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About this review - First of all before you read this review, I will promise you it won’t be a fan filled write up where I would want to praise the car because I decided to put my money on it. I want my unbiased ownership review to help another person decide what he/she wants & can live with/without in a car.I have started this review after completing 3000km to explore the car thoroughly for the initial review . So on with the review now!
Needs from the car – My mother (who would also use the car a lot) had a liking for the i20,but I wanted to look around a bit before putting all my money on it,so priorities from the car being chosen were preferably Hatchback(for ease of parking),diesel ,ABS, decent boot, good highway car(which i20 necessarily isn’t) & decent/reliable dealership.
Other cars I looked at & reasons for backing off:
Vento/Rapid –Although I had preferred a hatch,I was temped towards the Rapid (Ambition) diesel as there was a Vento(had gearbox prob) which I use to drive usually had developed an interest towards the Rapid,but was stunned to see all the service centers were literally outside the city(Bangalore),it would be frustrating to keep going there over & over again if there was a problem.
SX4 Zdi – My mother was not too keen on driving this car in city traffic, especially reversing it, pricing has come down as I write this review, the “celebration edition “ special white Sx4 ads did look tempting though!
Punto 90hp –As I knew this was a good highway car it was on my list to look at,but my friends who had Punto’s were getting step mother treatment from Tata service hence were very frustrated & had sold them off(except 1),so looked like a sinking ship. Pity though!
Fabia/Polo – These are wonderful cars,loved the Polo alot ,the only fear I had was of the 3 cylinder diesel engine,which would get terribly noisy & was a bit under powered. If they had a 4-cylinder or even better the 1.6 tdi from the Rapid/Vento then this would have been the car I would have bought.
Swift/Dzire –Already owning the previous Swift Petrol, I was not too keen on lining up another Swift alongside, the new boot space was a put off,so they dint have a lot going for them in my books & since I wanted ABS, the Zdi variant pricing was not appealing to me either.
Figo/Liva/Logan/Pulse/Micra- Did not feel like going for them somehow ,although the Liva had my curiosity.
Verna 1.6 crdi- As we were hovering around the Hyundai showroom & yard thanks to the i20,my mother would contemplate changing the booking to Verna but I was adamant (its not a bad car) not to go for it as it would be difficult for my mother to drive it around thanks to lack of rear visibility & every inch of length added to the car meant goodbye to that tight parking spot which an Innova failed to get into but I could & the 3 lakhs odd difference on-road price between the two at the final moment was not helping either.
Choosing the i20 - My mother was interested in the car more after the new version came out,so we went to the showroom & took a test drive on which I had given a brief review ( http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/indian-auto-news/4155-hyundai-i20-fluidic-now-launched-rs-4-73-lakhs-10.html ),they took us to the stock yard to see the other colours available as there were no i-Gen i20s of diff colour in the showroom,since I was interested in ABS I choose the “Sportz” variant of the crdi i20,but deciding the colour was the hard part,we had a trip to the yard just to decided on the colour as my mother wanted the bronze colour where as I wanted it to be white or silver atleast,black colour is no longer available on the i20 (too bad for all the egocentric people),well putting the colour on hold,I waited for a month to see if the new i20 customers were reporting any issues with the car & with the sunfilm ban I was hoping the i20 would come with vlt 70 factory tint glass like the ones on the Cruz,so I was holding back from taking delivery of the car as the colour was not finalized, but later on went ahead with the colour white but with rumors of tax hike for diesel cars flying around & learning the car had arrived I went ahead & took delivery of the car after the usuals such as a little ceremony at the showroom with pictures etc, late evening on June 21st.![[drive]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Drive.gif "Drive [drive]")
So after parting with 8,67,*** Rupees here is the“Hyundai i20 CRDI Sportz ”
Exterior – Well I was not a big fan of the the new i20’s looks,but then it starts to grow on you.Since its in a colour I like that is white I am very happy with it,so I am going to keep this section short & let people have there opinions about the looks. Just wish they had given two reverse lamps instead of one,but that seems to be the norm these days,also the headlamps have separate light filaments for high & low beam,so when you switch to high beam both low beam & high beam are on.The indicators on the door mirrors look pretty nice.There is not vent around the Hyundai front grill except in between the Hyundai logo.Just wish they had provided effective mud flaps as the doors seems to have a lot of mud flying off the front wheels (shall post some example pics later).The mirrors can be electrically adjusted & folded(also manually if required),they are also heated to prevent fogging.The antenna located on the back of the car is not adjustable but is flexible.The reverse cam is located below the Hyundai logo & usually not noticeable to others.The integrated bumper reflectors are a nice touch.
