In hatchback market and what better time to be in, 3 hot hatches getting launched within a span of few weeks.
Punto Evo
New Polo
Elite i20
My car runs 100+kms on daily basis, so it had to be a Diesel. Then began the round of Test Drives, my wife, 5year old son and my Father accompanied me for all the TDs, so the first in the que was Polo, followed by Evo and Elite.
I am sharing my brief experiences for all the Test Drives.
Polo
Called up VW and inquired about the test drive, booked the test drive for next afternoon, 02:00pm. Didn’t got any call from them till 03:30pm, called them back to check on the status of Test Drive. Following was the conversation :
Me : I booked a Test Drive for 02:00pm today and its 03:30pm now, can you please advise?
VW : Sir, with whom you spoke yesterday?
Me : I don’t remember
VW : Please give your number, I will arrange for a call back
I gave them my number and the conversation ended. After 10mins I got the call back, from the same sales representative with whom I had booked the Test Drive. Following is the conversation :
VW : Good afternoon Sir
Me : Good afternoon
VW : Sir, I am very sorry I completely forgot
Me : Can I speak with your manager
VW : Sir, I am sorry, I will reach in 30mins with the car
Me : How can you forget at first place?
VW : Sir, I am going through some challenges with my girlfriend, so I just forgot.
2mins of silence
Me : come no later than 04:30pm.
VW : Ok Sir
Conversation ended.
Well, he reached at sharp 04:25pm and offered me a longish (40+ kms) Test Drive, that bought a huge smile on my face.
I liked the fantastic engine and interiors, build quality and handling. I didn’t liked rear leg-room and NVH.
Here, I always wanted to go for the GT version, dealership said that the car will be launched in September and deliveries will start one week after the launch. I was ok to wait, so booked the car and now the wait started.
Punto Evo
While I was waiting for GT, Fiat launched Evo, called up Kashyap Fiat (Noida) to book the Test Drive, booked 90BHP Evo Sport for Test Drive for the next afternoon, now here again no follow-up from Kashyap Fiat happened and hence no Test Drive happened on the schedule. In this case I didn’t followed up, well I am a Palio user from past 6 years
After a week I got a follow-up from Kashyap, following was the conversation :
Fiat : Hello Sir, you booked a Test Drive for Punto
Me : Yes, but that was a week back
Fiat : Sorry Sir, we just had one TD car and it was occupied.
Me : Ok
Fiat : we can come for the TD in next 30mins
Me : Ok (I was in an Idle mode at work, so immediately agreed)
The car arrived, I asked for an 90BHP TD and they sent a 75BHP Active version for TD, such a huge turn-off was that. I went through the motions, took the TD, my colleague accompanied me for the TD, immediately after the TD his first words were, your 6 year old Palio with 120k kms on ODO looks and drives better. That statement from him summed the experience up.
Elite i20
A week later, Hyundai started taking bookings for Elite and after seeing pictures of exteriors and interiors on Elite Scoop thread, I couldn’t just give it a miss, was lucky enough to see it in flesh before the launch. I immediately booked it, as I knew if I would wait for launch and then for TD to book the car, the waiting period would go up.
Day after the launch, I went to the dealership to look at the car inside out. We all liked the car very much, looks and the space inside was in abundance, the interiors were very impressive.
I did the TD and Elite checked on almost all the boxes. I checked on my booking status with sales representative and he said I will get the car delivered by next week in the very first lot.
So now was the time to take the final decision, Evo was out of reckoning, it was now between Polo and Elite, dilemma was to either wait for a car which is yet to be launched (no set launch date) or to take delivery of the car which has been launched and will be available next week for us to drive home.
Polo or Elite…… Elite or Polo......
I for one was ok to wait for Polo, but everyone else in the house was against the idea and then came this one liner from my wife, “after living with a Time Bomb (FIAT) for 6 years, I don’t want to live my next 6 years with another Time Bomb (VW)”, needless to say, she is an avid TBHP reader.
I was having sleepless nights, after lot of discussions and speculations we locked upon practical Elite.
Next morning, I went to VW showroom and cancelled my booking against GT TDI, though it’s been more than 7 weeks, I am yet to receive the refund.
Dealership Experience (HMP, Mathura Road, New Delhi)
It was fantastic, I booked the car before the launch and was told that the Delivery will be within the two weeks of the launch and I indeed got the car within two weeks of the launch. At the time of booking, I checked with my sales adviser, if I can get the insurance done from outside, his prompt answer, yes Sir, you very well can.
I got no freebies nor was I expecting any as its a new launch, before the delivery I did got Mud-Flaps and Mats placed.
Finally, we got our Elite delivered on 25th August.
We already have a very in-depth 5 Star Official TBHP Review for Elite available to all of us, with all details and pictures, so I will keep this ‘Thread’ limited to my Ownership Experiences.
1st Service
Got my 1st service done at 1500kms, it went well, all the check-up’s and top-up’s were done, I was not charged anything. I was surprised to see a Samsung Galaxy Tabs with every service adviser, this was my first, no paper job-cards etc, they opened the job card on there tab and copy was mailed to me.
The next morning, I got a call from my dealership, stating that there has been a notice that has come there way from Hyundai, which states that Elites with specific VIN numbers have to be checked for some wire harnesses and for some under-body and engine bay checkup. I visited them in evening, they checked and did the needful, but this resulted in my keys getting reset. As during the visit I was carrying just one key, so they fixed it, but the spare key currently is useless, as it still has to be remapped to new codes.
