Good car for newbies. Review on Hyundai i10

This is my first review in mouthshut. The main objective in my mind when I am writing this review was to give maximum information to the readers and also the information which I was looking for in other reviews, and be honest in the information.

I am new to cars. When buying a car I was looking for the following:

1) Budget of Around 4 lac.

2) Comfort -(As I am six feet tall I needed somewhat good leg room)

3) Mileage

4) Looks

I did a lot of research and a few test drives, I read lot of positive and negative reviews in mouthshut and other sites. Thanks to mouthshut and the review writers for helping me select my car.

I tried Maruti Astar, Indica Vista and UVA. Astar is too small for me. I didnt like the Rear Indicators and the looks of Indica Vista. Even UVA was looking bad. Some of my friends were having swift petrol and they didnt recommend swift petrol. My Budget was not allowing swift Diesel. I decided to go for Hyundai i10 Magna with Kappa Engine(Electric Red).

I bought it on 20th December 08. The onroad price is 4.30lacs. I took it from Popular Hyundai, Trivandrum. The allover dealings of the dealer was good.

There were some issues with the offer they were giving. The promised offers was changed, but still I got some good offers from the dealer.

About the car, it is a very good hatchback. The turning radius is too less that it is very easy to park and handle the car. 5 people can be very much comfortable in it. I usually put the drivers seat a lot backwards as I am tall. But still the people sitting behind had good leg space and were comfortable. The interior looks are really class. The AC is good but the defogger is a bit slow in action. It may be because I am not used to it and need to know how to use it effectively. It is really smooth to drive the car and it has good power. The power steering is also good. It has the best looks than the others in the segment. The boot space is less but still is Ok for people who doesnt go for frequent trips. Overall it is a very good car.

It may be too early to comment on the mileage but still I can give some statistics. I will update the mileage soon.

I installed Pioneer 4050 with JBL speakers(Front doors/Boot) with Box in the boot space(lost boot space though, I dont make frequent long trip, so it is not a big problem). It cost me 13.5K and it is giving very good output. All my friends liked it very much.

I am getting around 14 Km in city with partial AC. I was always wondering people saying that i10 is having only 10Km mileage. I was praying that it is not true. Also I request people to give exact figures so that it will be helpful to others. I was also thinking that if the mileage is so less then how come lot of people are opting for i10. I see a lot of i10 all over. Anyway I am so far happy with my car.

I drove it for a long trip(MC Road, good and smooth road) and got 18+ mileage with 90% AC mostly in 5th Gear. I drove it at night. I had to stop the AC at some point as the glass was fogged. It takes some time to reduce the fog, which I am not comfortable still.

The floor mat is troubling me at times:( I need to find a solution for this. As other reviewers said even I felt that the beige color is reflecting in the front glass which is creating trouble at times. But can be ignored.