[sahsriv]

Hi,

it is a long cherished dream to be part of this elite group happy it got coincided with my new Exter purchase, hence quite elated and delighted to write my first post in terms of ownership and feedback.

I took delivery of car on 23rd December and been in lot of travel ever since.
I am now happy to share my buying experience, modifications made and vehicle performance so far.

Background

It has been more than 30 years of driving experience in India and abroad and owned several cars and varied experience in different conditions. Still remember my first car Ambassdor in 1990 bought after my wedding and has good memories. Cut to present, in November, my family and friends were totally surprised when I decided to replace my 5 year old, faithful Creta (1.4 Diesel) by a smaller vehicle. Reason being, my usage dropped to 5K KM/year, difficult to drive in Bangalore city conditions and reduced family size (it is now just two of us).

My priority was to buy a vehicle with ground clearance of 180 mm, high reliability, good service and easy to drive in city and highways.

vehicles considered

1. Fronx / Baleno

2. Punch

3. Magnite

4. Exter (AMT and Manual)

The showroom experience in South Bangalore with all the dealers (Maruti, Nissan and TATA) except Hyundai (Blue Hyundai, Basavanagudi) was very poor (perhaps due to year end, they had lot of enquiries to attend and could give only price list and asked us to come back later) We could only manage to see these vehicles in the showroom, while the display car of Punch had issues like doors not opening properly etc and in Fronx my wife did not like the back seat comfort, boot space and base model had only very minimal features and we were out of budget for higher variants.

It was a refreshing change with Blue Hyundai, called them up first and then visited them. They arranged for my Creta valuation instantly, then offered test drive of Exter top end variant AMT (my wife and daughter also accompanied me). Except for the initial sluggish pick up, we found the vehicle ticking all the boxes of our requirements.

We got a good deal for our Creta (after verifying valuations in Cars 24 and Spinneys) and also promised to deliver Exter before 31st December provided we gave them few options on the variants.

The Sales person was very nice and professional, made our life easier by allowing us to pay for only basic car value and registration cost, rest said it will be our prerogative to decide. This helped us big time in bringing the cost of vehicle down by 60K approx (Insurance, optional accessories etc.)

Hence we agreed and booked the S model AMT (other options given SX MT DT and SX Auto) on 7th December since getting an automatic at less than 10 Lakhs sounded very attractive and not much to pay additionally after selling off of our Creta to them.

On 11th Dec I got a call from Sales guy stating that they can get an SX MT DT (white n black) in a week’s time, although we had preferred the Auto, still felt the variant is value for money (and manual isn’t that hard to drive), hence confirmed the same.

The vehicle arrived on 15th in Bangalore, checked VIN, did PDI, paid balance money and vehicle got registered by 20th December. Opted for only mud flap, edge guard, tyre valve cap and 3 M Teflon coating package (3 times in 1.5 years with 6 months interval) as optional items.

The vehicle cost worked out as follows:

Basic cost +
Registration (BLR) : 9.66
Insurance : .24
Extra fittings : .07
Modification : .18 (Tyres, headlight and cabin lights)

Total 10.15 L on road


Took delivery of car on 23rd December with my family present and was an another memorable day for us.

Did the following modifications the same day:

1. Millivision, Lalbagh road - Exchanged stock tyres for Yokohoma earth1 185/65/R15, took stock tyres for 3000 each and new tyre at 5800 each.

2. Konark, Jayanagar - Replaced stock head lamps with 50 W 4300K OSRAM LED headlights, cost 6500/-, replaced all cabin lights with Blaupunkt LEDs, paid Rs 600.

3. Car cover - Rs 1300/- from Amazon

4. GFX long life mats bought from co distributor (Siddi Automotive) good quality at attractive price of Rs 2700/-


We along with our friend in 2 cars did an 1000 km holiday trip to Koppa (base location and stayed in a 300 year old house) and covered udupi, Sringeri and Agumbe. Overall vehicle performed nicely and was a delight to drive.


Positives
1. Good visibility, silent and refined engine, easy clutch and gear shifts, pleasure to drive
2. Decent boot space, comfortable ride for 4 people, excellent AC, cools in an instant
3. Stock audio system was ok for our needs and navigation system worked very well
4. Got mileage of about 15.8 involving mostly highway driving (with lot of ghat sections) with AC on for most part.

