Meet the "i" : Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2

FlyingSpur · 26th October 2009, 00:49

Back in August, the time had finally come to replace our aging old warrior, the Hyundai Accent GLS. It had served us well, and was largely trouble-free and reliable, covering 1,37,000 km in its 9 years (and 4 days) in service. When talks to decommission it from the fleet were on, we were initially looking at a C / C+ petrol sedan. This would be the secondary car in the house, and not much of a highway runner.

While I held the Fiesta, City and SX4 in high regard, the SX4 was rejected because I simply cannot deal with rattles on a car of any age. Ford service, upkeep, part prices and resale were questioned by my dad, and he wasn't very happy. He's the kind that really could use some peace of mind, and a car can't be a reason for him to worry at any time. The Honda was within budget, but I was insisting on the A/T which was fairly expensive. We did a TD, and both me and Dad hated the silver finish dash, forget about quality etc.

Meanwhile, I floated the suggestion of the i20. Dad was wondering why I'm suggesting a hatch at this budget, and was less than convinced. So I took him for a TD, and the first time he saw it, he was quite impressed with the look, since it looked like a refined, mature and big hatch unlike the tinny and compact image he had of most hatches like the i10 & Spark. Also impressed was he, by the quality of the interior materials and fit+finish. Very un-Hyundai. A quick demo of all the features on the Asta version and he was sold. We realized, this was the perfect car to suit our needs. A big hatch which looked great, was easy to drive within the city, returned good FE figures and was fully loaded in Asta guise was the perfect recipe for a second car in the urban scenario. Not too expensive either, given our budget, infact it was more of a VFM proposition given the long list of bells and whistles... and practical ones too, not stupid gadgets we would never have utility for. The underpowered engine did not bother us, it was zippy enough in the city.

[I'd like to add here, the reason why we did not consider the Punto. I won't beat around the bush, quite frankly, I hate the interiors. Still, I asked dad to have a look, but he rejected FIAT outright, questioning A.S.S. Maybe if it was a diesel under consideration, I''d have still dragged him to have a look, but since I didn't care for the Punto much, I didn't bother beyond that point. Obviously, no offfence meant to Punto fans / owners]

My first attempt at purchasing one didn't go too well. Check the link for more on that. Ever got the "Why ME?" feeling?

Following that incident, I went to another dealer where somehow, I got the feeling that they were just not interested in customers and were too busy with their pending work. Went to yet another dealer, and this time a rather incourteous salesperson totally put me off, yet I went ahead with the booking on a couple of conditions, which the sales rep would get back to me on. Four days without any communication and I was really beginning to get pissed off. At this stage, I was almost inclined to look at another car. But somehow, I knew that only the i20 would fit the bill for us, and perfectly. Swallowed my discontent with Hyundai's dealerships in Mumbai, and approached one last dealer, on the recommendation of a fellow BHP'ian. Got the colour I wanted, and delivery was promised to be quick. They're rather business-minded though, but never mind. Why shouldn't they be. Worked out an exchange deal with them for my Accent.

The car was ready in the stockyard for really long, but my stupid exams kept me from the PDI for almost a week. Finally went and approved the car, this time everything was perfect. Went to the RTO myself to get a number of dad's choice. Delivery process was quite smooth, and finally, our new car was with us !! Eventually, due to the week's delay with my exams and RTO off-days in the festive season, it took a total of one month for the car to be delivered from the day of booking.

My old faithful in the background :

Meet the "i" : Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2-photo0186.jpg

Some pictures I clicked on the way home. Stock rims and no sunfilm yet :

Meet the "i" : Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2-photo0195.jpg

Meet the "i" : Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2-photo0196.jpg

Meet the "i" : Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2-photo0197.jpg

A day after delivery i.e. yesterday, I exchanged my stock rims for these 14" x 6J. I think they look fabulous. I also saw a couple of other designs, but they seemed like overkill on such an elegant design. Also, got 3M sunfilm all around. I love the look of my car now. Considering that Dad has always believed in keeping things stock (sigh, the Accent never had any ICE whatsoever), it was my dream to have a car worthy of posting pics of in the alloy wheel show-off thread

and luckily, Dad agreed with this car.

