This car is good on many aspects, but I found 2 defects in it -
(a) The brakes are pretty sharp, especially during the first 10-15 mins of the drive. Even a light press to slow down the vehicle brings it to a grinding halt. Sometimes I worry if some vehicle would hit it from the back due to such grinding halt;
(b) Plastic smell of interiors. Its been almost 2 months since I purchased this vehicle, but the plastic smell still prevails and some times its quite irritating when A/c is put on by closing all the windows;
When I complained about the brakes issue during the first service, the service representative acknowledged that it is a known issue in Xcent & Grand i10, but mentioned that it should gradually improve. When it didn’t improve, I raised a complaint on their website. The service center representative and his manager visited my place and took a test ride. They too acknowledged that in my specific case the brakes are too sharp, but tried to explain me that it is intended and Hyundai wanted it that way. According to me this is a design flaw, which Hyundai is refusing the acknowledge and trying to brush it under the carpet.
A car is expected to slow down during the run when brakes are slightly applied and is expected to stop when they are hard pressed. If that is not happening, then it doesn’t matter what technology they used and in what way they intended to have it. Looks like this is serious lapse on their side regarding the basic safety feature. I am planning to send out a legal notice to Hyundai quoting that if they don’t rectify this issue and try to stamp this as intended output, then they will have to take responsibility of any accident or damage that may happen due to their flawed’intended’ feature. What-ever fantastic features they may build, but when the basic need of brakes is flawed then every thing else just evaporates into thin air.
Buchi Babu