The Hyundai i20 buying experience

prasadka · 21st August 2009, 12:46

Hi all,
At the outset, please accept my apologies for the longish post. I will split my report into different threads
My test drive and buying experience
- Initial ownership report
- First service report
- Coimbatore - Bangalore Travelogue.

I have been hunting around for a car for a long time. I test drove the following cars before settling down on the i20 petrol

What did I expect from a car?
- Good leg room and space when going for long drives
- good enough pick up- I am not a fast driver, but enjoy cruising at a constant speed, with occasional overtaking. I am more than happy to leave way for those in a hurry. Even on an empty stretch in the city I stick to 60 and on the highways, I usually do 90km with the speedo touching 100-110 occasionally.
- good music system,Ipod support must,steering mounted controls would be nice to have. I mostly listen to carnatic classical (south Indian classical music). So amps etc., ICE upgrade not a priority.
- tyre upgrades- may be need to see.
- ABS and airbag- no compromise on this.
- I wanted to buy the car at Coimbatore because my parents would be using the car as well.

Honda Jazz - Good car to drive, feels easy to drive, well built etc., But the fear of Honda dropping the price by a third once I book the car put me off (Hybrid news- however illogical it may sound)
Fiat Grande Punto- was very close to booking this one, some reports on TBHP about the after sales service and rusted parts pic posted by a member dissuaded me from this one
Fiat Linea- Same as above
SX4 - Was the closest to book this one. Dad said this is not easy to park, I will leave the car with parents when I travel on work. So had to let go of this. I really liked this car, it was an excellent car to drive with more pick up than I need and had all the goodies that I wanted (ATCC, airbags etc,).
Diesel i20- This was released just before i booked my I20 petrol. I decided to stay away from this one
I did test drive the other suzuki hatches, and decided to stay away from them. So the decision to book i20 was an automatic one.

All of this was ok. The six week wait for the i20 would be painful, but since I knew someone at the Chennai Hyundai factory, there was a possibility of the car being delivered out of turn to me.

I decided to go for a 60% loan. I booked the i20 paying a deposit of 20k. It was easy to decide after a quick market survey that State Bank of India is the way to go. The bloke who was the sales agent turned out to be a student of my dad (Chem Prof at Govt arts college, Coimbatore). So he took additional interest in my loan processing. The loan was approved in just over a week's time, in the meanwhile, I was able to get a car delivered in about 2 weeks time at Chandra Hyundai(CH), Coimbatore- this included a delay induced by a change of mind when I changed colours from blue to grey (not silver

)

There were some hiccups with SBI insisting on a local account (in SBI) before they could disburse the loan. Once that was sorted, before the amount was paid to CH, i went to the showroom, armed with the PDI check list from Team BHP. The car had done 59km but I thought that was ok because they had to get the car from the Tirupur railhead- the numbers seemed to add up.

At this point, I should register my appreciation for the CH folks. They are a brilliant lot, very, very easy to handle, extremely professional and knew their way around most of the problems and questions that I would pose (thanks to T-BHP). They were spot on with their planning, did all that was required to make me comfortable with my new car and made my buying experience an enjoyable one.

They gave me free mats, mud flaps and an anti rust coating for the car. I got a reverse parking sensor installed . After a lot of debate with a friend of mine, I decided not to upgrade the stock tyres at the minute. I will however go for bigger wheels and better tyres in the future.

I did not have any problems while taking delivery of the car. The car has done about 1900km as of now in three weeks it has been with me, done bangalore- Coimbatore back and forth about twice,with one stretch passing unexpectedly through the 27 hairpin bends of the Dimbam ghat section (remember Veerappan?) . It is a breeze to drive around, very light steering, super clutch, super smooth and refined engine.

As said earlier, I will be posting the other threads soon..
Until then.. so long..
Many Thanks
Prasad

vijaythacker · 21st August 2009, 15:32

prasad, congratulations on your i20, looks one of the best looking hatch today with all features provided along with fromhyundai.Keep updating with your review and post some pics too.

Gilead · 21st August 2009, 17:09

Prasad, congrats! How does the light steering feel on the highway? Do you get good feedback or is it disconnected?

