I am not a specialist in car technical. Hence my reviews will concentrate more on the experiences so far on i10...
This reviews is not to promote i10 as a car, but to help people to decide before they buy the car..I own a i10 -ERA model- Alpine blue color.
I had compared a couple of cars such as Spark, Estilo, Santro, Wagon-R before buying i10. Spark is a good car but there were less dealers in Bangalore. So I thought I may issues servicing the car in any part of Karnataka. Santro, Wagon-R were also good, but lots of them were already on roads so I wanted some thing different. Estilo did not have gr8 looks and my wife was against it !!!.
I also wanted to keep my costs as low as possible, so had to go with i10-ERA. I did not observe any advantages to go from i10-ERA to Magna. I thought Magna was more concentrated on looks than any useful features.
Before buying i10 I had gone through extensive reviews and also had been for a test drive at Trident. Hyundai has come out with colors which are more attractive compared to its peers...
I was attracted more towards the interiors .The rear seating has been intelligently designed for more leg space. The boot space is not bad either. The boot space seems to be a little less compared to its peers Wagon-R and Santro.
The dash board has gr8 looks with the gear shift being part of the dashboard. The AC controls and the parking light controls is easily accessable. I felt the adjustable steering was of no advantage.
Till now I have driven roughly 1143Km and completed 1st service very recently and following here some of my observations in city driving conditions.
With A/C switched on occassionaly, it has given mileages 11Kmpl, 16Kmpl and 13Kmpl during different instances. So on an average it is giving me 13kmpl in city driving conditions. So may be after the free service it might improve is a hope.
The gear shift from 1st to 2nd was lil hard and some times there was problem in shifting the gear to gear. This got fixed in my first free service. Now the gear shifts simply work gr8.
The parking brake was not doing its job properly. The car used to move forward or reverse on a slope( at 30 deg or more) even when the parking brakes were applied. I got this fixed on my first service. For new car buyers, my recommendation is to get this fixed at the dealer service station.
The engine is quite silent. You never know whethar its in the running or in the off condition. On a long drive with 4 people on board, the drive is really smooth and suspension is gr8. Long drives are enjoyable.
A/C is quite power full and keeps the car cool.
I have gone for extra warranty period so I have 3 yrs/60Km warranty for my car. You never know when the parts can go bad.
Following are the tips to save money that I would like to share...
I did not go for any extra seat cover since the existing seats were looking gr8. So I saved some money here.
I purchased the car mats in JC road. The showroom quoted the mats for Rs600/- and I got a beige color mats for Rs400/- in JC road.
Got mud flaps installed during my first service. The muds flaps were not available in JC road when I bought the car. Probably you could chk again outside.
I did not go for anti-rust or teflon coating for my car. I believe if you go for it will only improve the business of the car dealer and drain moner out of your pockets. Anti-rust/under shassis painting is good in countries having snow fall. They use salts that can cause rust on your car. Car waxing is preferred over teflon coating...you can find more info on the web
Planning to buy Autocop keyless entry from outside dealer.
Thats it guys...a very long review hope you find it informative.
Bye
Johnny