Not so good part
1. Having driven a diesel Creta earlier, was longing for bit more power, something I need to get used to.
2. Post 90+ km speed, wind noise intrudes into the cabin and since I opted for hard tyres, it also added to the noise part.
3. Horn - Already pointed out by many, needs change
4. While suspension is good in lower speeds, not so in higher speeds, especially if we hit a pot hole or speed breaker accidentally.
it would been nicer to have a slightly harder suspension.
4. Arm rest sorely missed, not sure why these basics are not provided
5. Not sure why basic items like mud flaps aren’t provided, need to pay for it.

Hill assist function - Had an incident while taking a steep climb on a hairpin bend (with 3 people on board), the vehicle in the front was an Ertiga, suddenly stopped and there were lot of vehicles behind me. I applied the brakes and when I tried to move, vehicle did slip behind, had to use hand brake and move forward.
The car manual says that Hill Assist works for 2 or 3 secs only, need to try this out another time. the good part is, the vehicle did well to negotiate all the hairpin bends nicely (had heavy traffic and could take these bends mostly in 2nd gear)

Post my trip, planning to do sound damping shortly to reduce wind and road noise, thanks to the 94 page thread in Team Bhp, was very useful, finalised the vendor and will share experience on the outcome.

Thanks for reading and kindly share your feedback and comments.

[flashgo]

Originally Posted by sahsriv

Thanks for reading and kindly share your feedback and comments.

Congratulations! for your purchase sahsriv. I have bought the same vehicle from the same dealer earlier this year. Blue Hyundai is truly a very professional dealership. I had a good experience with them as well. Since you bought the car in December, was there a discount offered on the base price? How are the new tyres compared to the older stock ones? I wanted to change the tyres but there are no stories on the suitable replacements yet to take a decision.
I agree with your comment on lacking power in the top end. I have the AMT version and the power after 95 was definitely not like a diesel car.

[sahsriv]

Thank you Flashgo.

Regarding the discount part, nothing offered since was told still Exter has lot of waiting period, only thing they said is about getting the vehicle delivered in December. Also the threat of price increase in Jan (so far I guess it is still not happened). Hence had no power to negotiate, even on accessories, dealer refused to provide discount.

About tyre upgrade: Feedback
Nice road grip and cornering is good, takes bad roads nicely (took some interior routes in villages in and around Koppa) and comfort levels are good in general (unable to comment if this is better than stock tyres since upgraded on day 1).
On the down side, at higher speed with softer suspension, it is bit noiser and hitting potholes or speed breakers accidentally is bit unsettling.
Not sure if softer tyres would perform anything better in respect of ride and handling.
(I chose harder tyres - for longer life, longer period of vehicle remaining idle, lesser punctures, performs better in broken / kutcha roads)

Stiff steering at rest, TPMS differences of 2 PSI between car and tyre dealer, not sure because of tyre upgrade or gauage differences.

I am due for couple of long trips in the coming weeks, will update further.

Comments and suggestions welcome

[swarnava.ch]

Dear fellow Exter Owners,
I wanted to re post my question here if anyone has tried something with the IRVMs already ?

I am currently waiting for my Car delivery however two of the top things I feel I am missing are:
1. Usable Handrest - I have seen aftermarket options to I am ok with this to get it outside.
2. Manual Day night IRVM - I would love to get an Auto IRVM. However Hyundai has put 3 buttons on the Exter IRVM so cannot just replace with an aftermarket one easily. Then I had an Idea, I have seen the same Auto IRVM with the buttons in older gen / new gen Verna as well as Creta, but the only hitch is that Hyundai Genuine spare parts for these are in the range of 22k to 26k. They in general look same in shape and feature. I can live with the cost if there is a guarantee that these will fit the Exter.

So some insights or suggestions will be great.

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

1. Is it possible to fit an Auto IRVM in Exter ? May be the one from Creta ? Has anyone tried something like this ? I guess due to the SoS buttons etc this may be a challenge. But would be a great addition.

[CloudOne]

To all the owners of Exter here, is anyone finding the drive seat uncomfortable?

Not sure why but I am finding the seat to be very uncomfortable. I am 5.4, earlier owned Grand i10 and Punch but never faced this issue.

With Exter, I am either facing back pain or leg pain. Feels like the seat is more sloped towards back than usual which is causing this. So I tried putting some towels at the back to fill the gap and make the seat a bit flatter and seem to help a bit. But towels on a long drive is not very comfortable.

Also tried a wedge shaped pillow which helped for some days but not permanently.

Any suggestions will be really helpful.

[Funambulist]

Originally Posted by CloudOne

To all the owners of Exter here, is anyone finding the drive seat uncomfortable?

