[PaglaGoru]

Guess this is my chance to gatecrash into the party !!! Have been shadowing this forum for a little more than a year and never muster enough to write something here.Anyway the membership approved and all I guess it will be a blasphemy if I do not test out the keyboards on my Laptop.

Booked my first car (a black i20 Asta 1.2) a while back and if things go on schedule I might recieve the delivery by the last week of this month. Theres just so much research went into my selection that I decided to put it in a FAQ format to cut out the boredum and to keep this writeup crisp.

Why i20 ?

When looking for my first car there were a few things which I had to consider.This is my first car as well as my family car. So in all its lifetime I expect it to run around in the city and the city only. I trust professional hands for long drives and I want to keep it that way. This kind of rules out the necessity of a diesel engine. Also though money was not a major deciding factor,as every other salary man in this trying times I would love to get the maximum VFM that I can manage.Also parking in my apartment could be a potential issue so Sedans are a little touchy subject here. Mostly had no other option but to look for a good hatchback. Now the Indian dreams of nano/800/alto etc were chucked off for obvious reasons. Santro Xing never excited me enough and Swift is a killing machine (my opinion and no contentions please). Also every other Tom, Dick and Harry has one in the family and its never rare to see a lot of them choking every signal everyday at every part of the city. Ritz has it all and a latest K-Series engine but me and my wife finally concluded that it looks like a Turd. We liked the Grande Punto as well as the linea. Both being FIAT products,the revered A-S-S kept us away.I explicitely brought up this issue with the dealer and the Sales guy came up with all his stats and pie charts to prove that past was horrible but they are looking at a wonderful future.But somehow I was not convinced enough.If that wonderful future comes I am sure I will know. Had to walk back to the Advaith Hyundai showroom on ORR to check out their options. Explored i10 Asta SR and really liked it. Test drove it-the clutch felt a little stiff and I felt it was peppy but not nimble. More or less fixed self on i10 but wanted to try out the i20 as well.Drove it and all of a sudden I felt like I was totally soaked in sheer driving bliss. The hum of the engine so low that I had trouble settling myself with the fact that the engine was indeed running.The clutch was so totally to my liking and responsive that I enjoyed my 15 minutes of drive.It was sufficiently nimble at the curves but the horn wasn't much to my liking.Small issue-I can always get it changed. Put both of them on the table and scrutinized every feature and my wife drew a conclusion that the i10 Asta SR was OUR car.Accordingly called up the dealer and confirmed it.But told them that I will come up with my wife for another round of TD and then we will finalize things on paper.Showed up at the dealership as per appointment and TD-ed i10 first.My wife was jumping with excitement and wanted to get the deal closed but I insisted on taking the TD of the i20.After that TD I didn't even need to ask my wife about her choice.The i20 with its 'puny' 1.2 petrol engine had enough power to WoW my wife !!!

Why not GP ?

FIAT's god-aweful past A-S-S

Why not Honda Jazz ?

Overpriced,no VFM for me plus if I spend that much I'd rather add some more and get the top end City.Again thats a sedan and parking will be an issue in my apartment.

Why Advaith ORR ?

Next to my house ....well almost.

What else did I seriously consider ?

Ford Fiesta ( looks dated to me and spares are costly-otherwise great ride)
Chevrolet Aveo - New one ( Parking issue else I'd have gone for this)
Suzuki Sx4 - Typical Maruti interiors that always keep giving me the 'cheap' feeling.Also a Sedan so parking issue.

What are the freebies ?

None....zero...poof!

What accessories did I buy ?

3M sunfilm,mud guards and floor mats.

What am I doing with the shoes ?

Nothing for the time being.Was originally planning to get some good alloys from the dealer but even though the dealer stocks Platies-the designs they have suck big time.Apollo Acceleries is just fine with me for the first year and later I might upsize to a suitable Michellin.

What are my plans for alloys ?

Again have to go around a while to get some good alloys. Spending can be constrained but I think I will be able to manage upto 30k.

What are the planned mods ?

None except some underbelly neons.May be change the horn.

When am I supposed to get the car ?

Was promised the last week of August.Lets see.

