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Old 1st January 2010, 16:52   #1
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8000 KM on my i20 Asta 1.2

A very prosperous and happy new year to everyone.

I took time to write more on this because wanted the engine to settle down, do the second service, take it on a highway to see how it performs, and finally comment on the refinement, changed behaviour, handling etc. All I have to say to begin with is with each day, I am liking this car more and I am feeling happier with my choice.
We went to Daman in the Christmas weekend, went to Mumbai via expressway from Pune then took Surat Highway. 4 families and 2 cars, another being a Fiesta 1.6 petrol. Each were fully loaded with a kid and 4 adults (full grown, all overweight :-P). Before we started off, I checked the tyres for any possible leak, filled it to 33 psi as per standard with N2, and put Air Bond (cap to prevent air leak even if the valves give away). Second service cost me 1160, out of which 800 were for oil change, and 120 were for filling up nitrogen, air bond caps costing 30 rs each. A good deal I would say. Wheel alignment was done as well, and all wheels were outside tolerence limit, I bet they were already so when I got the car.
However, after the service, the first change I found was in smoothness. I was bit apprehensive about idle vibrations (little bit when you hold the steering wheel, but only too little), but the moment you slot in a gear, and it takes off, it is a different story as it seems the engine does not like to revved idle but gets happier as you slot in the gear box, I am happy it is not the other way. With the windows rolled up, all you hear is tyre noise and wind noise specially when the car is getting bit of vertical movement due to uneven roads. I find that sound is awesome.
I am getting almost 17 to 18 kmph with AC on, mostly highway driving, I fill Shell allways (52.55/litre), please try to avoid HP if you can, at least in Pune, they are cheap, and adulteration will damage your engine in the long run.
Now on to the journey, in the expressway, I could easily touch 130 and the engine was begging for more, but I did not push above 140 because was not sure if I or the car could handle this, the road surface did not seem capable of anything above 110. The tyre is Apollo Acelere with a speed limit of 240 kmph (stock). At full load you need to use 3rd gear if you want to accelerate while on a climb, but on an even surface 4th will be enough even for full load, and when I am alone driving, it needs 4th gear to really get a adrenaline boost to overtake on a short stretch, otherwise 5th is enough to overtake above 70 kmph.
It certainly is a great cruiserlike a typical europian car, and you will not notice any difference in smoothness/ride quality/noise in 80 or 140, the shock absorber is good (not the best, specially at the rear side, thinking of the heavy weight), and the low squat and the great chasis coupled with the aerodynamic profile gives it enormous stability, the flip side is the bottom end touches the bumps if the slope is not good (only) at full load. The ground clearence could have been 175 mm and it may not have mattered for such a heavy car. AC is good enough and never makes you feel ahything whether you are on a climb with 5 people in or not with luggage. On the surat highway, there were too many trucks, and we lost it to Fiesta when it comes to quick acceleration because of the power to weight ratio (1.6 vs 1.2 comparison when the later si also having full load is kind of na insaafi I guess?)
On the way back, it tested my patience as we were stuck in western expressway outside thane for good 1 hr, it was bumper to bumper traffic and people creating a 3rd lane on a two lane road. Can anyone suggest me how to bypass the Thane bit while going to Daman, is there any way we can bypass Mumbai traffic and go from Panvel to Surat Highway (NH8) directly? Google map did not help much. It was quite dark, and I am still on my stock headlamp (Phillips 55/60) I do not want to go for a cutout to install 90/100, can anyone suggest what will give me a longer powerfull beam? I get the problem with the oncoming traffic light, but once I was on the expressway, the light seemed okay, if not very good. I have installed Garware Icecool on front windshield, that also reduces the light a little, but that is expected as a % drop is known. Overall, this machine performs and we drove it continuously for 7 hrs, taking 2 minor breaks, and the engine seems a cruiser who is eager to take on road each time I cranked the engine.
The brakes are awsome, they really bite hard on the wheels. The road grip is fantastic, thanks to the 185 mm rubber.

Some notes out of observation -
1. Do not let the air pressure fall below 28 PSI, you may encounter punctures.
2. Do not try driving it like a sporty hatch because it ain't one, if you have more than 3 people, because it may let you down in terms of expectation. But having said that the handling and ride quality will be much better than the competition for sure, and that is my priority at least. It is not sluggish by any means though, I drove it around 120 kmph constantly easily with a dose of 130 140 at times, and I could not see any cars on this side of 10 price point crossing me on the entire stretch.

Last edited by Shyamtanu : 1st January 2010 at 17:03.
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Old 1st January 2010, 19:15   #2
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@Shyamtanu, your post reconfirms my faith in the i20 being the best hatchback currently available in the country. How about some snaps from your trip.

Regarding the jam in Thane I think you mean the Eastern Express way, which tells me that you came via Navi Mumbai crossed the Airoli toll bridge turned right on the EEway, crossed the toll booth into Thane and got stuck around the Anand nagar octroi naka. As this is the only place that the EEway reduces to 2 lane road mentioned in your post. Let me know if this is correct.

