I am making it very clear that I do not own this car. I cannot afford to. I heard the price tag was Rs.14 lakhs or maybe more. I had a chance to go for a long ride in this automobile last week (lucky me !)
....Yes Gold is precious and costly, so is this Sonata Gold from Hyundai motors.
Specs
2000CC (Ok 1997CC), 4 Cylinder engine (Some models have 6 valve engine), front wheel drive, disc brakes, power windows, power steering, central locking, manual transmission (5 gears + reverse gear). Do I hear claps?
Looks
Looks like Jaguar. Colours - black, gold, bluish silver. Very aerodynamic. Sure to make a lot of heads turn (unless Aishwarya Rai is going from the other side).
Interiors
The interiors is this car’s strongest attribute. Standard amenities are galore, along with wood finish on front console. Air bags on driver side and passenger side, a 6 speaker cassette/CD player, power antenna. The speedometer has a trip counter, time counter, average speed display. Soft grip steering wheel and leather upholstery. Safety belts for all seats. Slowly dimming cabin light is just superb. Check the small pulldown locker above front seat for your sunglasses.
The seating is very comfortable for driver + 4 (family car) Excellent leg room at front and back as well.
Once the windows are up and the car cruises, there is absolutely no engine noise inside - very smooth. On Mumbai-Nasik highway I saw the speedometer showing 150kmph and I did not even notice that we were going at that kind of speed thanks to Bridgestone radials.
Air Conditioning
just Excellent. You can set the cabin temperature at a desired level and set to ’auto’ mode, so that it switches on/off as per actual temp. Plus it has various fan speeds, blowing direction etc. like other cars. Cooling is very fast.
The acceleration in first & second gear is much more than expected and it can leave all the other cars behind (not Ferrari of course). In 5th overdrive gear one should feel the car ’sailing’. BUT watch out for speed breakers, many times the chassis hit the speed breakers in Mumbai.
The headlamps make the entire road lit up. They are placed low so that the beam does not shine in the eyes of the drives of the vehicles coming from the opposite side.
In the night the front console and the power window buttons lit up nicely. You feel like flying in a plane.
Time to get down now....see you later.