My mother's new car, i10! (Now 20k kms service done) Well like title says, bought a new car for my mother. But to be honest, it was bought on the 25th of Jan and me being the lazy *** that I am, I never got around to taking pictures of it & starting a new thread. But just about 2 months later, today I have managed to do so!
First a little background, come December my mother declared that she wanted to changer her April '04 Santro as despite 3.5 years of trouble-free service the car had by now done 100k kms. & my mother wanted a change! So the hunt began & we shortlisted 3 cars: Swift, Estilo & the i10.
Swift got rejected because my mother was not comfortable with the visibility & apprehensive about what she had heard about it's FE figures. Estilo got rejected because both of us thought that it looked pig ugly! So, the final contender the i10 got the nod once we'd driven her around & were impressed with it's high-quality interiors. Ok, it's not really a looker but it doesn't look bad & our happy trouble-free experience with owning two Santro's back-to-back really swung it in the favour of Hyundai.
The version chosen was the Magna as my mother refused to pay the extra money for the models above that & the only colour we could agree upon was the Deep Ocean Blue. In hindsight we would have picked the White if it was available then.
The car was bought from HMP, New Delhi & as usual the process was smooth with no issues. However, they refused to even give Foot Mats or a Car Cover as complimentary saying that Hyundai had a new rule in place under which any dealer found gving out any discounts/freebies on the i10 is being fined Rs. 1 Lac! And they informed me that quite a few dealers in Delhi ahd already been fined!
Short review:
1. Excellent interiors & build quality. Compared to the Santro this is in a completely different league altogether. Everything feels well built & the plastics seem to be of high-quality. Though both my Mother & I have our doubts about the beige colour getting dirty in our conditions.
2. Engine is decent but not as peppy in the low-wnd as the Santro. However, FE is better than the Santro with the car consistently giving 15 kmpl in city driving.
3. Excellent A/C but real test will be in the months of May/June.
4. NVH & Refinement is also quite good.
5. Boot comes with built-in light making it easier to put in/take out stuff in the dark.
Negatives:
1. 155/80 R13 tyres on a 4B rim means upsizing is difficult especially as shifting to 175/70 would mean Alloys & a loss of FE (Important for my mother).
2. Engine noise when outside the car seems to be louder than the Santro.
3. Rearward visibility is bad due to the fat C-Pillar.
4. Beige dashboard reflects annoyingly on to the windscreen under direct sunlight.
More reviews to come as time progresses. Current odo reading stands at 3072 kms.
Some pictures:
Last edited by iraghava : 24th March 2008 at 21:40.
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