[santhosh_lv]

Since, i haven't found reviews about 2014 Verna Diesel, i decided to write one, making this my first ownership blog on team bhp.

After seemingly long 10 day waiting period, the 2014 verna AT is handed over. Oh Boy! its worth the wait.


Lets see how i arrived at choosing verna - From a long while i was contemplating whether to spend some money and fix my existing swift or consider it right time to get away with the swift. During that stage, when i visited my friend for his dinner invite, I was told about the pleasure of owning a verna on whom already i was badly in love with. What next? Time to call for a test drive and think about booking one? Well, that dinner costed me 13 lakhs

Jokes apart, When i was looking other sporty hash with an automatic transmission, i couldn't find one and i never wanted to go back driving a petrol car. What next? Obviously, Verna was the only first choice i have got and before rounding on it, I looked at her competitors. So here are the MT vehicles i have compared and reason for not choosing.

Honda City i-Dtec - Great interiors, however not a driver oriented car. 2nd gen i-Dtec might make more sense. No AT on diesel engine.
VW Vento - Not much knowledge about after sales service, spare part availability and maintenance cost. No AT on diesel engine.
Scoda Rapid - Scary after sales service. No AT on diesel engine.

Test Drive Experience: Called Advaith hyundai Bangalore requesting a test drive. The sales engineer was kind enough to get me TD vehicle on the same day to make me happy. 9.30 PM with loads patience of the sales engineer made me happy during that hour. Though he gave me a 2013 version car, i was happy with the ride quality and this means, i never drove a 2014 variant before i owned one. Since, i was virtually sold about the idea of buying verna, next day I called up the service engineer to take a booking by exchanging my 68,000 kms driven swift VDI. He gave me a 15 day waiting period which i thought will run away soon . Used this time to finish formalities with finance and buying an insurance from Royal Sundaram instead of buying it from the dealer ( saved Rs.15,000 ) and of course, reading all the reviews/information posted.

Day of vehicle delivery - Myself, my wife and my expat friend drove to the Advaith Hyundai to bring the new car home. Sales rep gave us a warm welcome, run us through the documentation and extended warranty and gave a vehicle demo. Though i didn't understand few, i didn't care as something can be explored later. We were offered a photo frame with the vehicle handover picture, a packet of dark chocolates, a car perfume and a lord Ganesha's idle as a token of goodies while handing over the keys.

First impressions -
1. Loved the 16 inch diamond cut alloys
2. Plush interiors
3. Phone connectivity
4. Light steering
5. Engine refinement
6. Reverse camera- It assists you so much, it brings down your reversing skills lol
7. A seamless quick pickup

Initial put offs -
1. Grey looking just OK(wife's choice), not as good as White(My choice)
2. Vehicle not well cleaned inside
3. Missing supervision cluster in SX and illumination control of the supervision cluster

What is missing -
1. Driver seat height adjustment
2. Cruise control

What could have been offered -
1. Slightly high seating position for Driver, front and rear passenger seats
2. Driver seat adjustment control
3. Under thigh support for rear passenger seats
4. 6 Speed Auto Transmission gearbox to give better FE
5. 10 mm additional ground clearance, this is definitely asking for more
6. Sensors for the front bumpers
7. Giving a supervision cluster even on as a standard equipment across all variants


Driving Experience: What could i say? She just flies !! Though the FE of AT is about 11 KM in city and 16 on highways, the driving effort is cut down by 50% without gear and clutch involvement. Well, it is even better with 94.3 FM if you are not a fan of hearing the engine noise till it reaches 60 kmph. Light pedal makes the gear shifts so seamless and its hardly noticeable. High speed driving(very subjective) is definitely improved to 2013 version and doesn't float like a boat till 120 kmph and at the same time offering a good stability and handling. Anything more than 120 kmph, i don't really want to know about it. The steering is light enough for making turns and this car has got good turning radius. Overall, this vehicle is quicker, smoother and fun if you want to lead the heap after the signal turns GREEN.

