Live The Thrill

Live the Thrill, that's what a car enthusiast like me thinks while getting a new car. I'm referring the Hyundai Verna & I'll share my complete experience of ownership of Hyundai Verna from selecting which car to buy to after sales & services. I bought the Verna in September 2018, while purchasing a new car I was sure I want a car with great performance, good ride & handling which should be cherished by a dose of punchy power, living in a city like Gurugram I was optimistic about an automatic transmission as well. I was confident that I wanted a sedan because SUV's have tons of body roll which an enthusiast like me doesn't like. I was willing to spend around 15 lakhs & I narrowed down my options which were Hyundai Verna, Honda City & Volkswagen Vento. I immediately discarded Vento from my list due to lack of features in Vento & poor after-sales service provided by Volkswagen in India moving on to Honda City I didn't like the infotainment system & the touch AC panel is inconvenient to use, in Verna I just fell in love with cooled front seats also that was a useful feature for the harsh weather in north India. Sharing my experience at the dealership, I would like to point out a few things mainly speaking I got the delivery of my car within 4 days, also the staff was really polite & were kind enough to call me for an inspection of the vehicle before delivery as well, I got a silver colour Verna & it cost me just under 14 lakhs including a 40k discount & I got free accessories kit as well including perfume, floor mats & some other stuff. The front of the car is mainly dominated by the enormous front grille surrounded by chrome & also has inserts of chrome in it, honestly, it is huge & does resemble some Audi cars, it gets a set of projector headlamps with DRL's integrated into the headlamps below we get a set of projector foglamps which are also surrounded by chrome. Moving on to the side profile at a first glance one can say that it is just ready to race it looks so sleek, it gets sporty door handles with chrome covers on them the window line also has a strip of chrome running from start to the end the shape of the boot is such that it looks like as if it has a spoiler, it gets 16 inches diamond cut alloys which look just mesmerising with a tyre size of 195/55 R16. The rear of the car has a sporty appeal to it, the lower part of the bumper gets a diffuser like treatment to it with integrated reflectors in it, the tail lamps are the main attraction in the rear of this car as it gets LED tail lamps which look just lovely at night. Let's see what is offered under the hood, Verna is powered by a 1.6-litre petrol engine which produces 121 bhp & 151 Nm of torque which is class-leading in its segment & it gets a 6-speed torque converter automatic gearbox. The engine performance is really good but transmission could have been improved as Honda City's CVT is better but I'm satisfied by the performance on offer, I have done 15000 kilometres on this car & achieved a maximum speed of 180 kmph on this car which is crazy & the although the low end is not the best but mid-range is where this engine shines, discussing the gear shifts in city driving they are really smooth you won't even notice when gears are changing but in outright acceleration, they can be improved. Analysing the steering response & handling dynamics I think they are not the best in the segment & Honda City is better in that department. Moving on to NVH levels I think Hyundai has done a great job in engine refinement & the suspension is also perfectly tuned so that it feels comfortable in the city & doesn't feel bouncy on the highways. Let's address the main question of an Indian buyer "Kitna Deti Hai" I'm able to extract a fuel economy of 8-9 kmpl in city & 12-13 on highways which I agree is on the lower side. Once you open the doors you'll observe the plush leather interior of the car, the steering is also wrapped in leather which feels really upmarket & it has controls for the infotainment system, multi-information display in instrument cluster & cruise control. On the right side of the steering wheel, we get controls to adjust the instrument cluster brightness & controls for headlight levelling. The driver side door gets controls for all the power windows with driver-side auto-up & auto-down, controls for adjusting & folding ORVM's. The instrument cluster looks elegant & clean also it displays the required information such as the fuel economy, distance to empty & temperature. The left side of the steering wheel has the engine start/stop button & besides that is the infotainment system which I feel is best in the segment in terms of display quality, user interface & touch input, there's no lag at all in the system also the reverse camera gets adaptive guidelines as well which is also first in its segment also it gets a physical rotary knob for volume control which is really convenient. It gets in-built satellite navigation & supports android-auto & apple-carplay, the music output is also good & gets 4 speakers & 2 tweeters. Below it are the controls for AC, it does get auto climatic control & the AC cools the car in no time. Now comes the best part i.e. the controls for cooled front seats which have 3 levels of cooling & those cooled seats are a gem. There's a wireless charging pad where you can charge your phone also there's a USB charger, 12 Volt socket with a USB & Aux port for the infotainment system. The Gear Knob is wrapped in leather & feels premium, the IRVM is an automatic dimming unit also there's a sunglasses holder & the cabin lamps with the controls for electronic sunroof, the sunroof does make the cabin feel much more open. Moving to the back seats my first opinion is they are not best in the class & are far behind in terms of legroom & comfort from the Honda City or the Ciaz but it does get rear AC vents & a rear manual sunshade & a centre armrest also rear-seat headrests are adjustable, in a nutshell, rear seats are best for short trips & if you are a chauffeur-driven person Verna is not the car for you. It also gets 6 airbags which make the car feel really safe. In terms of small storage spaces & practicality, there are plenty of storage spaces to store stuff you get bottle holders in all 4 doors & space to keep some extra stuff in front doors, there are 2 cup holders in the centre of the dashboard for front passengers & 2 cupholders in the rear seat armrest, there's space to store stuff in the front centre armrest, the glove box is a decent size with a cooling function in it & the boot is also commodious with a huge capacity of 465 litres which is enough for the airport trips & weekend getaways. The after-sales service of the car is good, I get a call from the dealership when my service is due & a guy comes to my home to pick the car & drops it back to my home after the service & I'm completely satisfied with after-sales support from Hyundai. I'll end my review by mentioning the pros & cons & then I'll give my final verdict. Pros 1) Cooled front seats 2) Very refined engine 3) Best in class infotainment system 4) Sunroof 5) Cooled glove box moving on to cons 1) Rear seat space is really less 2) Fuel economy is low 3) Gearbox & engine calibration can be improved 4) Steering feedback & the body dynamics are not the best. In conclusion, I would like to say that if you are not a chauffer driven person this is the best car for you with a punchy engine & those cooled seats are just lovely if you stay in some hot region & the engine refinement is best.