Xing, a practical, no fussy car. Review on Hyundai Santro Xing

I am a software professional from Hyderabad.

My car buying decision was more of a very long term planning (more so because I could not afford a new car in 2003 after a few loan installments) and rather an impulsive buying.

I was planning to buy a second-hand car and every Sunday, my ritual had become to purchase ?Deccan Chronicle? newspaper which had a rather special section on used-cars.

Then me and wife started going to ?Used Car Melas? and local dealers. I was not inclined to purchase from unknown people. The rate quoted by them was in the range of 2.5 lakh for about 25000 km run Zen. The prices slowly put me off. There was one more worry. Every visit used to display some car which was a better deal than the previous visit and I hate to be a loser. Basically, due to only affordability factor, I was looking for secondhand otherwise who wants to drive a secondhand car.

It was a question of additional 1 lakh, hence I braved myself and made my mind to purchase a new car in the range of 3.5 lakh. (infact, in research of nearly 7 month?s, I had saved some additional money for new car).

I wanted a small compact car & reliable car, and I don?t like diesels. One day, just like that I visited Hyundai Showroom and saw the Xing there. It did not impress me much. But, it was quite functional and the quality of the panels was much better than the new Maruti my friend bought.

(Maruti ? I learnt my first driving on this car and I simply loved it then. It snugly fits you like glove, especially when you are about 6 feets tall and on the heavy side. Maruti was never on my purchase list because of its very small size and low power plus shoddy quality of interiors.)

The next visit was Tata Showroom. There is first saw Tata Diesel and I just requested the guy to open the bonnet and start the car. The sound of diesel was so unbearable that I firmly decided that I am going for petrol. Yes, I liked very much the petrol version of Tata Indica. The sound of engine was a music to ear. The size of the car is also good for heavier people like me (and equally competent wife). The only negative value was that there is no Resale value for petrol indicas plus the fuel efficiency is also not good. Even then I liked it.

But my wife was totally against it. She has a opinion that Indica?s are primarily taxi?s and look good with Yellow number plates only, driven by somebody else.

Next trip was to Maruti. Zen quality seemed to come down very much. The joining lines are very wide. Also, getting in the car was like getting in Formula 1 car for me. I had liked the car, but once seeing the car, I dropped the idea especially getting in and out for hefty person like me. Maruti Wagon was rejected by my wife as it looked like a dabba.

Well, I headed back to Hyundai. I went for the XP version as it had all the bare minimum goodies such as power-steering. I finally bought the car (with swift ICICI car financing, in 3 days!!) on 23 Oct 1993.

After nearly one and half years of driving, I recommend that never compromise on Power-Steering unless you want to hate driving in city traffic. Also, the black-plain version of bumper is in fact better as the scratches on the color bumper are very prominent. My plain bumper looks as new even today.

I drive the car mainly to for office and roaming around in city on Sundays. The car is no fuss and I am slowing starting loving it. Driving in traffic is not pain in this car. The air conditioner quality is good in this car. The pickup is okay and gear shifting very pleasant except I when I need to put in first gear from second. The car body thickness is bit pain though. It needs care. Also, if the power of the car was in the region of 82 bhp, it would have been better when all the five seats are occupied.

One great thing is getting in and out. Why it is great is that I even don?t realize to take any effort in getting and out of the car. The visibility of the road is simply great. Another great thing is the turning radious of the car which might be even better than maruti. I can take a U turn on the narrowest of the road, and where parking is congested, it is a great feature to part it safely.

My friends have praised its Noise insulation quality also very well. I really enjoy listening music with aircon on.

I drive about 12 km daily for office and it gives me a return of about 13km with 'Speed petrol' without aircon. (Yes, I feel that after putting Speed Petrol, the car is more peppy in pickup and I now use only Speed petrol for better pickup and speed). I had a 250 km almost non-stop drive recently to Nagarjuna sagar it the car went well. The road was too good and I could take the car max to 123 kms/hour.

Well, as of now, all I can say is that it is a very non-fussy, practical car. Let me drool over this car for few more years and then I would be able to write a love note about it. Right now, no-complaints.