[immortalmechano]

The Origin of Toothless

Someone very close to me turned 6 last November. My life over these six years have seen so many changes, so many major events, minor events, good days, dull days, average days and days where I had absolutely no clue as to what was going on. Through all of this, this fellow would be lurking silently in the corner, always ready at my beck and call, to just churn and roll; Anytime, any day; all day long.

This fellow as you may have guessed by now, is none other than Toothless, the Twilight Blue road warrior. Several of you may know him, have met him and even been on a ride with him. With, 6.5 years and a 141,500 km on his odo, he is not an ageing warrior in his twilight years, as yet. He is just as yuppy and raring to go (albeit with a slight roll of the eyes, wondering if I’ll ever sober down) as he was on day one. Crazy road trips; Dreary office commutes; Happy weddings; Sombre funerals; The birth of my son; An intense lockdown and so much more. This fellow has seen it all. The name Toothless came about as some of my initial visual modifications reminded me of Toothless, the Nightfury of Berk.

Introducing Toothless

Aswin bought a ‘cough’ Hyundai ‘cough’

After securing a job and moving to Bangalore in 2013, the first order of business was new wheels. I’d been using my parents’ 2007 Palio Stile 1.1 slx all these years and it was time for my own ride. I had the funds in hand for a motor bike or used car and started scavenging for those options. However, looking at the market and evaluating my requirements, I started warming up to the idea of a new diesel car with a budget of about 8 L INR. I saw myself doing about a few hundred km in city traffic and a monthly round trip to my hometown. A petrol Vs. Diesel comparison suggested I would be in no-mans’ land (i.e the 18,000-20,000 km annually mark) and decided to shortlist diesels only as I felt I may add a few road trips to the itinerary later. I refined my requirements down to the below criteria:

• Spacious enough for 2-3 people
• Peppy and easy to drive in the city
• Comfortable for highway cruising
• Diesel powered
• Has to hold at least 1 large Suitcase (useable boot space)
• Reasonable maintenance (But having a Palio in our garage I was prepared for anything)
• Safety. Airbags and ABS was a must

Resale is something that I don't take into account(Unless it's a brand that looks to shut shop) and I had decided it would be a 5 year, 1 Lakh Kilometres ownership cycle. I was also to be honest, under the common mindset then that typically you should get rid of a car before it racks up a Lakh kilometres on Indian roads as the maintenance cost goes up quite a lot. Funnily enough, I hit the 100,000 mark in 4 years and have now gone on to pile up another 40,000 km. I've also come to realise that when you really maintain your car and plan in advance for expenses, the cost of upkeep easily wins hands down on the EMI of a new car.

I had a few running RDs with 1 year terms from the day I bought my car to ensure I always had money aside for insurance and any major services. I felt this never let me feel the pinch of those bumper to bumper insurance renewals. This I would offer as sound financial advice for anyone buying a new car.

People who’ve known me long enough will know how much I’ve waxed lyrical about the great ride and handling that the Continentals possessed and of course my dislike of almost anything Asian. My shortlist of cars in 2013 for a purchase reflected this very attitude of mine;
1. Fiat Punto
2. VW Polo
3. Ford Figo

I started shopping with the above three cars in mind and quickly shot two out simply because they were too old in the tooth and in need of massive upgrades. I just could not bring myself to accept that Ford was still trying to pass off a decade old car for brand new despite a decent feature list and excellent driving dynamics while Fiat (over budget also) dealers just didn’t seem to be bothered about selling the car. That said, the Figo was still decent value for money with the top spec going for about 7.2 Lakhs OTR after discounts, but given it was due an upgrade I was unsure of going in favour of it.

That left me with the Polo; a relatively new entrant to India and offering decent kit for car. However the Polo was a tad over budget and the last minute issue of me not being eligible for a good EMI scheme from VW finance meant I was back to the drawing board. As I was looking around, I evaluated options like the Beat Diesel (My colleague had one and I thought it was a decent drive. However it failed my suitcase test) and also briefly flirted with the idea of a used Diesel. Meanwhile, Hyundai launched the Grand i10 in September 2013. I took one look at it and turned my nose up saying “No Koreans”. How wrong was I going to be. An uncle of mine happened to be looking at a new car around the same time and we went to Chandra Hyundai in Coimbatore where we test drove the i20 and the Grand i10. He booked the i20 on the spot while I got a feel for the Grand i10 and the space it offered as two of my cousins and I squeezed into the rear bench. I still told myself, “Naaaa” and headed back to Bangalore. I was dawdling around trying to take a decision when somehow an Advaith Hyundai sales guy managed to get my contact and called me up offering a test drive of the Grand i10. A lazy afternoon at work, I said “sure why not?” and had the guy at my office doorstep in an hour with a stardust grey Diesel. I took to the wheels and pushed the car to the hardest on some crappy north Bangalore roads and the smooth elevated flyover on Tumkur Road. This turned out to be my longest test drive ever covering around 30 km (I purposely missed an exit and offered to pay for the toll as the sales guy got all panicky, just to get the highway feel) It didn’t exactly come passing with flying colours, but I couldn’t find anything wrong with it either. The sales guy then took out his trump card; the equipment list and I was sold. So at 7.92 Lakhs on-road, I ended up booking a Twilight Blue Grand i10 U2 1.1 Diesel Asta(Option).