[Sawyer]

As a fellow new i 20 1.2 owner, good for you! It is a lovely little car. Not so little of course, be careful of the length on turns till you get a sense of how long it is, so you don't swipe something. The longer wheelbase makes that even more likely. It is also wide, as small cars go.
Suggestions:
1. Stick to the CR series in 3M, and be sure to not forget the front glass, all the sun comes in from there. CR70 ought to be very good, and will also keep your dashboard color intact to a larger extent.
2. I doubt you can do anything about the horn, it is just hard to press, a quirk to live with.
3. Do not upgrade to a tyre/alloy size beyond the Asta spec. And changing the tyres after a year will cost you a lot. Either do it on day 1, where the tyre cost difference will be in the region of Rs 5k for all five, or after fully using the Acceleres for 4-5 years. After a year, the used Acceleres will fetch you peanuts.
PS: Let me also give you the case against black, while you still have the chance to change. It gets a lot hotter under the Indian sun, and the i 20 has an AC that can do without that additional load. And black is hell to maintain in the condition it needs to be kept to look good. When kept that way, it looks great, but only then. Shows up every little speck of dust. I got mine in white - though I think silver looked better. But lots of people think that the white car, dressed in the light grey sunfilm looks good too. And purely from a safety standpoint, white is best for being the most visible to others. It also makes smaller cars look bigger than what they are if such pleasures push your buttons. I say all of this having lived with a black car, bought with the initial love for a black car! Never again in India.

[Sawyer]

Further on the black subject - Autobild did a very useful study that found out that in a two hour time from 8 30 am to 10 30 am, the temp in a white car parked in the sun rose to 45 C. While that inside a black car rose to 55 C. At those temperatures, a ten degree difference is huge in terms of discomfort. Or AC load. What was a surprise was that even in a silver car, the temp rose all the way to 50 C. Good objective data to back up what was known experientially.
And heaven knows what the difference would be by 2 pm.

[PaglaGoru]

Hey Sawyer, thanks a ton buddy for the inputs.But the black was selected more because I wanted to nip the budding fire at home than it was a deliberate choice on my side. I personally liked the berry red but my wife read somewhere that the red color is not good for me and can kill me on road (sheesh-killed by a color!!!). My wife was only in for white or black and initially with the sun condition in mind I chose to go for white.However there was this tasteless dude in our neighborhood who got himself a white Magna and stickered it up like a tea stall on wheels. Then it was hard to keep my wife convinced on white and had to go for black.

What you say about the black color is right but may be it is something I will have to live with. I saw a lot of high end Saloons like Audi and Volks coming in black and they seem to be well maintained. Guess have to learn the trick if someone shares.

Regarding tyres I am going to use it as long as it is not giving off stupid sounds.On Bangalore Road conditions (speaking of lanes,crosses etc) I suspect it will live till 4-5 years with that initial finesse. The i20 in UK gets 185/60 R15 thats an odd size to come by.However not too sure that it is non-standard.So probably I am looking at that upsize.We get 185/65 R14 which is beefy but choices on alloys is severely limited. R15 opens up a whole new dimension.But again I am not too keen on upsizing to something stupid and unsafe like 195/55 R15 which will make this car look like its running on bicycle tyres and deteriorating the fine driving feeling.


I am open to suggestion for day one changing of alloys-where to get it done in Bangalore and at a good exchange price of course !!!

[Sawyer]

Originally Posted by PaglaGoru

What you say about the black color is right but may be it is something I will have to live with. I saw a lot of high end Saloons like Audi and Volks coming in black and they seem to be well maintained. Guess have to learn the trick if someone shares.

The trick is to have a chauffeur that cleans it twice a day! And is able to keep the car in the shade when parked - certainly when it is at home or at work. In India they are usually an accessory to high end cars!

[PaglaGoru]

Well said ...guess I'll have to start wearing my chauffeur hat form time to time
Donno how it is going to affect my job though!

[pachchu]

Originally Posted by PaglaGoru

Hey Sawyer, thanks a ton buddy for the inputs.But the black was selected more because I wanted to nip the budding fire at home than it was a deliberate choice on my side. I personally liked the berry red but my wife read somewhere that the red color is not good for me and can kill me on road (sheesh-killed by a color!!!). My wife was only in for white or black and initially with the sun condition in mind I chose to go for white.However there was this tasteless dude in our neighborhood who got himself a white Magna and stickered it up like a tea stall on wheels. Then it was hard to keep my wife convinced on white and had to go for black.

