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-   -   Review: 2nd-gen Hyundai Verna (2011) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/100380-review-2nd-gen-hyundai-verna-2011-a-83.html)

I guess this is another first for Hyundai, a car which causes severe headache :uncontrol. I would strongly advice that you do not opt for this car, not at the cost of your health!
Seriously, this car is a family sedan and the soft suspension is designed for comfortable city driving and is not a rally car. The overall package of the car is very good and will reflect in the strong sales numbers.



Cheers

KPS

So what is the waiting period like on the New Verna? Still hovering around 3 months? Any news about the diesel AT waiting period?

In Pune - 6 months. The dealer has a board fixed right on the display car which reads "Thank you for your response for Hyundai Verna. Waiting period for diesel car is 6 months" They do not even have a test drive car. Told me test drive a petrol car. Only engine is different:Frustrati

I had similar experience when I was looking at the I20. When I asked for test drive first reply was , Sir, waiting is 5 months. I am like :eek: > I first need to see the car, decide to buy and then need to have the above info

lol: Thank God you do not have this motion sickness. This is not the first time for me. Whenever i travel long distance in the middle and third seats of an Innova, i get a head ache. The feeling of driving the Verna gave me the sensation as Innova's mid and third seats that too within a short period of time.

I am a ANHC owner and recently a friend of mine from Dehradun wanted to TD the New Verna. We both did the TD of the petrol one. As we parked the ANHC in the dealer's lot people waiting at the showroom started coming out and started comparing the cars, this did not go well with the Sales rep, we could not help it but this is what happened. I over heard him cribbing. We got our turn after 30 minutes of wait. First impression is that Hyndai has certainly worked hard to get the design right. Things are pretty bling inside, city feels as if it can do better for more features will fill in the need for bling. As my friend was seriously contemplating the buy he wanted to TD on the highways as well as the broken Tarmac of Sector 10a for those who know Gurgaon this is the place where all water from Sohna Road collects opposite to HeroHonda chowk. The car has enough grunt but the gears were odd or say different than City. Not as precise but slick. The ride was not composed but wavy. I was hoping that it will be magic carpet with soft suspension but it was soft and mushy. The sales guy was like, "Sir don't go through the puddle, let's go on the Highway. this car is meant for long distance cruise" We already got the feeling of how it will be on the broken Tarmac and foreseeing a traffic jam we took a U towards Delhi on NH8. The car had grip but again U turn at a sharp angle unsettled the car, not too strongly but you can feel it as a driver. Brakes were good. Acceleration was nice though not anything out of the league on c+ segment cars. Now comes the handling on Highway. The passengers can feel the car accelerating and you can also make out when the driver features the accelerator more than you can feel in City. I hope I mentioned it correctly. I am no Guru but to me it was not supposed to happen maybe too many TD have a thing to get this noticed.

The darting in and out of lanes is not Verna's forte. The feel is accentuated at high speed. I was playing with the gadgets but for me these will be novelty items and more the equipment more potential issues will crop up. I like the Spartan City's dashboard. It was my turn while we took a U turn from Jharsa road red-light. I was not too comfortable with the view, could not judge the bumper thus took the car slowly onto NH 8 again. The car has a very vague steering as well, anyhow with speed the steering does get direct but nothing great about it. City's steering feels good at 80 this was not the same in Verna. The acceleration was smooth not the vtec kick. The engine was quite, did not hear the growl. We then went till Haldiram where we let the Sales rep drive and both of us took back seat. The drive became worse. It does not feel good at the back, you lose all the gadgets and now are at the pity of driver's skill of not making you feel queasy. Noise is controlled but it was too wallowing for my comfort. Little braking to made us feel lean forward. Not a great feeling, my mother shouts at me for she feels if she is unsettled at back seat, her feeling is that if the passenger is not easy that is bad driving. This car has potential to make Sahib at back unlike you sooner.

Everything else has been described by fellow Bhpians. I hope my little rendezvous will help others.

Please go and TD all cars in your budget to feel the difference and decide intelligently. Cheers!

