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My Hyundai i20 N Line iMT: 1 year detailed ownership experience

21st December 2022, 17:58 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

Regarding the paint quality, I felt it sits between the Hyundai Grand i10 and Maruti S-Cross; the former having a better paint quality.

BHPian Sportigo recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

1 Year Ownership Experience with the Hyundai i20 N-Line IMT

It’s been 1 year now since the i20 N-Line (aka WhitePearl) has been a part of my garage. Brought her home on 10th December 2021. You can check out my Initial Ownership Experience. So, I am sharing the ownership experience of the past year. I will try to focus on key points that I felt sharing.

From Day 1, I brought home the Car, it has been a great experience. The rad styling of the car with color combination of White-Black-Red is what I liked the most (although looks are subjective to the individual). The car has run a little over 7000 kms at the time of this review. I couldn’t make any very long trips this year but had made a few short trips of 200 – 250 kms each. The car had been performing great, the engine had been smooth till day with no unnecessary noises or sounds. Always followed the engine warm-up and cool-down methods, I think that helped.

The exhaust is beautiful (although not very loud) and had always kept me smiling and added that zeal to the drive every time. Notably in the 2nd and 3rd gears, the exhaust growl is audible in the 2k to 4k RPM range.

On the road, people do notice the car in traffic or while on the move and that always brings a smile to my face. The Infotainment is one highlighting feature of the car and everyone admired it.

Engine, Transmission and Dynamics

Driving Dynamics - One word for this – FANTASTIC. I love the way the N-Line drives. The Steering Inputs are pretty much direct and the heft to it is apt as per me. Any more or any less could have taken away from the experience. The car understeers a bit on tight turns with higher speeds but never feels out of control. On the highway, the car sticks to the road with no floating effect as such. The suspension takes the credit for this. Overall, the suspension is pliant but stiff. Some speed breakers and potholes do thud through at certain speeds (say at 25 – 30 kmph). But surface undulations & rough patches are soaked up well. One thing to note is that the car does fishtail a bit on rumble strips on a curved road.
The 1.0 TGDI engine has kept me happy. It's smooth at idle and running – typical of a Hyundai. There is a lag low down in the rev range below 1800 RPM and it's noticeable when the car is houseful or on inclines. Must downshift to 2nd or 1st in such scenarios and the IMT helps in maintaining the proper gear as per my requirement. There is no push-back-to-seat feel to the performance, but the power build-up is good.
The IMT transmission has been a breeze for me, especially in the city. On the highway, the 4th, 5th and 6th gears are tall enough to cruise happily or overtake other vehicles. Although I must mention the 3rd gear is obnoxiously tall ratioed. The IMT had been smooth, accurate and glitch-free 99% of the time. (The remaining 1%, I will mention in the upcoming context). But I must mention, the transmission is not a fast-shifting one like an MT or DCT when you want to drive more enthusiastically. Albeit it kept me happy for more than 85% of my drive time till now. The IMT is a bit jerky in the 1st Gear with On-Off throttle transitions.
The stock Ceat SecuraDrive tyres have been more than adequate for my everyday driving and even moderate enthusiasm but anything more and the tyres squeal. The wear on the tyres has been good (not excess and compromising on traction) over time. There is road noise from these tyres that seeps into the cabin. I have always maintained the tyre pressures in the range of 33-35 psi. The TPMS has been working correctly without any issues till now.

Build Quality, Fit & Finish

This is an area of the car where I have mixed feelings. The overall fit and finish of the car is good and not great. Compared to the Grand i10 (brought in 2018) that my father owns, the i20 sits a notch below. Don’t get me wrong, there are no major rattles and squeaks in the cabin. But it's not absolutely silent.
For example on rough concrete roads and stone paved roads like the ones we find on some driveways to malls, I had observed a constant minor rattle and buzz from the dashboard on the car. Nothing alarming for me but not the smoothest of experiences. One good thing is that the quality had remained consistent over the year when compared to my brother-in-law’s S-Cross which had developed a few more squeaks and rattles with almost the same time span.
Coming to the paint quality, I felt it sits between the Grand i10 and S-Cross, the Grand i10 having the better paint quality here. The overall build quality is a little subpar for the price.