At the Showroom
I recall having had a relatively pleasant booking and delivery experience. They did delay my delivery by about a month citing production issues for the airbag variant. other than that, got what I expected in terms of service levels and even a nice framed photo souvenir of the delivery. Freebies that were given included a box of chocolates, an idol, floor mats and wheel flaps.

The Fresh Prince of Bengaluru

I've not explored the car and its features in this post greatly as there are several other ownership threads and Team-Bhp reviews that have covered that in great detail. I've focused more on my long term ownership experience and choices/decisions made based on my requirements.


What I liked about Toothless:

• Build quality. It’s not Continental, but rather Continental-like. The way the doors close were the first impression and a good one.

• A good feature list. Pretty much everything I wanted was available in the Asta(O) variant. Again this was 2013 and given safety was high on my list, I basically had to look at only top spec variants to get Airbags and ABS. In addition it came with Alloys, Power windows, Electrically operated and folder ORVMs, Push button start and Bluetooth controls. These features really jazzed up the segment and rattled the competition in 2013.

• Very quiet. The sound deadening and NVH work is so good that quite often people inside don't believe it's a diesel. I've had fuel station attendants ask me that question too before filling up!

• Unlike the older generation Hyundais, the Grand i10 had a decent ride and handling giving confidence at most safe highway speeds. I of course wouldn't recommend trying to take a corner at a 130 kph. Lets leave that to the Europeans.

• Highly reliable little potter. This fellow has never left me stranded anywhere. I did have one instance where it didn't start up properly, just putting out black smoke and failing when I was at a wedding. I gave it 5 minutes and tried again and it worked fine. Took it to the SC immediately and they couldn't not find anything wrong. Not even a fault code. It never happened again after that.

• Super smooth and precise gearshifts that really allows for some quick shifting. In the initial days after driving a Palio for so long I was honestly afraid to push the gearbox and occasionally would end up in 4th instead of 2nd. But once I got the hang of it, I never missed a gear and get really super fast super smooth shifts. Works perfect to this day. The Reverse gear alone is starting to act a little dodgy once in a while. This is something I've noticed very recently in the last 2 months. Maybe time for an overhaul or inspection during the next service. Honestly makes me wonder why can’t the others get this right (Hello Fiat & Renault)?

• Comfortable in terms of interior space, especially in the rear seats where three adults can actually sit in decent comfort for short distances. I found the rear to be more spacious than the previous generation i20. In fact I popped by Hyundai to check out the Hyundai Venue recently and I felt the rear seats were a tad more cramped than my car.

Don’t try this with your kids

What I didn’t Like:

• A very light steering and sharp brakes. I got used to both of them eventually. But they can catch anyone who expects progressive response.

• Puny tires in terms of width. An upgrade was on my mind but decided against burning money at the start.

• ICE. Just not up to my standards. They were par for the segment, but being an audiophile of sorts I needed more.

• Struggles a bit with a full load when the turbo hasn’t kicked in yet below 1800 rpm. Quite often I have to downshift to 1st at a speed bump if I have a full car. I think Hyundai resolved this some-what, by offering the very slightly larger 1.2 Crdi in the face-lift.

• Similar to the lack of power before the turbo kicks in, the power curve also was quite limited, tapering off at 3000 rpm and remaining relatively flat till the redline. If you were looking to make quick overtaking moves past longer vehicles like buses and trucks, quite often you'd see yourself doing an upshift mid-overtake maneuver.

• Very little underbody protection for the engine bay. The airdam under the radiator easily breaks and I’ve had it replaced at least thrice. Good thing it only costs about INR 800. The Front bumper also scrapes quite easily and thanks to the numerous two wheeler running rampant around town I have a lot of scratches to show as well.

Life on the road

Toothless has been a fantastic companion on the road over the last 140,000 km. Granted it can occasionally get a little bumpy/bouncy on bad roads and does lack steering feel giving rise to a sensation of instability above 130, I've always felt it has performed to it's best abilities and never really under delivered. Our trip travelogue extends to most of South India from Bangalore to Mysore, Chikmangalur, Shringeri, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Kodaikanal, Ooty, Mangalore and Goa. Kerala is a state we’ve somehow not touched yet.

The longest road trips taken include a Bangalore-Coimbatore-Mysore-Mangalore-Goa-Bangalore journey of about 2100 km in 2015 and then a Bangalore to Pune round trip of about 1900 km in 2016. Thanks to demonetisation and toll collection being suspended, I was able to comfortably do Bangalore to Pune in less than 11 hours, leaving at 5.00 AM and reaching Pune by 3.45 PM. The return journey was a circuitous route as we tried to explore some of the Western Ghats around Dhom Lake. Toothless performed better than expected through some flat highway tarmac, mountain twisties, good roads, bad roads and no roads too!

