Hyundai i20 Turbo DCT 25,000 km review: Good but could have been better

A 3-cylinder turbo-petrol mated to a dual-clutch transmission is not the best recipe for achieving good fuel efficiency in city traffic and this car is no exception.

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25,000 Km with the Hyundai i20 Turbo-DCT

It’s been more than three years since our i20 came home, a day before Dhanteras in 2020. During this time, it’s been our constant companion in Mumbai and Pune, been with us on some memorable holidays, frustrated us to the core with one big niggle, made our lives comfortable with its quiet cabin experience and entertained our drives with its lively engine. This is a review of our i20-1.0 T-GDi DCT Asta (O), all 25,000 km of it.

Design & Styling

Sensuous sportiness is what Hyundai calls the design language on which the i20 is based. Not sure about sensuous but yes it does look sporty and aggressive. The lines are sharp, the power bulge on the hood looks awesome and the headlamps and DRLs make the car look as if it means business. The distinctive tail lamps look great at night and there is no way you can mistake this car for something else. In profile the car looks extremely sporty, the piano-black elements on all four sides lending a touch of class to the design. The car looks well-proportioned and to my eyes, it looks fast even while standing still. The design is something that attracted us to this car and we really like the bold, in-your-face design.

What we don’t quite like is the unnecessarily heavy usage of chrome everywhere. I would have loved to have body-coloured door handles and a piano black door sill (a la the i20 N-Line) instead of chrome everywhere. And the chrome applique on the tail lamp spoils what is one great-looking tail lamp design.

There is minimal visual differentiation between the Turbo and Non-Turbo versions. A slightly different grille design which is noticeable only to the keen eye and just ONE turbo badge is not enough to offer to customers who have paid more. Yes, Hyundai had an N-Line in the pipeline but even then, how about a few more turbo badges at least?

Build Quality, Fit & Finish

Being a Hyundai, build quality was obviously not expected to be German-esq and it clearly isn’t. However, this particular generation of the i20 feels distinctly flimsier than the earlier ones. While there are no rattles and squeaks till date, the poor build is apparent while driving over Mumbai’s broken roads. The way the car thuds over potholes, ruts and lane markers is a clear giveaway of the poor build. Some panels also flex easily and the hatch in particular has taken the brunt of improper closing at malls. There are two distinct thumb-shaped depressions on the hatch, clearly made by too much pressure at the wrong place, and this clearly shows how thin the sheet metal on that part is.

Wheels and Tyres

The car is shod with 16-inch diamond cut alloys with 195/55 R16 CEAT SecuraDrive tyres. This is the first car in our family after my grandfather’s Ambassador to have CEATs (remember the ubiquitous CEAT Safety Drive?) and frankly, they are well below par. The tyre is clearly made for long life. The rubber is hard, the sidewalls are not supple and the tyre is generally uncomfortable and lacks grip. Another 10k Kms and I will get rid of them. The Alloys on the other hand look great and complement the edgy styling of the car.

Interiors

The car is extremely spacious, I am 5’10” and there is plenty of legroom at the back with the driver’s seat set for me. The rear seat is great on width too and will put many bigger cars to shame. 3-abreast rear seating was never a purchase criterion for us but for those who need it the rear seat is wide enough to accommodate three people in relative comfort. The i20 is also one of the rare hatchbacks which have a rear armrest. The armrest is positioned at a good height and serves its purpose. There is no cup-holder at the back, but in our car, the rear seat has rarely been used so it hardly matters. The seats are covered in smart-looking leatherette. The seats themselves are pretty comfortable and are fine for drives up to 3-4 hours. But the front seats lack any sort of lumbar support and this becomes a problem on long drives. We noticed it on a Goa-Pune drive when both our backs started hurting after around 6 hours of driving.

Internal storage is sufficient, our 1 Litre bottles fit perfectly in all the door trims and there is also a map pocket at the back of the passenger seat if anyone needs it. The front armrest is adjustable for length and the storage area underneath easily takes in my wallet, home keys and a small sanitiser bottle without any rattling noise. Sadly, one of the cup holders is occupied permanently by the air purifier which is a bit irritating. I would’ve preferred the extra cup holder to a purifier which should’ve had its own place.