'tea-stall on wheels'

My wife was keen on white and I was keen on blue. my first reaction when I heard my wife say a 'white' i20 was, 'then keep searching for it amongst the taxis in a parking lot.' I know I am wrong bcos i20 looks far more classy than an indica or any other hatch.

I like white but I didn't want white, even though I am aware of all the thermal benefits, we already have a white Reva and didn't want another white in my parking lot. Besides, we've never had a blue car in the past. My wife bought that argument finally.

the stock wheels are good, I feel. Only the tyres need changing. I am using XM1 tubeless on my santro and would prefer an XM1+ on i20 from day 1.

Sawyer, thanks for the 3M specs. very useful.

[PaglaGoru]

@pachchu

Great review of the greatest car in Bangalore (referring to Reva - Cheers mate !)

Blue looks good - ReckDriver got some Samurais and his Blue really stands out. I went through Nikhil's posts and concluded that theres no need for a tyre upsizing. If i wanna go cosmetic alloy all the way

[PaglaGoru]

Did a bit of research and found out that R14 alloys in general suck. The good ones are all available in R15 . I want to put up something like the one in attachment.Though this is a 17 incher I believe but I managed to locate quite a few of similar red trim across brands on R15.

Guess have to upgrade the tyres as well !!!

[FlyingSpur]

I like. However, if you're going to go with red neons (neons mentioned in your first post) then it's going to be overkill.

[PaglaGoru]

@flyingspur
Alloys are more important than neons .... provided it matches something above !!!!

[uday.ere]

Originally Posted by PaglaGoru

I want to put up something like the one in attachment.Though this is a 17 incher I believe but I managed to locate quite a few of similar red trim across brands on R15.

Congrats buddy, good choice of car & color. The red alloys on black car would be a deadly combo :-) Looking forward to the pix and dealership experience.

[PlatzdaTurbo]

Originally Posted by PaglaGoru

Did a bit of research and found out that R14 alloys in general suck. The good ones are all available in R15 . I want to put up something like the one in attachment.Though this is a 17 incher I believe but I managed to locate quite a few of similar red trim across brands on R15.

Guess have to upgrade the tyres as well !!!

Went through this thread and i have a question regarding tyres and alloys. I too have booked a 1.4 a/t i20 and hence have been going through all i20 threads to extract maximum experiences that owners have encountered. I have noticed 1 particular topic being sprung up and discussed about in many threads and that is the concern owners are having with the stock 14 inchers that hyundai are providing with the i20. The lack of grip is a serious concern with these particular tyres is what i have read time and time again. As i am quite an enthusiastic driver on highways ,where i change lanes quite quickly with proper signals if some fool is driving at less than 80kph in the right most lane, this particular problem concerns me. Some people have even reported the car having skidded and slipped when they changed lanes abruptly while TDing the car in the city. what i would like to know is, is it really really essential (mandatory ,in a way) to change to michelins or better tyres ASAP if one wants to really push the car on highways ?? I personally dont plan to change to bigger alloys anytime soon but the way some guys have put it, the car would most certainly skid and go off road if its pushed left-right !!! If anyone could enlighten me a bit about this problem i would be glad and thankful. I hope it is a bit exaggerated and the tyres are not as bad as they r made out to be.

[Gilead]

Originally Posted by PaglaGoru

I saw a lot of high end Saloons like Audi and Volks coming in black and they seem to be well maintained.

Pagla, there is a good chance that these cars have drivers who clean them every two hours or so.

But color choice is an emotional choice to some extent, so if you are convinced about black, go ahead and enjoy it. Congrats!

Edit: I see that Sawyer has mentioned the point about chauffeurs as well.

[PaglaGoru]

@Gilead

Guess I'll have to wear the chauffeur hat for a while since my wife and my kid doesn't drive. But my wife has dreams to start driving soon and then I can try passing on the 'value added service' expected from the chauffeurs to her ....... till then as Sawyer suggested and you confirmed, I'll have to be the mopping guy around

In other news .... to get my desired 'type' of alloys I see no option but to upgrade my tyres as well. Was suggested 195/55 against R15 from numerous sources but wish to explore the 195/60 against R15 route as well. Thoughts , comments ?