i10 Automatic Sportz

I have been test driving i10 and Brio and was in a confusion which one to buy. Now, I have decided that I am going for i10 automatic.

Many people will not read this long review – but trust me, READ IT! It’s a 3 months R & D.

When you are looking for a small hatchback, looks are not that much of criteria. More is how much will it rip my pocket. I10 has been around for long time and because of Brio been introduced, Hyundai has started discounts on i10, which is GREAT. For a person who wants a hatchback with a comfort of driving, either would do. But…. Here are some of my observations.

Here are some Pros & cons of i10

Looks – Well, what can you expect from a car that small. Looks are OK.

Drive comfort: I did not like the driving comfort that much as the driver’s seat is like a “neelkamal” chairs. Not that the quality, but the sitting comfort. It’s too upright which causes a discomfort when you have your right leg on accelerator and break. To get in a comfort position, you need to push your seat back (a lot) which hits on back seat passenger’s space. (But its compromisable)

Engine: for a 1.2 L engine, it does its job. You are not going to do any drag race or do “Am-I-the-first-to-go-from-the-light” contest. For the car which weighs close to one ton, 1.2 L with 80 bhp is more than enough. You don’t need 3.0 L V6 engine for city driving.

Automatic Gear Box: Well, it’s quite disappointing. I10 automatic is a 4 speed automatic. Well, it’s technically a 3 speed & an overdrive. I am really surprised why Hyundai has come up with this 4 speed automatic for all its automatic cars. Verna (which has the same transmission) – fits good… (Not driven i20 automatic), but for i10 looks as though you can fir another gearbox between 3 and 4th gear!!!! 3rd revs and picks good, but when it shifts to 4th, it feels as though you have moved from 2nd to 10th gear all of a sudden!!! But again it’s something that I can deal with. I am not going for a long drive everyday!!!!

Mileage: Hmmm… Most people are interested in this section of review. Trust me, if you are looking for mileage, then i10 automatic petrol is not a car for you. It’s suggested to go rather for manual diesel which would give you 22 or 25 (whatever the millage is) per liter. None (at least till I know) of the automatic would give you any good millage. So, if you want comfort of driving, forget millage. 10 KMPL (as mentioned in all the reviews) is more than enough for the office-home-shopping city driving.

Interior: Interior quality is much much much better than Brio. People do say that Brio does look spacious and technically, has more space. But imagine for a car which is 80mm long, how much space will you get extra!!!! Surprisingly, i10 has lot of gizmos than Brio. CD player, Bluetooth (high end model), better looking dash board (excluding the color – Blue), but what matters is build quality. I10 is much better in build quality than Brio. If you are looking for a plastic of toy car quality, go for Brio. I10 has a little better plastic quality than Brio.

Cost: Onroad cost for both are more or less the same. But Hyundai has started many discounts to increase its sales. Talk to the marketing guy to see if you can get anything on the car extra & any discounts. I am getting tons of it. For me – I am getting 75K off on i10. So, even to get a breakeven (considering i10 millage is 2 kmpl less than Brios), its long (close to 2 years) for the city driving that you would be doing. So, just 2 kmpl more would not make much of a difference.

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