Watching over the Arabian Sea @ Cabo de Rama,GA


Following the monsoon trail @Dhom Lake, MH

The engine is a great highway cruiser and can easily keep 100-120 kph all day. It settles in around 2700 rpm or so at 100 kph and you could bring it down to 2500 rpm if you stick to 90 or so and get really great mileage too. Passenger comfort has been good too though more recently the suspension is showing signs of wear and due for replacement or an overhaul during the next service.


Creature Comforts
One thing that surprised me is the effectiveness of the A/C. I always keep it in the middle temperature setting in Bangalore and even when I park it out in the hot sun, I find that it cools up really fast. I rarely use the blower beyond a speed setting of 2. My Duster on the other hand takes eons and tends to be rather noisy as you have to crank up the blower speed.

The visibility all round is great for city driving with a relatively large windscreen and the side view mirrors allow for a great view behind without being an obstruction. Honestly getting used to the Palio and Duster rear view mirrors after using the Gi10 was hard.

The other good thing about the Grand i10 is the dashboard layout design, finishing, placement of buttons and how they work. I feel things are intuitive and seem rather sorted. even after 7 years It doesn't necessarily feel like a dated design despite the onslaught of touch screen enabled dashboards nowadays. I also suppose, sometimes nothing beats the feel of an actual button. Hyundai have definitely taken note of good ergonomics from the German manufacturers and replicated that in their interior design.

There is very little to complain about in terms of the plastic quality at that price point and I would say with good maintenance it still looks as good as new with very little fade. The only thing I probably hate is how service centers try to give the dash a polish which then makes it very reflective and hard to drive during the day time. I honestly feel a simple cleanup with soap and warm water is more than enough to keep this looking good. Perhaps some matte polish that doesn't reflect all of the sun.

It has a whole bunch of useable storage slots. The Door pockets easily hold 1 Litre bottles with no vibration. The storage bins are sufficient and the glove box has a cooling function which I've honestly used just about 2 or 3 times.

The only way one could probably gauge the age of the car by looking at the interior is from the steering wheel. The leather wrap(OE) has aged well except for at the 3 o'clock position which is where I hold it the most. I do treat it to leather polish periodically yet that portion alone has shown signs of ageing. Even my stock fabric seats have lasted well with periodical cleaning and it is only now that I'm starting to feel that the driver seat has started to soften up a little. I've generally been averse to aftermarket seat covers as somehow I feel they spoil the seat design and bum support as god intended (By god I mean the designers at Hyundai ).


Prodding under the Hood
I’ve always had the car serviced at Hyundai garages. I’ve had a few oil changes done at Shell to help prolong the service intervals when I was doing 25,000-30,000 km annually but else, it’s always been a Hyundai garage for a full service. I in fact always had stock of a few air and oil filters at home thanks to the Mobis network where you can buy all spares OTC. I’ve been toying with the idea of an FNG for my next service and will be evaluating options in Electronics City, Bangalore for that.

One thing I’ve hated about Hyundai garages is how they peddle a lot of unnecessary add ons every time and try to push the final bill up. A simple general service can be done within 5-7 thousand INR depending on which interval service it is (primarily the Fuel filter is the difference). However, every service you go in, they try to add on interior cleaning, waxing, de-carbonisation etc etc. and to be honest I started prolonging the service intervals simply to avoid having to deal with them.

Other than that, I’ve generally been happy with the garages I’ve used in terms of service quality and service advice. I used to speak to a specific advisor at each of those locations to build a relationship and typically felt that I have not been pushed to change anything unnecessarily. Garages I frequented:

1. Advaith Hyundai, Rajaji Nagar- Bangalore
2. Chandra Hyundai, Avinashi Road-Coimbatore
3. Trident Hyundai, Kudlu gate-Bangalore
4. Golden Hyundai, Salem Bypass-Salem (Had an accident Repair in 2016)


Major parts replacements:

I’ve had brake pads replaced at the 65,000 km service, and the clutch replaced at 1.06 Lakh km. The turbo has had some minor oil leaks since the 90 k mark and during the 120,000 km service it went through an overhaul which cost me about 10,000 INR. I suspect this may be because of how I’ve tended to rev the engine quite hard ever since I got the Racedynamics ECU to hit the nice power curve between 3000 and 4000 rpm. I’ve had the bumper and radiator assembly replaced in 2016 due to an accident where I ran over a dog on the highway (Please don’t call PETA, I am very sorry).