Fuel Efficiency

The fuel efficiency numbers have varied for me throughout the span of ownership depending upon traffic, AC usage, City (Hyderabad) and Highway rides. I will try to put forth all scenarios below:

AC ON | City | Moderate to High traffic: 9 – 11 kmpl
AC ON | City | Light to Moderate traffic (e.g., early morning hours): 11 – 12 kmpl
AC ON | Highway |Speeds 80 – 100 kmph: 17 – 18 kmpl
AC ON | Highway |Speeds 100 – 120 kmph: 15 - 16 kmpl
AC OFF | City | Moderate to High traffic: 11 – 12 kmpl
AC OFF | City | Light to Moderate traffic (e.g., early morning hours): 12 – 14 kmpl
AC OFF | Highway |Speeds 80 – 100 kmph: ~ 20 kmpl
AC OFF | Highway |Speeds 100 – 120 kmph: ~ 18 kmpl

All the figures are with regular 91 Octane Petrol. Never had a chance of long trip so didn’t check with the tank full method till now.

Sharing a few mileage shots from the Fuelio app (which is close to MID figures):

Screenshots of Fuel Cost for an average monthly running of 500 – 600 km:

Hyundai Authorized Service Experience

The car has gone through 2 Free Services and no major complaints over there. The 1st Service was total free of cost with just basic checks.
The 2nd Free service saw an oil change and oil filter change, engine bay clean up and amounted to 2089 INR.

Issues/Niggles

Major Issue

Fuel Pump failure at 6000 kms. The issue happened out of nowhere when I was travelling with my wife on a Sunday. Thankfully the issue happened inside the city limits and in the afternoon. The car was moving at a low speed of around 35 kmph when suddenly it lost power and throttle inputs did not provide any power, I was in 3rd gear, and I shifted down to 2nd but nothing again. Then I shifted to neutral and brought the car to rolling stop towards the side of the road.

One pain point here is the connectivity of the car. The inbuilt network reception of the car is very bad (likely to blame the service provider? I think its Vodafone, correct me if I am wrong). After multiple attempts, the call connected to RSA and they took all the details and arranged a towing truck. The whole process of calling RSA to towing truck arriving took a little over an hour. All throughout the time, Hyundai RSA folks had been good and very helpful. Although same can’t be said for the POC who had been appointed to send a mechanic to do an initial check and jump-start the car.

The person had a very bad attitude as if his whole day got spoilt due to this call or as if I had asked him to sell his kidney. The mechanic and towing truck folks were again good with prompt responses and service. After towing the car to the nearest Hyundai ASC, the manager and the mechanic were quick enough to identify the issue. The issue got resolved after replacing the Fuel Pump, this took 2 days and was done under warranty. No issues since then.

Minor Issue/Niggle

There is a glitch in the IMT transmission, especially in 3rd gear. Sometimes when I shift from 2nd to 3rd gear, there is a sudden rev drop as if the clutch hasn’t engaged properly like in an MT if you suddenly depress the clutch with the throttle pressed. Once I let go of the throttle and step again, it would start to pull. Clutch slipping maybe? This has happened like 1 in 100 times or even less, therefore not able to reproduce the issue consciously (The 1% mentioned earlier). Do tell me if someone else had a similar experience with IMT.

Modifications

None, except vinyl wrapping the rear license plate area to black as it looked cool in the European i20 models.

Overall Likes & Dislikes

Likes

Engine, Transmission, Handling (Steering & Suspension)
Infotainment System and the Bose Speaker System
Comfortable Seats
Convenience of IMT
Projector Headlights

Checkout the High Beam throw on a dark highway

Interior Feel – Steering Wheel design, Instrument Clusters, Leather Seats, Ambient Lights and buttons have tactile feel.
AC – Quite good, effective in bringing down cabin temperatures even when it's 40 degrees outside.

Dislikes

Build and Paint Quality
Slow Shifts of IMT
Inbuilt Network Reception of Car
Turbo Lag low down in the rev range
Sunroof – Not really a dislike but I never used it much. I feel this feature should be optional and would help in bringing down the vehicle cost for those who don’t require it.
Wiper blade quality could be improved a lot. They are not the best, there are lines of water when wiping the screen in just 1 year. Thinking to replace them soon. I am open to suggestions. Does anyone know any flat blade/frameless wipers for the new i20?

Some pictures of the beauty: