Having driven civic and maxima of US, a small Indian car can only delight you with the ease of driving on Indian roads, with potholes and enormous traffic. I went to almost every small car showroom in Delhi. From Tata Xeta to Maruti Zen, I test drove all of them. I can simply say that i10 has the best handling. Great styling and unique gear lever were the other factors why I bought i10 (over Zen estillo, the other finalist). i10 gives the best space for the driver as well as for the passengers. The car is very comfortable to all 4.
I don’t remember any difficulty in driving first 40 KM from showroom to my house. I loved it. I could zoom past and drive through peak time Delhi traffic without any headache. Everything is just perfect. The driving position, the power steering, the gear lever, the AC, the pickup. The cabin is silent too. I mean the overall driving experience was excellent.
For the engine part of it, I wanted it to zoom more on 1st gear. That’s the only pleasurable part of the drive, I had to quickly get on to gear 2. But after that, the car has a silken touch. The response to the gas pedal is amazing (not like zen that gives you more jerks and stiffer experience). Gear 4 and 5 are amazingly quite and smooth.
The suspension is solid and you don’t mind bumpy roads. The power steering is slightly on the heavier side but I guess it will improve with time.
Indian car dealers will have to work hard to make customer experience better. They just don’t have space to run a car dealership. Their showroom is at one place and the delivery happens from somewhere else. They are also full of unprofessional staff. Sometimes you feel that you are in a sabzi market. Hope it improves overtime.
The car that I got had a problem with wheel alignment. If I leave the steering wheel, the car was drifting to the left. No, it was not air pressure or tire problem.
I think its a great addition to Indian roads and it will make its competition sweat if it goes on to become another santro from Hyundai.I think it will.