After Toothless attempted to consume a doggie for breakfast @ Golden Hyundai, Salem,TN

I had my battery checked in mid 2017 as it was taking quite some to crank up. The voltage was quite low and therefore replaced shortly thereafter. That put it at roughly 3.5 years of service life which I thought was decent. I had done close to 90,000km by then. After some research and a general preference for Amaron, I got the Amaron Flo battery installed at Oriental Traders, Coimbatore. This is working fine to date.

Due to the frequent highway drives, the windscreen had gained a lot of scratches and minor chipping through time. Towards mid 2019 it got progressively impossible to drive at night during the rain. I finally went in for a windscreen replacement by Windshield Experts at BTM Layout in November 2019. I found the Hyundai service centre pricing to be exorbitant at 11,000 INR whereas these guys charged me 4900 INR. This was a smooth experience with neat workmanship done in 2-3 hours. It has been 8 months since that install and no complaints so far.

As per my trackers, Total service costs including all parts replacements, accident repair, labour etc have hit about 3.1 Lakh INR. Of this, about 1 Lakh was covered under insurance.


Oddities:

I read some of the owner complaints on the forums about the steering freewheeling issue. I realise it has happened to me as well 2-3 times. However it was so long ago and for a very brief period. I figure it had something to do with the electronic module of the power steering if you don’t leave the steering wheel aligned when parked and usually resolves itself with a “switch off & switch on”.

I had a power window switch failure around the 75 k mark and the A/c condenser fail and leak all the gas around the same time. Both I believe seem to be common complaints on the Gi10. It also occasionally smokes a little extra mostly under acceleration. This again, I do hear is a common observation on the Gi10.


Go Go Juice

Fuel efficiency has been satisfactory throughout the lifespan and pretty stable too if I may add. I preferred Shell in Bangalore during the early days (Sankey Tank and Rajkumar Road outlets being my regular stops) and known BP outlets in Coimbatore like Roots, Mettupalayam Road and Ramsons, Avinashi Road. Out on the highway, I typically looked for COCO outlets of any retailer wherever possible. With the advent of Paytm I've been using IOC outlets more frequently both in Bangalore and the ever popular LOA outlet on the highway (NH 544) near Sankagiri.

The worst I’ve seen in the tank to tank method (I use Drivvo to track fuel and all expenses as well) has been 11 km/l during terrible Bangalore monsoon traffic and the pure city average has been 14.5 km/l. The mixed use average I get is around 18-19 km/l with city and spirited highway driving (usually in the 100-120 kph mark). The best I’ve got is 23.5 km/l with sedate highway driving when I drove behind my father keeping between 60-80 kph on a mix of state highways and village roads. This was as recent as 5 months ago. I have seen similar figures on such routes in the past as well. Additionally as part of general maintenance, I give it some extra juice in the form of Liqui Moly Diesel Fuel additives roughly once every 20,000 km or so. I've felt an improvement in throttle response after those treatments.


It’s a Tire Life

GoodYear OE : 165/65 R14 – 49,000km service life
The OE set had a decent ride and good mileage too. I had no complaints about this tire from an OE offering standpoint. At 49k on the odo, it still had another 4-5k of life worth, but it was monsoon time and I felt that there was a lack of grip on wet highway roads with the wear and it was time to go.

Continental CC5 175/65 R14 – @49,000km (67,000km service life)
This replacement was done at Sai Iyengar tires in Indira Nagar after a lot of T-Bhp research. Had a good experience and used to frequent them for alignment checks too. I found the CC5s to be a marked difference to the OE set. They were of course up rated to 175/65 and the quieter tires definitely gave a better ride and was confidence inspiring too. Fuel efficiency was on par. I was considering 185s, but Ashwin from Sai Iyengar suggested 175 would a good enough upgrade without the steering getting too heavy. I’ve been happy with this size setup so far.

Yokohama Earth 1 175/65 R14 – @1,16,500km (25,000km service life so far and running)
I was contemplating between the XM2 and earth1s for this change in 2018. I finally went with the Earth 1 primarily due to pricing. I'd recently upgraded the tires to Yokohama Earth Blue(or something) on my Duster as well and was quite happy. That also was an influencing factor. It’s been a good set so far with even wear and no complaints. If at all, I would say the only crib point may be it is slightly noisier than the CC5s. I made this purchase from Tire Empire on Hosa Road.

My alignment checks/rotations have been done most frequently at Nighar’s in Coimbatore and occasionally at Sai Iyengar’s in Bangalore. Great service from all these guys.


The Bling

ICE ICE Baby (In Car Entertainment)

I was in a rush to get the car and ended up getting the ICE upgrades done at the dealer itself. Rookie mistake, I know. I wasn’t too happy with the stock audio quality and had Polk components installed in the front and Polk co-axials in the rear doors. A 2 channel JBL amplifier is connected to the components under the passenger seat. This setup set me back by about 20,000 INR back then. I’ve been thinking about getting some additional damping on the doors to improve NVH and the overall audio experience. Have parked that plan aside, for sometime in the next 6 months or so.


