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Driving an NA petrol car after 16 yrs: Our new Hyundai i20 Asta (O) iVT

3rd May 2024, 11:46 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

Since I sold my Maruti Alto 800 back in 2008, I have driven the Ford Fusion (Turbo Diesel), Skoda Rapid (Turbo Diesel) and Kia Seltos (Turbo Petrol).

BHPian biplab3110 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I brought home an i20 Asta (O) iVT on the 20th of April. Here is some background to the purchase and my experience with the car so far.

Background

I had a Kia Seltos GTX DCT bought in September 2019 (prebooked, from the first lot). This was followed by two years of complete inaction due to Covid. Once Covid was in the past, routines have changed. I now travel to the office not more than two days a week. In the meantime, I also bought an Audi Q3, in October last year. So, the Seltos was reduced to a car for doing daily rounds of the market, and other chores around an 8km radius of Thane City. It was also not feasible to take the Q3 around for these trips, so a second car was needed. Hence, I was looking for something smaller. The idea was to sell the Seltos (4.5 years, 23,000km on the ODO), buy a small car and save some money. But things turned out a little differently.

The question was what to replace the Seltos with? Criteria – it has to be less than 4m, and it has to be an automatic. There is no way I am driving an AMT. A DCT would be expensive (the discontinued i20 DCT, the Venue, or the Sonet). Plus, the car is primarily for driving within Thane City where the internal roads have a speed breaker at every 100m. Hence my preference was for a CVT which will be easy to drive around. There were four choices - Nissan Magnite, Renault Kiger, Honda Amaze and Hyundai i20. The first two were not even considered due to their poor fit and finish and doubtful future. The Amaze was in consideration, but the current generation Amaze seems like a decade old. Waiting for the next generation seemed waiting for uncertainty. Hence the choice was limited to just the i20 iVT.

Did a test drive and it seemed to tick the necessary boxes for my requirements. I was waiting for a deal on my Seltos to book an i20 Sportz iVT. However, it is the selling experience of the Seltos that made me change my mind and book the Asta (O) iVT. I value five features of the Asta (O) over the Sportz (Keyless entry, Push button start, wireless charger, rear washer and wiper, alloy wheels), which does not add up to the price difference, but still I booked the Asta (O) iVT for the sunroof (which I personally don’t value). Must say, the BOSE speakers are a bonus!

Booking & Delivery

Booking experience was mostly uneventful. Took a quote from two dealers. Both dealers were keen to push the SPORTZ variant in Starry Nights colour, for which they had stocks. However, I was not willing to compromise on my choice of colour – Titan Gray. Both quotes came with hefty insurance. However, one was willing to remove it and let me buy my own insurance, the other was willing to match the price and features of any quote that I share. The bigger and more renowned dealer said the car will be delivered in 3 months and offered a lower discount. The other dealer assured me of a delivery in one month and offered a higher discount. So, the decision was made easy.

As promised, the car was available for PDI in a month, and delivered in two days after PDI. This is a car manufactured in April 2024.

This car is going to be with me for some time. Hence bought it with 7 years Extended Warranty and 5 years “Shield of Trust” which covers parts not covered by warranty. A horror story about CVT Failure on Team-BHP also triggered this decision.

I gave some specific instructions for delivery:

No polishing the car, internal or external, since the car would immediately go for ceramic coating.
No dealership stickers on the car.
Car to be delivered with a full tank. I would pay Rs 3500 for fuel at the time of delivery (else the car would be delivered with less than 5L of fuel and I would have to run to a pump immediately after delivery).
33PSI pressure to be maintained.

First three were followed. There was no way to verify the fourth at the time of delivery. The moment I took delivery and went out on the road I could sense something was wrong. The ride felt very stiff, I could feel every undulation on the road as if I was driving on solid tires. I checked the TPMS and all tyres were showing a pressure of 48PSI!! I immediately took the car to my regular garage where I fill Nitrogen, deflated the tyres completely and filled them with Nitrogen at 33PSI (later on I reduced it to 32 and the ride feels much better now).

Drive

I am driving a car with an NA Petrol engine after 16 years. Last one was an Alto 800 which I sold in 2008. Since then, I have driven the Ford Fusion (Turbo Diesel), Skoda Rapid (Turbo Diesel) and Kia Seltos (Turbo Petrol) and hence used to driving with both power and torque being available at lower revs. I don’t remember revving the engines beyond 2500RPM during regular drives. However, this car would rev to 3000+ RPM with the gentlest tap on the accelerator, with no delivery of power or proportional increase in speed.

For the first few days, I was almost regretting the purchase and felt I should have gone for a used Turbo Petrol with DCT. However, after a few days, I got the balance. Exactly how much pressure on the accelerator will deliver what kind of results – mental calibration started to form. I must say, it is still a work in progress. However, I am being able to get to 50kmph (which is the max I may be able to drive at in my city drives) at 1500 rpm. I am also getting realistic with my ambitions – this is not my Q3 in which I can do sudden overtakes. Moreover, where is the space to overtake in city drives? I have heard and read a lot of observations about the low bonnet and it not being visible to the driver. However, since I am used to driving cars with much longer bonnets, it is not an issue for me.

There is one aspect of the drive that I did not anticipate at all. I don’t know if this is the normal nature of any CVT - the concept of engine braking seems to be missing!! I observe this every day. As I go down the ramp from the parking in my building the car just picks up speed even when not accelerated at all!! Every time I have to apply brakes to slow it down. How does someone drive this downhill? The brakes would wear off in one trip to the Ghats!