[sbiswas]

Friends,

This is my first post on Team-BHP. A friend of mine, who happens to be a BHP-ian directed me to this site when I was researching for a car. I found the site to be extremely helpful. I was mostly interested in automatic transmissions and found quite a few posts here. However, I found very few posts from Kolkata on this subject and decided to post my own experience on Team-BHP. Hopefully this will help fellow Kolkatans.

Foreword:
My prior experience with cars is limited on Indian roads. I had driven an old Maruti Omni on Salt Lake roads for a month way back in 1998 but I never owned any car. I lived in the USA between 2001-2006 during which I owned a 91 Nissan Sentra, a 94 Toyota Corolla and a 95 Mazda 626 V6, all were automatic transmission cars.

While looking for a car to drive in Kolkata, my objective was to get value for money. I really did not want to make a style statement and purchase an expensive car because the car will end up with scratches and dents no matter how carefully you drive. The features I was mostly looking for were:

1. Space, especially legroom for driver
2. All power windows, so that I can be in control when my naughty daughter is in the backseat
3. Child lock for safety
4. Rear defogger and wiper, useful in Kolkata as we have rains and moisture between May-September
5. Left side mirror
6. ABS, very useful on wet roads if driving fast
7. Looks, to some extent
8. Height adjustment for driver seat

Based on the above, I was looking for the least expensive car to offer the most features. After lots of research, I zeroed in on the Hyundai Getz. However, while browsing through the Hyundai site for this car, something caught my eye. Hyundai was advertising for its new i10 1.2 Kappa AT at an amazing price...at about 4.4 lacs. Having driven automatics for so many years I immediately turned my attention to this car. My wife also drove automatics in the USA and she also felt comfortable. Pricewise, the Getz and i10 were comparable. After researching on the car on Team-BHP, we decided to go ahead and visit a dealer to check out things for ourselves.

Although the i10 looked smaller from outside, they room inside seemed specious. The boot space seemed sufficient for city drives and shopping. The rear seats seemed very comfortably inclined. The color choices were good. From outside, the European look of the car seemed eye-catching compared to other hatchbacks in the same category. Although the Getz was a hands down winner in terms of space and I did not get all the features I was looking for (ABS, which was available in the high priced ASTA model and height adjustment, which was available in i20 only), the lure to drive an AT overtook us. We went ahead and booked the i10 Sportz AT without any more hesitation.

I will share my experience with the dealer and the car in my next post.

[anilkalvani]

Congratulations and welcome sbiswas first to Team Bhp and secondly to the ever growing tribe of i10 Automatic Owners. Seems we all should start a separate thread soon. You can search for i10 AT ownership reports on team bhp for pointers/suggestions (you can find my thread too!). As i mentioned earlier to a t-bhpian who bought his i10 AT just recently, you have bought yourself the most practical, cheapest & best automatic city car available in India at the moment. Enjoy your ride & drive safe!

Cheers,
Anil

[blackasta]

congrats sbiswas. I guess we match each other turn for turn on teambhp. For start:

1. We both are from Kolkata !
2. We both drove Mazda 626 in USA !! (wow)
3. We both bought i10 A/T in India !!! (things getting eerily similar)

what next?

keep posting about your experience.

I am also to start a thread on my ride pretty soon.

[sbiswas]

Thank you Anil. I have read all the related threads and your posts on the i10 AT before deciding on my own. Those have been very helpful.

Originally Posted by anilkalvani

Congratulations and welcome sbiswas first to Team Bhp and secondly to the ever growing tribe of i10 Automatic Owners. Seems we all should start a separate thread soon. You can search for i10 AT ownership reports on team bhp for pointers/suggestions (you can find my thread too!). As i mentioned earlier to a t-bhpian who bought his i10 AT just recently, you have bought yourself the most practical, cheapest & best automatic city car available in India at the moment. Enjoy your ride & drive safe!

Cheers,
Anil

[sbiswas]

Sid,

Things are really getting eerily similar between you and me. We both are newbie here and guess what? My Mazda 626 was also green!! I would be curious to see pics of your car.

Originally Posted by blackasta

congrats sbiswas. I guess we match each other turn for turn on teambhp. For start:

1. We both are from Kolkata !
2. We both drove Mazda 626 in USA !! (wow)
3. We both bought i10 A/T in India !!! (things getting eerily similar)

what next?

keep posting about your experience.

I am also to start a thread on my ride pretty soon.

[sbiswas]

Dealer Experience

July 5, Saturday afternoon, we visited our nearest Hyundai dealer, Mukesh Hyundai on the VIP Road. Before visiting I had spoken to a few colleagues who have been there and asked about their experience. They seemed overall happy with the dealer's service.

