[xcentrk]

It's been 4 years & 9 months since I brought the Xcent S to my home. It clocked 58000 kms as of today. I believe this is the right time to pen down a review after living with it for so long.

Before I begin with my ownership report, the below is the list of likes and dislikes of my car:

Dislikes:

• Integrated Head Rest
• Vague Steering, not encouraging to drive enthusiastically when you are in the mood.
• Missing Auto-lock
• A/C is not a chiller and just adequate.

Likes:

• Premium & Well appointed Interior in the segment.
• Smooth & Peppy engine + slick shifter.
• Decent boot size which easily cater my needs
• Easy to maintain. Service costs are cheap and Service support is good.
• Comfort oriented Ride quality and it handles surprisingly well for a Hyundai.

Preface: (Situation which lead us to buy a new car)

I shifted to my current city way back in 2013 after my son was born. It was more of a personal choice to leave Bangalore which is a paradise for developers to a Tier-2 city with less opportunities. Yet I chose to shift as I would rather be happy with family than be alone in Bangalore with money. Please note until this point, I have no interest in cars and even though I have a DL and know how to drive, I never preferred to drive during any long drives with my family. I will always let my brothers take the wheel. But since I am married now I had to drive even if I don't like. And that's how it all started.

After shifting I had to buy a vehicle and I preferred to have a bike. During a casual chat, my uncle suggested my to buy an used Alto since I have a newborn kid with me and that sounded reasonable. So there, I bought an used 2009 Alto for 2.5 lakhs with 59k on ODO without even seeing the vehicle, let alone TD. Bought it based on the assurance that it is in good nick. My office commute was 70 km for round trip and I used to fill petrol for around 6k every month. Not an issue, but one sunny Afternoon at April 2014, we were out for my son's monthly check up. Inside the car, with A/C blower at speed 2, yet he was sweating badly. And my wife felt it is hard to sit for long time with my kid in front seat as he is growing(as everyone should be) and it is not comfortable for both of them. Even the rear seat is not a better place in Alto as if she sat in rear, the A/C throw was much less and he sweats badly. That's when it's decided to buy a bit bigger, new car with decent A/C under 7L.

Used cars were not considered because it never crossed my mind. And it was my first big purchase and taking a loan is a must for me as I need to get better credit score to get a HL few years later!

Test Drives & Cars Considered: (How I decided which one to buy?)

With the intention clear that I need a car soon, I called up every showroom and ask for TD. Find the list of cars that I have considered initially and then why it was rejected.

1. Celerio -
+ Well it's from MS. So why not?
+ Priced within my budget.
+ Drove well and spacious with rear bench seat.
- Interiors felt cheap.
- Engine was struggling with load + A/C. Test drove with 5 people and it took some time to get it moving.
- Seats were not comfortable and back seat felt like sitting on a park bench.
- Didn't connect with me and felt it belongs to a generation before.
I couldn't convince myself to buy Celerio(No offense) and felt it is not what I expected after paying huge money(well for me it's huge, okay). So dropped it from my list after brief test drive.

- I was never fond of the design of Swift and so it was not considered.(Sorry if I offended anyone but it's just my view).

2. Polo 1.2 (TSi is way out of budget)
+ Build Quality
+ Interior Quality
+ Ride & Handling
- Mediocre Engine coupled with weight made it drive like a snail.
- Poor legroom at back.
- Doesn't sound like a Petrol engine.
- Scraped under full load(5 passengers). A big no-no.

3. Vento
Even though it is way out of my budget, I TD'ed to see if this would be an worthy upgrade.
+ Build Quality
+ Interior Quality
+ Ride & Handling
- Noisy engine
- Full beige interiors and where I live it is not going to cut out with dust flew all over the place. Main put-off.

4. Punto
+ Ride & Handling
- Poor driver seating
- Cramped rear
- Long clutch travel for a petrol
- Feature deficit

5. Grand i10
+ VFM pricing
+ Loaded with features
+ Awesome NVH, decent power.
+ Light steering, light clutch made the drive peaceful.
- Integrated headrest.
- Less boot space. We often carry a couple of bags one for us and one for our kid and no way Grand i10 can fit them all.

A 20km TD inside city left me impressed, be it interior or engine or ride. Only the boot space was the concern.

This is when I heard Xcent is released and informed SA that I would like to take a TD. It is exactly same as Grand i10 with boot and some subtle changes. And once I drove it again for a 10km TD inside city I was ready to pay the booking amount. Paid the booking amount and confirmed the delivery date for Xcent S, as this is the one comes under my budget(how naive, will explain on this later). By June 20, I take delivery and drove straight to temple with my family. The first drive with Xcent was nerve-wrecking as I was still adjusting to the brake bite of Xcent. Meanwhile sold the Alto to my brother.

My usage pattern is 90% city and 10% highway! This has not changed for the past 4 years. And I cover 20 km everyday(round trip) and in weekends it will vary depending upon my commitments. But when I purchase Xcent, I used to do close to 100km everyday in 70/30 highway+city as my office was in the outskirts of the city!

