Great Car & Great Price!!. Review on Hyundai Getz

From :techwhack.com:

The advertisements are out as well. I have personally been waiting for this car since a long time. At least since the time I read about it first in Autocar India. And now Hyundai Getz is here. No, I don?t plan to buy it but this car is something which can totally shakeup the Indian car market. It is small yet spacious, cheap yet delicious and well, it is from Hyundai; the company which is closest to anywhere beating Maruti at its own game. If they can make a car as crappy looking as Santro, Getz should be a piece of cake.

Hyundai plan to position Getz between Santro Xing and Accent, placing it in direct competition with Maruti Suzuki Esteem and Ford Ikon. Even though it lacks a boot, Hyundai is optimist that people will like it for it is an extremely spacious car. As per reports, Getz would be available in two versions ? GL and GLS ? sporting a sticker price of Rs 4.5 lakh and Rs 4.75 lakh, respectively. Let us see, whether the mindset of people which tells them that a car with a boot is one class higher than a car without one would harm the sales in anyways. I certainly personally like Viva to Accent and Skoda Octavia to Chevrolet Optra.

It is coming with an petrol version only at the moment with company saying that there is no diesel model in plans. But am pretty sure, according the reports that Hyundai is designing a 1 liter CRDi engine which they will use to power either of the two models, Santro or Getz. And Getz being slightly bigger sounds like an obvious choice.

Hyundai Getz aggressive :The HINDU

The 3810 mm long Getz is in the B plus segment in terms of length, but is truly `smack bang' in the C class in terms of interior room, comfort, refinement and performance. In terms of all these it is at least a match for the Ford Ikon, the Maruti Esteem, or the Tata Indigo and even its own sibling, the Accent. I suspect that the Tata Marina, the station wagon derivative of the Indigo, will fare no better when it is launched on September 14. For example, realising that the length of the wheelbase is an important measure of interior room, particularly for rear passengers, at 2455 mm it is slightly longer than the Indigo and even the Accent or the new Honda City and more than 80 mm greater than that of the Esteem! Only the Ford Ikon, built on the stretched platform of a former European Fiesta, betters it in this regard.

On the other hand, its rear width of 1665 mm makes it comparable to the Accent, whose `shoulder width' is better than that of the Ikon, while the Honda City, at 1690 mm, is the leader in this group.

Distinctively attractive European styling makes the Getz the group leader, but ironically shows up the dated looks of the Accent. Incidentally, its modern front end is much more `pedestrian, particularly child friendly' in collisions than its rivals, thereby potentially reducing the mayhem on Indian roads.

Designed and built to the currently high European standards, the Getz is easily the best in class especially if the ABS (anti lock braking system) option is selected ? and this is as applicable for its occupants as it is for other road users.

It is only with respect to luggage space that the Getz is inferior to its `three box' rivals, but how often does the typical `C-Class' car have a full load of five passengers and their baggage? In most other conditions, innovative packaging and split (60/40) folding rear seats are a perfect combination.

The four cylinder `Alpha' engine is not Hyundai's most modern, but is powerful and responsive and expected to be frugal as well, although no match for the new City in that respect. Talking of power, the 1341 cc Hyundai unit is more powerful, at nearly 83 hp, than the 1497 cc Honda mill, but the latter's peak is developed at a point 500 rpm lower, while its maximum torque is nearly 10 Newton metres more. On balance, the Honda engine is better but comes in a much more expensive package.

All in all, the competitively priced Getz is certain to set the `B plus and C' Indian car markets on fire. This segment is going to see even more action thanks to the massive price reductions that Ford and Hyundai have made to the Ikon and Accent recently, but this column would prefer to see the `sub 4 metre' class gain market share at the expense of their larger `3 box' brethren.

C. Manmohan Reddy (the HINDU)

Features:

Classification Feature GL GLS GLS With ABS

OverallLength (mm) 3810

Overall Width (mm) 1665

Overall Height (mm) 1515

Wheel Base (mm) 2455

No. of Cylinders 4

Displacement (cc) 1341

Max Power (ps @ rpm) 82.9@5500

Max Torque (kgm @ rpm) 11.8@3200

Size 155/80 R13 175/70 R13 175/65 R14

Front Ventilated Discs

Rear Drum

Front Mcpherson Strut

Rear Coupled torsion beam axle

Rear -Shock Absorbers Gas Filled