JayD · 21st August 2009, 17:33

Congrats on the new buy prasad. pls post some pix soon.

prasadka · 21st August 2009, 18:28

Hi

The steering does feel light on the highway, however, it tightens up at 60+. There are two things that I must point out here. I will dwell on this during my ownership reports though

The car does not inspire confidence while turning at 60+ speeds. I definitely need to downshift before turning.
I think i should have upgraded my tyres to a slightly better profile, even though this was not advised by the serviec manager of CH.

Regards
Prasad

lamborghini · 21st August 2009, 19:05

Prasad, congrats on the purchase.
We are waiting for the pics. Also, which variant is this? I believe the Asta comes with wider tyres, compared to the Magna.
Also, how come you avoided the Diesel i20?

prasadka · 21st August 2009, 19:41

Hi
I thought the diesel was way too expensive (7.65 lakhs at Coimbatore), almost a lakh and a half more. So I would have had to settle for the Magna ABS, which I did not want to. I have picked up the Asta petrol at 6.3 lakhs. It comes with 185/65/14 apollo acceleres. I will post pics soon.

Regards
Prasad

gtr34 · 24th August 2009, 03:05

Hi, My name is khizer, I'm from Hyderabad & I have a completely different story to tell.

On the 1st of march '09 i went to the Hyundai dealership M/s Talwar Hyundai to have a look of the i20. The moment i set my eyes on it i knew i was going to take her home. I had a good look of the car at the showroom and then went back home deciding what colour to pick. I had to go home because i had not come prepared to book the car.

I returned early next day to book the car. I did not care much about taking a test drive unless the test drive vehicle was readily available. After booking the car i came to know that i would have to wait for 2 months to get the delivery. (2 months ???? do they custom make cars or what ?? ) Anyway, after a long heated conversation with staff and the manager i was told my the manager himself that he would personally take my case up and get my car delivered in a fortnight.

I made the booking amount payment to the sales person. The accountant had gone to the bank so, i was asked to wait for a few minutes to get my receipt. I went outside the showroom just in time to see the idiot driver of the showroom backing up the demo i20 into a parked skoda superb. The bolt of the number plate on the skoda caused a little dent / abrasion on the i20's rear bumper. The driver did not even notice it. He just parked the car and left. I was the only one who witnessed it and i was just standing there speechless. Thankfully the skoda was un harmed, not even a scratch.

Soon the accountant came and i was handed my receipt and i left. On The 5th of march i got a call from the dealership that my car has arrived and that i could come over to collect it. (they called me up at 3 pm & asked me to be there at 5pm. I reached their place at 5:30, & the car turned up a little after 7:30) I hurried over excitedly, my 6th sense pricked, i went over to the car & felt the rear bumper with my hand for un eveness or a dent. It was there, this was the demo car. I brought this to the managers notice and told him the whole story. He was dumbstruck. I took pics of the sticker on the rear quarter glass of the rear left door which has all details of the car & e-mailed them to Hyundai india aswell as the Talwar Hynudai.

I was contacted immediately by Hyundai officials and a fresh car was delivered to me on 16th March '09.

born2drive · 4th October 2010, 13:23

As it became a necessity rather than a luxury, i along with my room mate decided to book an i20 asta crdi. Took a TD in Banaglore . We needed that ABS so there was only one option "asta".
But the dealer in Balandhur was having an option of Magna with ABS left with them ,put us in a real dilemma.
Got the pricing from them and just compared it with palakad hyundai. The OTR price of an asta crdi is equivalent to magna in bangalore that also without ABS , climate control etc etc ( .

So no further confusion and talked to the manager in Plakad hyundai . We needed the car by 9th oct. So made it very clear to him.After that we wont be able to get it here from palakad till november. He promised a delivery within 45 days and if we pay half of the amount , he will make it in 30 days (means max by sept 18th). So we rechecked the second option of paying the half amount and handed over the check within two days (on aug 19th).
He called us in the first week of sept and confirmed the delivery date as last week of september. when i asked about the 30 days promise, he said that it will take more time as it is hot selling hatch...

