempt though, so had to take it off and re-apply a couple of times. Well, hope it stays on for some time

Attaching some photos with the sticker on:

[boniver]

The last month of 2019 didn't see the car come out of its cave at all, except for a couple of times that mom wanted to visit the mall.

On 25th December, we did a short impromptu trip to Mayapur and back. Decided upon the destination at 10am, and we were out of the house by 10:30am. No sightseeing, just wanted to drive, have lunch and return. Wanted to take our pet dog with us, so it had to be a day trip (speaking from experience, no hotels would allow pets at such short notice). It was a short trip of about 250kms (Home to Mayapur is 105kms one way). The onward journey took a little under 3 hours, while the return journey took us a whopping 6 hours! Got stuck in a massive traffic jam on NH12 and had to resort to some mild offroading to get ahead of all the trucks. Slowly drove that way for almost 40kms, and gunned the car when the jam cleared. This led to a drop in FE, but I couldn't be bothered less. Returned home thoroughly exhausted at 10pm.

Some pictures from the drive:





Stopped at a dhaba for refreshments.


Notice the driver


Parked at Mother's Hut, Krishnanagar on NH12.


The massive highway traffic jam that we got stuck in. Notice the phone, it showed a red line for the next 30 odd kilometres.


Idled with AC on for quite a long time here, before finally going off the road.


Finally back home. Usually by this mark on the fuel gauge, the car does 390-400 highway kilometres.

Drove approximately 40kms on 1st January and filled up the tank. The figures are as follows. The November stats are from the previous short highway trip (refer to post #16 above):


Last week, I had some work due to which I ended up driving 200+ kms, all in the city itself! The distance was covered over a span of two days only. This, in a car with no power steering and a manual transmission, made sure that I finished my monthly workout quota in two days


Parked in an office in central Calcutta.


Munching miles slowly, but steadily.

Off topic: I have always wanted to take up running, but have never successfully managed to. I gained close to 15kgs of weight in 2019 itself. The final wake-up call came when my best friend (also a BHPian) managed to come down to 85kgs this month from 130kgs in August 2019. I have now taken up brisk walking, and want to slowly graduate to running. Started on 5th January:


Due to this, both the car and the bike aren't being used at all. I used to use the bike even when I had to go to the shops across the road, and now I make it a point to walk everywhere, as long as it is within 5kms. I have exams coming up next week, so the car won't be used at all before 12th February, when my exams end. With such low running, it absolutely does not make sense to replace the car with a new one. Therefore, the Santro shall stay on.


Signing off.

[boniver]

Haven't updated this thread since January since the car was running along just fine. The car was at ~966xx kms then, and in early February, the odometer rolled over to 97000 kms. I'm really bad at keeping an eye on the odometer when I'm driving, even if I know I'll be crossing a good number that day. Hence this picture:


A photo of the car at 97002 kms:


On 24th March, I was driving when I saw a really beautiful tree with pink flowers. I parked under it, and got out to take photos. When I got back, the car wouldn't start! I was really surprised since I had just driven close to 70kms before that and there was no way the battery was drained. The cabin light, dash lights, nothing came on, so I was sure there was a loose connection somewhere. Meanwhile, it started raining, and I got out with a leather file to tap on the battery terminals. Suddenly, the cabin light came on and I managed to start the car. Drove straight to my HASS 35 kms away, since I was anyway due for a full car check up and alignment+balancing.

The Hyundai people said it was an issue with the starter motor, and I knew there was no way it could be there since it was clearly due to the battery not being connected properly. I asked them to not touch the starter, and to instead carry out the general check up and tighten the battery terminals. Got the alignment and balancing done too, along with a full interior vacuum and exterior wash and polish. The total bill came to Rs. 1800 odd, and the car didn't exhibit any starting issue after that. This was at 97200 kms.


At the HASS

I did a long ~200 kms drive on 24th March, the day before the lockdown got implemented in India. Came home and parked the car at night.

On 21st April (almost a month after the car was last used), I went to start the car and drive it around for 30 mins with the AC on. The car started right up in one attempt, and I shameless bragged about it in the following post:

Originally Posted by boniver

Like I've said before, I've never bothered about following any special "tips" for parking for an extended period.

Here's my 2004 Santro Xing with a 4 year old battery. First crank after exactly 30 days:

Today (23 days since the car was last started), I again went to start the car up. Guess what, it didn't! The cabin light and dash lights were on faintly, but the battery didn't have power to turn the engine over. Decided to leave it as it is, and get a jump start when the battery shops open. Dad however, wanted to get a new battery since the battery had been changed by the previous owner 4+ years ago and it could die any time. I'm sure we could've used the old battery for some more time, but again, why be anxious when you can choose not to?

Out went the old SF Sonic:


And in went the new Amaron:


We chose the best available battery in the shop, and it came with a warranty of 66 months (5.5 years). Since the car is 16 years old now, dad joked whether the car would survive as long as the battery is supposed to

So yeah, that's a major-ish update that I wished to pen down. The new battery went in exactly at 97450 kms, and the car is running absolutely fine now. Here's a quick snap of the odometer for the record:


Here are some photos I clicked randomly in a parking lot. Looks quite fresh for a 16 year old, I'd say:










That's all for now. Stay sane, stay safe, and stay tuned!

[promit]

Hello!