I find it surprising. I mean, surprising as to how much people are willing to give up on the basic things for something that looks good! And this is not only in the Fluidic. Is there in the much higher priced Cruze as well. Expect it'll be the same in the Nissan Sunny, from what I observe in pictures and read. IIRC the width of the Swift in specifications was not too far from the Scorpio (please correct me if I am wrong) and then it is a shock to enter the car and feel the space inside.

But then, when a car sells as well (Fluidic, Cruze, Swift) one thinks that these companies know what they are doing and giving the people what they care for!

Which Hyundai dealer did you try? I am asking this because I had relatively better experiences at both Garve Hyundai (Hinjewadi) & Sanjay Hyundai (Wakdewadi). Garve didn't have a diesel TD Verna then(not sure if they have one as of date!), but Sanay had it since June when I did my TD.

In fact once they registered the TD cars, Sanjay Hyundai even offered to bring the car for TD to Hinjewadi a few weeks later. Although the SE(s) at both the dealers did not have complete info about the features in the car, but I had a good experience at both places.

Haven't been to any of the dealers in the last two months, so in case their attitude has changed, can't really say, but do give the Sanjay dealer a try.

I was waiting very eagerly for this car because it has everything on paper. Test drove it THRICE on three separate occasions trying to will myself to love it and to see what so many people who blindly put their money on it see. Liked it less and less each time. As an experiment on the last drive I took my wife along after telling her how awesome this car is and how loaded it is with all sorts of features. After 5 minutes in the car she hated it. So much for family car. Cars can be comfortable and not wallow like a boat over the smallest undulations on the road. Is a "family sedan" only meant to look good and potter around on city roads at speeds of less than 80 kmph? PLEASE! There are enough and more small cars at 1/2 the price that are better suited.
A good family sedan should have decent ride AND be able to cruise on the highway without making its occupants sick. Good handling does not mean kitting a car with a rally suspension!
I am sorry but strong sales numbers do not mean a great car, or even a good one. All recent new launches by the major players in India have had excellent openings at the box office, with huge number of bookings. This is in part due to media going on harping about value for money rather than call a spade a spade. Look at the Etios and the Vento. After their strong openings what is the waiting period for these cars now? The same will happen with the ANHV. And during the hoopla surrounding the initial launch the dealers make merry and put off the discerning car buyer with their attitude. In the first one year at least 30 percent of the bookings will be canceled. Now there will be many more cancellations with the launch of the new Swift and so on and so forth.
HERE is WHY I DID NOT JOIN THE HERD AND BOOK THE ANHV, despite being a HMIL fan AND HAVING OWNED A SANTRO FOR 5 YEARS (sold in 2009) AND AN ACCENT CRDI FOR 8 YEARS (93000 KM) WHICH I STILL HAVE AND LOVE.
1) While the overall "package" seems to be great on paper, the quality of fit and finish is not, especially panel gaps and plastics on the inside.
2) Most of the electronic gizmos are cheap and will only cause niggling problems in the long run. Door sensor on the SX(O) i tested was broken on a car that had just run 3000 km! Bluetooth would not pair with my phone on another vehicle. Rear view camera in the mirror another cheap gizmo.
3) The interior looks confused and garish with that horrible fake wood, unlike the 120 which has stuck to just 2 tones. I wouldn't feel nice in this car after a few weeks.
4) The perforated art leather seats look/are cheap.
5) The automatic is terrible to drive. Shifts take forever.
6) The potential of those 1.6 L engines has not been unlocked. My Accent with the Pete's box will out run the ANHV, at least in a sprint to 80 km. My Accent also soaks up bumps WITHOUT rolling and pitching like a jolly boat caught in a gale. Even the outgoing Verna is better.
VFM? What VFM at 11 lakhs on road for the manual SX (o) and 12 lakhs for the auto? The best VFM IMO is the SX petrol variant. If you want a car that looks good, has geeky features you can brag about, and is going to be restricted to pottering about the city, the SX petrol fits the bill as it is quite a few lakhs cheaper than the SX (o) diesel and a lakh cheaper than the SX diesel.
Overall I find this to be a built to cost wannabe car. As an "overall package" i would take the Vento in this segment anyday. If we consider cars across segments like many people in our country do ("my BUDGET is x-y lakhs who cares about purpose") then the top spec i20 is a better VFM option, or the fantastic Optra Magnum . Or pay a little more and go in for the quirky but awesome Fluence and experience what REAL RIDE QUALITY feels like, at no expense of HANDLING.

