Background
Santro bought in 2001 was becoming old, though I had hardly driven it. I started researching on team-bhp for my next sedan car. I finally short-listed Honda City and Fiesta. But then, I was in no hurry and wanted to wait till end of 2010 or early 2011 to see what other new launches come into market.
That’s when I told my wife that I plan to sell Santro and buy a new Sedan. She shot back saying that we are not selling our first car. I will drive the Santro and our next vehicle should be a SUV.
In a week or two following the above conversation, I happened to go out with my wife and asked her to drive. That’s when I realized the amount of difficulties she faced in changing gears in heavy traffic of Pune and thought of getting her an automatic.
I started initial research of automatics on team-bhp and saw so many posts related to automatic cars. This gave me confidence that automatics are slowly getting accepted in our market.
Short listing of cars
With plans to buy Sedan or SUV in 2011, I did not want to spend too much. I decided to go for a hatch back with a 5 lac budget and decided to sell my Santro to reduce the outgo.
The only real choice in the market was Hyundai i10 Automatic. I really wonder why other manufacturers are not promoting automatic cars.
I told my wife about the convenience involved in driving an automatic. On a weekend, I gave her a surprise by taking her to Kothari Hyundai dealer and met one Mr. Ganesh. However, i10 Automatic demo car was not readily available. Mr Ganesh however arranged for the demo car and bought it to my office the next day.
I really enjoyed the convenience and took it for a 3 kms drive to check the pickup, power and effect of air-conditioner on engine. At the end of the test drive, found the performance of the car beyond my expectations.
I told my wife about the experience and she agreed to buy an i10 automatic with a condition that we get good price for our Santro. Also, after seeing so many i10 on the roads we decided upon going in for Champagne Gold color. Our Santro was of Beige color.
I also studied the difference between Magna and Sportz variant. Asta was beyond budget. I am not a music fan and hence giving Rs.25000 more for music, rear wiper and defroster (not required in Pune) did not make sense. However, did notice lot of subtle differences and not sure why Hyundai cannot provide them as standard – difference in headrest, rear spoiler with HMSL (Magna has integrated Stop lamp in the hatch door), luggage lamp etc. Someone even told me that front wiper has one additional wiper speed setting in Sportz.
Selling experience
We again visited the dealer and asked for his quote. Hyundai has started the Hyundai Advantage program to buy back used cars. I got to know from the person how to check if the car has met with an accident, whether the engine is good or not, how to check tires etc. However, the price quoted by them was a setback for me. Santro had clocked less than 25000 kms and was in perfect condition. I then checked with Mahindra’s First Choice and they gave a quote which was higher by Rs.5000.
Other local car buyers in Pune did not match the First choice price. I was tempted to sell to them when they called back and raised the price by another 5k.
However, an idea stuck us and we decided to put an advertisement in our companies. This is where I read through “How to sell car” in team-bhp and created an advertisement. The response was over-whelming. There were so many people who had learned driving and wanted to first try their hand on a second hand car.
I got a good deal and of course the team-bhp article helped me in creating checklist of what all documents I need to retain and what all I need to provide to the buyer.
Buying experience
When we sold our car, only 2 days were remaining for the budget. Already I had started getting calls from Kothari to book car to beat the price hike after budget. On 25th Feb, we went to all 3 dealers – Garve Hyundai, Sanjay Hyundai and Kothari Hyundai. All of them seemed same to us though we had to bargain a lot with Kothari.
Garve and Sanjay did not have Champagne Gold in stock. Kothari had Magna AT Champagne Gold in stock and said that if I liked the car, they would provide price protection.
On 26th Feb, while the finance minister was announcing the budget, I made to visit to their stock yard in Katraj and looked at vehicle. Article on VIN number on team-bhp helped in identify the vehicle manufacturing year as 2010. I checked the mileage, for any scratches, checked the tires were Bridgestone. I noted the chassis number, engine number and tire numbers and informed the dealer that I liked the vehicle. After budget, the ex-showroom price has increased by around Rs. 8500.
Delivery of the vehicle
Mr. Ganesh was helpful throughout the whole process. I made payment on 2nd Mar and delivery was arranged for 4th Mar. I had fixed the time as 4pm. I got call at 12pm informing that the vehicle was ready for delivery. We went to dealer at 4pm and carried along our camera. Formalities done, the dealer arranged for a small pooja and by 5pm we were off with our new vehicle.
First experience
Till date we have driven around 300kms. I am still getting used to the automatic. There has been times when my left hand moves to the lever to change gears. My wife is enjoying the vehicle and taking it to her work daily. For now, she does not change once the lever is put in ‘D’ mode. She prefers not to change to ‘N’ mode too. Driving has become easy for her suddenly.
Overall the vehicle is powerful and unlike Santro has sufficient power even when air conditioner is on. During the running period, I am trying to keep the engine rpm within 2000 and maximum speed of 70kms/hr. Pickup from stop seems slow (maybe because I don’t press hard – to keep engine rpm within 2000) but beyond 40km/hr, the pickup is smooth. You can feel the vehicle changing gears, not very smooth. Headlamp does not seem very powerful but just sufficient for city drives.
Few queries
I am going through the forum to get answers for the below queries. However, if any of you have already addressed them, please do let me know:
- How to avoid beige dashboard reflection on the wind screen?
- Are there any brands which are good for puncture kits? (Read a good article on team-bhp for repairing tubeless tires using a puncture kit, however would want to know the available good brands.)
- How to maintain beige interiors? Somehow, I am not a fan of beige interiors. Black/grey interiors are far better.
- Do air fresheners really help? (I never used one in Santro.)
- I am not a music fan but would like to hear to music from time to time. My requirement is 1-DIN system with support for USB and FM. I have a budget of Rs.10000. Any suggestions?
- At higher speed, I noticed the power steering was hard compared to Santro. However, at lower speed, it is light. Is this by design?