i20-Initial Ownership report

bangaloreguy · 24th January 2010, 12:33

My i20 has completed 5000 kms now and I thought that it was the ideal time to write an initial ownership review. I bought the i20 Asta petrol from Advaith Hyundai. We relocated to Bangalore after a long stint outside the country and I was not sure about the car to buy. I initially looked at Linea and the Jazz. The entry level Linea did not seem to have good quality switches / interiors and my leg would hit the dummy pedal whenever I pressed the clutch. The Jazz anyway was overpriced.
I drive in the city mainly and do about 1200 kms on an average. Safety features were high on my list and I felt that the i20 scored impressively in that area. The power was not too bad for city driving and it had great looks. After waiting for 8 weeks, my silver Asta petrol was finally delivered.
Initial impressions:
I felt that the clutch is a little soft and takes a little time to get used to. Initially, I would tend to jerk the car to a stop when taking off at traffic lights but later things got better. It’s got spacious interiors and visibility is good. There might be a bit of a blind spot due to the pillars but I guess that's common in many cars there days. One surprising thing I noticed was that the car has a strange way of unlocking the doors.
For example: If I've used the central locking knob on the front door and all the 4 doors are locked, I can unlock the front door by just pulling on the front door handle directly(without first unlocking using the knob)!! This happens on the front doors only and not on the back doors. This surprised me and I called up the Hyundai blokes. I was finally routed to an engineering / customer service team in Chennai. I told them that this could be dangerous as kids or adults might just pull on the handle and the locks will open. Anyway, I was given an unconvincing explanation that kids are best seated in the back seat and adults might not make that mistake etc...I know all this but I still felt that this was not a very safe feature.
Another feature about the locks is that they can be programmed to lock automatically once the car crosses 40 kmph (they won’t lock automatically as soon as you start the car). I liked this feature and I also liked the fact that the central locking does not unlock as soon as we switch off the ignition.
The dual tone interior is pretty good and the switches have a quality feel to them. Nice storage areas abound. A spacious glove compartment and boot really help. Surprisingly, there's no vanity mirror in the Asta version too. The dash design is great too. When I test drove the Jazz, my hand would hit the dash whenever I take my hand off the steering to change the gear because the Jazz has a central protrusion of the dashboard. No such problems here.
Highways:
I had taken it to Chennai and it felt nice and planted at speeds of 100-120 kmph on the highway. I haven't really tried to go faster but my opinion is that for sustained speeds of 140 kmph or more, this size of car may not be the right/safe choice.Maybe this is because I was used to bigger car before this one. I also found it reassuring that the Asta comes with ABS.

City Driving:
The ground clearance is great and I've never had a problem on Bangalore roads. The fuel efficiency is approximately 12 km/l and this was achieved in bumper to bumper traffic which Bangalore is notorious for. I still fondly recall the empty roads from my college days and I guess it will remain a fond memory for a long time to come! At really slow speeds, the second gear is bad but I have a habit of shifting to 1st whenever I have to really slow down on speed breakers so that helps a bit.Other thoughts: The sound quality of the stereo is pretty good. Apart from the trip meter, it’s got a time to destination clock that I find useful. All in all I find this a great car and probably Hyundai’s best looking car in India. After reading tons of reviews on the Internet, I thought that I’ll write one for a change. I hope that this review will be useful.

PowerTrained · 24th January 2010, 13:21

Good review, i20 is a car, user experience is rated pretty upmarket. Good to know that you've managed without hitting city humps. Please request you to share dealer experience.

Cheers
--PT

wildon · 24th January 2010, 14:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangaloreguy

There might be a bit of a blind spot due to the pillars but I guess that's common in many cars there days.

On semi sharp turns its gives a little bit worry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangaloreguy

One surprising thing I noticed was that the car has a strange way of unlocking the doors.
For example: If I've used the central locking knob on the front door and all the 4 doors are locked, I can unlock the front door by just pulling on the front door handle directly(without first unlocking using the knob)!! This happens on the front doors only and not on the back doors. This surprised me and I called up the Hyundai blokes. I was finally routed to an engineering / customer service team in Chennai. I told them that this could be dangerous as kids or adults might just pull on the handle and the locks will open. Anyway, I was given an unconvincing explanation that kids are best seated in the back seat and adults might not make that mistake etc...I know all this but I still felt that this was not a very safe feature.

Well if your Kids are seated at back you always have an option of Child lock, So if the front passenger or driver unlocks the front doors although central locking gets disabled but rear doors cannot be open from inside because of Child lock.

But its strange that if front passenger opens his door side, central locking gets disabled in i20.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bangaloreguy

Another feature about the locks is that they can be programmed to lock automatically once the car crosses 40 kmph (they won’t lock automatically as soon as you start the car). I liked this feature and I also liked the fact that the central locking does not unlock as soon as we switch off the ignition.