Over the weekend, she made me realize that i need to be slow on speed breakers to avoid personal heart attacks which my(ex) swift never gave one. The suspension is taking care of all the bad roads sighing me nothing. The seating is low, however comfortable enough for 2+3 people who follow diet. Under thigh support issue was hardly felt in rear seats, i hope it remains same even during the long drives.

Interiors: This is the best part about verna. It has a symmetric dashboard with a thin stretch of it extending till the arm rest with a duel tone colour. The dash is a dull blackish in colour with a beautiful soft touch and pleasing texture. Ample front and rear seat spacing for people below 6 foot. The arm rest could have been longer by 1 inch, however i am sure they have designed it based on the reachability to the handbrake. Though i am not a great fan of beige interiors, this one is so fell finished that i don't really get to fuss about it. Huh, If you are not a fan of regularly cleaning the car inside, you might not like it that way in Verna because of the light coloured interiors which can catch dust. Come on, why do you see this yourself......



Stock ICE This is definitely impressive when compared to the stock ICE offered by Maruti ritz, swift, Duster, Punto. I would rate the front components 6/10 and one may consider upgrading if you are very choosy. For now, i am planning only install my sub which i restored during the disposal of my swift. Otherwise, this definitely does a good job who is not very particular about real high quality of music. This brings me to talk about the modifications i wanted to make.

Air Conditioning - This feature works like charm. Running on full Auto mode moves itself into the fresh air mode. I prefer to run it on a manual temperature and fan speed setting as i am not a fan of the blower sound. The air conditioning is very effective and start making difference in the first minute. The blower fan speed is high enough to circulate the air till the rear seats to kill the heat. The front and rear defogger works really good when you see the fog due to temperature difference. No more playing around with the temperature and blower speed, all we need to do is just hit the button and it will do its job in seconds.

2014 new gen modifications- Listing down the changes only that i have noticed and i am aware of

1. Spare wheel is no more an alloy (till 2013 it was).
2. Corrected the suspension springs to increase the handling on high speeds.
3. No supervision cluster for SX variant. Till the 2013 version, it had a white and blue theme based supervision cluster and with illumination adjustment control. This has been taken off
4. AT available on both SX and SX(O) variants
5. Alloys come with a new Diamond cut design. Got slight matt and chrome finish. Pics to follow
6. Key fob design modified and now comes with remote boot open option. Pics to follow
7. SX(O) comes with projector headlights


Planned modifications for this week
1. Adding my old JBL 2 channel Amp with Boston Sub
2. Adding my old Philips 90/100 head lamps with relay
3. Thinking about K&N stock filter replacement. Any suggestions?


Automatic Transmission: I didn't find much details about this on the web, hence let me elaborate this one for all those potential buyers. Hyundai CRDI AT comes with 4 speed Torque converter gearbox which is more reliable than DSG offered by VW (heard enough of long term ownership issues about it). Though 4 speed doesn't sound exciting, it offers a comfortable transmission pattern both in city and highways. There is a drop in FE compared to MT - 2 kms in city and 2kms on highways. A 5 or 6 speed AT would be a boon and make it Hyundai verna AT more interesting for potential buyers.

Considering the auto gearbox reliability, when i asked Hyundai on the cost and life of this tiptronic master piece, i was told about its robust performance till 1 lakh kms and the original replacement cost of about 2.5 lakh. No wonder AT vehicles are so very expensive. With the increasing number of AT buyers in India, i wish they revolutionize this assembly to make it cheaper and durable.


Gear Shifts: Be light on pedal for smoother and seamless shifts and floor the pedal for sporty and noticeable shifts which comes with 1 second time lag. During light pedal, it starts with first gear, shifts to 2nd at 20 kmph, 3rd at 40 kmph and 4th at 70 kmph and this is the reason why FE drops by 2 kms. During my regular city driving, the average speed for at least 50% of the distance is between 0 to 40 kmph and mostly run by 1st and 2nd gears. At 100 kmph the RPM is about 2000 rpm. The tiptronic (+/-) is not completely manual as well, it auto down shifts if the speed is below the gear limit and auto up shifts if you throttle till the RPM hits the Red zone. I don't prefer and tend to play much with the gear box, hence i put it on "D" during driving, "N" at RED signals and even during parking and "R" during reversing.





steering mounted controls

1. Call answer, call end and redial
2. Audio - Volume adjustment
3. Go to the next song in the current player
4. Change audio mode - FM, AM, Aux, USB
Note: The phone book entries can neither be read nor synced, hence the phone needs to be handy to make calls.



