2014 Chevrolet Sail Hatchback

We Indians love making any kind of deal that will get us a lot more while paying a lot less. Basically we want the space and luxury of a 3BHK at the price of a 1BHK and if possible, a few added benefits like piped gas and water heaters.

In the same way that we look for our houses we buy our cars too, always looking for the value and space of a 3BHK. The Chevrolet Sail then appears like once such option; it is easily one of the biggest hatchbacks around and yet comes with a price tag that makes it fit among cars that are at least one rung lower.

Generally the real estate deals come with a catch – poor water/electricity supply, no parking space, a building that will go down in two years or maybe a bad locality. But every once in a while there is that genuinely good deal and so we try and find out if the Chevrolet Sail hatchback is, as the company likes to put it, 'a delight in every ride'.

The face of the Sail hatchback has been retained from the outgoing car but with just enough tweaks to provide some newness to the appearance. These changes include chrome on the fog lamp housing as well as a slightly revised bumper and head lamps.

From the side, the Sail hatchback continues with the slightly forward leaning stance and flared wheel arches of which the latter provides the hatchback with a squat stance. The rear has no major changes save for the removal of the U-VA badge and the appearance of the word ‘hatchback’ at the base of the rear glass.

The Sail hatchback competes with the Maruti Suzuki Swift, Hyundai Grand i10 and the Ford Figo in the B-segment. Out of this quadruplet of vehicles the Grandi10 has the newest and most modern design while the Swift is the sportiest of the lot and now also shows a bit of premium quality thanks to the silver inserts in the fascia. The Ford Figo now looks quite dated but will soon undergo a major overhaul by the middle of next year.

The overall design is not what you would call particularly eye-catching but has everything needed to appeal to the mass market consumer who in all probability will spend his/her time commuting in the car from point A to point B with the occasional highway run.

The interior is where Chevrolet has put in maximum effort in its bid to facelift the car. It now sports a slightly reworked version of the black and beige two-tone setup which lends a feeling of airiness to what is already a large cabin. It follows the same overall layout of all the elements from the previous model but now the instrument panel gets a funky cyan and blue combination as compared to the older yellow and orange colour scheme.

The new addition to the feature list is a 2-DIN music system which has AUX, USB and Bluetooth connectivity as well a CD player. It is definitely a step up from the previous 1-DIN head unit but the lack of steering mounted audio controls and the cumbersome arrangement of the buttons does it no favours in the ergonomics department. However, the sound is pretty decent and it does offer some sound customisation options.

But even the cumbersome music system is no match for an odd ball in the layout which is the position of the horn. In a nation where driving is sometimes as stressful as getting a root canal the horn has become the primary source of conveying all forms of non-verbal messages on the road. GM, by the look of it does not believe in this mentality and has fitted minute horn buttons located on the outer edges of the centre of the steering wheel that take a while to be etched into the driver’s muscle memory.

As you move over from the driver’s seat to the centre console, you are greeted by the gear lever and the power window switches which have been located here. The AC is surprisingly good and is class leading. It cools quickly and effectively but is let down by a noisy fan, especially at higher speeds. There is a small space above the glove box to provide additional storage space while the glove box, by itself, is quite spacious.

Shuffle over to the back and this will give you an idea of just how much space is actually there. The hatchback is 3.9 metres long with a 2.45-metre wheelbase. While the hatchback’s wheelbase may be smaller than the Ford Figo (2.48-metres), it has more cabin space due to the more forward oriented placement of the engine.

It has a sloping rear roof line which looks good on the outside but consumes headroom on the inside and also affects rear visibility slightly. However, there is sufficient leg room for the rear passengers even with the front seats pushed back.

Like its sedan sibling, where the cabin loses out the most is the insulation and quality. It is extremely noisy and more so when you are driving at higher speeds. This tends to become significant when you are travelling long distances with the car. On the quality front, all the plastics feel low quality. The tactile feel of the switch gear also feels like a let-down.

The boot space is pegged at 248-litre for the hatchback and like its sedan sibling, the opening is wide and this makes it easy to load and unloads items from the boot. Among the competition, it only has the third largest boot as this honour goes to the Ford Figo which has a boot space of 284-litre.

The interior falls significantly below its rivals both in terms of quality and feature list with both of these going hands down to the Hyundai Grand i10. What the hatchback offers you is oodles of space, a really good AC unit and acceptable music system which is not such a bad thing if you want just the basics at a decent price.

The Sail hatchback is offered with one petrol and diesel engine. The petrol unit is a 1.2-litre mill that produces 82bhp and 108Nm of torque. The diesel on the other hand is the 1.3-litre 'Smartech SDE’ unit that produces 74bhp and 190Nm of torque. Power is sent to the front wheels via a five-speed manual gearbox. The engine has decent low-end power with the turbo coming on at around 1800-1900rpm. A surge can be felt all the way up to around 2600-2700rpm. This is more than sufficient grunt when you need to do a quick overtake.

The gear shifts are not smooth but the changes are firm and reassuring. The low levels of insulation meant that small vibrations and a lot of the engine noise could be felt and heard in the cabin. What you do get with the hatch are high levels of fuel efficiency. The petrol has an ARAI certified fuel efficiency of 18.2kmpl while the diesel has an ARAI certified number of 22.1kmpl. GM has fitted the Sail sedan with disc brakes in front and drum brakes on the rear wheels. These provide adequate stopping power and along with the ABS on the top-spec versions seem sufficient for vehicles of this size and length.

Chevrolet has fitted McPherson Struts in the front and Twist Axle setup in the rear. The grouses about the interior being low-rent and looks being bland all fade away into the distance thanks to the ride of this car. It is class-leading and manages to iron out most of the bumps and imperfections on the road with ease.

When the ride is this good, it does affect handling. The steering feels light at low speeds but does not weigh up accurately as you go into the three-digits, more so, it tends to feel jittery once you go past the 120kmph mark. The low speed handling and light steering on the other hand makes the car easy to manoeuvre in tight situations. The tyres are 175/70 R14 Apollo Alnacs which by the look of it are biased towards efficiency and long life more than performance. They are noisy and this tends to show more so due to the poor insulation.

The Sail hatchback, like its sedan sibling, offers an excellent ride, class leading AC and most importantly spacious interior; all things that one would find on vehicles at least one level higher. This is something that should sell well with those looking for a machine that will take them from point A to point B without much fanfare but also allow them to have a comfortable ride when going out for longer distances on the weekends.

Another offering that should swing the tide in favour of this hatchback is that Chevrolet is one of the few manufacturers to offer a 3-years/1 lakh km warranty. It also has another scheme dubbed 'Chevrolet promise' which the company says will keep maintenance costs as low as possible for 3-years/45,000km. At the time of publishing this review the company on its official website has committed (subject to terms and conditions) that if the service cost of petrol and diesel variants of the hatchback exceeds Rs 19,499 and Rs 26,999 respectively, then it will reimburse the customer the difference.

However, going back to what we said in the beginning about finding a perfect deal, we must remember that with life being what it is, such a deal is rare to find and even when you do, there is always the little asterisk in the corner which is basically the symbol for two words we dread 'conditions apply'. The asterisk in this case is that the Sail hatchback lacks refinement due to the poor NVH insulation and the interior feels low-rent in terms of quality and these are things we hope that Chevrolet will address when it provides the car with its next update.