Contacted the hyundai show room on 27th . The manager was not there . We have received a very confusing statement from a sales girl who picked the call. "we will get allotment of the car only after getting three more orders sir. As we are the only ones booked so far , you will have to wait at least for another two more orders".
They gave me so much of technical knowledge .How all these are happening online ..how hyundai is manufacturing very less white colour cars..etc etc
In short nothing i can or they can do about the delivery ..but wait for three more orders..!
Explanations of these sort from dealers side was so close to 100% stupidity .

I got pissed off and contacted the manager as he was the one committed this date. He also gave me enough gyan about the hyundai manufacturing and the allotment complexities..

At last after a long tiring 1 hr conversation with the manager, i got a date. "your car will be delivered either on first week of Oct or after 28th of Oct.."

I then decided not to argue any more as hyudai or the dealer doesnt care much about the commitments. I told him ," If you can deliver it max by 8th oct , i will take it otherwise please return my check ". He didnt even try to retain me and said ,"no problem sir, i will return the check if its not coming on first week ".

After reading the TD and review about Punto 90hp on TBHP on saturday, i decided to try the fiat dealer in palakad.

Surprisingly there are 5 puntos and white colour is one of them(the rare breed in terms of hyundai)

.

Much impressed with the reviews of punto (not in terms of interior quality and engine as compared to i20) and after listening to one punto owner, i thought this would be a good bet .

More over we take the car for long trips (like valparai-munnar etc), puto's ride,handling and shock absorbers will give enough reasons to forget the i20 charm...

so the decision will be taken tomorrow.we are in a strange state of mind as we dont know which car we would be driving in this weekend?? thanks to hyundai commitment ..

IMO they would have given our allotment to somebody else..thats the only thing i could imagine as a reason (if the 45 days waiting period is true).

21st August 2009, 12:46	#1
prasadka BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 37 Thanked: 0 Times	The Hyundai i20 buying experience Hi all, At the outset, please accept my apologies for the longish post. I will split my report into different threads My test drive and buying experience - Initial ownership report - First service report - Coimbatore - Bangalore Travelogue. I have been hunting around for a car for a long time. I test drove the following cars before settling down on the i20 petrol What did I expect from a car? - Good leg room and space when going for long drives - good enough pick up- I am not a fast driver, but enjoy cruising at a constant speed, with occasional overtaking. I am more than happy to leave way for those in a hurry. Even on an empty stretch in the city I stick to 60 and on the highways, I usually do 90km with the speedo touching 100-110 occasionally. - good music system,Ipod support must,steering mounted controls would be nice to have. I mostly listen to carnatic classical (south Indian classical music). So amps etc., ICE upgrade not a priority. - tyre upgrades- may be need to see. - ABS and airbag- no compromise on this. - I wanted to buy the car at Coimbatore because my parents would be using the car as well. Honda Jazz - Good car to drive, feels easy to drive, well built etc., But the fear of Honda dropping the price by a third once I book the car put me off (Hybrid news- however illogical it may sound) Fiat Grande Punto- was very close to booking this one, some reports on TBHP about the after sales service and rusted parts pic posted by a member dissuaded me from this one Fiat Linea- Same as above SX4 - Was the closest to book this one. Dad said this is not easy to park, I will leave the car with parents when I travel on work. So had to let go of this. I really liked this car, it was an excellent car to drive with more pick up than I need and had all the goodies that I wanted (ATCC, airbags etc,). Diesel i20- This was released just before i booked my I20 petrol. I decided to stay away from this one I did test drive the other suzuki hatches, and decided to stay away from them. So the decision to book i20 was an automatic one. All of this was ok. The six week wait for the i20 would be painful, but since I knew someone at the Chennai Hyundai factory, there was a possibility of the car being delivered out of turn to me. I decided to go for a 60% loan. I booked the i20 paying a deposit of 20k. It was easy to decide after a quick market survey that State Bank of India is the way to go. The bloke who was the sales agent turned out to be a student of my dad (Chem Prof at Govt arts college, Coimbatore). So he took additional interest in my loan processing. The loan was approved in just over a week's time, in the meanwhile, I was able to get a car delivered in about 2 weeks time at Chandra Hyundai(CH), Coimbatore- this included a delay induced by a change of mind when I changed colours from blue to grey (not silver ) There were some hiccups with SBI insisting on a local account (in SBI) before they could disburse the loan. Once that was sorted, before the amount was paid to CH, i went to the showroom, armed with the PDI check list from Team BHP. The car had done 59km but I thought that was ok because they had to get the car from the Tirupur railhead- the numbers seemed to add up. At this point, I should register my appreciation for the CH folks. They are a brilliant lot, very, very easy to handle, extremely professional and knew their way around most of the problems and questions that I would pose (thanks to T-BHP). They were spot on with their planning, did all that was required to make me comfortable with my new car and made my buying experience an enjoyable one. They gave me free mats, mud flaps and an anti rust coating for the car. I got a reverse parking sensor installed . After a lot of debate with a friend of mine, I decided not to upgrade the stock tyres at the minute. I will however go for bigger wheels and better tyres in the future. I did not have any problems while taking delivery of the car. The car has done about 1900km as of now in three weeks it has been with me, done bangalore- Coimbatore back and forth about twice,with one stretch passing unexpectedly through the 27 hairpin bends of the Dimbam ghat section (remember Veerappan?) . It is a breeze to drive around, very light steering, super clutch, super smooth and refined engine. As said earlier, I will be posting the other threads soon.. Until then.. so long.. Many Thanks Prasad
	() Thanks