In contrast to the external design, the interior design is pretty straightforward and timeless. The all-black dashboard looks contemporary and classy. The horizontal lines between the vents make the car feel wider than it is, the vents themselves are simple, easy to adjust and feel solid. The A/C controls thankfully are not touch-operated. All the A/C buttons and toggle switches for temperature and fan speed work with a positive click and can be operated without distracting the driver. The ambient lighting gives a nice blue hue to the interiors at night. The steering wheel is one of the nicer Hyundai wheels, it's small enough for my liking and the leather wrap feels good to hold. All the buttons fall to hand and it does its job well.

The digital instrument cluster looks good with everything being clearly displayed, although the purist in me will always prefer an analogue cluster. Vehicle speed and RPM are indicated by a numerical readout as well as moving bands on either side of the cluster. Honestly, I have never referred to the moving bands whilst driving and rely solely on the numeric readout. The readout for the revs is rather stupid. Who the hell refers to RPM in decimals? They could easily have deleted the decimal and left it at 12,20,25 etc with a “x100 rpm” sign. Hyundai has provided a temperature gauge as usual which I really like. I think this is one basic thing that should never be sacrificed at the altar of cost-cutting. While driving, the gauge always stays at the five-dot mark and usually takes around a Km to reach that stage.

The MID display shows the usual trip data with separate read-outs for accumulated trip information and current drive information. There is also an instantaneous fuel efficiency indicator with a horizontal bar showing the instantaneous consumption with the average F.E. shown in numbers. In Nav-mode, the MID shows data for the next turn including pictorial signs at places like flyovers, bridges etc. Pretty cool in this segment.

On the subject of the MID, a special mention of the Distance-to-empty (DTE) readout is a must. DTE is supposed to give you an approximate indication of the range that the car will travel with the available fuel. This reading should change with traffic conditions as it has done in all my previous cars. Essentially what this means is that the range should be calculated on the basis of driving conditions of the last 30/50 Km. However, Hyundai’s DTE seems to have only one formula to it. It only shows you the maximum possible distance that the car can travel at any given point in time. Due to this, the DTE readout is always highly optimistic and never accurate.

The MID also displays TPMS data for every wheel. The TPMS is temperamental, to say the least. While it’s a good feature to have, the readings vary widely depending on the time of day you’re driving and frankly I find it hard to believe that a reading of 33 psi in the morning can become 37 psi by afternoon. I understand that air expands etc. but to such an extent? I’ve had the TPMS light come on a couple of times when the air pressure in one of the tyres has reached 27psi. There was no puncture, it was another example of air pressure contracting depending on the time of day. While I always checked pressures in cold conditions for all our cars, I now make it a point to check pressures only late at night or very early in the morning.

A lot has been said about the quality of plastics in the car. In my opinion, the interiors definitely don’t look cheap. The dashboard plastics look very contemporary and go a long way in making the cabin look upmarket. Yes, the door trim plastics definitely could be better, but even they don’t look cheap. It's only when you touch it and feel the rough surface that you realise how hard it is. Frankly, it doesn’t bother either of us, and nobody who’s seen the car has commented on that.

What is definitely sub-par is the quality of the headlamp and wiper stalks. The headlamp stalk confounds me. The operation of the stalk is like premium cars i.e., shifting from low-beam to high-beam is seamless without a click. But the stalk itself is really sharp in certain places. It all looks good in the OFF position, but twist the switch and the sharp, rough inner edge peeks out. Same is the case with the wiper stalk.

The boot easily takes in weekend luggage for a family of four. One of the rare occasions when the rear seat was used was on a trip to Mahabaleshwar, and four cabin-sized strolly bags went in easily. The rear seat can be folded down if needed and comfortably takes in my bicycle with its front wheel removed.

Infotainment

The infotainment screen is large with a 10.25-inch display, the touch quality is excellent and responses are instant. But what stands out is the seamlessness of the system. The UX is absolutely slick, has never hung, and has generally worked perfectly till date. Both of us paired our phones to the system on Day 1 of purchase and it actually amazes me that we’ve never had to do the pair/unpair cycle even once after that. We also have a Gen 5 City CVT at home and compared to this system Honda’s DIGIPAD is trash. The i20’s system allows us to switch between phones very easily and that adds to the ease-of-use factor.

What I also like is the integration of the system with the MultiFunction Steering wheel. Once you set everything and start driving there is no need for the driver to touch the screen for anything. All the basic controls that are needed are present on the steering wheel. There is a separate button for answering calls and hanging up/rejecting. While driving with the A/C on in AUTO mode, the blower speed reduces automatically if you get a call and reverts to the original speed after you hang up. Very thoughtful. The system also updates pretty regularly. Given the condition of Vi’s network nowadays the updates do take a long time but they don’t hinder the functioning of the system in any way.