Post sunfilm + alloys :

Meet the "i" : Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2-photo0242.jpg

Meet the "i" : Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2-photo0254.jpg

Meet the "i" : Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2-photo0246.jpg

Meet the "i" : Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2-photo0247.jpg

Meet the "i" : Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2-photo0248.jpg

Already clocked ~500 km in the last three days that I've had the car, and it's just awesome. This included a round trip to Pune. Put in 40.xx litres of fuel in for the first tankful. Covered around 400km after that already and visually, the needle is just a little below the halfway mark, about 35% of fuel still left I estimate. A good bit of highway running of course, but some city running as well. Needle always kept below 2500 rpm in the urban environment, and upto 3000 rpm on the expressway.

Initial impressions, positives, negatives and FE figures later, after my first tankful.

As an MBA student, I've been hearing a lot about - and therefore believe that the i20 Asta is a shining example of - the difference between customer satisfaction and customer delight. Atleast that's my initial impression. Elaborate on that later.

Comments welcome.

spookey · 26th October 2009, 01:25

she looks so "WOW" flyingspur heartiest congratulations :-) , wishing you both an endless mile crunching affair ;-)
which dealer finally got your business ? Hyundai dealers have become a spoilt lot of late due to success of i20 and i10.

offtopic: You have to be extra careful when you give her for service, make sure you are present with her. I own a 02 accent gls too and service her at my neighbourhood MASS after my fuel pump was swapped during a service by an authorised dealer :(.

captainsokhi · 26th October 2009, 01:31

congrats on the new ride...
the silver colour is looking pretting nice.....
im glad your dad agreed on for the rims.....
they are looking very elegant.....
they gel quite well with the car....

leonerd · 26th October 2009, 02:48

Congrats on getting the 20. I feel it is one of the best looking hatchbacks. If one has the budget then this is the car to go for. Congrats once again.

I am not sure why but the stock rims looked much better than the new ones. Anyways, if you like it then nothing else matters. Please post some interior pictures too.

rajtheindian · 26th October 2009, 04:58

Congratulations
please provide a detailed drive report

anilkalvani · 26th October 2009, 07:23

Congrats Akshay,
So you finally got hold of the i. Really neat pics and good choice of alloys. Did you upgrade the rubbers too or they're stock? Hope to catch you on Carter's sometime, we never got a chance to meet up, now with your new ride, we must!

Take care and have fun with the beauty bro!

Cheers,
Anil

F50 · 26th October 2009, 08:10

Congrats Buddy!

Long time coming, eh? Enjoy your ride and time for some ICE?

Btw, good rims, car looks great!

Ramsagar · 26th October 2009, 08:18

You've made a right choice for going for hatch which is very rarely used.

Was it Asta with sunroof? I love that,though not convenient for Indian environment, can be used during the night in highway.

BWT I personally didn't the kind of alloys, also doesn't match with the macho looks of the very. Side profile of the vehicle had become poor.

pranavt · 26th October 2009, 08:31

Just one thing. When running in, it's advised to keep varying the engine load, rather than cruising at a single speed for a lot of time. Never had the patience to run-in a brand new car, but if you're going to follow the guidelines, just thought of telling you in-case you didn't think about it.

Nice car. Love the i20, specially in that color.

FlyingSpur · 26th October 2009, 08:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by spookey

she looks so "WOW" flyingspur heartiest congratulations :-) , wishing you both an endless mile crunching affair ;-)

Thank you so much !! Which service centre do you recomment for Hyundai in Mumbai. I was about to ask for recommendations for the same in my next elaborate post anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by captainsokhi

congrats on the new ride...

Thank you !

Quote:

Originally Posted by leonerd

Congrats on getting the 20. I feel it is one of the best looking hatchbacks.

Thanks leonerd.From the moment I saw the Asta, I knew I simply hated the rims. The car looks too anynomous. I mean, I don't like being flashy or conspicuous at all, but I don't like bland. To make things worse, I wasn't at all in favour of this colour and if you've checked the thread I linked regarding my first failed attempt, my choice was previously white. Finally gave in to family's wishes w.r.t. the colour. I thought the silver makes it really bland and anonymous. That's why I had decided beforehand itself that the stock rims were out. Anyway, now all that is out the window

Quote:

Originally Posted by rajtheindian

Congratulations
please provide a detailed drive report

Will follow soon, Raj. Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by anilkalvani

Congrats Akshay,
So you finally got hold of the i. Really neat pics and good choice of alloys.