^ I agree that media hype is stupendous for the new launch, every new car is given 5*. The public and mostly the uninitiated are caught in the trap as they have heard a Guru directing them towards the 5* car.

I felt that my TD was directly after driving my City so maybe I was expecting too much but your report makes it much more evident that the issue needs to be looked up by Hyndai. They have done exceedingly well with Genesis then why don't they pass on the DNA to it's siblings.

Cheers!

As written earlier, I did go in for a second TD of the CRDi Verna SX. This time I got a one week old car with 400 kms on the ODO. I was not expecting a lot after the not-so-good TD two days back. This time I had 3 other people with me. My friend, the Sales Advisor and KUN service Manager.

This was a longer TD and to my surprise, this car was a completely different beast. The car was more composed and did not crash into pot holes like the other car I drove two days back. I could dive the car at higher speeds and at around 80 kmph, the boat like ride started to show its ugly face. The 6th gear is a boon as I could drive the car at 100 kmph when the engine was spinning at 2 K rpm. But while I enjoyed this, there was a sense of insecurity with the car moving with every uneven road surface.

At slow speeds, the car was amazing with quick response and amazing driveability thanks to the gem of an engine.

Having witnessed first hand the problem, the Kun SM was unsure if they could do anything at their end to rectify this. I showed him Vroom BB's post and he promised to write to Hyundai's North regional head and get details of the modifications tried on Vroom Barabar's car at Orion Hyundai. The procedure of getting this info to Hyundai seemed to be quite complicated. He requested time till the end of next week. If there is a positive reply, I would go in for the Verna or else may be NFS...

-Better probably because you had 3 others in the car! Question is how often will you drive fully loaded?
-The Accent does 100 kmph at 2k rpm as well, in 5th. Just a matter of how the ratios are, not how many ratios there are.
-Lots of cars with good engines and drivability at low speeds. Dont you ever want to drive your car on the highway though?
-Why dont you consider an aftermarket suspension upgrade? Bilsteins for example?

1. With more weight in the car and with soft suspension, the car tends to bottom out faster and behave even worse. I was actually worried I'd it was due to the difference in kms logged (2000 vs 400).
2. Most cars touch 100 at around 2500 rpm.
3. Pl suggest diesels with such good low speed driveability. I think ANHV is the best in terms of low speed driving. Of course on the highways it is fast, but what is the use of power without much conro.
4. Trying to get a solution from the manufacturer first. Ofcourse there have been a few suggestion in this thread itself about AM suspensions.

The problem today is that, even though there are more number of cars to choose from, none of the are anywhere near perfect.

So which one would you prefer?
- A fast, powerful diesel car with bad suspension with a possibility of installing AM suspension. (read Verna).
- A good suspension and good handling car paired with an underpowered engine with a possibility of doing AM tuning to engine to get more power? (Read corolla diesel or to an extent Linea MJD).

I would prefer the first option since i don't have to worry about problems with engines which can be catastrophic and make a huge dent in wallet. Suspensions are better, less time consuming, easy to repair or replace, lighter on wallet and if need arises increase the power of engine too thereby having best of both worlds.

I would say with first option you can have the cake and eat it too. :D

Absolutely spot-on chevelle. For people looking for a powerful yet fuel-efficient diesel car with lots of features and considerable amount of comfort, the all-new Verna with after-market suspension tuning is the perfect choice. You get a stonker of an engine, extremely good fuel-efficiency and considerably good ride and handling too.

The solution to both of the above is the Vento. Just spend 40k more for an ICE upgrade (refer my Polo thread) and you will have all the features (except electric fold mirrors) at LESS than the SX (o). A beautiful, solid, well engineered car which outperforms the ANHV, has a better gear shift and a superb suspension.
Or the Fluence (if you can consider the Corolla the Fluence is a good bet).
The Fiesta drives well at low speeds and is a good handler.
Then there is the Optra Magnum.

Stonker on paper, not in practice. Please note the Vento is actually quicker despite having only 105 horses. In fact I would say even the OLD Verna is quicker.