Neither of us are audiophiles and for us, the BOSE branded sound system is more than adequate for our usage.

The in-built navigation is obviously not up to Google Maps standard. With constant road construction going on in Bombay, old roads get closed to traffic and new ones are inaugurated on a regular basis. Updates for these changes take a long time to arrive and one is much better off using Google Maps in most situations. For E.g., the map update which showed the new Bandra East to BKC flyover came 3-4 months after the flyover was operational. On the plus side, the on-board Navi has very clear pictorial displays in situations like flyovers and bridges where it clearly shows you which road to take. Neat.

Air-Conditioning

The air-conditioner operates well and cools the cabin in no time. Even in situations when the car has been soaking up the sun, the A/C cools the car effectively and quickly. Our default setting is 23 degrees in AUTO mode which is perfect in most situations. For temperatures close to 40 degrees in bumper-to-bumper traffic, we have sometimes gone down to around 20 degrees but never below that. As I mentioned above fan speed is lowered automatically in AUTO mode whilst talking on the phone and goes back to the original speed after hanging up.

On the move

I like to sit as low as possible while driving and the driving position of the i20 is perfect for that. I don’t need to see the front left extremity of the car while driving and that allows me to sit with the seat at its lowest setting. The steering wheel is adjustable for rake and reach and helps in finding a good driving position quickly. The pedals are well placed and the armrest is at a comfortable height. The dead pedal could have been bigger, but I’m used to it now and doesn’t bother me anymore. The armrest is also wide enough for both of us to share it with our respective elbows. All round visibility is good and the IRVM is wide enough considering the size of the rear windscreen. The power window and mirror controls are well placed, but only the driver’s switch is backlit, which is a shame. At this price, Hyundai should have included UV-Cut glass all round. The level of tint on the windows and windscreens is not sufficient and lets in intense heat. The sunroof is something that both of us like, mainly because the light that comes in makes the car feel bright and airy. We’ve got dark sun film for the sunroof to keep the heat and a bit of light out.

Start the car when the engine is cold, and you’re greeted with a very rough-sounding three-pot motor. The sound is such that initially I felt that there was something wrong, but it quickly quietens down once warmed up. It takes a couple of days to get used to the cold start cacophony. The engine usually reaches its operating temperature in less than a Km in Mumbai weather and traffic.

City Driving

The light steering, excellent air-conditioning, comfortable seats and great driving position make city driving a breeze. You can hear a typical 3-cylinder thrum while driving around town at low speed (around 20-30 kph), but once you go slightly faster it fades away. What we really love is the sense of serenity that pervades the cabin. The NVH package filters outside noise very effectively and in combination with the super-effective A/C makes the cabin a quiet and calm place at all times.

Driving in Mumbai/Pune city, the performance is more than adequate, the slightly weak bottom-end results in a slowish initial response, but if you want to play traffic-light grand prix then the T-GDI is the engine to have amongst the range.

Hyundai’s DCT is not the most responsive around, but it’s still more than acceptable and while it hesitates a bit at standing starts, it quickly makes up for that momentary pause and accelerates to the needed speed briskly. On the move, the DCT engages gears smoothly and seamlessly, the way it is supposed to.

However, bumper-to-bumper traffic can sometimes confuse the DCT. Short acceleration and braking cycles make the gearbox fumble for gears and sometimes it cannot decide which gear is to be selected. This gets exacerbated if the road is slightly uphill/downhill. So sometimes you have situations where the gearbox downshifts/upshifts exactly when you want it to do the opposite and results in a jerky driving experience. This has more to do with it being a DCT than any defect and once you’re used to it, this behaviour becomes a bit easy to predict and handle.

Ride quality in the city is clearly below par. The car handles Mumbai/Pune city roads well without becoming uncomfortable, but the ride has a distinct harsh edge to it. The car has a tendency to crash into potholes at city speeds, which is partially due to the harsh ride and partially due to the hard Ceats.

Out on the highway

Our car is powered by Hyundai’s 1.0 T-GDi which makes 120 PS and 172 Nm. The engine belongs to the Kappa II engine family and is a 3-cylinder all-aluminium unit with a 12-valve DOHC head. The 3-pot Turbo-petrol is surprisingly smooth and sweet sounding even when revved hard.