Dealership Experience:

I bought the car from only Hyundai showroom(then, now we have another one opened up) Chandra Hyundai. From the moment I took the TD of Grand & Xcent, the SA was very polite, no pushing and explained all the things in details. In fact, he even told me that I can get the top variant of Grand for the same price of Xcent S, with discounts running but after explained my need for boot he understood and he firmly said that since this is a new launch there will be no discounts. I paid around 6.4L + 28 k for insurance(yeah, yeah I was ripped off). The car comes with 4 rubber floor mat, idol and air freshener. Dealer offered 5L petrol voucher and filled up immediately after took the delivery.

There was no extended warranty at the time of booking and later SA informed me about the offer. But the noob me thought that was not worth it. Boy was I wrong! Overall the dealership experience is pleasant and the SA was an polite, nice guy who not even once pushed me with my decision. I'd rate it a solid 9/10.

NOTE: We have a very well written reviews with all details covered and with more than enough pictures. So I'm not going to go into detail and not going to have many pictures either. This will be short, crisp and POV after living with it for 5 years. Review mainly focuses and how it rides every day and about service cost and other ownership related points.

Interiors, Space & Comfort:

This needs special mention. If not for the well bolstered and premium interiors, I never would have gone for Xcent. I even ignored the lifeless steering only because I cannot find any other car which made me feel good like how Grand i10 twins made me feel. It was a class above and kill other cars during the period. Only Polo comes closer albeit at a higher price.

There is no overdose of beige and the dual tone interiors looks great as compared to monotone beige overloaded interiors of MS cars. Seats are not too stiff and not too soft either. It is the perfect balance.

The space is adequate and I can comfortably sit behind my own driving position. I tend to drive in much relaxed position and due to hernia issue, I can't sit upright. So prefer to move it far from steering wheel. Rear leg space is better and only Celerio offered space better than Xcent. But the Celerio seats are bench-like and this is more like mini-sofa like comfort. Center hand-rest is usable and placed at perfect position.

There are plenty of space for keeping 1 liter bottle and other everyday items & knick-knack. Space is never an issue with Xcent and 5 can seat at decent comfort. The rear can accommodate 3 medium built in decent comfort as the center hand-rest is bit embossed and that is some problem in long trips. But switching places occasionally during trips solves this issue.

If there is one things which I am not OK with is, the integrated head-rest. Come on, even my old Alto had one. How hard it is for Hyundai to give this and how much are they going to save by doing this! This can be bit irritating especially for passengers and damn, I get lot of curses from fellow passengers during long trips!

Overall I feel the interior is what made this car special to me and for me, this is a must as this is where we spend most of our time and this has to be satisfying and feel good, not feel cheated.

Interior Shots:





Slickest Shifter I've ever driven so far:



Exteriors & Boot Space:

From front, it looks good and there are not a lot of curves. Side profile looks bad mainly because of the integration of boot. While it is not very bad like it's competitors, it is not perfect as well. If I admire my car, it is only from front side and not from rear!

Boot space is more than enough. I usually carry 1 big travel bag, 2 medium sized bags and while coming back from native, boot is always filled to the brim. It can easily swallow all my luggage's for a weekend stay at my native. At one time, I carried around 50kg of rice, my usual 2+2+1 bags, some vegetables and sweets, some household items etc. So this is another area where I feel my decision to go with Xcent is a good one.

Major decision to go for Xcent and this is not even half of what we carry these days:


First Long Trip


Somewhere near Hometown:


Ergonomics,Controls, A/C & MID

Finding the perfect driving position is not easy with Xcent. It takes some time. But once you get that, this will be a good place to be. Steering is chunky and feels good at hand. Well the plastic in the steering tend to be slippery when your hands are wet or sweat! MID is pointless in my opinion. I mean who need to know the Average running time! This is one the worst MID I've ever seen in the modern cars and there is no words to describe the level of stupidity in giving such useless information.

Indicators & stalks are easy to operate and the position is bang-on. All the buttons and stalks are of good quality and buttons back-lit with blue at night. It is soothing for eyes! Steering controls feels perfect and no need to take your eyes off for any operations. It was very well spaced and tactile.

A/C is just adequate and not what we expected. Compared with my uncle's Ford Figo, it cools the cabin within a minute and is an absolute chiller. Well, it isn't too bad but the lowest blower settings in summer should be 2 and damn 2 is little noisy and I need to bump the volume to drown this noise.

Both IRVM & ORVM is of perfect size and offers good visibility. ORVM is biker-friendly and so it helps me avoid ORVM replacement. I just replaced the mirror and all good to go. The controls to operate the ORVM is not manual and this is a big boon, especially when you are parking. Auto-dimming IRVM is missing in this variant and over the time, I felt the necessity of this particular item and feel like my next car must have this. Considering the full-beam idealist crowd that we have here, this is an absolute must for all cars sold in India, IMO.