If you took this route, what could have been done was that you could go straight on the Thane Belapur road and not turn left into Airoli towards the toll bridge. Straight will take you to Kalwa T junction from where you take left and go over the very short creek bridge. Proceed straight at the round about and you have Thane central jail on your right. Proceed along the boundary wall of the jail and come to the first cross roads. It has an open grounds on your left and a water body to your right side. Take a right turn and now the Thane police Commissioner office is on your left. Proceed along straight and reach the Sumer Castle round about. The big road coming from left is the LBS marg and you take this road after negotiating the round about(4th left from where you are counting the two small roads apart from LBS, total there are 6). Proceed down the LBS you will cross Navneet MUL dealer on your left. 100 meters ahead you can see the EEway flyover perpendicular to your approach direction and also the second part of EEway coming alongside the flyover and turning left towards Ghodbunder. The LBS goes straight beneath the flyover and merges into the EEway and proceeds staright towards Ghodbunder.

Other ALternates
Coming from Pune you can go straight on the old panvel thane road towards Mumbra. At the Kausa shilphata the straight road will take you to Mumbra. Right turn will take you to Dombivili, Kalyan and into Bhiwandi. Left goes to New Bombay. Proceed straight for a kilometer or two and take the bypass to the left just before you enter Mumbra town. The bypass toll road takes you over the hill behind Mumbra town. Once beyond Mumbra proceed staright and join the Nasik Thane highway. On the highway do not take the flyover taking you back to Bombay. Go alongside the flyover and you will reach the junction of the slip road with the LBS road on your left. The E.E. way is coming from the opposite direction and splits into two. One part being the flyover (alongside which you are now standing) going towards Nasik and the other bearing left towards Ghodbunder road. You need to take a right under the flyover and now you are on the EEway. Proceed straight towards Ghodbunder and onwards to Daman Highway.

The other option is that at Kausa Shilphata you take a right and go to Bhiwandi via Dombivili, Kalyan and onwards from Bhiwandi to Manor thereby avoiding the entire Thane bit and even the traffic going to Vasai/Virar.

An alternate shorter route from Panvel to Dombivili is to take a right on the Taloja flyover approx 1 kms from Kalamboli much before(approx 4 to 5 kms) the Kausa Shiphata . Proceed into the Taloja MIDC cross Kellogg factory on your left and proceed up to the Bharat Shell factory on your right. Just behind the Shell factory is a new 4 lane road that takes you to the Dombivili - Ambernath pipe line raod. Once you reach this road you take a left and proceed to the T junction at Dombivili octroi naka. You take a right and rejoin the road coming from Shilphata. However this shorter route is isolated and not known to many so not for people who are driving through.

Yet another option is to leave the Bombay Pune Expressway at Kahalapur. Take the Khalapur exit and proceed to Karjat and onwards to Kalyan on to Nasik highway. From here again the choices are via Thane-Ghodbunder or Bhiwandi-Manor.

Last edited by khoj : 1st January 2010 at 19:25.
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Old 4th January 2010, 15:40   #3
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Fantastic, and you are bang on, I actually took that route only.
I shall surely post the photos, sadly the weekend crowd has destroyed the virginity of the beach and have reduced it to a noisy place with blurring music rather than a calm sea beach where only the nature speaks and mankind listen, silently. For me at least, this is what a beach is supposed to be, I somehow do not enjoy the beach vollyballs, and the noises. This was my third visit to the beach and it was very crowded, but may be this is because I visited on a Christmas weekend.

Last edited by Shyamtanu : 4th January 2010 at 15:53.
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Old 5th January 2010, 11:28   #4
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Good to hear you're having a good time with your i20. Mine is now 9 months old, done about 8500 kms. I've taken it on a couple of 200+ km drives, and the first thing I observed is, after driving the car for 3-4 hours I never felt tired. Thats a hallmark of a good car to me! 120km is easy crusing for the i20, though on the Mumbai - Pune expressway I've touched 160 kms , though it is like the engine a bit!! But damn, its more about touching that rather than maintaining right I must mention it was just me and my wife in the car. Overall I am completely satisfied with my i20, 9 months and no issues at all.

I got my second service done just before Diwali, and in a city like Mumbai scratches and small dents are inevitable. I asked the Hyundai fellow how much they charge for full body polish, he said just 800 bucks
I didn't waste a breath in telling him, just do it! And it was like I had a new i20 for Diwali, though it was 6 months old already then. Talk about maintenance charges being affordable, my total bill incl the polish was some 1600 bucks.
I am planning to get it done atleast once in a year now. Happy cruising!
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Old 5th January 2010, 14:45   #5
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Quote:
I got my second service done just before Diwali, and in a city like Mumbai scratches and small dents are inevitable. I asked the Hyundai fellow how much they charge for full body polish, he said just 800 bucks
I didn't waste a breath in telling him, just do it! And it was like I had a new i20 for Diwali, though it was 6 months old already then. Talk about maintenance charges being affordable, my total bill incl the polish was some 1600 bucks.
I am planning to get it done atleast once in a year now. Happy cruising!
Hi jmshaw,

Which Hyudai fellow is this?
 