I found that its still not safe at that speed. Internationally they are changing that speed to 15 kmph for better safety in other Hyundai models.

basilmabraham · 24th January 2010, 15:12

i20 is a good car. nice review too. keep updating the thread for benefit of wannabe i20 buyers.

bangaloreguy · 26th January 2010, 10:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by PowerTrained

Good review, i20 is a car, user experience is rated pretty upmarket. Good to know that you've managed without hitting city humps. Please request you to share dealer experience.

Cheers
--PT

No problems with dealer. I bought it from Advaith Hyundai on the outer ring road near Marathhalli.They gave me a realistic time frame regarding the waiting period. They did not offer any discounts because of good demand and gave me free mud flaps and rubber mats on delivery.So far the dealer experience has been good.

vishwask82 · 27th January 2010, 08:38

Hi bangaloreguy,

Nice review abt i20. Good to know that you haven't have had any bad experience with B'lore speed breakers

What colour is your i20? Can we have some exterior/interior pics? Are you still on OEM tyres? If Yes, then which brand? If No, whatz ur new tyre specifications? how is the performance of existing OEM tyres?

Regards,

Vish

blackasta · 27th January 2010, 12:21

congrats bangaloreguy - though a bit late!
thick A pillars seem to be the order of the day - i guess that has something to do with crash safety ratings.

Otomobil · 27th January 2010, 17:34

Hey Congrats on 5k Kms.

I own Sparkle Blue i20 Asta with 1.2 Ltr Petrol Heart. Right now i have Crunched about 4K miles.

Could you throw some light on how to program the doors to get locked automatically after crossing 40 Km Mark ? I thought it has only in 2010 Models.

Regarding the Door opening by a Co-Passenger even when the Doors are locked I am sure if Co-Passenger opens the door when the car is in motion it gives a buzzer and hence you are warned that that door is opened.

If the kids are sitting in the rear sit, You can turn on the childlocks on the rear door.

Thought i should share my two cents of advice on it.

bangaloreguy · 27th January 2010, 19:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Otomobil

Hey Congrats on 5k Kms.

I own Sparkle Blue i20 Asta with 1.2 Ltr Petrol Heart. Right now i have Crunched about 4K miles.

Could you throw some light on how to program the doors to get locked automatically after crossing 40 Km Mark ? I thought it has only in 2010 Models.

Regarding the Door opening by a Co-Passenger even when the Doors are locked I am sure if Co-Passenger opens the door when the car is in motion it gives a buzzer and hence you are warned that that door is opened.

If the kids are sitting in the rear sit, You can turn on the childlocks on the rear door.

Thought i should share my two cents of advice on it.

It was mentioned in the manual that the locks could be programmed (though the speed is not mentioned). I therefore took it to the dealer and requested them to do it. I was told that 40kmph is the minimum speed at which it will lock. Regarding your other point, I do keep child locks on. It's just that I dislike the fact that I can open the front doors by pulling the handle directly without using the lock/unlock knob first.

sanjayc · 27th January 2010, 21:08

I guess opening of the central lock from any door should not be much of an issue, since it does give quite audible whirring noise (in my Fiesta at least, not sure about i20) and hence the driver would anyway come to know about this.

I don't know why people rave about >120 speeds, since it is not sustainable for more than a couple of seconds on majority of the roads/highways we encounter. Recently did a CHN-CCU-CHN trip 3600Kms in my 1.6 SXi Fiesta..upto 120Kms is practical and sustainable for long stretches, but with frequent curves & Indian road conditions/road users, anything above that is basically impractical. Hence if you are able to keep utp 100 safely and comfortably, that should be satisfactory.

Wraith · 2nd February 2010, 07:42

I dont know if this the right place to ask this but...

When you turn off the ignition and remove the keys, do the headlights turn off completely or do the pilots remain on? and does the dashboard illumination turn off too?

sree70 · 2nd February 2010, 08:08

[/quote] City Driving:
The ground clearance is great and I've never had a problem on Bangalore roads. The fuel efficiency is approximately 12 km/l and this was achieved in bumper to bumper traffic which Bangalore is notorious for. I still fondly recall the empty roads from my college days and I guess it will remain a fond memory for a long time to come! At really slow speeds, the second gear is bad but I have a habit of shifting to 1st whenever I have to really slow down on speed breakers so that helps a bit.

Hey b'loreguy,
Iam surprised to hear about ground clearence from you. My expreince with 10300kms of driving in I20Asta is that the ground clearence is the most -ve factor in the vehice.
While manouvering speed breakers without thuds in I20 you have to be really slow and while other hatchbacks makes it easily & faster.
With single driving it may not be problem, but with full load it is tough.

wildon · 2nd February 2010, 09:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wraith

I dont know if this the right place to ask this but...