Not sure why but I am finding the seat to be very uncomfortable. I am 5.4, earlier owned Grand i10 and Punch but never faced this issue.

With Exter, I am either facing back pain or leg pain. Feels like the seat is more sloped towards back than usual which is causing this. So I tried putting some towels at the back to fill the gap and make the seat a bit flatter and seem to help a bit. But towels on a long drive is not very comfortable.

Also tried a wedge shaped pillow which helped for some days but not permanently.

Any suggestions will be really helpful.

Try increasing the seat height and see if it helps.
I raise the seat height to maximum and haven't faced any issues during trips.

[rajakumar]

I have a minor issue with my Exter. Recently I started getting low pressure TPMS warning on the instrument cluster. I believe the warning started off as tyre pressure dropped below 30psi on a cold morning. I had kept the tyre pressure at 32psi earlier. Post the warning I increased the tyre pressure to 35psi and have driven around ~50 kms.

Still I keep getting the low pressure warning. Even after keeping the tyre pressure at 35psi, TPMS reports as 32 or 31. I guess there could be some discrepancy in the measures. However I could not get the warning to go away.

Is there way to reset this? What is the low point on which TPMS triggers low pressure warning?

[batterylow]

I noticed the ambient temperature value showing very high values. It was showing 40+ when the temperature was in the high 20's.

Does anyone have this issue?

It looks like the sensor is getting heated from the engine or something.

[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by rajakumar

Still I keep getting the low pressure warning. Even after keeping the tyre pressure at 35psi, TPMS reports as 32 or 31. I guess there could be some discrepancy in the measures. However I could not get the warning go away.

Is there way to reset this? What is the low point on which TPMS triggers low pressure warning?

Same happened with my car, let me check if it went by itself or a reset was done

Originally Posted by batterylow

I noticed the ambient temperature value showing very high values. It was showing 40+ when the temperature was in the high 20's.

Does anyone have this issue?

It looks like the sensor is getting heated from the engine or something.

Yes, got the same issue once, I feel you are right on the sensor getting heated.

[rajakumar]

Originally Posted by gadadhar

Same happened with my car, let me check if it went by itself or a reset was done

It got reset on its own after few days. This reset coincided with a refuel which I think is a sheer coincidence.

Originally Posted by batterylow

I noticed the ambient temperature value showing very high values. It was showing 40+ when the temperature was in the high 20's.

Does anyone have this issue?

It looks like the sensor is getting heated from the engine or something.

I did also observe the same issue. Google showed the temp as 30C whereas the car was showing it as 36C

[teknophobia]

I have observed this when it's sunny. In the shade the temperature readings are accurate but if driving or parked in the sun the readings go quite high.

It may be noted that the temperature as per Google is general in nature and is not necessarily the temperature where you are.

[batterylow]

Originally Posted by teknophobia

I have observed this when it's sunny. In the shade the temperature readings are accurate but if driving or parked in the sun the readings go quite high.

It may be noted that the temperature as per Google is general in nature and is not necessarily the temperature where you are.

I did confirm the temperature with my Garmin and it matched what Google maps displayed. So I am lead to believe there is an issue with the ambient temperature measurement.

[Stranger2106]

Originally Posted by batterylow

Does anyone have this issue?

Yes, I too have this issue. I've noticed the temperature going up to 46 in the mid whereas the temperature was 36 according to my Kia Sonet parked nearby in the same conditions.
Also observed this high temperature while driving as well. And during such scenarios, I notice that the ac cold the cabin beyond my comfort level even though the temperature is kept around 25. But it again gets back to normal.

[lemedico]

Originally Posted by sahsriv

.

On 11th Dec I got a call from Sales guy stating that they can get an SX MT DT (white n black) in a week’s time, although we had preferred the Auto, still felt the variant is value for money (and manual isn’t that hard to drive), hence confirmed the same.


Thanks for reading and kindly share your feedback and comments.

Congratulations on the new car! It's a good one for the city. I have one booked as well.

I am surprised that you took an MT! Living in Bengaluru kind of makes an automatic transmission mandatory

[sahsriv]

Thank you Lemedico.

You are right, I did plan that way, however changed my decision based on a combination of factors, concerning my priority of using public transport (metro) in city primarily, while personal vehicle for running upto 300 kms on highways. Added factors of cost and quicker delivery (was told auto variants have longer waiting periods).
Lastly when I test drove the automatic, wasnt very impressed, hence despite the comfort and usefulness, my heart settled for manual transmission.