I look Good (Visual Modifications)
Toothless like to dress down. His clean look attire involved a de-badging exercise leaving the Italicised ‘H” and crdi badging alone. Another small change was tinting the rear taillights. However with some recent bumps and scrapes I’ve had both taillights replaced to stock (one got damaged when a cab kissed Toothless’ butt and the other oddly was involved in a mishap in my office basement when a pipe on the ceiling somehow got loose and fell on the car. Thankfully the paintwork was not damaged and only the taillight suffered a crack.

Coolers on a taillight

I can see better! I can do better! (Functional)

• Foglamp Upgrade: Xenon bulbs with Ballast kit from a local brand called Quaden at Passionate Detailers Koramangala. It is really helpful on the highways.Gives out a nice white and works well till today.

• Headlight upgrade: I felt the stock headlights were too dim and got cutouts for the headlights along with Philips Rallye 100/90 bulbs and a Roots windtone horn upgrade – both done at EVO in Indiranagar. The headlight upgrade had massive improvements on night time visibility and was a well required update.

• Osram DRLs. I originally got some simpler local DRLs but after the bumper replacement in 2016, I went for Osrams. Again works well, has auto dimming and auto cut-off features.

The Lights in all their glory @ Misty Madikeri, KA

• 3M Underbody rust protection. This is quite a common add on. Hyundai offered me this service but I declined and got this done at the 3M outlet in UB City. It cost me about 4,000 INR back then.

• In an attempt to improve the ride quality and extend the suspension service life, I got the RogerAB suspension buffer installed in 2017 from Madhu’s near Richmond Circle. Felt there was a definite improvement in ride dampening with almost nil scraping under load. However, to be honest I couldn’t tell if handling had improved by much.

• The other functional install I did was getting a dashcamera. I started off with a really cheap one off Aliexpress for about 700 INR and quickly realised I wanted more. I gave it off to someone and got a Yi Dashcam from their website for about 45 USD through my cousin in the US as they did not retail in India in 2016. I’ve liked this one’s performance and wifi connectivity features with the mobile app.

• I change the wipers annually and have always gone for Bosch ClearAdvantage after the OE blades. I've always wanted to try the Bosch Aerotwin but have never been able to figure someone who stocks it In Bangalore or Coimbatore. I used the Hella equivalent to ClearAdvantage for one cycle but I wasn't too happy with the wiping performance or life. Similarly I always keep a bottle of Sonax winshield washer handy. I also do a periodical wipe down the windscreen and side view mirrors using Rainx which I feel helps with water repellence. I in fact wipe down my helmet visors with Rainx also.

• I got quite a bunch of accessories over time like illuminated door sill protectors, seat cushions, phone holders, mobile chargers etc. Though there are tonnes of cheap Chinese options I typically swear by known mid to premium brands as I feel the premium paid is worth the quality and reliability. For example my Capdase mobile holder is almost 10 years old (Older than my car). Still functional to date!

Illuminated Door sill protectors. They failed in a few months

• I also picked up a BnB bicycle rack for about 10k from Biju of Cycling Boutique, Indiranagar. This is a very sturdy unit that fits most bodystyles and I’ve used this rack to transport my bicycle from Coimbatore to Bangalore.

Toothless Picking up my Scolarian Captain from the fellows @Scolarian Bikes Coimbatore, TN

Junior in tow
With my kid on the way in 2018 I got the all important accessory for a Dad-mobile. The “Baby in car” sticker! Jokes aside, I plonked about 5,000 INR on an R for rabbit child seat from Amazon. This was a convertible model with ECER44/04 certification that can be installed in both rear facing(Until 1 year) and forward facing positions. It has worked well so far (A 5 point safety harness had better work!) and keeps the little one restrained and peacefully asleep on most journeys. I think it is a necessary and good investment for anyone with a kid on the way. You can look at comparable options like Luvlap and even pricier brands like Chico which cost twice as much but offer even better finish. The funny thing is my son knows so well that this is his seat and gets super excited every time we buckle him in.

The all important accessory! Baby in car

Vroom Vroom (Performance)

The only performance upgrade that I’ve done is the installation of a RaceDynamics (RD) Dieseltronics piggyback ECU. I was looking for a performance boost as I felt the engine was sluggish with a full load at the low end before the turbo kicked in and similarly had nothing left to give past 3000 rpm. But everyone (Code 6 too) I spoke to told me there was not much they could do about it on this engine. I'd also read Dr.naren's Tbhp reviews about his experience at Code 6 and decided a remap was not for me as I didn’t want to touch a stock ECU. I decided to go with RD to see if there were any feasible benefits. I had it installed in 2016 when the car had done 66,000 km on the odo and it runs to this day plastering a little glee on my face every time I rev it all the way to 4500 rpm. Personally I felt this was the best compromise for me as I could run my car stock when I wanted, easily removing the RD ECU and not lose out on any warranty issues should they crop up. The Piggy back ECU cost me about 19,000 INR then.