Wouldn't it be awesome to have "Auto" put at the rear end of the boot? Well, its a direct marketing strategy, they just missed it



This one is when it arrived home after giving her the first temple visit


After pulling off all the covers inside the car. Take a look at the tiptronic sleek gear console


Today's drive - After breakfast at Adiga's HSR layout


Apart from all these, I am still trying to get careful about the blind spots of the car during driving (I was told about small mirror that is stuck to the side mirrors that will help get rid of this), The farthest i could see from the rear mirrors is the door handle of the rear doors.

Take a closer look at the reversing camera and the very clear assisting display. It also beeps the alarm based on the distance to the object. Usually its a long beep if the distance to object is less than 30 cm.



I loved the white theme in SX(O), this one is definitely very different and something i will get used to.



Here is the matt and chrome finished diamond cut 16" alloys with tire width of 195. This definitely offers decent grip on the road at high speeds.



Well designed arm rests on all 4 door consoles with wooden finish and front doors can fit 1 ltr water bottles



Dead pedal for a comfortable long drive experience



Headlamps positioning controls. SX(O) also has the supervision cluster brightness control and its missing on SX. The brightness of the stock headlamps looks decent enough in city.


Rear arm rest


Exhaust


Comfortable and long door openings for easy movement and interiors



Driver seat has only the thigh inclination adjustment and back reclinement adjusting capabilities. IMO height adjustment is one basic and important feature should be a standard in every car


Sunglasses holder
Attachment 1271293

Key fob



If you think i missed talking about any distinguishing features, i wouldn't mind elaborating on it at a later stage. These pictures a clicked on my Samsung galaxy phone and planning to take few pics with my DSLR after a thorough car wash.

[vsk2009]

Mod Note : There are several spelling & grammatical errors in your posts. This negatively affects the forum experience for other readers.

Kindly ensure that you proof-read your posts prior to submission. Also, it would be a good idea to use spell-checkers.

[santhosh_lv]

@ vsk2009

Yes. It has only the thigh inclination adjustment and back reclinement adjusting capabilities. IMO height adjustment is one basic and important feature should be a standard in every car

[motomaverick]

Congrats on the new car, looks nice. If you have been to Adiga's then a little futher up is the 3M for car wash (No i dont get paid to refer)

Its interesting that even Verna AT is 4 speed, I thought it was at least 5 speed. I have driven a petrol Verna and the car is really nice to sit inside but somehow the back seat is too low. I am seeing a few Verna's with projector headlights and DRLs, are those standard for some variant?

[puchoo]

Congrtulations santhosh_lv , wishing you a great ownership experience. The verna hits the check boxes at many levels and i am sure you will have a lot of fun. Was in my consideration set before the T-Jet. Wish they would change the design of the window buttons and the wooden trim there , have never like that part at all.

Originally Posted by motomaverick

Its interesting that even Verna AT is 4 speed, I thought it was at least 5 speed. I have driven a petrol Verna and the car is really nice to sit inside but somehow the back seat is too low. I am seeing a few Verna's with projector headlights and DRLs, are those standard for some variant?

Nopes always been a 4 speed , one of the limitations that much has been written about.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by motomaverick

I am seeing a few Verna's with projector headlights and DRLs, are those standard for some variant?

The top-end SX (O) variant now comes with DRLs and projectors factory fitted.