Old 5th January 2010, 15:32   #6
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Great report shyam... it gives me more confidence now to recommend the i20 for friends who are considering a hatchback... how do you find the interior quality ? the test car i saw was not that great, but a friend in HYD bought it recently and said its quite good... so may be the quality in the TD car was not good whereas it makes sense for TD cars to look at their best !

Enjoy your ride !

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shyamtanu View Post
I fill Shell allways (52.55/litre), please try to avoid HP if you can, at least in Pune, they are cheap, and adulteration will damage your engine in the long run.
Thanks for your tip on the fuel, i usually fill the regular unleaded from the HP pump in Koregaon park and the smoothness and FE is quite good... I have been a regular at this pump for about 5 years now... but your comment is making me wonder, should i move to Shell in Kharadi for a few months and see the difference ? Please let me know which HP pump were you particularly finding to be bad, this would be of grt help... I used to think BP was the best, but for years now, i dont bother any of the BP pumps... a couple of bad experiences and i am off BP diet now
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Old 5th January 2010, 15:55   #7
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Great Review. The car indeed is one of the best hatches in the country today. The only dislike though was that hyundai could have tries retuning the engine for a little more performace. The car deserves it. Have not driven the 100bhp auto variant. A 100 bhp Manual would be drooool!
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Old 8th January 2010, 13:10   #8
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This is the HMP service centre at Cotton Green.


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Originally Posted by im_driver View Post
Hi jmshaw,

Which Hyudai fellow is this?
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Old 13th January 2010, 16:58   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gemithomas View Post
Great Review. The car indeed is one of the best hatches in the country today. The only dislike though was that hyundai could have tries retuning the engine for a little more performace. The car deserves it. Have not driven the 100bhp auto variant. A 100 bhp Manual would be drooool!
Yes, the chasis is made for much more power, and I really miss the thump at times.

[quote=Please let me know which HP pump were you particularly finding to be bad, this would be of grt help... I used to think BP was the best, but for years now, i dont bother any of the BP pumps... a couple of bad experiences and i am off BP diet now[/quote]

Anywhere in the city, the nullstop Bharat P is good. I think the Karishma Bharat P is also good. Shell diet is giving me good mileage consistently.

One complaint I have is the clutch travel is too long, and the music system does not have a Pause button, Bass is non existent, specially if you have tuned the mid range at 5+ and treble at 6+. Need a woofer (looking for a small one, all available are too big).

I need one more help, tried to enquire if I can fit in a driver front lamp which is there in the option pack now. It is much needed given the big cabin and somewhat back positioned cabin lamp (cost cutting at work), asked Garve Hyundai to get it for me as spare, have not got any answer yet, does anyone know where to get it from?
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Old 14th January 2010, 06:50   #10
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More than the company, I suspect the poor fuel is pump specific issue. I have used HP at Autolines for years, never a problem. On the other hand, there are some big question marks over the HP in Aundh, near Seasons.
For small audio systems its best to cut treble a bit, boost bass a bit, and leave mid range just there. Check that setting out before adding a sub.
And make sure that the service stations use SL or SM spec oil, and not the older SJ specced servo.
I have done a little over 4000 kms in mine, and I have no complaints. The car is brilliant at the price point. The Asta 1.2, I mean.
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Old 14th January 2010, 08:05   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shyamtanu View Post
Now on to the journey, in the expressway, I could easily touch 130 and the engine was begging for more,
Congrats....

For me its a different story, my car is struggling to get past 120 on my recent trip to Coimbatore.
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Old 25th January 2010, 13:52   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wildon View Post
Congrats....

For me its a different story, my car is struggling to get past 120 on my recent trip to Coimbatore.
Sir, cannot help me asking you, between Linea and i20, which one you feel has more power? i20 1.2 engine is definitely tuned more towards efficiency, and not power. I hear Linea is bit towards the economy side as well, is that true?
<Please Delete this one>

Last edited by Shyamtanu : 25th January 2010 at 13:57. Reason: PLease Delete this one
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Old 25th January 2010, 13:52   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wildon View Post
Congrats....

For me its a different story, my car is struggling to get past 120 on my recent trip to Coimbatore.
Sir, cannot help myself asking you, between Linea and i20, which one you feel has more power? i20 1.2 engine is definitely tuned more towards efficiency, and not power. I hear Linea is bit towards the economy side (more mileage, less power) as well, is that true?

Last edited by Shyamtanu : 25th January 2010 at 13:56. Reason: pls delete the previous one (no 12) Mods
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