When you turn off the ignition and remove the keys, do the headlights turn off completely or do the pilots remain on? and does the dashboard illumination turn off too?

When you Turn OFF the ignition and remove the Keys all light get switched OFF.
To keep the lights on when the ignition key is removed, perform the following :
1) Open the driver-side door.
2) Turn the parking lights OFF and ON again using the light switch on the steering column.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sree70

Hey b'loreguy,
Iam surprised to hear about ground clearence from you. My expreince with 10300kms of driving in I20Asta is that the ground clearence is the most -ve factor in the vehice.
While manouvering speed breakers without thuds in I20 you have to be really slow and while other hatchbacks makes it easily & faster.
With single driving it may not be problem, but with full load it is tough.

Seem like you are not slowing down at all , well i don't have any problems with the speed breakers and never used to scrap the bottom of my i20 Asta which is clocked 6500 k.m now.

jmshaw · 2nd February 2010, 11:35

I too dont have any problems with speedbreakers here in Mumbai, but yeah it's just 1-2 ppl in the car. But I dont think even with 5 ppl the clearance is so low to hit the breakers all the time. Like Wildon said, try _slowing down_

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildon

When you Turn OFF the ignition and remove the Keys all light get switched OFF.
To keep the lights on when the ignition key is removed, perform the following :
1) Open the driver-side door.
2) Turn the parking lights OFF and ON again using the light switch on the steering column.

Seem like you are not slowing down at all , well i don't have any problems with the speed breakers and never used to scrap the bottom of my i20 Asta which is clocked 6500 k.m now.

bangaloreguy · 3rd February 2010, 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wraith

I dont know if this the right place to ask this but...

When you turn off the ignition and remove the keys, do the headlights turn off completely or do the pilots remain on? and does the dashboard illumination turn off too?

Headlights are turned off. Ensures you don't accidentally keep the lights on. If you do need the parking lights on, you will have to turn them on again.

24th January 2010, 12:33	#1
bangaloreguy BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 67 Thanked: 65 Times	i20-Initial Ownership report My i20 has completed 5000 kms now and I thought that it was the ideal time to write an initial ownership review. I bought the i20 Asta petrol from Advaith Hyundai. We relocated to Bangalore after a long stint outside the country and I was not sure about the car to buy. I initially looked at Linea and the Jazz. The entry level Linea did not seem to have good quality switches / interiors and my leg would hit the dummy pedal whenever I pressed the clutch. The Jazz anyway was overpriced. I drive in the city mainly and do about 1200 kms on an average. Safety features were high on my list and I felt that the i20 scored impressively in that area. The power was not too bad for city driving and it had great looks. After waiting for 8 weeks, my silver Asta petrol was finally delivered. Initial impressions: I felt that the clutch is a little soft and takes a little time to get used to. Initially, I would tend to jerk the car to a stop when taking off at traffic lights but later things got better. It’s got spacious interiors and visibility is good. There might be a bit of a blind spot due to the pillars but I guess that's common in many cars there days. One surprising thing I noticed was that the car has a strange way of unlocking the doors. For example: If I've used the central locking knob on the front door and all the 4 doors are locked, I can unlock the front door by just pulling on the front door handle directly(without first unlocking using the knob)!! This happens on the front doors only and not on the back doors. This surprised me and I called up the Hyundai blokes. I was finally routed to an engineering / customer service team in Chennai. I told them that this could be dangerous as kids or adults might just pull on the handle and the locks will open. Anyway, I was given an unconvincing explanation that kids are best seated in the back seat and adults might not make that mistake etc...I know all this but I still felt that this was not a very safe feature. Another feature about the locks is that they can be programmed to lock automatically once the car crosses 40 kmph (they won’t lock automatically as soon as you start the car). I liked this feature and I also liked the fact that the central locking does not unlock as soon as we switch off the ignition. The dual tone interior is pretty good and the switches have a quality feel to them. Nice storage areas abound. A spacious glove compartment and boot really help. Surprisingly, there's no vanity mirror in the Asta version too. The dash design is great too. When I test drove the Jazz, my hand would hit the dash whenever I take my hand off the steering to change the gear because the Jazz has a central protrusion of the dashboard. No such problems here. Highways: I had taken it to Chennai and it felt nice and planted at speeds of 100-120 kmph on the highway. I haven't really tried to go faster but my opinion is that for sustained speeds of 140 kmph or more, this size of car may not be the right/safe choice.Maybe this is because I was used to bigger car before this one. I also found it reassuring that the Asta comes with ABS. City Driving: The ground clearance is great and I've never had a problem on Bangalore roads. The fuel efficiency is approximately 12 km/l and this was achieved in bumper to bumper traffic which Bangalore is notorious for. I still fondly recall the empty roads from my college days and I guess it will remain a fond memory for a long time to come! At really slow speeds, the second gear is bad but I have a habit of shifting to 1st whenever I have to really slow down on speed breakers so that helps a bit.Other thoughts: The sound quality of the stereo is pretty good. Apart from the trip meter, it’s got a time to destination clock that I find useful. All in all I find this a great car and probably Hyundai’s best looking car in India. After reading tons of reviews on the Internet, I thought that I’ll write one for a change. I hope that this review will be useful.
	() Thanks