The salesman who greeted us seemed helpful and professional. However, his knowledge on automatic transmission was really inadequate. When I asked to test drive, he mentioned that they do not have ATs for test drive but only manuals. Since I already rode on a friend's i10 manual car earlier, I skipped this part. When I asked him if they have sold any ATs in Kolkata yet, he commented that they have sold some but ATs are for women drivers. When I asked him about the FE, he commented that ATs will give better mileage than manuals. I did not ask him anymore questions on AT after this. Fortunately, I went through all the i10 AT posts on t-bhp before I visited them. If Hyundai is serious about ramping up their AT sales, they should train their staff better to assist customers.

Finally, we came down to pricing. I decided on the Sportz after reviewing all the features. Magna seemed inadequate for my requirements (missing central locking, rear wiper and rear defogger which seemed essential to me on Kolkata weather) and Asta seemed too pricey for my fascination with ABS. This is what the dealer offered for the 1.2 Sportz AT:

On road price: 4.92 lacs including registration and road tax (33k)

Discounts:
1. Free insurance for 1st year: 15k
2. Corporate discount: 4k

Freebies:
1. Teflon coating
2. Full underbody antirust coating

The salesman seemed extremely tough on giving any discount other than the two mentioned above. He remarked that this is the lowest price he is offering and cannot yield any more. Finally, when I told him that I am yet to make up my mind and I would visit a few other dealers before striking a deal, he threw in the Teflon and antirust coating as freebies. He insisted that I pay the booking amount immediately. Considering that this would be around 4k worth of freebies, I happily went ahead and wrote him a 50k cheque. The salesman promised that the car would take around 10 days to be delivered.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by sbiswas

Sid,

Things are really getting eerily similar between you and me. We both are newbie here and guess what? My Mazda 626 was also green!! I would be curious to see pics of your car.

guess green was a very popular color for Mazda 626 in US. Most of the 626s I spotted was green.

[sbiswas]

Dealer Experience - Contd.

July 15: 10 days over, have not heard from dealer. So I give a call to the salesman at Mukesh Hyundai. He picks up and says he is in a meeting. Promises to call back but did not hear from him throughout the day. Next day I give a call again. He picks up but says car has not arrived yet but will be there in couple of days. I wait for couple of days and give a call again. Same experience repeated.

Finally I get a call from him on July 22. He said car has arrived and gave me the engine/chassis numbers. He asked me to come to the showroom and pay the balance amount for registration/insurance etc. I told him that I would like to inspect the car before final payment. He seemed reluctant but agreed on my persistence. He gave me directions to the warehouse. We visited the warehouse and saw the car. Out of the hundred odd i10s in the warehouse, mine seemed to be the only AT. Car seemed fine except there was a minor bruise on the front fiber panel. It was not very visible unless you check carefully. The man at the warehouse said not to worry about it. He assured us that it would be polished off before delivery.

We came back to the showroom and paid the rest of the amount. We asked how long it would take to get the registration done and the salesman said it would take 2-3 days. We happily returned home.

3 days passed but did not hear from dealer. Called up the salesman and asked him what happened. He said it is not done yet because the motor vehicles department is very busy with the recent trouble with old autos and buses and it would take a few more days. Few more days passed but still no news from dealer, so called him again. He picked up, said he is in a meeting and promised to call back but did not. The same experience was repeated a couple of times. Finally connected with him but he came up with another excuse again. My wife blasted him left and right and told him to get it done soon. He promised that it will be done by Friday (Aug 7).

August 7: 3 PM afternoon, the salesman calls. Says registration is done and asks us to come on Saturday to pick it up. We insist on picking it up the same day. He asks us to come by 5:30 PM. We rush to the dealer, wait for half an hour and take the keys, manual and other documents. As I expected, the Teflon and anti-rust coatings have not been done. The salesman promises to get it done during first service and wrote it down on the receipt. It was really dark by this time. I visually inspected the car in the low light and it seemed fine. However, next day morning my wife noticed that the little bruise on the front still remains.

Overall, I would give a good rating to the dealer on most aspects except their timeliness and commitment. They should not make false commitments and later provide lame excuses to cover up their fault. Almost a month later, today, I received a call from Hyundai CRM and shared the same feeling with her. She promised to note it down and pass on to the respective authorities.

[GS300]

@blackasta

Pls excuse my OT comment. But just out of curiosity..

By any chance the building in the background is Gateways apartments in randolph, NJ?

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by GS300

@blackasta

By any chance the building in the background is Gateways apartments in randolph, NJ?