Thanks a ton, Anil. I retained the stock Apollo Aceleres cause I think they're perfect for my usage. As I said in the alloy wheel thread, I'm not going to do any spirited driving with this Kappa engine and the EPS isn't so confidence inspiring (more on that in my driving report later). So the width and height was perfect, keeping ride quality in mind.

We'll surely meet up soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by F50

Congrats Buddy!

Long time coming, eh? Enjoy your ride and time for some ICE?

Btw, good rims, car looks great!

Thanks bro. You know how much I've waited for this

I'm going to keep the stock ICE for a long time. It was difficult enough getting the rims and sunfilm sanctioned.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramsagar

You've made a right choice for going for hatch which is very rarely used.

Thank you so much. Actually it's used quite a lot, but in the urban environment. Regarding the sunroof, I've always thought of it as a needless excess, and I almost never drive with the windows down (even of AC is off) cause I hate dust getting into the interior. As for the rims, to each his own, I suppose !!

Quote:

Originally Posted by pranavt

Just one thing. When running in, it's advised to keep varying the engine load, rather than cruising at a single speed for a lot of time. Never had the patience to run-in a brand new car, but if you're going to follow the guidelines, just thought of telling you in-case you didn't think about it.

Thanks Pranav. Since it was the expressway, I didn't have much choice. Was running short of time anyway, so it was ~90kmph @ 2750 r.p.m. for most of the time, except my brother did push it to about 3500 r.p.m. on a few occasions

Now about 60% on this tank has been highway mileage, but the remaining tank (~1/4th) will solely be in the city. Lets see how it goes. I think it's kinda easy for me to run in this thing because frankly, there's not much power to be tapped !! I've never run in any of my other cars before. Heck, I wasn't legal to drive back then.

Quote:

Nice car. Love the i20, specially in that color.

Colour was actually a compromise on my part, but after the rims, I'm sorted

Tejas@perioimpl · 26th October 2009, 13:19

Congrats akshay! What deal you got on the rims? buyback etc...

normally_crazy · 26th October 2009, 13:25

Congrats buddy.

Silver looks pretty cool with that shade of sun film you have there. Personally I do not like the alloys - takes a lot away from the car.

And yes - like I said earlier, do remove the seat covers. Also a few shots of the interiors would be nice.

Have fun with her and drive safe.

ps - main chalaon kab ?

vijaythacker · 26th October 2009, 13:51

FS, congratulations on your uber cool acquisition, looks cool and hot in those alloys.What was the final deal with dealer as well as how much did you paid for your current alloys in exchange of stock, do share with some more cool pics.Enjoy your ride.

undead · 26th October 2009, 14:13

Congrats . Can you tell me what was the total cost of the 3M Sunfilm you installed?

blackasta · 26th October 2009, 14:15

Congrats flyingspur, guess you are 2nd time lucky

(after that issue with your first booked i20)
Keep posting about your various experiences.
The car looks great as it is supposed to be! Post some interior pictures if you please.