The ECU basically comes with 4 maps, E for Economy, S for Stock, P1 and P2 modes which are all pre-set. However, they did run the car on the Dyno and did some minor customisation on both P1 and P2 maps as per my requests. I tried their E mode for 1 week and never went back to it. The fuel efficiency benefit was not worth the power loss at all. I typically drive in P1 which is a milder tune but still gives a nice kick after 3000 rpm. I’ve not seen any efficiency drop with that tune. P2 however is a crazy tune that races through the rev range easily hitting the red line all the time. My cousin once managed to get me a insane low efficiency of 13 km/l on the highway with P2!

On their dyno at RD on the P2 map it showed a 13 bhp increase at the wheel but this peak power increase is mostly available at the far end of the rev band after 3000 rpm. Putting the car on the dyno at Racedynamics, we realised a few things. As per manufacturer specifications the engine puts out 71 bhp. However at the wheel (rolling type dyno) it recorded 64 bhp at stock showing a 7 bhp loss in transmission. With the piggyback ECU install it recorded 77 bhp in P2. I don't recall the peak power number that is made in P1. In terms of real world performance, the effect of the ECU is very visible in the rev range after 2500 to 4500 rpm. The RD guys did tell me in advance that there was very little they could do lower down though I do feel that the performance improvement once the turbo spools up at 1800 rpm is perceptible when the car is empty. :P

The Dieseltronics ECU

The wrong side of the law

No, no. Nothing illegal. Just a couple of traffic fines courtesy our BTP Interceptors. Raked up about 2 or 3 of those over the years. It was interesting how I was once at a traffic signal and a cop who was standing in front of me, suddenly pulled out his blackberry, entered my plates and then came up to me with a “While you’re just waiting at the signal, care to clear the outstanding fines?”

Given the amount of highway driving I do, an emission check every 6 months is something I religiously follow. I always have a valid emission certificate on hand (except right now as I type this, thanks to Covid19 - I shall get it done right away!). I used to get it done at the IOC station near my old office (WTC) in Dr. Rajkumar road during the early days and now I go to the IOC fuel station right after E-city on Hosur Road.


Good luck doesn’t last forever, but good insurance does

Insurance has always been a topic of great contention. Who gives the best deal? Who gives the best coverage? Do I need RSA? Bumper to bumper? Hotel? With so many options and variations it was a confusing topic for me. Right off the bat, I knew that I had to change insurance after the first year simply because the dealer rates were higher. Pretty much everyone knows that. So as year one ended, I started shopping. There was a straight out saving of about 4,000 INR available to be made by going outside for my insurance renewal. I knew I wanted B2B and after much research and negotiation (thanks to Tbhp in part) I went to Bharti Axa for year 2. Things went well and even the accident claim in year 4 was handled very well and no hiccups at all.

In 2018 I got hit by a cab and had to get some repainting done to the rear. This was going to be my last year of B2B cover as well so the service guy told me he would help me process 2 claims and got my passenger door painted along with the bumper as this had a minor dent and some paint loss from a few years ago. Again a super smooth claims process with Bharti Axa. Due to this however, the premium rocketed for the next year. I decided to end the relationship and shopped on policybazaar.com, settling for HDFC Ergo for year 6 and 7. All in, I've spent about 1.1 Lakh INR on Insurance premiums over the last 7 years (Including year 1). The cost however, I think has already been offset by the accident repair claims I've made!


The hole in my pocket

So what did all of this set me back by? On top of the vehicle cost, based on my tracking app and invoices on record (I have almost everything), I’ve calculated total costs of running from maintenance, accident repair, all accessories, fuel, tolls and insurance to total around 775,000/- INR till date with the running cost coming to about Rs. 5.5 per kilometre. Some of my fuel cost figures are a little off as I don't have digital records from 2013 to 2014. So it is more of an approximation and the above average number could vary slightly, probably closer to 5.7-5.8 INR. But I believe it does give a clear indicator of what it would cost to keep a car running through its lifespan. I could further break this down as below:

To the Moon and beyond?

Every year I start thinking about whether this is the right time for an upgrade. I soon come to the realisation that I don’t have the budget for anything new and post pone the plan. For now I see Toothless running in his current avatar at least until early 2022. The next big question that remains still is 'What Car?". I'm unsure of what sort of budget to target and it would probably depend on my financial scenario that particular year and the running requirements. I expect my average running to go down further to around 15,000km a year( 10,000km in 2020 itself would be a miracle) and therefore I might be looking at a Petrol this time. If I have the right funding, I may keep Toothless as a daily runner for intra-city commuting and push for a larger petrol sedan(With an at least 10 year ownership cycle in mind) for everything else. I’ve also been keeping an eye on EV developments as one idea I’ve been toying with is getting an EV conversion for Toothless when the tech becomes more prevalent and conversions are road legal. This could make him the perfect city commuter with at least another 5-7 year service life. I’m hoping that happens by 2023. Fingers crossed...