Yup. It is Gateways at Randolph. I used to stay there from July 2007 till I came out of US on April 2009. Did you happen to spend some time there?

[Dippy]

Congratulations on your new i10 AT. The i10 AT seems to be on its way to becoming a very popular car on the forum. The number of i10 AT owners here have gone up pretty quickly in the recent past.

Your post made for an interesting read. Do put down your initial experience with the car especially the FE because that is what most members want to know about. And yes before I forget no initial report is complete without pictures so lets have some of those.

Drive safe

[sbiswas]

That's the same color which I had. Mine was a 95 model. So it looked very similar but the logo was different. Maybe we can share our stories in a Mazda 626 thread.

Originally Posted by blackasta

guess green was a very popular color for Mazda 626 in US. Most of the 626s I spotted was green.

continuing the trend of simmilarities

4. Dealer: Mukesh Hyundai !!!! (you are really getting on my nerves now)

Mukesh offered me 4K corp discount + 1st yr insurance free + 3rd yr extended warranty free. I guess I shall fight to the end for floor+boot mats / mud flaps (I am yet to take delivery).

Also, here goes the pic of my old ride in US - The 1998 Mazda 626 LX I4 A/T.

Attachment 182004

Attachment 182002

Attachment 182003

[sbiswas]

Driving Experience

August 7: 6:30 PM evening, I took the delivery of the car. I took a quick look at the dashboard and the instrument panel to get familiarized with the switches. The auto gearbox looked similar to the ones I have driven in the USA but I noticed one difference. In all the US cars I have driven before, there was a shift-lock facility which prevented the stick from shifting when it's in P and the engine is shut off. I had to depress a shift-lock switch in my Sentra/Corolla to shift the stick in such situations. In my Mazda 626, there was a keyhole to insert the car key to operate the shift-lock. The i10 AT does not have this feature and the stick can be shifted freely even while the engine is not running. This can be dangerous if you start the engine while the stick may have accidentally shifted to any position other than P or N.

Nevertheless, I turned the headlights on, stepped on the gas and hit the road without wasting any more time at the dealer. The busy traffic on the VIP road greeted me immediately. A private bus which was unloading passengers suddenly swerved to its right in an attempt to merge with the oncoming traffic and almost crashed my left side-mirror. Both of us braked, shouted abuse at each other and moved on. I asked my wife to fold the mirror to avoid any future damage.

The VIP road is one of the main arterial roads in Kolkata and it leads to the airport. Once the traffic cleared a bit, my car effortlessly hit 60 kmph. The shifting between gears seemed extremely smooth and the car was simply gliding through. In all the US AT cars I had driven earlier, I always felt a little jerk when the gear shifted, even in the new cars taken from rentals. But this car seemed so smooth that unless I kept an eye on the tacho, it was really impossible to tell. I presume this is probably because the gross weight of the i10 is much less compared to a mid-sized American sedan. The rest of the ride back home was uneventful except I was caught in bumper to bumper traffic and had to move at a snail's pace.

Few days later, I took the car onto NH2/Durgapur Expressway to visit my parents in Dankuni. With wife, kid and small luggage on-board, the car was loaded. I hit a maximum speed of 85 kmph. The car seemed to handle the road very well. It was steady and comfortable. For a car of this size, I really did not expect it to be so stable. My 91 Sentra, which was a small sedan, always rattled on interstates when I drove her at 90+ speeds.

Next week, I took the car onto the Rajarhat Bypass road while going to work. With me alone in the car, I seamlessly hit 90 kmph on the 6-lane highway. Still no rattles and the ride was smooth as silk. The car seemed very much at ease with all the sedans and SUVs on the road. Changing lanes, braking, turning - everything seemed perfect.

So far, I have driven only around 300 km in 4 weeks time. I have no complains about the ride quality and comfort. Before buying it, some friends had warned me of the cons of riding an AT on Indian roads. Because of my prior experience of driving ATs in the USA, I stuck to my decision. Although it is too early to draw any conclusion, I am very happy with my purchase as of yet.

In my next post I will summarize and share my conclusion on the overall aspects of the car.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by sbiswas

That's the same color which I had. Mine was a 95 model. So it looked very similar but the logo was different. Maybe we can share our stories in a Mazda 626 thread.

Yes, before 1997 Mazda sported the 'flame' logo. Its only in 1997 they switched to the stylized flying M.
I was planning to open a thread on my Mazda owning experience, only concern was where to place it - long term ownership or international section. Can the mods please help in deciding?

Do post some pics of your new ride. Also, what's the color of your i10?

[sbiswas]

Here goes the first set of pictures. Taken on Aug 8 morning.