This is my first review on MS.Before that I was a vivid reader of car reviews on MS.
Its been 1 yr since I bought the Santro Xing.During this period I drove around 13, 000Km and went for 2 long distance trips of about 2500km.But till now I did not face any problem with the car.
How I finalized on Xing
This is my first car and I should tell you that I am a car buff.So I used to read a lot about cars before also.
My budget was around 4Lakhs. So I narrowed down to Xing, Wagon-R, Fiat Palio and Indica.Then test drove all the four.
Palio was ruled out coz of low fuel efficiency, poor after sales service.Indica for its looks and fuel efficiency.So left with Xing and Wagon-R.
The immediate difference that one can make out after the test drive is the gear box. Santro’s gear box is very smooth where as Wagon-R is robust.Also Xing has an appealing look both front and back.The tail lamp design is excellent.You can notice them from a long distance.Hence I decided for Xing.
So after driving extensively for one year I can tell Xing is very comfortable, responsive for acceleration (not on higher side but still good enough) in city as well as long drives. Read that the recently launched ERLX is much better.Engine has a
very good HUMMING sound and you don’t feel the engine vibration inside. I love the gear box for the ease of shifting gears.
It can accommodate 5 adults without causing much discomfort.Leg space is also sufficient at front and back for a car of its size.Overall its roomy and the boot space is quite sufficient.The dash board is well designed and easily accessible.The A/C is good and cools the interiors fairly faster even though the performance drops a bit when you switch on the A/C.
Gives a good fuel efficiency.18 on highway, 12-13 in city (without A/c). With A/c it comes down 2kmpl respectively.I use normal unleaded petrol with System-G additive.
In short the pros of the car are:
Appealing and contemporary styling.
Excellent gear box design.
Fairly good responsive engine.
Comfortable for both long and city drives.
Good fuel economy.
Very smooth manoeuvrability
As always there are cons for every thing in the world:
You can feel the gear nob vibrating specially if you are accustomed driving with one hand on the gear.Sadly its the case with me.
Reverse gear is not very smooth. I don’t know if its the case with me only or with others also as the other gears shift at ease.
Rear suspensions are not that comfortable if Hyundai can improve on that it would be great.
My final verdict will be its a very good and refined car with value for money.Yeh I agree there are some cons but which car doesn’t have.Recently I have read a shoot out between Xing and Wagon-R in AutoCar and Xing came out as overall WINNER.So I strongly recommend Xing for those who are looking for a small family car with a budget range of around 4Lakhs.