You are here : Hyundai i10 - Apple of the 'i'
As said earlier somewhere in the report, the Hyundai i10 ain’t a Ferrari at all, so I was not expecting tyre-smoking or power-sliding moments. But the i10 does rather well for a small-car. Accepted that it is not as fast in a straight line as say a Chevrolet Spark, but well-matched gear ratios make it a breeze to putter around in. Third gear is all that you may need for the normal commute. It does not bite an eyelid and will take you from speeds as low as 15kmph to all the way upto 120kmph, and that too without making the car feel like it's going to cough up to a halt at low speeds and die out of pain at higher revs. The engine is essentially the same 1.1-litre unit that powers the Getz 1.1 too and is a beefed-up unit of the trusted Santro, albeit with slightly more power which is now peak-rated at 67 horses with iRDE pasted on top of it. It is not as fast off the line as its smaller sibling, Santro, but it performs admiringly to dismiss the run to a hundred clicks in 14.5 seconds whereas the more important number of naught to sixty was dealt with in just 5.6 seconds. The gearing is spot-on and using it is more like running your hand through a heap of cotton! Okay, that’s an exaggeration maybe. But the gearshift quality is seriously good and it shifts in place with a positive action. Calling it slick will not really be out of place.
You will not fancy getting into the boy-racer mood when behind the wheel of i10. As said, the engine is rewarding as far as you are in city-driving mood, but it takes on a gruff note when you get into the laughable let’s-see-what-this-baby-can-do kind of mind frame. But still, despite of our words, if you do chose to do some pedal-to-the-metal action, the engine will transform itself from a symphony murmuring kind soul to a loud and rude-sounding spoilt brat. The torquey 1.1-litre motor dislikes being whipped but, just like a horse runs faster when being belted upon despite having hatred towards the whips, the i10 too responds to the arrogant accelerator feed, though its momentum cannot be compared to that of a horse. And this forced action sees the speedo needle climb achingly to a top whack of 155 and some kilometers and hour. In no way can it be called bad for a small-car. But the i10 is best left to do duty in the city confines, with an occasional trip to the open spaces. Keep it below 125 clicks and you should be smiling all the way. Over this speed, the car begins to run out of steam.
Perhaps the best turn-around that has happened with i10 vis-à-vis Santro is in the ride and handling department. The rear-seat ride of the Santro was choppy but the i10 is so opposite of that. Yes, at slow speeds you surely can sense the odd pothole and suspension 'thuds' are quite audible, but it never swings towards the ‘bad’ side of the balance and the ride quality improves folds on end as you gain speed. Just one word of caution here – when going round a bend over a rough patch of tarmac, the i10 does feel a little unsettled with the car wiggling its tail a bit. Handling is neutral till the point that you do not demand a lot from the chassis. The steering is a delight to use and does not feel all that confused even when doing high speeds. The steering wheel is good to hold too! Enthusiastic driving though will have you understeer heavily and those skinny tubeless tyres will howl for mercy. As said, it is a car for conservative driving style and will not reward the enthusiast inside you. This brings me to brakes. Why? Because while doing the handling test, we made use of them pretty heavily. You do not even touch the brake pedal when doing a slalom run. That’s a sin! When I say that we used the brakes extensively while doing the handling runs, I mean that we made the best possible use of what was provided on sweeping bends. Flat out, you come charging towards a curve, brake and release, take the bend, back on power, brake again for the next turn. And this followed for quite a distance. What I can say for the disc/drum combination is that – they are potent. Our deceleration runs saw us coming to a halt from 100kmph in 4.1 seconds covering 56 meters in the process. And this, for a car not equipped with ABS is quite neat. We also managed to pull in a maximum of 0.85G in the process. Brakes offer good bite and feel but the ABS version that we drove during the media drive certainly felt more poised when the anchors were dropped in anger.
Fuel Efficiency
Santro is at one end of the spectrum, Getz on the other end, and i10 sits between the two as far as placing the product in the segment is concerned. This is true for fuel efficiency figures as well. Managing 16.8kmpl on the highway, the Hyundai i10 lay rubber on 12.3 kilometers of road before emptying the fuel tank further by one litre when while running in the city. Respectable numbers that. Like I said, it sits perfectly between Santro and Getz.
Summing it up
Shahrukh Khan certainly won’t be seen driving around in this car and it’s primarily the moolah that is of his interest, and being the forthcoming man that he is, he will accept this gladly. So, it is for guys like you and me that Hyundai has made the i10. Then how good a drive is it for a budget conscious man? Very, is my answer. What do you want from a city car? Good, comfortable interiors, smart looks, good safety levels and good mileage figures. The Hyundai i10 ticks all these boxes, and then some. So is it the best small-car to have as of today? Might just be, time will tell! But a smart choice it sure is. Successful cars like Santro and Accent were followed by Sonata, Terracan, Elantra, Getz and Tucson – the ones which could not impact the sales chart in a positive way at all. But Hyundai has, it seems, hit the target bang-on again by doing what they are experts in – making good compact cars. Wish them all the luck.
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Price: 4.17lakh (As Tested - Exshowroom ,Mumbai)
For: Looks; interior; strong low and mid range torque; a/c Detailed Specifications | On-road price in your city. Catch the Hyundai i10 in Blog | Forum | User Reviews |
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