Hyundai i10

I’m the proud owner of Hyundai i10 Sportz car and have been driving it for last 8 months. This is my first car and a choice of my wife specially the color(Red).

The story begins:-

Our 1st car had to be special so me and my fiancé surveyed a lot. We visited a lot of show rooms and tested a lot of cars, different brands and models.

Maturi 800, Alto, Zen, Wagon-R, Santro, Getz, Palio, etc are passé. and I had a new and unique model in mind.

My budget was 4 to 4.5 Lacs. We were looking for a small family car in high segment, so we had following choices: Hyundai, Swift, Zen-Estilo, Chevrolet UVA and Chevrolet Spark.

Chevrolet: First of all we went to Chevrolet showroom in CSM mall, Sec-18, Noida. We saw both UVA and Spark. Spark was very small just like Matiz and UVA did not have that appealing look. Then our eyes got stuck into the sedan AVEO. Thought came to buy it but the other month we were getting married and have to spend a lot of money in home and stuff. One of my friend who had UVA told me that Chevrolet has very few service centers(only in metros and some big cities) and spare parts comes expensive, so we dropped the idea. Although the dealer called over phone many times and tried very much to convince us. but we made our mind not to go for Chevrolet.

Maruti Suzuki: Then, we went to Maruti Suzuki showroom at Atta Market, Noida. We only went there to see Swift which my wife disliked very much due to its huge look. Zen-Estilo was no option because in my opinion the previous model which they discontinued was better the current, no room for legs, less head space, crampled rear seats with small boot.

I wanted a car that should be spacious, feature rich and fully loaded so that I don’t have to go and fix more accessories after the purchase. Swift ZXi model was good but was going a bit higher in price > 5.5L. So we dropped the idea that moment.

Hyundai: Santro was old and they discontinued the hi-end version to increase the sale of i10. I was seeing lots of i10s rolling on the roads with grasshopper eyed front lights. Don’t know but I disliked it initially, but my wife and cousin were contrary to me.

First we went to Capital Hyundai, Sec-63, Noida and collected all the information. Then we went to Nimbus Hyundai, Sec-2, Noida. They strictly told us that they are not going to give any discount and free accessories. The dealer was very rude, showroom was very small and they had maintenance facility at other location.

Then again we went back to Capital dealer. They were very polite, friendly and the showroom was very clean and cool. They handover me the car brochure and told me about the versions, features and specs of Era, Magna, Sportz and Asta models.

• Era was basic with 1.1 L engine with less features, no power windows, no defogger, etc.

  
  




• Magna 1.2 L engine with no defogger, no tail LED light, no cd-player, etc.

  
  




• Sportz has 1.2 L new kappa engine which is more refined and more efficient+feature rich.

  
  




• Asta has some extra features that I don’t think I’ll use here in india like sun-roof, ABS and Air bags+ extra cost.

  
  

We both selected the Sportz model.

After lot of negotiations and several meetings they quoted us a decent price and some free accessories(thanks to my cousin brother for negotiating a lot). It was Diwali time so they were not giving too much discounts. Finally the car was at home on 3rd Nov 2008.

I learned driving through this car only so was not getting good mileage initially. Before the 1st service I was getting about 9~10kmpl with AC. The mechanic told me you’ll get good mileage after 2nd servicing. But still I didn’t get more than 12. My friend who purchased i10 five months before me told he is getting 16~18 within city with AC on. I asked how come, he told driving habits. he is driving for the last 12 years. I thought he has just thrown a random number. But when I discussed with my uncle he actually told me that my friend was right.

My uncle gave me following tips to achieve max mileage:

1. Drive your car at the speed of 50-60kmpl within city and less than 70kmpl in highways to get max mileage. You go up 80 you screw on mileage drastically.

   
   




2. Do not use clutch heavily, if you have a habit of resting your foot on the clutch stop that(even brakes).

   
   




3. Gently press your accelerator. Do not push the accelerator pedal down to gain speed, it burns your fuel very fast, instead shift one gear down and accelerate slowly.

   
   




4. Shift to 5th gear ASAP. Use following speeds:

   
   




5. 10kmph: Shift to 2nd gear.

   
   




6. 20kmph: Shift to 3rd gear.

   
   




7. 35kmph: Shift to 4th gear.

   
   




8. 50kmph: Shift to 5th gear.

   
   




9. And at red lights turn off your car if its longer than 40-50 seconds.

   
   




10. Check your tyre pressure every time you refill gas, its free!

    
    

. . . try it yourself.

My car has done 9000kms and is running smoother and smoother.

Current Mileage(as of 12-June-2009):- City: 15~16kmpl / Highway:~19kmpl (with AC)

Cons:-

1. The fog light caps on the bumper(both sides) are very delicate. I’ve lost both of them and have also seen missing in many other people’s car.

   
   




2. The water jet for wiping the windshield is not powerful. I’ve seen in other cars the water jet is strong and sometimes reaches up to the roof.

   
   

Hyundai guys can do a better job in these 2 points.

Will keep updating mile after mile . . .