Build Quality - Nothing much to say,there is no cheap feeling anywhere as far as I see,but I feel the shell of the car is not strong enough to take hammering for years,but that’s pretty much the same with other cars nowdays (except Punto) around this price point,so nothing looks or feels cheap to put me off atleast.
Interior - Build quality is pretty decent & I have no complaints other than the impossible to clean beige door panels. The seats are not the most comfy as they feel a bit hard,the head rest feels odd at first as its positioned to be a head restrain in case of a rear impact, I have noticed this in the Jetta also,but you get use to this pretty soon.The central info display shows how many hours you have been on the road(or the engine has been running) along with kms,time,two tripmeters ,exterior temp & audio/call info.The cooled glovebox is deep & spacious along with a rack to keep car manual/documents without hampering space.Steering is adjustable but horn is hard to use in some cases.
Something I am really happy about is the electro Chromic mirror which detects the headlights coming from the rear windscreen & dim down,if there are no cars behind you the mirror is clear regardless of it being night,it also has an integrated screen to display feed from reverse cam which works along with the sensors which I find a very helpful feature.The instrument cluster is diff from the “Asta” variant but it does tell you when to shift up/down.You wont leave your parking lights or headlights on & leave the car & come back to find the battery dead because the primary power is cut off the moment the key comes out.
Audio/features - The audio has pretty decent acoustics for the front seats as it has dedicated tweeter mounts in the front door panels, but not great for the rear members. The audio has a slot for usb & aux which can be found next to the 12v changing socket facing the gearbox.The steering has integrated controls for changing the track, volume & changing the source between CD,Usb & Radio.Once you have paired the phone with the car Bluetooth its pretty easy to use,all you need to do is switch on the “Bluetooth” on your phone & it will connect,you can answer the calls pressing the buttons on the steering,the call can be heard through the speakers & the microphone is located above the drivers head.But it can get cut if you switch off the car & also restart it.If a song is being played it is paused & the phone ring tone will be heard just like your Bluetooth headset.
Ac/Climate control/Related features - The climate control is pretty decent,there is an auto button which I don’t use as the vents go to neutral setting & air is taken from the exterior in auto mode,so I set the temp,vent region & blower speed & activate the ac by turning the knob instead(Many new Hyundai owners don’t know this instead activate ac pressing auto mode). There is a little vent below the front seats for rear passengers.But an annoying thing is when the car is started the exterior vents are opened so you got to press the interior mode button if your not using the ac to prevent air coming through it along with exterior dust,but I am guessing the exterior vents are opened automatically when you stop the car to stop someone from being suffocated (or increase survival chances)in a parked car such as leaving your child or pet without ventilation.My ac has something called clean air cluster ionizer,which is suppose to be a little uv lamp(or something like that![[:)]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Smile.gif "Smile [:)]")
) not sure if its helping but no complaints so far.But am still getting burnt thanks to no sunfilms, tempted to add some transparent vlt 70 sunfilms which I really feel are necessary.
If you press the front defogger button the blower shoots up to full speed along with it turning to exterior(fresh air) mode to defog the front glass.If the rear defogger button is pressed the heating filaments on the rear windscreen do there duty but this also switches on the heater located on both the side mirrors which I think is pretty cool. The glovebox has a slide switch which allows the ac to cool the glovebox.
Boot -The luggage space is pretty adequate to swallow most bags,atleast way better than in the Suzuki Swift,there is a little lamp which lights up when the boot is open(like your fridge) which is pretty helpful. In case there is more luggage & there is no 4th or 5th passenger you can make use of the 60:40 split seating.The boot door can be unlocked by remote & can be opened by pressing a hidden button under the boot handle. The boot can be opened if the doors are unlocked but had an issue where the boot did not open for mall security even when the doors were unlocked so ending up using the remote.While closing the boot the interior handles are oddly located tending to make them useless.
