I was looking for a car once I came back to India in mid-October. I checked Santro, Getz, Spark, Wagon-R, Swift, SX-4, City and Accent. At one moment I had to decide between City, Accent and SX-4(in that order). I almost decided for City when the budget consideration came into picture as I had to cut down on budget for somthing more important. The I came down to lower segmant cars and Santro XO was the one I was going for but Hyundai was taking this model out of production. Meanwhile i-10 was launched and I test drove i-10 too. I liked the wonderful interiors; dual tone beige with nice plastics. The seats also felt comfortable and there is enough space for 5(my need is only for 4 though) and enough legroom for both front and rear passengers. Didn’t needed a lot of boot space, it has more than others in this category though. Liked the tilt wheel feature; good for us as my wife and I prefer different steering wheel locations. The suspension and brakes were also good. The ride was smooth. Mileage was another consideration as I live in East-Delhi and work in Gurgaon. The dealer said it will give about 16 in city conditions after second service, which seemed good. I booked the Magna variant(wanted the all power, rear defogger etc). Any discount offer on Diwali would have been a bonus, but unfortunately there was none as the car was just launched.
Test drove i-10: 6-Nov-2007
Booked i-10 Magna: 7-Nov-2007
Delivery: 28-Nov 2007
Fuel Economy: 13.9 kmpl in the first instance, 16.33 in the second instance(both measured about half tank using tank fill method). AC used 40-50% in the first instance and sparingly in the second instance.
So far I have driven about 700 Kms. In all I am satisfied with the car performance so far. Hope the mileage will improve after first 2 services.
I think this is the best car in this segment that is available in India as of now.