26th October 2009, 00:49	#1
FlyingSpur Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 3,934 Thanked: 1,422 Times View My Garage	Meet the "i" : Hyundai i20 Asta 1.2 Back in August, the time had finally come to replace our aging old warrior, the Hyundai Accent GLS. It had served us well, and was largely trouble-free and reliable, covering 1,37,000 km in its 9 years (and 4 days) in service. When talks to decommission it from the fleet were on, we were initially looking at a C / C+ petrol sedan. This would be the secondary car in the house, and not much of a highway runner. While I held the Fiesta, City and SX4 in high regard, the SX4 was rejected because I simply cannot deal with rattles on a car of any age. Ford service, upkeep, part prices and resale were questioned by my dad, and he wasn't very happy. He's the kind that really could use some peace of mind, and a car can't be a reason for him to worry at any time. The Honda was within budget, but I was insisting on the A/T which was fairly expensive. We did a TD, and both me and Dad hated the silver finish dash, forget about quality etc. Meanwhile, I floated the suggestion of the i20. Dad was wondering why I'm suggesting a hatch at this budget, and was less than convinced. So I took him for a TD, and the first time he saw it, he was quite impressed with the look, since it looked like a refined, mature and big hatch unlike the tinny and compact image he had of most hatches like the i10 & Spark. Also impressed was he, by the quality of the interior materials and fit+finish. Very un-Hyundai. A quick demo of all the features on the Asta version and he was sold. We realized, this was the perfect car to suit our needs. A big hatch which looked great, was easy to drive within the city, returned good FE figures and was fully loaded in Asta guise was the perfect recipe for a second car in the urban scenario. Not too expensive either, given our budget, infact it was more of a VFM proposition given the long list of bells and whistles... and practical ones too, not stupid gadgets we would never have utility for. The underpowered engine did not bother us, it was zippy enough in the city. [I'd like to add here, the reason why we did not consider the Punto. I won't beat around the bush, quite frankly, I hate the interiors. Still, I asked dad to have a look, but he rejected FIAT outright, questioning A.S.S. Maybe if it was a diesel under consideration, I''d have still dragged him to have a look, but since I didn't care for the Punto much, I didn't bother beyond that point. Obviously, no offfence meant to Punto fans / owners] My first attempt at purchasing one didn't go too well. Check the link for more on that. Ever got the "Why ME?" feeling? Following that incident, I went to another dealer where somehow, I got the feeling that they were just not interested in customers and were too busy with their pending work. Went to yet another dealer, and this time a rather incourteous salesperson totally put me off, yet I went ahead with the booking on a couple of conditions, which the sales rep would get back to me on. Four days without any communication and I was really beginning to get pissed off. At this stage, I was almost inclined to look at another car. But somehow, I knew that only the i20 would fit the bill for us, and perfectly. Swallowed my discontent with Hyundai's dealerships in Mumbai, and approached one last dealer, on the recommendation of a fellow BHP'ian. Got the colour I wanted, and delivery was promised to be quick. They're rather business-minded though, but never mind. Why shouldn't they be. Worked out an exchange deal with them for my Accent. The car was ready in the stockyard for really long, but my stupid exams kept me from the PDI for almost a week. Finally went and approved the car, this time everything was perfect. Went to the RTO myself to get a number of dad's choice. Delivery process was quite smooth, and finally, our new car was with us !! Eventually, due to the week's delay with my exams and RTO off-days in the festive season, it took a total of one month for the car to be delivered from the day of booking. My old faithful in the background : Some pictures I clicked on the way home. Stock rims and no sunfilm yet : A day after delivery i.e. yesterday, I exchanged my stock rims for these 14" x 6J. I think they look fabulous. I also saw a couple of other designs, but they seemed like overkill on such an elegant design. Also, got 3M sunfilm all around. I love the look of my car now. Considering that Dad has always believed in keeping things stock (sigh, the Accent never had any ICE whatsoever), it was my dream to have a car worthy of posting pics of in the alloy wheel show-off thread and luckily, Dad agreed with this car. Post sunfilm + alloys : Already clocked ~500 km in the last three days that I've had the car, and it's just awesome. This included a round trip to Pune. Put in 40.xx litres of fuel in for the first tankful. Covered around 400km after that already and visually, the needle is just a little below the halfway mark, about 35% of fuel still left I estimate. A good bit of highway running of course, but some city running as well. Needle always kept below 2500 rpm in the urban environment, and upto 3000 rpm on the expressway. Initial impressions, positives, negatives and FE figures later, after my first tankful. As an MBA student, I've been hearing a lot about - and therefore believe that the i20 Asta is a shining example of - the difference between customer satisfaction and customer delight. Atleast that's my initial impression. Elaborate on that later. Comments welcome. Last edited by FlyingSpur : 26th October 2009 at 00:54.