Even with 120 PS and 172 Nm on tap, the performance of the 1.0 T-GDI is not what one can term as “explosive”. But, it’s fast. It propels the car to triple-digit speeds with a nonchalance that makes the car great fun to drive (more on this later) and long distances are covered effortlessly, without breaking into a sweat. While climbing ghats, slow lane-hogging trucks are dispatched with utmost ease and the car is at home on the highway, performing superbly as a long-distance mile-muncher. Drives to Goa, the Western Ghats etc feel like a piece of cake and I really love the effortless manner in which long distances are covered without the engine sounding strained in any situation.

However, there is a fly in the ointment. The car falls well short in the high-speed ride and handling department. Out on the highway, the i20 Turbo feels planted till around 120 Kph. But push a bit more and it feels loose, and light and doesn’t inspire any confidence to go faster. In terms of highway ride quality, the i20 rides well if the going is smooth and manages the odd bump, but hit a series of bumps and the car loses composure immediately and you quickly need to reduce speed.

Driving in ghats, the chassis gets overwhelmed with the speeds that the engine is capable of and gives up far before reaching the limits of the engine or the driver. As a result, you need to come off the throttle just as you start having fun. I’ve never driven a N-Line but clearly, this version is a bit of a contradiction with its excellent engine mated to a very poor chassis. The road to Mahabaleshwar is one of my favourite drives and in this car, I always reach Mahabaleshwar with the feeling of wanting more.

Braking is best described as adequate. It's sufficient to make the car come to a halt, but the brake pedal feels too soft and pressure modulation is difficult. There is also a minuscule delay between pressing the brake and the car starting to slow down. It’s easy to over-brake or under-brake and that is never a comfortable feeling.

All in all, this car’s weak chassis has forced Hyundai to compromise low-speed ride in order to achieve acceptable high-speed stability and ride quality. Clearly, this is a car that needs to be driven sensibly.

Fuel Efficiency

A 3-cylinder Turbo-Petrol mated to a DCT transmission is not the best recipe for achieving good fuel efficiency in city traffic, and the i20 Turbo is no exception. Pottering around Bandra, BKC, Kurla including the infamous Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Marg the car returns between 8-9 kpl. Please note that this is in heavy rush-hour traffic with lots of idling with the A/C on.
On one particularly memorable evening, we took 2 hours to traverse the 11 km between Bandra West and Kurla West and the car returned 4.5 kpl. This was an exception though and I don’t hold it against the car. Just putting it out here to show the worst-case scenario.

But, trips to South-Mumbai where traffic is considerably less result in double-digit fuel efficiency and the car returns an excellent 11-13 kpl. This is of course aided by running on the Eastern Freeway or the sea link, and just goes to show how badly traffic affects turbo-petrols.

Out on the highway, with excellent power comes excellent fuel efficiency and the i20 Turbo redeems itself with fuel efficiency consistently between 17-20kpl. This includes trips to Goa, Mahabaleshwar, Koyna and numerous Mumbai-Pune runs.

BlueLink

Firstly, BlueLink is a must-have feature that works well most of the time.

Unlocking the car from the app is slightly slow, but locking happens much quicker. Starting the car remotely has been a boon on hot summer afternoons. The secret to getting it to work is to read the manual carefully and understand the conditions under which the remote start/stop/lock/unlock works. For e.g., the car will not start unless the handbrake is pulled to five clicks at least which is a necessary safety requirement. Once all the conditions are met and there is enough network strength available, the system works.

Yes, it does have its quirks, especially related to Vodafone’s poor network, but once you’re used to it it’s a great feature to have. The way I look at it is that I’d rather have it work 80% of the time than not have the feature at all.

My subscription has currently expired but will be renewing it soon.

Niggles

Two of them. The first one still keeps coming back. The rear hatch started rattling after around 2 months of usage. Hyundai replaced the latch under warranty. The first replacement worked for 6 months and again started rattling. They replaced it again with a modified part and worked fine till six months back. The latch was changed in warranty again in September'23 which made the problem go away. But it's February now and the irritating noise is back. I understand new cars have issues but this is a bit too irritating. It’s been more than three years now.

