Big Hype

 

When you buy a what are the important things you should consider?

1) Design: Check if it's aerodynamic or a rectangular box. Design with more drag coefficient means you eventually going to burn more fuel.

2) Engine, gearbox and power: This is where your 60% of money is going to be invested. Engine should be enough powerful to pull car's own weight without any effort. Gears should run engine at it's sweet spot providing good speed.

3) Suspension, sitting comfort, steering control: Gives stability over road, 30% of your money is going to be invested here. Body should not roll.

4)Interior Gadgets: Electronics, technology fades by time, what's new today will get old tomorrow. Even though you don't have CD player, It's not going to impact performance of your car. Race / Rally cars don't have such things, still they perform. Just 10% of your money is going here.

Exterior Very good if you look from distance. If you are a person who really thinks that after spending 9 odd lacs you should get a good product definitely you will give a close look at every other corner of the car. Ok.. here things start changing.

Check the space underneath the headlamp, did you find it unequal? Ask the sales person about it and they will say they saw it for the first time. :). Try to put slight pressure on the bumper under the headlamps and it will bend because it's bad quality plastic. With my small finger I was able to push the bumper. Now start checking the lines,cuts of side view mirror and you will find they are not properly finished. Try to see the logo on the boot space. 1.6 and SX both are not on one linear plane.

Strange! a company expecting to sell a product in 9 lacs should have taken care of these things. Even if you like to buy a cell phone of 20K you will see the quality/finish and may reject it if it's not good. Come on, this is 9.4 Lac car, give some finishing. What's big deal in today's technology to put these things in proper way when computers and robots are assembling cars. Where is the perfection Hyundai ? You are competing against world in this segment.

Still! all points above do not stop anyone buying this car because it has got a very good design and no one checks in this microscopic way on the street.

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) Let see interior.. check the door handle and small lock knob, you will find it's made up of a black plastic which is coated by silver / shiny chrome color. After few years its going to be black where you put your fingers quite often to open the door.

Next to the gear shifter, beige color plastic is just over there. Its not fixed or glued to black plastic running underneath. Steering is not telescopic like i20 so people with good height will feel steering touching their legs. Rear space is not much. I agree I am not in a limo, but I just need 2 inch more space. If ladies and kids are going to sit at back, its fine in such case. In Korea, people are of short height so this can work over there but when Hyundai is selling this car over the world, designer can avg the available space.

Looking for Gadgets? Too many, You name and it's there. Good work Hyundai. This matters to many people and all cons gets under shadow after getting list of gadgets in this car. But do remember, just 10% of your money is going to be invested in these gadgets.

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox Check the specs, WOW, 265 lb torque, 128 Hp.. great. Wait, 265 lb torque when turbo starts, without turbo its 168.064. So when does turbo starts? Papers say its around 1700-1900. Let's test it. Put this car in second gear, 1000 RPM, speed 20 Km per hour and floor the gas paddle and start counting, 1...2....3..4 ok so at 3000 RPM you get a kick. So here at 3000 RPM turbo charger starts working. But why this happened? Why the car was struggling for those 4 seconds? Its because Turbo charger did not kick in till 1800 RPM and later it was pumping air inside 4 cylinders. For 4 seconds 40-60 ml of Diesel was getting pumped in Cylinders but lack of properly compressed air did not burn the fuel. So whats big deal in this? Ok...40-60 ml Diesel wasted without giving the power.

So this car is for those who handle car very softly. It's for those who accelerate slowly. This practise will give good mileage which this car is promising on paper. Ok So when you are in hilly areas, make sure sure you keep your RPM above 2500 by downshifting at right engine speed.

So final words, not happy at all with an engine of 1.6 L, 128 HP and 265 lb torque.

Ride Quality & Handling Good. Very good suspension for city. Humps, path holes, all are absorbed properly. I am not comparing this car with BMW , AUDI, but yes in this price, it's good. Body roll? It's there. Heavy body when suspended over spring becomes pendulum. Soft suspension may not feel good when you take a turn over speed of 120-130. Steering, good and soft. If you feel you need a feedback, remove power steering :). Yes, I love steering which is smooth, I don't call it dead, it's just smooth.

If I cannot handle a soft steering I will learn it. I have flown aircraft and I have driven Mahindra Jeep too. Aircraft is more sensitive but I learned how to U turn it at speed of 400 Kmph. (yes, I learnt flying on piston engine ). I drove Mahindra jeep with awesome feed back which need strength to handle it, but I learnt it.

So final words, handling over high speed may not be great but it's acceptable.

Final Words A very good car for someone who likes design without looking the flaws in finishing. I never spoke regarding design defects, I spoke regarding the build quality of stuff used to create the car based on the design that car designers gave. If you are in a city where in traffic's sudden stop and sudden starts are common, you can trust on the brakes, you can trust on 1st gear (because it easily runs engine at 2000 RPM at speed of 10kmph, which helps turbo charger to pump in some air to burn Diesel), but yes don't try to push car hard on 2nd, 3rd gear, it's not worth. You will end up loosing some ml of Diesel or get humming inside the car. If you want to showcase gadgets inside the car, this car is for you.

Areas of improvement Turbo charger needs performance improvement. Quality of stuff used should get some improvement.

PS: If you feel you need more power, get after market turbo charger. If still you are unhappy, modify / hack the ECU to get 20-30% performance boost.

Design/StyleFinish, Engine performance