[GTO]

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

You have a killer writing style . Your car is going to our homepage today!

[Thanos-VV]

Very detailed and nicely articulated write up. A big thumbs up to you and Toothless. Wishing you many many more miles with him.
Your various headlines are unique and eye-catchy!!!

[akash_v12]

Great Writeup ImmortalMechano! Loved the stories & adventures of Toothless. Yours is a very detailed and quite scary review.
P.S - Love the way Toothless looks from the front .

[Tanveer02]

A very excellent and detailed write-up immortalmechano. Specially like the pinch of humor every now and then throughout the entire writeup

Now coming to the topic of the car, you've some crazy miles raked under its belt for a tiny little hatch. I own a 2017 Grand i10 and though mine is a petrol (nearing 60k kilometres as we speak), I could relate to most of the things you've mentioned in your writeup. What amazes me the most about this car is that it doesn't try to add a filter to its downsides. Whatever is good about this car (mostly everything) it would put it at your face and whatever is bad or below mark about this car it would put it at your face too (steering and engine in general). If one can make peace with its little shortcomings, this little hatch will accompany him through thick and thin throughout its entire lifespan.

Wishing you many more pleasant miles with Toothless and do share it with us as you two embark on them along.

[Reinhard]

A fun read this thread! Thanks for sharing @immortalmechano. Your member handle always reminds me of the Mechano game I had as a child! That sure is immortal.

Nice practical car & looked after so well by you!
Your dislikes have a set of quite vital ones - under-powered feeling when car is loaded & poor steering/brake feeling. These are quite significant ones. Did you not experience these during test drive? Of course, like you, most get over it with time & can modulate driving style to get the best out of the car. But these can potentially put off customers during a test drive if its sufficiently long. Just wondering.

I saw LED DRLs in the bumper, and what looks like an OSRAM LED driver in the engine bay besides the DT tuning box. Is that for some LED headlamp conversion kit? Can you give some details about these projects? Were they DIY? Or you got them done? Could you post a couple of pictures of the DRL mounting? Clicked when they are turned off & during daytime. I'm interested in checking out how they are mounted. Thanks!

P.S. - I'm not 100% sure but I think this is the 2nd Toothless on TBHP.

[padmrajravi]

Great write up. Grand i10 twins provide a great package in that price band. They are not masters of anything except the interior quality, but they manage a good enough job of all the selection parameters.

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Your dislikes have a set of quite vital ones - under-powered feeling when the car is loaded & poor steering/brake feeling. These are quite significant ones.

My opinion about the poor steering and brakes not being detected during test drive - Lack of linearity in braking is mostly evident only on cold starts. It goes away once you drive a couple of kilometers and the brakes start behaving naturally. So it may not get noticed during the test drives. And I am not talking about the Creta level brake failures here. Grand i10 twins only face an occasional lack of linearity of brake feel.

The issue with occasional loose steering happens only under special circumstances and that will not be visible during test drives. I vaguely remember this happening to me in the initial weeks of ownerships but forgot about it later and remembered it only after seeing the threads here. By that time, either I or the car had lost the ability to reproduce that problem. Once we get used to the steering behaviour, we unconsciously learn the stuff that triggers its quirks and avoids it. Just like we get used to the quirks in our life partners.

[amods]

Very detailed review and fun to read.

My father has the same color 2014 sportz, still in 30Ks and your pictures reminded me of the lovely one we have. I get to drive it for few days whenever I am home, and I love how it handles and drives.

The downsides are well known to every owner and I can relate to it, but the positives it has just outnumbers the negatives. This car had the bells and whistles way before the market catched upto them, and is a true mile muncher as well. I can still remember how sharp its brakes are and the light steering, but in a good way.

I still need to check the rpm gauge to see if the engine is running or not while idling(specially considering the fact that I drive a polo ), such refinement in the engine.

It's a great hatch which was well ahead of competition when it was launched and (the initial model) still gives others run for a money.

Thanks for sharing !

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by immortalmechano

With, 6.5 years and a 141,500 km on his odo, he is not an ageing warrior in his twilight years, as yet.

when you really maintain your car and plan in advance for expenses, the cost of upkeep easily wins hands down on the EMI of a new car

Brilliant write up; may you remain immortal @immortalmechano.

This will well go down as one of the longest posts on the forum, and the Gi10 with the highest odo reading; proper upkeep helps you keep the car for much longer, unless you get the itch to change.

Originally Posted by immortalmechano

One thing I’ve hated about Hyundai garages is how they peddle a lot of unnecessary add ons every time and try to push the final bill up

They're known for this; and I've known people who have stopped going to them because of such upsell.

Originally Posted by immortalmechano

Yokohama Earth 1 175/65 R14 – @1,16,500km (25,000km service life so far and running)
I was contemplating between the XM2 and earth1s for this change in 2018. I finally went with the Earth 1 primarily due to pricing.

