Motivation to write this review: The incident which happened recently has left me without my i10 for 3 weeks now and I can’t wait longer to get it back. Best way to remember it is write a review on my experience till date for i10.
Why did I buy i10 and not other cars available in the same segment for lower prices? Because we already had two Maruti Suzuki Swift at home used by my brothers and I wanted to buy something else. i10 was released in January 2008, and I guess my car is one of the first few 100s on road in Bangalore. I bought my car from Advaith Hyundai located on outer ring road in Bangalore and will take time to write a review separately for them.
I got my car on 12th Feb 2008 and was more than satisfied by the smoothness, riding comfort and looks of the car. Now it is over an year and I have clocked 20000 kms on it already. Actually have driven the car regularly within the city limits, from Banshankri to Whitefield and back (>70 km) daily. Apart from that I have been to Mysore 6 times, to Ooty twice and to Bandipur twice as well. How did the car perform? It didn’t do even an Oomph!!! Mileage 12-13 kmpl in city and 14-15 on highways, provided you drive it at no more than 90 KMPH. Speed and stability: I have pushed my car to 128 KMPH on Mysore Road and again it took that speed gladly, without even a hint of instability.
Steering works like butter even at such high speeds I had full control over the car, and full confidence that under unwanted circumstances, I can come out safe. I have also manuveoured 36 hair pin Bends up and down while my trip to Ooty and didn’t even feel like it was a hair pin bend!Braking is absolutely great, stops within 5 meters to a complete halt from 125 KMPH to 0 KMPH, which means you need to have insight into when you are supposed to apply proper brakes.
For instance, when driving on Mysore Road, you should be aware of the fact that you can encounter a bullock cart suddenly on the highway cruising at a speed of 5-6 KMPH and you are at 90-100 KMPH at that time. Also changing gears is like a hot knife cutting a butter cube. You don’t require your full hand to change gears. With absolute no offense to any person who has lost fingers or don’t have fingers, you just require a singe touch with your finger to change gears in i10.
It uses the same technology of cable shift as it is used in SUVs like Innova. Reliability? The engine never made any knocking noise or any unwanted noise while driving. Suspensions are again a charm, you can go into a pothole of average size (:)), with 100% assurance that you won’t feel it inside the car. The suspension took a endurance test, when at night I could not spot a bump on road in front of Satya Sai Hospital, and hit it at 50 KMPH. The car jumped and landed absolutely without any scratches. Unfortunately I had met with two accidents as well in last 1.5 years.
Once a cab (innova) came right in front of us on a cross road and I had no option other than banging it head on, but since it was a cross road I was at a speed of 20 KMPH. So, nothing happened to me, but the car was pretty much in a bad shape. I would attribute this to good design of the car that it took all the impact and didn’t let passengers suffer. The last accident happened recently, one month back, when again on a heavy rainy night I could not see a divider in between of road, as there were no markers and went straight onto that. Again, nothing happened to me though I had hit the divider at good speed of 50 KMPH, which actually motivated me to write this review. Since I don’t want to be biased on the positives of my i10, I will list few cons as well compared to similar cars in the same segment. First, i10 is over priced and on -road price is more than other cars.
Then interior space is good, but boot space is kind of small. The AC is good with heater as well, but I feel the AC can be improved on, as during hot days even having it operate on full blast it doesn’t cool the entire car efficiently.With this I would say i10 is a good investment on money, and may be the new kappa engine has even better to offer.