24th January 2010, 13:21	#2
PowerTrained BHPian Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 45 Thanked: 15 Times	Good review, i20 is a car, user experience is rated pretty upmarket. Good to know that you've managed without hitting city humps. Please request you to share dealer experience. Cheers --PT
	() Thanks

24th January 2010, 15:12	#4
basilmabraham BHPian Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Sydney/Cochin Posts: 772 Thanked: 76 Times View My Garage	i20 is a good car. nice review too. keep updating the thread for benefit of wannabe i20 buyers.
	() Thanks

27th January 2010, 08:38	#6
vishwask82 BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bengaluru Posts: 71 Thanked: 0 Times	Hi bangaloreguy, Nice review abt i20. Good to know that you haven't have had any bad experience with B'lore speed breakers What colour is your i20? Can we have some exterior/interior pics? Are you still on OEM tyres? If Yes, then which brand? If No, whatz ur new tyre specifications? how is the performance of existing OEM tyres? Regards, Vish
	() Thanks

27th January 2010, 12:21	#7
blackasta Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: WB 26 Posts: 3,406 Thanked: 2,917 Times View My Garage	congrats bangaloreguy - though a bit late! thick A pillars seem to be the order of the day - i guess that has something to do with crash safety ratings.
	() Thanks

27th January 2010, 17:34	#8
Otomobil BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: MKE,USA Posts: 116 Thanked: 26 Times	Hey Congrats on 5k Kms. I own Sparkle Blue i20 Asta with 1.2 Ltr Petrol Heart. Right now i have Crunched about 4K miles. Could you throw some light on how to program the doors to get locked automatically after crossing 40 Km Mark ? I thought it has only in 2010 Models. Regarding the Door opening by a Co-Passenger even when the Doors are locked I am sure if Co-Passenger opens the door when the car is in motion it gives a buzzer and hence you are warned that that door is opened. If the kids are sitting in the rear sit, You can turn on the childlocks on the rear door. Thought i should share my two cents of advice on it.
	() Thanks

27th January 2010, 21:08	#10
sanjayc BHPian Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Chennai Posts: 952 Thanked: 8 Times	I guess opening of the central lock from any door should not be much of an issue, since it does give quite audible whirring noise (in my Fiesta at least, not sure about i20) and hence the driver would anyway come to know about this. I don't know why people rave about >120 speeds, since it is not sustainable for more than a couple of seconds on majority of the roads/highways we encounter. Recently did a CHN-CCU-CHN trip 3600Kms in my 1.6 SXi Fiesta..upto 120Kms is practical and sustainable for long stretches, but with frequent curves & Indian road conditions/road users, anything above that is basically impractical. Hence if you are able to keep utp 100 safely and comfortably, that should be satisfactory.
	() Thanks

2nd February 2010, 07:42	#11
Wraith BHPian Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Mumbai Posts: 83 Thanked: Once	I dont know if this the right place to ask this but... When you turn off the ignition and remove the keys, do the headlights turn off completely or do the pilots remain on? and does the dashboard illumination turn off too?
	() Thanks

2nd February 2010, 08:08	#12
sree70 BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: bengaluru Posts: 176 Thanked: 15 Times	[/quote] City Driving: The ground clearance is great and I've never had a problem on Bangalore roads. The fuel efficiency is approximately 12 km/l and this was achieved in bumper to bumper traffic which Bangalore is notorious for. I still fondly recall the empty roads from my college days and I guess it will remain a fond memory for a long time to come! At really slow speeds, the second gear is bad but I have a habit of shifting to 1st whenever I have to really slow down on speed breakers so that helps a bit. Hey b'loreguy, Iam surprised to hear about ground clearence from you. My expreince with 10300kms of driving in I20Asta is that the ground clearence is the most -ve factor in the vehice. While manouvering speed breakers without thuds in I20 you have to be really slow and while other hatchbacks makes it easily & faster. With single driving it may not be problem, but with full load it is tough.
	() Thanks