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 01:25	#2
spookey BHPian Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Bombay Posts: 77 Thanked: 43 Times	Congrats ! she looks so "WOW" flyingspur heartiest congratulations :-) , wishing you both an endless mile crunching affair ;-) which dealer finally got your business ? Hyundai dealers have become a spoilt lot of late due to success of i20 and i10. offtopic: You have to be extra careful when you give her for service, make sure you are present with her. I own a 02 accent gls too and service her at my neighbourhood MASS after my fuel pump was swapped during a service by an authorised dealer :(.
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 01:31	#3
captainsokhi BHPian Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Jalandhar, PUNJAB Posts: 171 Thanked: Once View My Garage	congrats on the new ride... the silver colour is looking pretting nice..... im glad your dad agreed on for the rims..... they are looking very elegant..... they gel quite well with the car....
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 02:48	#4
leonerd BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Faridabad Posts: 30 Thanked: 0 Times	Congrats on getting the 20. I feel it is one of the best looking hatchbacks. If one has the budget then this is the car to go for. Congrats once again. I am not sure why but the stock rims looked much better than the new ones. Anyways, if you like it then nothing else matters. Please post some interior pictures too.
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 04:58	#5
rajtheindian BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Syracuse, US Posts: 247 Thanked: 7 Times	Congratulations please provide a detailed drive report
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 07:23	#6
anilkalvani BHPian Join Date: May 2008 Location: Bandra West, Bombay Posts: 633 Thanked: 89 Times	Congrats Akshay, So you finally got hold of the i. Really neat pics and good choice of alloys. Did you upgrade the rubbers too or they're stock? Hope to catch you on Carter's sometime, we never got a chance to meet up, now with your new ride, we must! Take care and have fun with the beauty bro! Cheers, Anil
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 08:10	#7
F50 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Mumbai/USA Posts: 1,707 Thanked: 103 Times	Congrats Buddy! Long time coming, eh? Enjoy your ride and time for some ICE? Btw, good rims, car looks great!
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 08:18	#8
Ramsagar Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: BLR_Nellore(AP) Posts: 1,396 Thanked: 252 Times View My Garage	You've made a right choice for going for hatch which is very rarely used. Was it Asta with sunroof? I love that,though not convenient for Indian environment, can be used during the night in highway. BWT I personally didn't the kind of alloys, also doesn't match with the macho looks of the very. Side profile of the vehicle had become poor.
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 08:31	#9
pranavt Senior - BHPian Join Date: May 2008 Location: Mumbai Posts: 1,682 Thanked: 641 Times View My Garage	Just one thing. When running in, it's advised to keep varying the engine load, rather than cruising at a single speed for a lot of time. Never had the patience to run-in a brand new car, but if you're going to follow the guidelines, just thought of telling you in-case you didn't think about it. Nice car. Love the i20, specially in that color.
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 13:19	#11
Tejas@perioimpl Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bombay Posts: 4,423 Thanked: 9,581 Times View My Garage	Congrats akshay! What deal you got on the rims? buyback etc...
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 13:25	#12
normally_crazy Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Mumbai Posts: 4,369 Thanked: 528 Times View My Garage	Congrats buddy. Silver looks pretty cool with that shade of sun film you have there. Personally I do not like the alloys - takes a lot away from the car. And yes - like I said earlier, do remove the seat covers. Also a few shots of the interiors would be nice. Have fun with her and drive safe. ps - main chalaon kab ?
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 13:51	#13
vijaythacker Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Ahmedabad Posts: 1,498 Thanked: 74 Times View My Garage	FS, congratulations on your uber cool acquisition, looks cool and hot in those alloys.What was the final deal with dealer as well as how much did you paid for your current alloys in exchange of stock, do share with some more cool pics.Enjoy your ride.
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 14:13	#14
undead Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Bhavani - Komarapalayam Posts: 1,193 Thanked: 179 Times	Congrats . Can you tell me what was the total cost of the 3M Sunfilm you installed?
	() Thanks

26th October 2009, 14:15	#15
blackasta Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: WB 26 Posts: 3,406 Thanked: 2,917 Times View My Garage	Congrats flyingspur, guess you are 2nd time lucky (after that issue with your first booked i20) Keep posting about your various experiences. The car looks great as it is supposed to be! Post some interior pictures if you please.
	() Thanks