Lane change function is a boon, especially in highways. This neat little features what make our ownership experience special and there are ton of such niceties that can keep you comfortable is available in this C-Sedan!

Engine, NVH & Gearbox:

The 1.2L VTVT engine is a two faced engine. It is a calm cruiser when you are lazy but when you decide to give it some beans, it will happily oblige.

Driving in B2B traffic is not an exciting thing and it's same with Xcent. We need to constantly shift between 1st and 2nd gear. But if it's slow moving traffic, then just slot it in 2nd gear and good to go. Anything above 30 km/h, slot into 3rd and cruise like automatic. Response is good from as low as 1k rpm and driving inside city is decent.

But the real fun starts post 1.5k rpm. Once I bury the pedal to the metal, the progress is rapid and you feel the steering is going to rip apart. You will feel a slight push to the seat but not so violent or prominent. I don't know the exact term but I had to be very careful with steering as it felt it is not capable of controlling in this engine when the race to redline starts. The rev happy nature of this engine is evident and it pulls cleanly till 6500 rpm.

While 2nd gear max out at around 90 km/h, 3rd gear will take you all the way to 130 km/h! 3rd gear becomes my favorite one when I'm in the mood for fun. 100 km/h is seen ticking at @ around ~2700 rpm and a much relaxed 90 is seen at ~2500 rpm. This is not bad for a small displacement petrol engine in my opinion. This car is best driven sedately at around 80-100 km/h and need to downshift a gear or two in case of overtakes in two-lane roads.

Another concern is, driving in hill roads can get bit irritating. 2nd gear is to short for that and 3rd gear is too tall. I often see myself fumbling between these 2 gears where I felt the ratios of 2nd and 3rd is not great when it comes to hilly roads. But is it just me or anyone else faced the same? No issues on regular highway though.

NVH is excellent and it really filters out noise from outside. When I first TD the Petrol, I couldn't believe my ears as there was a radical change compared to my Alto and Figo D. This is one of the best engine in terms of NVH(next to Honda/Suzuki). There is this calmness inside the cabin and it instill the calmness in the mind of driver as well.

Wind noise is intrusive if we drive above 80 km/h and can be felt harshly at highways during windy season. Combined with the annoying road/tyre noise(Need to try out XM2), you are in for a vocal treat, rather an unpleasant one. This is where Eminem and the likes come for rescue. Just increase the volume a notch above usual and you can ignore the noise like your noisy neighbor. But again, as a person who accustomed to Alto, this is not a deal breaker!

Xcent's 5 speed gearbox is one of the slickest shifter I've ever driven, be it Petrol or diesel. I drove lot of cars before and none had such sure-slotting, smooth gearshifts. Just a gentle push with fingers, I can slot gear. Yes, it's that easy! Slotting reverse at times get tricky and you need try to move it to 1st and try again. I've read this is a common issue with Grand siblings and even tried to get it fixed with HASS, but got the same reply. Also the clutch is soft, and short which makes the gear shifting exercise a fun one. At times, in highway, I feel like I am in F&F movie and shift like how Paul & Vin did in movies, but soon run out of gears! Even after all this time, the gearshift is still butter smooth and one of the best thing about driving everyday for me.

[xcentrk]

Ride & Handling:

Hyundai decided to go with soft suspension and this is a wise move. Considering the usage of this vehicle and demographic of the user, most of them are going to use it in city. And the soft suspension is a boon in such a case. The ride is plush and suspension does it's job without sending loud & strange noise inside the cabin. Car comes with Apollo 3G tyres and they were okay. Road noise was less, comfortable inside city but on highway, one has to be careful. It lasted me for good ~42k kms before I switched it to Yoko Earth-1. Big mistake(That's a story for another day).

Steering is light, vague and in my opinion it is over assisting. But considering the user base of this vehicle, this is understandable. Yes, this super light steering makes life easy in traffic and weighs up nicely as speed builds up. But you are missing the feel and you cannot predict where the wheels are when you intend to. Even my older Alto steering felt superior compared to this, as it gave me the feel of being in full control.

High speed stability is good and with up-sized tyres, ride is mature and small undulations are no threat to it's composure. Only the medium to big sized craters that we call as potholes does affect the composure and one needs to be careful. And these are the occasions where the suspension shows it's ugly side. Suspension does it's job with big thud and a jolt is felt inside the cabin. When you are on highway and happen to pass through the medium to big potholes, it will be felt badly inside the cabin and not recommended at all. After learning this the hard way, I try to drive around such potholes or better, slow down and pass it. It's been just close to 5 years and already front suspension is shot. Need to replace the front suspension and it is estimated at around 14k. This will give a clear picture on how one should drive Xcent on highways.

There is some body-roll present and one needs to be careful while taking it in corners. I prefer to take it slow and accelerate out of the corner. Even my daily drive involves some twisty roads and when I'm in mood for fun I ignore body-roll but it is there and it can get annoying at times. The turning radius is compact and driving in city is not an issue. No issues with taking tight u-turns and can handle this at ease, thanks to compact dimensions and light steering wheel makes this an effortless one.