I don’t intend to do any modifications for now or in future on the car, I like the cars in stock condition. Though, I have taken a 3M annual car care offering, which will give me 5 washes, 2 interiors, 4 body treatments. Putting up some pictures of the work being carried out at 3M.
Results, totally worth it :
I have driven my Elite close to 3600kms, all this has been in NCR, no Expressway trips yet.
With little driving experience of 600k kms, on various cars, terrains, in various countries, it will be fair to say that Elite makes me feel like an novice driver. Yes, it drives and behaves differently in different conditions and after owning it for an month, I now understand the sentiments of all those who come back from 5-10-15 mins TD and conclude capability of the car.
I will pick up each of the characteristics separately here :
Build Quality (Exterior/Interior)
The car is just a month old and nothing much has changed yet on this front, I will like to review this on a later stage of ownership.
In brief, there are no rattles yet from anywhere, the seats are comfortable and the rear bench can easily accommodate 3 medium sized adults. Leg room, head room, shoulder room are in abundance for me and my folks. I am 6'0" and with driver seat adjusted to my driving position, I could easily accommodate myself at rear without rubbing my knees with the front seat, though in an upright seating position the side of my head was brushing with the roof.
PS : Though we have rake and reach steering unit, height adjustable driving seat, I am still struggling to find that perfect position. Am I missing some trick here?
Steering
I was frightened to hell, with all the pre-load that I had about Hyundai steering’s from TBHP. Well, I have not driven any other Hyundai, so I cannot compare the Elite’s steering with previous versions of i20 or of current Verna’s. But this steering weighs up very well with the increase in speed, you have to take it to those speeds to believe me and this is coming from an extensive Palio user.
Stability
I haven’t ripped it as yet, where stability comes into question, however with speeds a little over a ton the car is well planted and inspires confidence. I have 33 PSIs in all four wheels, irrespective of varying load. When the car was delivered to me it had 43 PSIs in all wheels, not sure why.
Engine
WOW. It’s absolutely silent for a Diesel, having a silent engine can have drawbacks, I learned this with Elite. As the engine noise is so less, you have to be dependent on your RPM needle for up-shifts and down-shifts. Though I am sure, with some more kms on Elite, I will learn to shift without looking at RPM needle.
Just an observation, I can pull easily in the 3rd in Bumper to Bumper traffic with 2 adults with 4 adults I had to shift into 2nd or maybe I am still learning engine behavior.
On open roads car pulls away the best in 4th and 6th. I am getting use to the 6th, currently I shift into 6th at 70kmph and from there on I can pull it pretty effortlessly, in 6th at little over 2k rpm you are doing 110kmph.
The engine braking that Elite offers is very negligible, it could had been better.
Brakes
Again, with the kind of speeds that I have driven in this initial ownership, I found brake performance very satisfactory.
In one emergency scenario, I had no other option but to come to halt from a ton and the car stopped gorgeously in straight line.
Gear Box
Silky smooth gear changes, no fuss here.
Only once, I struggled to engage into 1st, the reason was, I wasn't letting the reverse gear to end completely.
Fuel Efficiency
I have done 3 tank fulls, the first 2 tanks gave me a FE of 18.01kmpl, the 3rd tank gave me 18.22kmpl. All these figures are driving on NCR roads, I am sure highways figures will be a dash better. The FE is calculated by tank full method, with 100% AC on.
MID
There is not much to play around, very limited options, I don’t like it a bit.
Audio
I am a complete neophyte here, so I am mighty impressed with the sound quality, the stock speakers are more treble friendly, though they produce decent bass if you play around with some settings. There is separate provision for AUX and USB, I do miss a remote control.
Bluetooth Connectivity
Music playback happens seamlessly from any device, be it Android, iOS or Blackberry.
You can receive and make calls, though you can have last 30 entries from call log on the system, you cannot scroll through them using steering controls, so I find the system to be more call receiving friendly then call making. To make a call, you have to either reach out to your phone or you have to manually scroll using knobs on the main unit.
AC
It’s a bliss, with 40+ degree C, the car chills in now time and the rear AC unit keeps my son happy in his car seat, with lesser glass area the cabin doesn’t heat up much.
Headlights
Worse. They are bad, the throw as well as the brightness. Even after adjusting the headlight leveler to '0' and asking SA during first service to raise the throw with some adjustments if possible. It still stays miserable
Boot/Boot Lamp
The space is very generous for a hatchback, 40:60 split of Asta is an added advantage here.
Boot Lamp only works when the car is in ignition mode, that's frustrating, if you have parked your car in the dark and you are returning to your car with shopping bags etc., you open the boot door and the lamp wouldn't turn on. IMHO they should have linked this lamp to car lock-unlock function.
Seats
As I said above, passengers find the seats very comfortable with ample leg-room for everyone. I also got genuine leather seat covers done, post seat covers the center arm rest has started to rub against back rests.
Cheer up guys, just 2 more mins to end of the post
Rear View Mirrors
Worse......!!! Its all confusing, with the three sets of rear view mirrors. I am dud with optics etc., but I feel there is something wrong, something wrong with cylinders of these mirrors. The Concave one inside the cabin and the Convex ones at the outside confuse you a lot. I have driven different cars with such set-up of mirrors, but I have never felt such less confident in the past. I am not always sure of the car coming behind, I am not sure if it has gone pass by rear bumper or not.
Thank you for all your time and patience.
I will keep this thread updated with the latest happenings. Keep Revving……!!!