Same pinch! My first car at 18 was a 2004 black Santro Xing too. It was a hand me down which I used for 2.5 years. Mine was a February 2004 model. I feel like yours is the eRLX refresh one going by the front grill. I thought I had the base, but mine did have power steering. The things which annoyed me the most in that car (being a base) were its manual everything - windows, locks and mirrors. If it was a higher model I may have retained it a while longer. The lack of some creature conveniences drove me mad - and I swore never to buy a base model ever again! It also made me a black car person. Yours does look very fresh and clean definitely. Good work maintaining a black car.

I feel the initial pickup (say 0-30kmph) was better than the Kappa, Kappa 2 engines which Hyundai gradually shifted to later. Definitely felt zippy at slow speeds. Quite a decent first car to have. Mine was sold at 1.4L km, with zero trouble. Only routine service oil and filters and 1 clutch replacement. (maybe 2).

Drive Safe!
Promit

[boniver]

Originally Posted by promit

Same pinch! My first car at 18 was a 2004 black Santro Xing too. It was a hand me down which I used for 2.5 years.

Hello Promit! That's quite a coincidence, albeit almost a decade apart. I feel the black on the Santro looks good especially in lower variants like ours with the unpainted bumper.

Mine was a February 2004 model. I feel like yours is the eRLX refresh one going by the front grill.

Mine is a February 2004 manufactured car purchased in April 2004, so it is the pre-eRLX model. I believe the Chrome grille was added at some point by the previous owner.

I thought I had the base, but mine did have power steering. The things which annoyed me the most in that car (being a base) were its manual everything - windows, locks and mirrors. If it was a higher model I may have retained it a while longer. The lack of some creature conveniences drove me mad - and I swore never to buy a base model ever again! It also made me a black car person.

Afaik, the base model was the XE, which didn't have power steering and had AC as an option. Mine is an XE without power steering but with AC. I think your car must have been the Santro XP, which came with power steering but manual windows and everything.
I quite like the fact that everything's manual in my car, especially since it's so old. Less things that can go wrong!

Yours does look very fresh and clean definitely. Good work maintaining a black car.

Thank you, although I must admit the car does look better in pictures! Here are some more pictures I clicked today that might remind you of your ex Santro:

Quite a decent first car to have. Mine was sold at 1.4L km, with zero trouble. Only routine service oil and filters and 1 clutch replacement. (maybe 2).

That's really impressive! Shows why the Santro was always a fill it, shut it and forget it car! My car at 97.5k Kms is still running on the original clutch, which surprisingly isn't too bad to use, and has undergone a complete belt replacement that included the timing belt and all accessory belts. Last September I got the AC compressor clutch and condenser changed. I'm not complaining though, all these are pretty standard expenses on a car this old!

[boniver]

1,00,000 kms update:

The Santro completed 1L kms last Monday, and was spruced up both mechanically and cosmetically. The following work was performed:

• Replacement of the entire front and rear suspension
• Replacement of the steering rack
• Complete bodywork (fixing dents, rust spots, a huge rust hole in the rear left wheel well, aligning and refitting the bumpers, fixing the hood etc.)
• Hood repaint
• Stock headlight bulbs upgraded to Philips 100/90 with a relay
• Replacement of various minor things such as worn out door handles, gear boot cover etc.

This is what the car looked like after everything:




My family and I felt that the car needed a good highway run to celebrate the major milestone, especially after all the mechanical work done. A decision was taken to go on a short road trip to Tajpur and Digha in South Bengal, since we were also taking our pet dog Hunter with us.

The amount of practicality this small car offers is mind-blowing. Here's the boot filled with luggage for 4 people and a dog for 3 nights:


Some photos from the trip:










City mileage continues to vary wildly depending on my driving style. In the last to last tankful, the car delivered 8.25 kmpl, and in the last two tankfuls the car delivered 12.66 kmpl and 11 kmpl respectively. Highway mileage continues to hover between 15.5 kmpl and 16.5 kmpl. Figures calculated using the tankful method, and with 100% AC on.

Until next time.

[WhiteSierra]

Congrats on reaching 1 lakh milestone, beautiful pictures with your pet and car. I too love two things the most, my pet and my cars.

[Storm2.0]

Congratulations sir! Wishing you many more kilometres in this "sunshine car". I have been following your thread from the beginning and look forward to many more updates in future.

[maheshm619]

Originally Posted by boniver

The following work was performed:

• Replacement of the entire front and rear suspension
• Replacement of the steering rack

That is a well maintained car. Please share the expenses incurred for maintenance. I too own a 2007 model Santro, now nearing the 90k mark. It is a very reliable workhorse.The low end torque is unparalleled.

[DudeWithaFiat]

Congratulations on hitting the 1,00,000 mark .

A colleague of mine has a 2012 Honda City and a Santro Xing. I have mostly seen him only in the Santro. Once I asked him why does he drive the Santro more than the City, he says he is more used to the Santro than City . It is a silver one. I have traveled in it with him couple of times and I remember the AC was quite chilling. His dashboard had started fading, except that the car was pretty good. He used to do his twice-a-month 100 km trip to his hometown in that car with his wife and kid.

Since you intent to keep the car for long? Ever thought of sprucing her up with power windows, central locking, TPMS etc.

[VTEC_Powaaaa]

Congratulations on reaching the 1L kms milestone!

Santro is one reliable car. We had one which did 1.7L kms with no issues whatsoever.

Enjoy this clean gangsta spec of yours!