Needs from the car – My mother (who would also use the car a lot) had a liking for the i20,but I wanted to look around a bit before putting all my money on it,so priorities from the car being chosen were preferably Hatchback(for ease of parking),diesel ,ABS, decent boot, good highway car(which i20 necessarily isn’t) & decent/reliable dealership.
Other cars I looked at & reasons for backing off:
Vento/Rapid –Although I had preferred a hatch,I was temped towards the Rapid (Ambition) diesel as there was a Vento(had gearbox prob) which I use to drive usually had developed an interest towards the Rapid,but was stunned to see all the service centers were literally outside the city(Bangalore),it would be frustrating to keep going there over & over again if there was a problem.
SX4 Zdi – My mother was not too keen on driving this car in city traffic, especially reversing it, pricing has come down as I write this review, the “celebration edition “ special white Sx4 ads did look tempting though!
Punto 90hp –As I knew this was a good highway car it was on my list to look at,but my friends who had Punto’s were getting step mother treatment from Tata service hence were very frustrated & had sold them off(except 1),so looked like a sinking ship. Pity though!
Fabia/Polo – These are wonderful cars,loved the Polo alot ,the only fear I had was of the 3 cylinder diesel engine,which would get terribly noisy & was a bit under powered. If they had a 4-cylinder or even better the 1.6 tdi from the Rapid/Vento then this would have been the car I would have bought.
Swift/Dzire –Already owning the previous Swift Petrol, I was not too keen on lining up another Swift alongside, the new boot space was a put off,so they dint have a lot going for them in my books & since I wanted ABS, the Zdi variant pricing was not appealing to me either.
Figo/Liva/Logan/Pulse/Micra- Did not feel like going for them somehow ,although the Liva had my curiosity.
Verna 1.6 crdi- As we were hovering around the Hyundai showroom & yard thanks to the i20,my mother would contemplate changing the booking to Verna but I was adamant (its not a bad car) not to go for it as it would be difficult for my mother to drive it around thanks to lack of rear visibility & every inch of length added to the car meant goodbye to that tight parking spot which an Innova failed to get into but I could & the 3 lakhs odd difference on-road price between the two at the final moment was not helping either.
Choosing the i20 - My mother was interested in the car more after the new version came out,so we went to the showroom & took a test drive on which I had given a brief review ( http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/indian-auto-news/4155-hyundai-i20-fluidic-now-launched-rs-4-73-lakhs-10.html ),they took us to the stock yard to see the other colours available as there were no i-Gen i20s of diff colour in the showroom,since I was interested in ABS I choose the “Sportz” variant of the crdi i20,but deciding the colour was the hard part,we had a trip to the yard just to decided on the colour as my mother wanted the bronze colour where as I wanted it to be white or silver atleast,black colour is no longer available on the i20 (too bad for all the egocentric people),well putting the colour on hold,I waited for a month to see if the new i20 customers were reporting any issues with the car & with the sunfilm ban I was hoping the i20 would come with vlt 70 factory tint glass like the ones on the Cruz,so I was holding back from taking delivery of the car as the colour was not finalized, but later on went ahead with the colour white but with rumors of tax hike for diesel cars flying around & learning the car had arrived I went ahead & took delivery of the car after the usuals such as a little ceremony at the showroom with pictures etc, late evening on June 21st.
So after parting with 8,67,*** Rupees here is the“Hyundai i20 CRDI Sportz ”
Exterior – Well I was not a big fan of the the new i20’s looks,but then it starts to grow on you.Since its in a colour I like that is white I am very happy with it,so I am going to keep this section short & let people have there opinions about the looks. Just wish they had given two reverse lamps instead of one,but that seems to be the norm these days,also the headlamps have separate light filaments for high & low beam,so when you switch to high beam both low beam & high beam are on.The indicators on the door mirrors look pretty nice.There is not vent around the Hyundai front grill except in between the Hyundai logo.Just wish they had provided effective mud flaps as the doors seems to have a lot of mud flying off the front wheels (shall post some example pics later).The mirrors can be electrically adjusted & folded(also manually if required),they are also heated to prevent fogging.The antenna located on the back of the car is not adjustable but is flexible.The reverse cam is located below the Hyundai logo & usually not noticeable to others.The integrated bumper reflectors are a nice touch.