21st August 2009, 15:32	#2
vijaythacker Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Ahmedabad Posts: 1,498 Thanked: 74 Times View My Garage	prasad, congratulations on your i20, looks one of the best looking hatch today with all features provided along with fromhyundai.Keep updating with your review and post some pics too.
	() Thanks

21st August 2009, 17:09	#3
Gilead Senior - BHPian Join Date: May 2009 Location: Chennai Posts: 2,142 Thanked: 60 Times	Prasad, congrats! How does the light steering feel on the highway? Do you get good feedback or is it disconnected?
	() Thanks

21st August 2009, 17:33	#4
JayD Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Cochin! At last Posts: 3,236 Thanked: 2,568 Times View My Garage	Congrats on the new buy prasad. pls post some pix soon.
	() Thanks

21st August 2009, 18:28	#5
prasadka BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 37 Thanked: 0 Times	Hi The steering does feel light on the highway, however, it tightens up at 60+. There are two things that I must point out here. I will dwell on this during my ownership reports though The car does not inspire confidence while turning at 60+ speeds. I definitely need to downshift before turning. I think i should have upgraded my tyres to a slightly better profile, even though this was not advised by the serviec manager of CH. Regards Prasad
	() Thanks

21st August 2009, 19:05	#6
lamborghini Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Mumbai Posts: 6,112 Thanked: 5,760 Times View My Garage	Prasad, congrats on the purchase. We are waiting for the pics. Also, which variant is this? I believe the Asta comes with wider tyres, compared to the Magna. Also, how come you avoided the Diesel i20?
	() Thanks

21st August 2009, 19:41	#7
prasadka BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 37 Thanked: 0 Times	Hi I thought the diesel was way too expensive (7.65 lakhs at Coimbatore), almost a lakh and a half more. So I would have had to settle for the Magna ABS, which I did not want to. I have picked up the Asta petrol at 6.3 lakhs. It comes with 185/65/14 apollo acceleres. I will post pics soon. Regards Prasad
	() Thanks