Ground Clearance is more than adequate and I can cross speed-breakers without dropping speed too low. Even with full load I never scraped and now can tackle any kind of speed breakers. I felt the soft suspension may pose a problem but looks like Hyundai thought through and happy to say no such issues.

Braking:

Braking needs special mention for Xcent. The bite is too sharp and it is like nothing I've ever experience before except Dolphin model City which I used to drive when I was in Bangalore. Before Xcent, I drove Alto and used to drive the following vehicles occasionally(Verito, Xylo, XUV, SX4, Thar) and nothing comes close to the brake bite of Xcent. The first few days were nerve-wrecking as I often fear that I will be rear-ended but eventually got the hang of it. Once I had a chance to do hard-braking when a biker suddenly decided to cross the road. The car stopped(from 60km/h to 0) without any drama but I was happy that it was slight nudge for the biker and not ran over him. It was so close, if it is same with Alto, I'm sure I would have run him over. And there are times when I regret for not buying the car with ABS as under hard breaking(above 70km/h) tyres squeal and braking is a scary affair. Once I switched to Yoko, I can see the squeal stopped and now it stops in straight line.

Build Quality:

I'm not going to lie by comparing it with Germans, but it is a lot better compared to Celerio. The doors close with "Korean" thud which is between the "Jap" thud(I'm looking at you MS,Honda) and "German/Ford" thud. Had a couple of incidents where bikers nudged the car in front bumper, front left door and near rear bumper. Yet nothing alarming and it held on till I take it to service center. So in general, it is no tank but not a tin can either. Guess Hyundai stood mid-ground because they were confused which path to take and decided to be neutral?

Tyre Change

The car comes shod with Apollo Amazer 3G - While the road/tyre noise is on bit lesser ride the grip is not what we expected. And it became stiff after some time. Decided to change it around 35k mark but had to postpone due to my sudden travel(you know, on-site). Come back from on-site, checked the tyre and took it straight to trusted tyre shop. Changed to Yoko Earth 1 @ 20k including WA/WB + labor.

The grip is improved tremendously and ride is stiff and feels planted. I up-sized from stock size(165/65) to 175/65 R14 and that made steering bit tight and it feels planted now. Road noise is on higher side compared to Stock Apollo tyres and it is really irritating!

Safety:

If you read from top, you might have seen I mentioned that I was naive during car purchase. Well here is the story behind that!
Except that the Build Quality is decent and seat belts, this comes with nothing in terms of safety. Being a noob like I was, I didn't think twice before buying a car without ABS or Airbags. I was sold only by what I was looking for. Even the S(O) which had ABS & Airbag variant was within reach yet I ignore it. Basic calculations would have reminded me that the difference was nothing in terms of EMI. Oh god, how stupid I was.

Fuel Efficiency:

With usage pattern of 90% city and 10% highway, I'm getting consistent 11-13 based on how bad the traffic is and how much I have. If I have too much fun, the mileage dropped to 10.5 and if I drive sedately, I will get 13.xx max.

Out on highways, with full load(5 adults, 3 kids) + boot filled to brim, it will give me ~15 km/l with light foot. But with 3 adults, 2 kids and boot filled to half, I get 16-17 km/l/. So in general not a great mileage but not bad either. At one such occasion where I decide to drive sedately within 60-80, I got 18 km/l and it took all the fun out of me. So I vowed never to do it again and while I'm not an aggressive driver by any means, I prefer not to be overly-sedate driver. Will have a burst of 3rd gear accelerations for overtaking and that's some small fun I get to have.

Service Center & Support:

So far all the work on my car has been carried out only at A.S.S and this is a mixed experience for me. Except for couple of times, they never pushed down any unnecessary items and now I made it clear that only the items mentioned in service book has to be carried out. But when things get down to finding the issue, this is where I feel they lack.

For example, in the below A/C issue after repeated visits on 3rd time only they were able to identify the issue. But during my first visit itself I have explained my apprehensions but no one listened to me. But yes, they indeed waive off the labor when they came to know about this and that's a good gesture from their part. So overall the service is not exemplary but not bad either. It is good.

Issues so far:

A/C Issues saga:

All of a sudden, in the mid summer of 2017, A/C stop throwing cold air. Sent the car to Service Center and it was diagnosed to faulty thermister and replaced for free. Quite satisfied that the problem was simple and rectified so soon. Boy was I wrong. It looked like they topped up the gas while changing the thermister and once the gas level was down, it was back to the same. This time, I knew something is wrong and demanded to have complete diagnosis with solution. This is when it was identified as cooling coil aka evaporator was gone bad and needed replacement. In the name of diagnosis, my dashboard got nicks in places and I failed to notice it while taking the delivery. This is my bad. I left this considering this might be one-off instance. Guess what, no it's not!