Build Quality - Nothing much to say,there is no cheap feeling anywhere as far as I see,but I feel the shell of the car is not strong enough to take hammering for years,but that’s pretty much the same with other cars nowdays (except Punto) around this price point,so nothing looks or feels cheap to put me off atleast.
Interior - Build quality is pretty decent & I have no complaints other than the impossible to clean beige door panels. The seats are not the most comfy as they feel a bit hard,the head rest feels odd at first as its positioned to be a head restrain in case of a rear impact, I have noticed this in the Jetta also,but you get use to this pretty soon.The central info display shows how many hours you have been on the road(or the engine has been running) along with kms,time,two tripmeters ,exterior temp & audio/call info.The cooled glovebox is deep & spacious along with a rack to keep car manual/documents without hampering space.Steering is adjustable but horn is hard to use in some cases.
Something I am really happy about is the electro Chromic mirror which detects the headlights coming from the rear windscreen & dim down,if there are no cars behind you the mirror is clear regardless of it being night,it also has an integrated screen to display feed from reverse cam which works along with the sensors which I find a very helpful feature.The instrument cluster is diff from the “Asta” variant but it does tell you when to shift up/down.You wont leave your parking lights or headlights on & leave the car & come back to find the battery dead because the primary power is cut off the moment the key comes out.
Audio/features - The audio has pretty decent acoustics for the front seats as it has dedicated tweeter mounts in the front door panels, but not great for the rear members. The audio has a slot for usb & aux which can be found next to the 12v changing socket facing the gearbox.The steering has integrated controls for changing the track, volume & changing the source between CD,Usb & Radio.Once you have paired the phone with the car Bluetooth its pretty easy to use,all you need to do is switch on the “Bluetooth” on your phone & it will connect,you can answer the calls pressing the buttons on the steering,the call can be heard through the speakers & the microphone is located above the drivers head.But it can get cut if you switch off the car & also restart it.If a song is being played it is paused & the phone ring tone will be heard just like your Bluetooth headset.
Ac/Climate control/Related features - The climate control is pretty decent,there is an auto button which I don’t use as the vents go to neutral setting & air is taken from the exterior in auto mode,so I set the temp,vent region & blower speed & activate the ac by turning the knob instead(Many new Hyundai owners don’t know this instead activate ac pressing auto mode). There is a little vent below the front seats for rear passengers.But an annoying thing is when the car is started the exterior vents are opened so you got to press the interior mode button if your not using the ac to prevent air coming through it along with exterior dust,but I am guessing the exterior vents are opened automatically when you stop the car to stop someone from being suffocated (or increase survival chances)in a parked car such as leaving your child or pet without ventilation.My ac has something called clean air cluster ionizer,which is suppose to be a little uv lamp(or something like that
) not sure if its helping but no complaints so far.But am still getting burnt thanks to no sunfilms, tempted to add some transparent vlt 70 sunfilms which I really feel are necessary.If you press the front defogger button the blower shoots up to full speed along with it turning to exterior(fresh air) mode to defog the front glass.If the rear defogger button is pressed the heating filaments on the rear windscreen do there duty but this also switches on the heater located on both the side mirrors which I think is pretty cool. The glovebox has a slide switch which allows the ac to cool the glovebox.
Boot -The luggage space is pretty adequate to swallow most bags,atleast way better than in the Suzuki Swift,there is a little lamp which lights up when the boot is open(like your fridge) which is pretty helpful. In case there is more luggage & there is no 4th or 5th passenger you can make use of the 60:40 split seating.The boot door can be unlocked by remote & can be opened by pressing a hidden button under the boot handle. The boot can be opened if the doors are unlocked but had an issue where the boot did not open for mall security even when the doors were unlocked so ending up using the remote.While closing the boot the interior handles are oddly located tending to make them useless.
![[clap]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Clap.gif "Clap [clap]")
please do post some interior pic's, any mod's planned?
![[;)]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Wink.gif "Wink [;)]")
i read the full review , line to line just because i myself was going for i20 but chose the verna instead.![[lol]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Laugh.gif "Laugh [lol]")
but yeah 6 months back.![[surprise]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Surprise.gif "Surprise [surprise]")
kudos to that. 