24th August 2009, 03:05	#8
gtr34 Newbie Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Hyderabad Posts: 7 Thanked: Once	They tried to sell me a demo car Hi, My name is khizer, I'm from Hyderabad & I have a completely different story to tell. On the 1st of march '09 i went to the Hyundai dealership M/s Talwar Hyundai to have a look of the i20. The moment i set my eyes on it i knew i was going to take her home. I had a good look of the car at the showroom and then went back home deciding what colour to pick. I had to go home because i had not come prepared to book the car. I returned early next day to book the car. I did not care much about taking a test drive unless the test drive vehicle was readily available. After booking the car i came to know that i would have to wait for 2 months to get the delivery. (2 months ???? do they custom make cars or what ?? ) Anyway, after a long heated conversation with staff and the manager i was told my the manager himself that he would personally take my case up and get my car delivered in a fortnight. I made the booking amount payment to the sales person. The accountant had gone to the bank so, i was asked to wait for a few minutes to get my receipt. I went outside the showroom just in time to see the idiot driver of the showroom backing up the demo i20 into a parked skoda superb. The bolt of the number plate on the skoda caused a little dent / abrasion on the i20's rear bumper. The driver did not even notice it. He just parked the car and left. I was the only one who witnessed it and i was just standing there speechless. Thankfully the skoda was un harmed, not even a scratch. Soon the accountant came and i was handed my receipt and i left. On The 5th of march i got a call from the dealership that my car has arrived and that i could come over to collect it. (they called me up at 3 pm & asked me to be there at 5pm. I reached their place at 5:30, & the car turned up a little after 7:30) I hurried over excitedly, my 6th sense pricked, i went over to the car & felt the rear bumper with my hand for un eveness or a dent. It was there, this was the demo car. I brought this to the managers notice and told him the whole story. He was dumbstruck. I took pics of the sticker on the rear quarter glass of the rear left door which has all details of the car & e-mailed them to Hyundai india aswell as the Talwar Hynudai. I was contacted immediately by Hyundai officials and a fresh car was delivered to me on 16th March '09.
	() Thanks

4th October 2010, 13:23	#9
born2drive BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Dubai Posts: 27 Thanked: 25 Times	Another i20 buying experience: Palakad hyundai As it became a necessity rather than a luxury, i along with my room mate decided to book an i20 asta crdi. Took a TD in Banaglore . We needed that ABS so there was only one option "asta". But the dealer in Balandhur was having an option of Magna with ABS left with them ,put us in a real dilemma. Got the pricing from them and just compared it with palakad hyundai. The OTR price of an asta crdi is equivalent to magna in bangalore that also without ABS , climate control etc etc ( . So no further confusion and talked to the manager in Plakad hyundai . We needed the car by 9th oct. So made it very clear to him.After that we wont be able to get it here from palakad till november. He promised a delivery within 45 days and if we pay half of the amount , he will make it in 30 days (means max by sept 18th). So we rechecked the second option of paying the half amount and handed over the check within two days (on aug 19th). He called us in the first week of sept and confirmed the delivery date as last week of september. when i asked about the 30 days promise, he said that it will take more time as it is hot selling hatch... Contacted the hyundai show room on 27th . The manager was not there . We have received a very confusing statement from a sales girl who picked the call. "we will get allotment of the car only after getting three more orders sir. As we are the only ones booked so far , you will have to wait at least for another two more orders". They gave me so much of technical knowledge .How all these are happening online ..how hyundai is manufacturing very less white colour cars..etc etc In short nothing i can or they can do about the delivery ..but wait for three more orders..! Explanations of these sort from dealers side was so close to 100% stupidity . I got pissed off and contacted the manager as he was the one committed this date. He also gave me enough gyan about the hyundai manufacturing and the allotment complexities.. At last after a long tiring 1 hr conversation with the manager, i got a date. "your car will be delivered either on first week of Oct or after 28th of Oct.." I then decided not to argue any more as hyudai or the dealer doesnt care much about the commitments. I told him ," If you can deliver it max by 8th oct , i will take it otherwise please return my check ". He didnt even try to retain me and said ,"no problem sir, i will return the check if its not coming on first week ". After reading the TD and review about Punto 90hp on TBHP on saturday, i decided to try the fiat dealer in palakad. Surprisingly there are 5 puntos and white colour is one of them(the rare breed in terms of hyundai) . Much impressed with the reviews of punto (not in terms of interior quality and engine as compared to i20) and after listening to one punto owner, i thought this would be a good bet . More over we take the car for long trips (like valparai-munnar etc), puto's ride,handling and shock absorbers will give enough reasons to forget the i20 charm... so the decision will be taken tomorrow.we are in a strange state of mind as we dont know which car we would be driving in this weekend?? thanks to hyundai commitment .. IMO they would have given our allotment to somebody else..thats the only thing i could imagine as a reason (if the 45 days waiting period is true).
	() Thanks