Within a year of changing cooling coil, the issue repeated again in 2018 mid. I shot mail to Hyundai and got calls from Regional Service Head and after heated discussion, I clearly informed them that if this issue is to happen again I will not pay for it. I've even demanded them to give me proper diagnosis to see whether the issue is due to the place I reside at or based on my usage or due to some other issues. But the guys at the other end was not even willing to listen to this and I already ran out of patience. And so, I paid for the cooling coil and get it done. This is where I lost the trust I have in Hyundai. No way the same part is going to be bad within such a short span. And the worst part is, the cooling coil was just under 1 year old and they denied any replacement stating that the part warranty is just 6 months!

This time, I did checked the cooling coil and see that the rust formation is the culprit but how come rust form in such a short period of time. I am not in a Coastal area, nor staying in Industrial area, yet this happens. Any idea? Can experts pour in their suggestions? I am almost certain that the issue will crop up again and I can already sense the A/C effectiveness is slightly lesser than before. Or is it that the Xcent A/C is not really a chiller to begin with? Let me check the A/C refrigerant level to confirm on this.

[xcentrk]

Costs Incurred So far:

Service Costs: Even though this guy is a halfdrunkard, he don't spend unnecessarily. I can always be at peace every time I give it for service. Please find the service costs since Day 1.

1. First free service @ 1474 km - 0
2. Second free service @ 9563 km - 2657.96
3. Third free service @19608 km - 3139.92
4. 4th service @ 28888 km - 4500
5. A/C Issue @ 29958 km- 2921 (Gas topped up & dashboard was removed)
6. A/C Issue @ 30938 km - 3006.11 (Cooling coil replaced, labor charge waived as it was already paid in earlier visit)
7. 5th service @ 40962 km - 6265.78
8. 6th service @ 49400 km - 12170.35 (A/C Issue cropped up again and had to shell out additional 4k+labour)
9. Clutch change (Rookie mistake, used clutch excessively during initial days and so it became harder) @ 55601 km - 9860.07

Total service cost so far(odo @ 58k) : 44521.19 INR

As with any cars, mine also went for accidental repair like broken bumper, broken ORVM. Except one time, rest of the time it is not my mistake and few times vehicle bumped into my car when it was parked.

All the time I claimed insurance and I paid only if the total cost was less than 3k.

1. 1st accident - 1500
2. 2nd accident - front bumper + fog lamp damage - 10443.8 ( I paid 0)
3. Bike crashed into parked car - FL fender + bumper damage - 22506.27 ( Paid 5.6k as one of the damage was from previous incident)

Accidental Repair Costs : 7100 INR

Accessories Cost:

Noodle Mats - Changed twice - 2 x 1500 = 3k
Blaupunkt Touchscreen HU + Camera - 15k

Total = 18k

Insurance Costs

1st year - 28k
2nd year - 19k
3rd year - 18k
4th year - 17k
5th year - 16.4k
It's expiring this June, and the renewal notice indicate that if I want to have Zero Dep, policy cost me 18k! *Sigh*

Total: 98.4k

Fuel Costs:

Lost all my old records due to my old mobile damaged beyond repair. Couldn't take backup.

With the records I have, the approximate cost for 7 months (Oct' 18 to Till date) - 46 k for 8314 km, with 90% city driving.

Conclusion/Final Thoughts:

Am I happy with Xcent? Does it meet all my requirements? Does it cost a bomb to own one? Like human, cars are not perfect as well. They have their own flaws. But it is about how concerned are we towards those flaws. As I mentioned before, the interiors swept me away the first time I had the TD. Comfort level is on the satisfactory level. Features list is decent and make you feel you own a car which is a segment above. Yes, this car has some bad fuel addiction, but nothing to be afraid of. Each service doesn't give me heart attacks. Yes, there is this A/C issue and rattles started(thanks for SC who worked on A/C by removing dash). But then in the end, Hyundai does a better job in terms of customer satisfaction and that makes up for it.

As everyone mentioned in Team BHP, I still do turn to look at the car after parking it. Which says a lot about this car. Did I feel regret for buying this car? Yes, I regret I missed the one with ABS & Airbags but other than that, there is no regret.

These days there are discussions going on about changing my car, but I decided to hold on to it as there is no point in changing something which isn't broken. Moreover I live in EMI-free period which is nice and I prefer to be like this until the need arise to change the car.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Long-term Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[Secretariat]

Nice write up which I can relate to , since I am also a fellow Xcent owner of almost exactly the same vintage, but with double the mileage ! Mine's an AT though.

Ditto to most of what you have observed, especially the section on the AC. I have been through all of your problems on the AC and have basically given up on the AC ever functioning properly. The AC truly sucks. Being based in mild Bangalore, I can live with it but when I go out on highways, which happens quite a lot, I suffer.

The plus points on lovely interiors, excellent braking, boot space, service support, etc all resonate. My experience has been different on it being noisy on highways ( felt it good for its class) and on suspension on highways (adequate I think).