The second niggle exposed Hyundai’s apathy towards its customers. Around the same time of the rattling sound (Dec 2020), the car refused to unlock by pressing the request sensor. The switch was temperamental, it used to work at times and not work when it wanted. This happened randomly without any pattern. However, the request sensor on the hatch used to work without fail. Since only the door request sensor didn’t work and the one on the hatch always did, this problem was initially diagnosed as a problem with the door handle request sensor. The handle was ordered, the technician came home and replaced the handle, which worked for a few days.

A few days later the same problem struck. Another handle was ordered, and installed but the problem kept on repeating. Hyundai then advised the workshop to replace the Body-Control-Module (BCM), but Shreenath Hyundai’s Govandi workshop messed up the BCM programming and two days later they had to order a second BCM and the car was sent to the main workshop in Jogeshwari for proper programming and replacement.

Next evening Hyundai confirmed that the BCM replacement had happened correctly and the car was ready. I asked them not to send it in the evening since I like to check the car in daylight before taking delivery, so they sent it over the next morning. On the way, the inexperienced driver scratched the car in a few places, on the rear bumper, RH driver door and front bumper. Car was sent back to Shreenath and they sent back the car after a couple of days in the bodyshop. This was in March 2021.

June 2021, the problem struck again. I had lost patience by then and the sheer incompetence of Hyundai’s “National Customer Care Manager” was too much to handle. The gentleman in question emailed me to “assure me that they are taking care of the problem”. But two days later when I called him up to discuss something he asked me not to call him since their Mumbai team was already on the job and they were the ones who I should be speaking to and not him. In reply, I asked him if that was the case why did he send me an email in the first place? Just to reassure me? Infuriated by his nincompoopery, and mere lip-service by him and other members of Hyundai’s HO after-sales team I escalated the matter to Tarun Garg and only then did they take the issue seriously.

Long story short, the car was delivered to me in a week and it’s been working fine ever since. Sadly, they had to remove the entire dashboard to figure out the problem. Thankfully it doesn’t rattle in spite of the disassembly.

A word of praise for Hyundai’s After Sales Area Manager responsible for Shreenath at the time. He was the junior most person in the whole chain of command, but he was the most honest and straightforward of the lot. He honestly informed me of another scratch that happened while removing the dash and I allowed him to rectify it without going into details.

What the real problem was, I don’t know. They replaced the key set under warranty, but I don’t think that was the root cause. The problem was sorted and I didn’t bother to dig further. No compensation was asked for the trouble and none was offered.

Faults

Just one. In June/July last year, I had given the car to Kothari Hyundai Pune for some bodywork repair. While collecting the car from them post-denting-painting, the airbag light popped up. GDS diagnosed the culprit to be a defective Clock Spring. Since Kothari did not have the part in stock, I got it replaced under warranty from Shreenath’s Jogeshwari workshop. The part cost was Rs.11,850/-

Hyundai Service

I’ve spent Rs.17,433/- on routine service till date. No other costs have been incurred. That is basically 58 paise/Km (considering 30,000 service has been done) and that is amongst the cheapest maintenance costs that I’ve incurred in all these years of car ownership, way cheaper than even Maruti.

On the flip side, I think Shreenath Hyundai’s Govandi service center is ok, nothing to write home about. I carried out the second service at Arsh Hyundai Chembur and the service was pretty similar. The advantage with Arsh is their service center is located in a far better place as well as the infrastructure at the workshop is way better than Shreenath Govandi. Neither of these workshops has pleased me enough to go there regularly. Shreenath’s Jogeshwari workshop is better than their Govandi one, more organised and located in a better area.

Next time, I plan to service the car in Pune, in my experience with other brands Pune workshops offer a much better personal touch than Mumbai ones.

Conclusion

After 25,000 Km and 39 months, our experience with the i20 Turbo DCT has been good, but it could have been much better without the niggles and Hyundai HQ's poor response.

Having said that there are some clear positives as well. The design is superb to look at. The in-cabin experience, performance, space, air-conditioning, extensive feature-list, all combine to make every drive comfortable and hassle-free. Whether it is a drive in the city or on a long journey, the car is never a topic of concern and that is always a good thing. That really shows the easy-going hassle-free nature of the i20.

We particularly love the absolute calm of the cabin irrespective of traffic conditions. No, this is no hot hatch and we are fine with it. The effortless performance that the 1.0 T-GDi delivers can be easily enjoyed if driven sensibly.

The way to enjoy the i20 is to drive within its performance envelope. Do that and you realise that the car punches well above its weight in most other areas.

Hope you enjoyed reading this review. Thank you!

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