Nov 15, 2011 10:24 AM
15566 Views
Having driven 12000 km in about 10 months year I am reasonably happy at the choice in buying the ASTA Petrol version. Though in hindsight I do regret not going for diesel.
However I have serious comlaint on the tyre quality and not sure if others have encountered the problem. It seems the Apollo tyres that come factory fitted have not been optimized for i20. It is very prone to punctures. In the 10 months I have had the car, I have had about 10-12 punctures. Yesterday I got the front tyres punctured in 3 places. The other front tyre also seems to be punctured and I am yet to get it repaired. I have become so apprehensive about punctures that I have stopped using i20 only for long drives and only use it for short drives. All the long drives I use my 5 year old Santro. The problem is compunded by the fact that noone knows where to get a decent a tubeless puncture repair kit. The Capital Hyundai dealer could not tell me where to get a reliable puncture kit, and I am forced to let the ones that roadside mechanics use to repair.
To keep all doubts at bay, I stay in Noida and use the car on expressway which may be the best in Delhi region so noonce can say that the roads being used are bad. Surprisibngly even very small nails seem to easily puncture the tyre. This is a serious issue especially because my Santro now shows 70K on odometer and I have faced only 2-3 punctures in the earlier Bridgestone(original) and then Michelin tyres in 5 years of ownership.
I will serously recommend every new car purchaser to immediately replace the factory fitted tyres with Michelin or Bridgestone. I am really delighted at the performance of both the tyres that I happened to use in my SAntro
