I10.. is it all just hype. Review on Hyundai i10

If you are planning to buy an i10 and are looking for feedback basis experience then definitely read this. I recently purchased an i10 (March 19th 2009) 1.2L Magna (with kappa engine). I had looked into some very positive reviews everywhere and even on this website which influenced me a lot while purchasing. I was mainly driven by all the awards the vehicle has got.

Also I just did not want to buy a Maruti so Swift was never in my consideration. From general market reviews I had heard that i10 does not do well on mileage. However my office is very close to my home so I chose not to worry too much about that and felt that a mileage of 12-13 would be quite acceptable. as of today it has been 5 months since I bought my car so here I am giving feedback to all and sundry.

Usage: Daily commute to office (4-5 kms to and fro)

Detailed evaluation:

Mileage - Well so far I am quite dissapointed by the mileage. Till 4 months it gave me a mileage of 10 Km/l exact. now it has started to shift even lower.. close to 8. this is quite worrying. I had read lot of reviews where people claimed it gives a mileage of 14 +. I think thats not possible at all and the claim is highly untrue.

Handling; I think the biggest surprise (positive) in the car is the overall handling. It feels really really smooth. specially for a tall person like me (6 ft) the seating posture along with tilt steering option really helps. Also the centre console mounted gear is an entirely cool / different experience. far far better than other Hatches I have driven. However now the gear shifting has started giving me some problems. Specially while getting to first gear, I feel resistance. the gear stick does not feel smooth anymore

Engine Noise: Recently I hvae started hearing some sort of a cluttering noise from the engine when my windows are down, and that has started to bother me. Cabin Noise reduction is impressive though. You almost cannot hear anything outside when your windows are up.

Front seat seating is good but rear seat space is quite low. however this is definitely better than Swift which has literally no rear seat space. But in my car the quality of the seat seems quite low. The front seat it seems has bent towards the left ... no idea why or how. I have only seen this problem in the maruti 800 but in no other car.

Service: So far I have had one chance to experience the free service. I used Samara hyundai service station in Okhla. I would give full marks to them. a pickup was arranged. the person incharge (Mr Anand) was very helpful. To give you an example they replaced the fuse for my horn free of cost even though the reason for it's damage was that I had put in a customised horn, no fault of the manufacturer.

Overall, I am not very happy with the car. even though the drive is good the mileage is very very poor and I am concerned about the build quality.