Why the regret on Yoko Earth 1 tyres ? I have been using them now for some time on my Xcent and find them good.

Nice ownership report of what is a very good car for its segment. Wishing you another 58000 kms of EMI free happy ownership !

[muralikrishnank]

Even my 5 years old elite i20 had the same AC problems you have faced,you are right about the AC issues, it looks like a common trend in the 1.2 vtvt hyundai engines(This was conveyed to me by the Hyundai service Advisor).
The cooling of my car was all perfect until one day it just stopped throwing cold air no matter even if the AC was kept at the lowest setting.

I went to the hyundai service center and they diagnosed it as a failed AC solenoid valve(which sits inside the AC compressor and it costs around 1900 rs excluding labour) and also a temperature sensor(apparently the rat has chewed off the temperature sensor wire) after changing the solenoid valve and fixing the temperature sensor the cooling was back to normal ,i thought the issues was solved. Boy i was wrong after few kilometers of driving the AC suddenly stopped throwing cold air,took the car again to the service center next day ,they ran all possible tests and even they looked clueless about the issue.Then they advised me to change the thermistor saying that could be the culprit( it cost me around 280 rs excluding labour).
Post that the AC was working just fine and again after few kilometers of driving the same issues popped up.

Took the car again to the service center ,this time the service advisor gave me a shock of my life he told the compressor could have gone kaput and get it replaced. As my car was out of warranty i knew it will cost a bomb.
I just left the service center informing the adviser that i will be back and guess what i never went back

I thought enough was enough and took the car to a multi brand car service center in hosa road ,they immediately swing into action checked the AC refrigerant pressure and found out that it was way below normal,they recovered the existing refrigerant from the AC system of my car and it was just around 175gms , it was suppose to have at least 450gms of refrigerant .

Check for the leakage came negative ,so it was very evident that the Service guys did not bother to top up the refrigerant .
After topping up the refrigerant and also checking all the connection for any loose contact the AC came back to life again .
its been few weeks and i have never faced the AC issue again,i suggest you also get the checks done at a good mutibrand car service center.

Originally Posted by xcentrk

All of a sudden, in the mid summer of 2017, A/C stop throwing cold air. Sent the car to Service Center and it was diagnosed to faulty thermister and replaced for free. Quite satisfied that the problem was simple and rectified so soon. Boy was I wrong. It looked like they topped up the gas while changing the thermister and once the gas level was down, it was back to the same. This time, I knew something is wrong and demanded to have complete diagnosis with solution. This is when it was identified as cooling coil aka evaporator was gone bad and needed replacement. In the name of diagnosis, my dashboard got nicks in places and I failed to notice it while taking the delivery. This is my bad. I left this considering this might be one-off instance. Guess what, no it's not!

Within a year of changing cooling coil, the issue repeated again in 2018 mid. I shot mail to Hyundai and got calls from Regional Service Head and after heated discussion, I clearly informed them that if this issue is to happen again I will not pay for it. I've even demanded them to give me proper diagnosis to see whether the issue is due to the place I reside at or based on my usage or due to some other issues. But the guys at the other end was not even willing to listen to this and I already ran out of patience. And so, I paid for the cooling coil and get it done. This is where I lost the trust I have in Hyundai. No way the same part is going to be bad within such a short span. And the worst part is, the cooling coil was just under 1 year old and they denied any replacement stating that the part warranty is just 6 months!

This time, I did checked the cooling coil and see that the rust formation is the culprit but how come rust form in such a short period of time. I am not in a Coastal area, nor staying in Industrial area, yet this happens. Any idea? Can experts pour in their suggestions? I am almost certain that the issue will crop up again and I can already sense the A/C effectiveness is slightly lesser than before. Or is it that the Xcent A/C is not really a chiller to begin with? Let me check the A/C refrigerant level to confirm on this.

[padmrajravi]

Very detailed ownership log. Thank you for sharing. I own a 2014 Xcent SXO AT and I can relate to most of what you are saying.

Regarding the brakes , I have also felt the same . It bites quickly and even after 5 years , I take some time to get adjusted to its brakes when I switch from my other cars. My mother and sister always blames me for the sudden stop , while I would have just touched the brake pedal. I think it works well after a couple of kms of drive , but initially it always bites too quickly.

Fortunately for me , the AC has been working well. There was a time when I felt AC was not very effective , but in the subsequent service visit , they cleaned it and it was back to normal. Overall , my service experience with Hyundai has been pleasant till now.

[AkMar]

Nice short & crisp write-up on your ownership till date! A fellow Xcent user here, with less than half of your mileage on the odo! I can fully relate to most of the things in the review. It is a capable car for many use cases. The engine, as you said, really transforms itself at 1500 rpm.

I find the steering adequate enough, even though it is not class leading. In fact, after driving a WR-V, i started appreciating Xcent's steering and handling even more. The WR-V simply doesn't inspire enough confidence in me at high speeds. The steering is too light at high speed and It felt disconnected from the road. In comparison the Xcent feels a lot more planted and connected to road.

