Just took delivery of our family's Verna yesterday from MGF hyundai in Cochin.
Reason for buying car? Dad wants a Diesel car that looks good and can haul some serious rear (I prefer my Swift VDi
)
9.06 lakhs on road in cochin
The SXI comes with Beige interiors, some (fake) wood trim
climate control- I like!!!!
Electrically operated ORVMs
2 DIN kenwood ICE-MP3 capable and also has an aux input in the rear
Fog lamps
Height adjustable driver seat
there's probably more but let's get to the important stuff.
Engine- Not broken in yet. but is very, very, very silent inside the cabin.
I must admit, it does make a serious racket outside (compared to the DDiS)
The insulation is brilliant, which means all the honk happy maniacs with aftermarket horns can beep away to glory and not make me lose my cool. Also, the ICE sounds really nice.
There is no noticeable vibration transmitted to the pedals, steering or gears
Turbo lag is not an issue(unlike the DDiS). pulls well from idling, torque from the boost kicks in at around 1750 and pulls very well upto 3000( have not revved it beyond there-
yet) Have to find the power and torque graphs to polish my shifting times.
Brakes- Brilliant! panic stopped from 120 on the highway once. no tail out antics, no squealing, nothing.
Pedals are progressive and can be modulated well. there is no play and the brakes don't bite.
Tried the ABS on a dirt road, and the car stopped pretty well, but I have no frame of reference to compare it with. Will have to wait for some real life situations, Hope I never have to use it though.
Handling- this is where the hyundai gets trounced. The steering has some play in it. The car is happy in wide sweeping corners.
Pronounced understeer is an issue even in these situations.
Put it through a series of twisties and the car will protest and sulk. It will refuse to point its nose where instructed. Again, its the killjoy understeer.Body roll adds to the problems.
Body roll is also a problem irrespective of what kind of corner its in.
Heaven help spirited apex hunters when the road surface is uneven. The car goes all floaty and wallowy and showed an alarming tendency to oversteer straight from a situation of marked understeer.
City Driving- is good, maybe better than the swift, cos of the visibility.
Engine will let you potter around at 1000 rpm peacefully in traffic and pull without complaint fom there if you see an overtaking oppurtunity.
Highways- passing is effortless. all the commercial and taxi vehicles can eat dust how ever hard they rev their engines to try and stop you(is this a purely kerala phenomenon? this never happened to me in TN or mangalore). The brakes help during overtaking maneuvers too letting you out-brake your yellow plated competitors.
Inspite of all my cribbing about the handling- i must say, My wife didnt realise how fast we were going till we reached our destination 20 mins ahead of schedule(distance of 65kms) To put this in perspective, She would have been screaming blue murder if i had driven at these speeds in the swift(while I would have felt much safer driving the better handling Swift)
Note about handling- this car should give absolutely no trouble in bends/ curves at
speeds below 100. just that I'm used to the Swift DDiS' corner carving abilities.
Build- seems put together well. sheet metal is confidence inspiring and the doors shut well(not as well as my old Palio 1.2) switchgear is OK. No complaints, but they could use some more feel.
Comfort- Ride is pretty good in both front and back even over very rough roads.(but thats still no excuse for the atrocious handling at high speeds
). Can get choppy in the rear if pushed very hard over rough roads
Plenty of room for everyone in the front and back.
Climate control is a neat gadget to have and is easy to use.
Seats are quite nice
Driver seating position is excellent, nice forward and side visibility. Rear could be better, but the ORVMs are big and do give a good field if used right.
Value for money? Yes
If its Diesel that you want. To me it looks like its the best option among C segment Diesel sedans. If you dont mind splurging on petrol, look for a better handler- there's plenty of choices
Test drive was on sunday morning(6AM) from cochin to thodupuzha and back- total distance of 130 km over mainly twisty roads.
Guys-Please feel free to criticize my writing/observations/language
I'll use that to improve on my next post