May 01, 2009 01:29 PM
18626 Views
(Updated May 01, 2009 01:45 PM)
I bought this Elantra CRDi black beauty recently as used car, thanks to the person who maintained it spotlessly. This is my 21st car and I used cars ranging from Fiat Delight, Fiat Padmini, Maruti Omni, Maruti Esteem, Fiat 118, Ford, Hyundai Santro, Hyundai Accent. Honda Accord SE.
Unlike my previous cars this is my first diesel car. Before purchasing this car I was driving my Santro and I was planning to go again to a large car as my kids are grown up and we drive long distance frequently. With Santro though it an excellent car for city riding it makes the journey tiresome due to being a small car with just moderate suspension. I am really impressed with Hyundai vehicles due to the surprisingly very low maintenance and value for money. For this reason as usual I was made to once again to go in for Hyundai Car. I finalized on going for New Hyundai Accent Executive / i20 Asta. i20 due to unknown reason came with a waiting periond of more than a month, Accent though an excellent car I already used it twice. Diesel option was also back in the mind due to economy but Verna was very expensive to its feature and value.
This is the time I came across this Black Beauty - Elantra CRDi. I was going to my office and enroute I went for filling my Santro in a fuel pump near to my office and I saw this black beauty, the owner was checking air after filling diesel. Though I was doing lot of web search for Elantra too the look of this Elantra really impressed me a lot. I saw the Hyundai emblem, the word CRDi and the spotless look flashed me and without even thinking of anything I waved to the Owner of the black beauty while he is backing up to move out. He stopped on seeing me he is aged around 60. I enquired him about the mileage his car gives.he said it is around 16 kmpl diesel in highway. I introduced myself about where I am working and what I am doing and appreciated him in the way he maintaining his car. He said he is also planning to sell that car. we exchange our mobile numbers and the entire conversation is just around a minute.
Evening I came back home and the Black beauty came to my mind immediately. I called him and he invited me to have a look on the car and gave his address and landmark. I myself and my 10yr old daughter went and saw the Car. wow. He gave me the keys and asked me to have a test drive. As usual I was hesitant to take another car to drive myself. I requested him to drive for some distance. the interiors too were maintained clean, the climatic control very quickly chilled the interiors. After nearing a highway I took the wheel and started driving with care so as not to harm it. cool. It also impressed my daughter and we decided to buy it. He offered it for 6.75. I came back home.
The web search showed the value for that model around 6.25. He recently changed all tyres, Batteries and did a scheduled full service, which all worth nearly 30K and so far clocked only 32K, single owner, self driven, maintened spotlessly, Clean History, Clear documents. Just for the sake of asking I asked for 5.5 and he finally accepted for 6.5 and we finalized it over phone. Myself, my wife and my younger daughter went and finished the deal and took delivery of the car. Price may be more but the value is again virtual on individual perception and not absolute.
In a week, so far I drove nearly 1200 Km, we went for different long trips and it is really an excellent cool car. This is my first Diesel Car and first car in Black color. Really I wonder how I missed Elantra CRDi, such an excellent Car. It has everything we wish for.All wheel disc brakes, Alloy wheels, ABS, Airbag, EBD, Traction Control, Adjustable Steering, Turbo CRDi, Excellent Pickup and mileage(15-16 Kmpl with AC in Highway), Information on Distance it can travel with the remaining fuel, Trip meter, Fully automated Climatic control that even controls the mode and fan speed automatically based on the external and internal temperature, display the external temperature, Multimode Adjustable Front Seat, Well designed interiors, Patterned Fabric Interiors, separate low and high beams, fog light. many many more.
Black with chrome finishings makes it the real beauty. Sure We will be recommending it to anyone. Though a discontinued model(a bad irrelevant decision) from Hyundai it is a steal for value for money.
Update after covering 14, 000 km(odometer - 46700)
Still I love this car, in fact much more than before, an excellent, amazing car!
I am updating this review to give information to those who are interested in maintenance, mileage of this excellent car.
Regarding mileage still it gives 17.2 on highway. This car shows the average mileage information using the current fuel consumption history(another excellent feature). This varies with the way we drive and is dynamic(real-time). When you fill the tank to its full by automatic filling(total capacity 55 litre) the km the car can run with that amount of fuel will be shown. On an average it is around 950 km and it averages to 17.2 km per litre. This I verified several times during long journeys. In case of driving within city on heavy traffic it drops to 560 km for 55 litre averaging to 10.2 km per litre. So the range is between 10.2 in worst case and 17.2 in case of highway. Mileage slightly dropped to 15+ when it was nearing the maintenance and once again it is giving 17+ after the service. In highways I drove it up to 160+ km speed and is rock solid with complete control even at that speed!
As far as the maintenance is concerned, it is the general full service including oil change comes to around Rs 4000. It is required for every 10K km, I did it twice so far. I am visiting Hyundai service center as per the maintenance schedule. My last service did cost me around 9K which covered detailed coverage of different parts and fine tuning that is scheduled to be done at 45, 000 odometer reading. Next schedule visit is required only at 55, 000 km odometer reading.
In addition to the above, the OEM Exide battery suddenly failed a couple of months ago and got a new replacement battery from Exide(it comes with 4 years warranty). Again this has nothing to do with the car and didn't cost me anything as it is just a warranty replacement!
After covering 14, 000+ km, clocking to 46, 700+ in odometer and after 1.5+ years of driving this car still I love this car a lot, a great amazing car with all one wish for. Drive this with your family in highway and you will know what I am enjoying.
Happy driving!