I recommended this tyre to four people only to kick myself later ; all the owners experienced sidewall cuts and had to get an additional tyre under 50% "Goodwill" discount. I've never recommended this tyre to anyone after those incidents.

Originally Posted by immortalmechano

I've spent about 1.1 Lakh INR on Insurance premiums over the last 7 years (Including year 1). The cost however, I think has already been offset by the accident repair claims I've made!

Now we know why Liability Only insurance rates have gone up , while OD basic rates still hover around the 2% (of IDV) mark.

Wish You many more miles of toothless driving !!!

[ron82x3]

You writing style is flamboyant to say the least. Also, somehow you managed to make Toothless look gorgeous in the photos. I have a 2017 grand i10 Asta petrol, and I must say the design has grown on me. My friends always say the car looks striking in red, and most people around me say that it actually looks better than the i20. Keeping this car for long does certainly makes sense because of the tech on offer and the suburb insulation, along with made to last parts. Hyundai cars do age well.
Wish you many happy miles ahead.

[fiat_tarun]

Great write up and love your writing style.

I've not driven a 1.1/1.2L Hyundai diesel but have sat in many Xcent cabs. The one thing that's a real turn off is the vibrations at low revs. Is this a trait of this engine or is it's just cabbies lugging the engine for better mileage ?

[MOUNTAINMAN]

Very well written.

Originally Posted by immortalmechano

Toothless has been a fantastic companion on the road over the last 140,000 km.

I’ve always had the car serviced at Hyundai garages. I’ve had a few oil changes done at Shell to help prolong the service intervals when I was doing 25,000-30,000 km annually but else, it’s always been a Hyundai garage for a full service. I in fact always had stock of a few air and oil filters at home thanks to the Mobis network where you can buy all spares OTC. I’ve been toying with the idea of an FNG for my next service and will be evaluating options in Electronics City, Bangalore for that.

Since you have driven 140k kms and your Toothless is still running like a horse, I have a few questions from your experience to understand if regular service or over servicing helps prolong the durability of engine.

Were all your service done as per the manual within the service intervals of 10,000 kms / 1 year, or did you do anything over and above than whats stated in the manual for recommended service? (may be service in 5,000 kms / 6 months)

When you did few oil changes at Shell to prolong the service intervals, in how many kms would you go back to the Hyundai garages for service?

Did you use synthetic or semi-synthetic oil periodically, and how many kms would you drive in each case of mineral oil, semi-synthetic oil, and synthetic oil?

Originally Posted by immortalmechano

One thing I’ve hated about Hyundai garages is how they peddle a lot of unnecessary add ons every time and try to push the final bill up.

However, every service you go in, they try to add on interior cleaning, waxing, de-carbonisation etc etc. and to be honest I started prolonging the service intervals simply to avoid having to deal with them.

Other than that, I’ve generally been happy with the garages

Absolutely agree on Hyundai garages trying to push the final bill up. I believe that is common at most brands.
Having bitten once with some sort of additive in 2007, to counter their effort I firmly advise the SA right in the beginning that i do not want anything beyond the service without my consent, and that has worked for me.

Now the other way they push the bill is by using synthetic oil, but when I don't agree for synthetic oil, they call me in for next service in 5,000 kms or 6 months. I had to ask them where is it mentioned for service in 5,000 kms and they would say that its is just a suggestion. But annoyingly after i get back home in the evening I notice they have put a sticker in a corner next to the driver door hinge calling out for next service in 5,000 kms or 6 months.
Since I am under the 2nd year of warranty period, wondered if they would make it an issue.

Other than this service is pleasant at Hyundai garages, and I quite like their effort to get 10 out of 10 stars for the service feedback.

[Biker Ram]

Loved the writing
I agree on the brakes, it's got a instant lock kind of feel. Almost impossible to modulate. Among the cars I have driven the best I liked in terms of braking was XUV 500. Probably it was because of the all wheel disks.
On a side note on your bicycle, how does it feel to ride a fixie? I see you have retained both the brakes.

[TheVegabond]

Thanks for sharing. I own a 2014 grand i10 sports petrol. At that time it was the most feature packed car in its segment and still feels premium. I have done close 1 lac kms without any complains. Also took it to my hometown close to Kedarnath in Uttarakhand a couple of times and only thing I missed was a low end punch. I think that's too much to expect from a city hatch. It has been a reliable companion. I plan to keep it for at one more year before looking for an upgrade.

[W.A.G.7]

That's a very nice review of the Grand i10. Back in December 2019, I had been to Pondicherry and rented the same car from Zoomcar (except that it was the Era variant) and I liked the way it drove. At nearly 1.25 lakh kms - it was still ok - some loose rattles here and there but otherwise the engine didn't feel like it had done 1.25 lakh kms. My only grouse with the car is that the EPS is too light - and doesn't give any kind of feedback absolutely. Overall it's a nice Hyundai that will serve you well without any major troubles.