I did have a few reliability issues but that is for another post

[xcentrk]

Originally Posted by Secretariat

Nice write up which I can relate to , since I am also a fellow Xcent owner of almost exactly the same vintage, but with double the mileage ! Mine's an AT though.

Ditto to most of what you have observed, especially the section on the AC. I have been through all of your problems on the AC and have basically given up on the AC ever functioning properly. The AC truly sucks. Being based in mild Bangalore, I can live with it but when I go out on highways, which happens quite a lot, I suffer.

The plus points on lovely interiors, excellent braking, boot space, service support, etc all resonate. My experience has been different on it being noisy on highways ( felt it good for its class) and on suspension on highways (adequate I think).

Thanks @Secretariat for your words. The NVH is good for it's class, but as I said Wind Noise is on little higher side and as I already mentioned this I felt only because of my other cars in garage, which includes Cruze, XUV.

Suspension is excellent in city but for highways I find it to be too soft and while it doesn't affect composure, it does it work with loud thud and transmitting some of it inside cabin. But again, it does what it was built for.

And man, don't even get me started on AC which is one of my major concern with this otherwise nice car.

Originally Posted by Secretariat

Why the regret on Yoko Earth 1 tyres ? I have been using them now for some time on my Xcent and find them good.

Nice ownership report of what is a very good car for its segment. Wishing you another 58000 kms of EMI free happy ownership !

Whatever the psi, the ride doesn't seem to be comfortable for me. Even the older Apollo 3G had plush ride in city, but Yoko doesn't come close to the comfort.

Originally Posted by padmrajravi

Very detailed ownership log. Thank you for sharing. I own a 2014 Xcent SXO AT and I can relate to most of what you are saying.

Regarding the brakes , I have also felt the same . It bites quickly and even after 5 years , I take some time to get adjusted to its brakes when I switch from my other cars. My mother and sister always blames me for the sudden stop , while I would have just touched the brake pedal. I think it works well after a couple of kms of drive , but initially it always bites too quickly.

Fortunately for me , the AC has been working well. There was a time when I felt AC was not very effective , but in the subsequent service visit , they cleaned it and it was back to normal. Overall , my service experience with Hyundai has been pleasant till now.

Thanks @padmrajravi. Agree with you on brake bite! Brake bite seems to be trouble for me still even after 58k kms of driving one. Whatever car I drove, when I switch back to Xcent however careful I am, it will still get jerky for first few minutes. Your legs need some time to adapt, that's the thing.

And good to hear that there is no AC issues with your car. You belong to the pool of lucky owners who don't have any AC issues.

But as I mentioned, the pleasant service experience is what making me forget such incidents. They are always supportive, helpful and polite.

Originally Posted by AkMar

Nice short & crisp write-up on your ownership till date! A fellow Xcent user here, with less than half of your mileage on the odo! I can fully relate to most of the things in the review. It is a capable car for many use cases. The engine, as you said, really transforms itself at 1500 rpm.

I find the steering adequate enough, even though it is not class leading. In fact, after driving a WR-V, i started appreciating Xcent's steering and handling even more. The WR-V simply doesn't inspire enough confidence in me at high speeds. The steering is too light at high speed and It felt disconnected from the road. In comparison the Xcent feels a lot more planted and connected to road.

I did have a few reliability issues but that is for another post

Thanks @AkMar. Steering is good and although feedback is not excellent, it is better and not light like older gen i20. What I mentioned was about torque steer(I believe) which happens only if you go mad with throttle. For gradual non-maniac speed build up, the steering is great and weighs up nicely as speed build up. In fact, a friend of mine who owns Ecosport said Xcent steering felt like Hydraulic compared to the EPS one in Ecosport. I was like !

Please list down reliability issues here if you are okay with it. Will help some of us here.

Originally Posted by muralikrishnank

Even my 5 years old elite i20 had the same AC problems you have faced,you are right about the AC issues, it looks like a common trend in the 1.2 vtvt hyundai engines(This was conveyed to me by the Hyundai service Advisor).
The cooling of my car was all perfect until one day it just stopped throwing cold air no matter even if the AC was kept at the lowest setting.

.......
its been few weeks and i have never faced the AC issue again,i suggest you also get the checks done at a good mutibrand car service center.

Thanks @muralikrishnank. That's great to hear your AC issue is sorted out. I am currently on lookout for a good independent garage in my city. Let's see if I find one.

The AC problem seems to be common among 1.2 engine I guess.

[rahul_goyal]

Excellent ownership review.!

Being a Xcent owner myself, I can relate to most of your experience. Mine is a 2014 CRDI S variant with 66k on the odo.

I too had a problem with the AC cooling coil in 2017. First reaction was to go to HASS for inspection. I was told that in all likely hood the AC cooling coil has gone bad and they would know more once they open the dashboard. I was given an estimate of INR 10k+ for cooling coil replacement.