Source: Google Images

[santhosh_lv]

Originally Posted by motomaverick

Congrats on the new car, looks nice. If you have been to Adiga's then a little futher up is the 3M for car wash (No i dont get paid to refer)

Its interesting that even Verna AT is 4 speed, I thought it was at least 5 speed. I have driven a petrol Verna and the car is really nice to sit inside but somehow the back seat is too low. I am seeing a few Verna's with projector headlights and DRLs, are those standard for some variant?

Thanks. I just realized that i never visited a car wash in last 6 years of a 4 wheeler ownership. It still brings me a smile after that wash i do once a month

Projector head lights is part of the standard fitments in SX(O), which is the top end variant. It also comes with push start/stop and 6 air bags. Its about 1.6 lakhs more on-road to SX on the diesel variant.

I see that you driving a Grand i 10 AT. How is the FE and over AT performance? I am getting to see a lot of ATs on Bangalore roads, wish Hyundai invests more money in their AT gearboxes in India to increase the affordability.

Originally Posted by puchoo

Congrtulations santhosh_lv , wishing you a great ownership experience. The verna hits the check boxes at many levels and i am sure you will have a lot of fun. Was in my consideration set before the T-Jet. Wish they would change the design of the window buttons and the wooden trim there , have never like that part at all.

Thank you sir. T-Jet scores high in performance and handling unlike Verna. I had my run during my swift ownership, now i am more of a pleasant driver on road . Verna AT seem to be a fuel guzzler

[motomaverick]

Originally Posted by santhosh_lv

I see that you driving a Grand i 10 AT. How is the FE and over AT performance? I am getting to see a lot of ATs on Bangalore roads, wish Hyundai invests more money in their AT gearboxes in India to increase the affordability.

The AT is good if driven with a light foot, gear changes are not apparent to passengers and very very easy to potter around in the city. But if you want to rush then standstill to 70-80 kph is brisk but rollons are pathetic, the transmission takes more than 2 secs to decide to gear down, so I tend to drive on the highways in manual mode, at least it holds the gear and lets you shift down when you want for overtaking. The transmission also starts to hunt for gears if faced with a slight up hill roads.

[vsk2009]

How effective are these projector headlights compared to normal one in Verna? If I am correct they haven't changed the price of sx(o) variant in 2014.

[Mafioso]

Originally Posted by santhosh_lv

Thank you sir. T-Jet scores high in performance and handling unlike Verna. I had my run during my swift ownership, now i am more of a pleasant driver on road . Verna AT seem to be a fuel guzzler

Whoa!! Congrats my friend. I was just going through Team BHP this noon, and when I saw the headline of Verna AT review, I was silently hoping it would be Bingo, you proved me right!!

All the best for your new ride and happy mile crunching ahead! I still can't believe that you are more a pleasant driver on road - that instinct cannot be away for a long time with a car enthusiast!

[puchoo]

And having a 4 speed AT is not going to help in the Fuel economy department. Yes , unfortunately one of the biggest negatives for me was the handling of the verna , the days when the rear of the car used to keep going up and down like a yo-yo , with the number of highway drives i was doing i could not live with that!

Originally Posted by santhosh_lv

Thank you sir. T-Jet scores high in performance and handling unlike Verna. I had my run during my swift ownership, now i am more of a pleasant driver on road . Verna AT seem to be a fuel guzzler

[Sommos]

Congratulations Santosh for the 2014 Verna AT.
It is good to know that Hyundai has sorted out the ride quality in the Verna.

Wish you many happy mile munching with the car.
Enjoy your ride and drive safe.

[santhosh_lv]

Originally Posted by vsk2009

How effective are these projector headlights compared to normal one in Verna? If I am correct they haven't changed the price of sx(o) variant in 2014.

Projector headlights usually has a good spread of light and longer life compared to regular bulbs. Now coming to the brightness, IMO it is as good as a 90/100 or may be slightly more brighter. The flip side is the cost, each project headlight assembly costs 40,000 for Verna making it Rs.80,000 for a pair.

[vsk2009]

I feel the colour choice is very limited in Verna. They should come up with new shades, something like City has done with golden brown. I think Verna need more metallic shades. The grey colour looks awesome.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!