Decided to look for a solution on team-BHP forums, came across this thread https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/delhi...w-delhi-2.html (Car Air-conditioning - Cooldays Car AC (Lajpat Nagar-I, New Delhi)).

Went to Manjit Singh ji with the problem who quoted me Rs. 6800 for cooling coil replacement with labour and gas refill. I have not had any problem with the AC since then (infact at times during long drives even in the month of May, I am forced to turn off the AC, it becomes so cold). Very happy with the service, except the fact that temperature adjustment knob broke during repairs. Its now fixed at maximum cooling (can't be changed to heating mode in cold winter ).

But now looking at this thread and concern of majority fellow xcent owners, I do feel that Hyundai should really look into this.

BTW, I got my tires changed at 60K (and I thought mine worn out earlier than they should have). Changed to Firestone tyres in December 2018 which costed me INR 13k.

I also paid off my 5 year loan this month . Hoping to keep the car till next year atleast (considering its raining cars in 2019). Looking to replace it with Venue or Kia SP2i.

Wish you more happy miles with your Xcent. Cheers.!

[katchkamalesh]

The AC issue seems to be pretty common with Hyundais.

I own an elite i20 asta crdi bought in August 2016. In 3 years (almost) of ownership and 40k km of usage, the AC has failed thrice.

First time it was due to an under-body hit which damaged the condenser, insurance covered the cost of replacement. Second time it was because of the thermistor, it was replaced under warranty.

The third time, 3 components failed - Evaporator coil, Control valve and suction hose. While Evaporator coil and Control valve were replaced free of charge under warranty, I had to pay for suction hose and its associated labour charges as it was not covered under warranty. The total cost came to INR 7332/-.

I had escalated this issue with Hyundai. The regional manager in Chennai promised to send the part for further tests and if they find fault with the part, then I would get a refund. After a wait for 4 months, I got a refund of INR 5,227. Kudos to Hyundai for keeping up their promise.

With so many complaints regarding the AC system, I am wondering why Hyundai has not done anything to address this issue. In this very community we can find a number of complaints and cases against AC system. I am now certain that this is either a design or manufacturing defect.

May be a separate thread for Hyundai’s AC failures should be started to create awareness among public.

[aniyo]

Thanks for the detailed review. I do agree on almost everything, esp the gearshifter, better than the Brio and quite better than the Nexon I drive.

My father has the Xcent now for almost 6 years and he hasn't even crossed 25K mark. I really wonder why even he bought a car. Autorickshaw would have been just fine.

Ride quality is really good, but I never liked it out on the highway, may because I used to drive the Brio.

AC is a downer for sure, my home town (Aurangabad, MH) hits 42-43 degree every summer and Xcent is not really up to mark. In fact many years earlier my father had an Astra even that had better AC than Xcent.
Seems Hyundai has an issue, even Creta seems to be not good in AC part.

[xcentrk]

Originally Posted by rahul_goyal

I too had a problem with the AC cooling coil in 2017. First reaction was to go to HASS for inspection. I was told that in all likely hood the AC cooling coil has gone bad and they would know more once they open the dashboard. I was given an estimate of INR 10k+ for cooling coil replacement.

Thanks @rahul_goyal. That's great to get AC issues fixed outside of HASS. It's pretty cheap compared to HASS.

Originally Posted by katchkamalesh

With so many complaints regarding the AC system, I am wondering why Hyundai has not done anything to address this issue. In this very community we can find a number of complaints and cases against AC system. I am now certain that this is either a design or manufacturing defect.

Thanks @katchkamalesh. Yes, AC issues seems to be normal things and one of the SA agreed to this. In my case, I escalated this issue only after 2nd time cooling coil is replaced and so far I did not get any useful report or refund from Hyundai. The regional manager to whom I conversed with was not even ready to diagnose this issue.

Seems like opening a new thread to see how many had such AC issues in Hyundai car will reveal some ugly truth.

Originally Posted by aniyo

Thanks for the detailed review. I do agree on almost everything, esp the gearshifter, better than the Brio and quite better than the Nexon I drive.

Thanks for the appreciation @aniyo. 25k for 6 years is not abnormal for a petrol car. Yes, AC is a real bummer and anything below 2 in summer is just like the blower is in another car and we are trying hard to face it to get some cooling!

From all these replies, it seems to me that it's time to start a new thread and poll and see the rate at which this AC issue persists! I would like to see how many are affected out of 100, as a sampling.

[pranavtengshe]

Originally Posted by xcentrk

Slotting reverse at times get tricky and you need try to move it to 1st and try again. I've read this is a common issue with Grand siblings and even tried to get it fixed with HASS, but got the same reply.

Just press and release the clutch in nuetral before shifting reverse.

[condor]

Nice write-up, @xcentrk. I have not looked at the Xcent beyond a sit-in once, and your review/ experience has given me a better view of this car. In that one check I had, I actually found the seating to be nice - was pleasantly surprised by it.

Hope you have many more happy years with this car. Let the Xcent become XceLent