My Kolkata-registered Hyundai i20 in Bangalore: Keep or sell

I've driven a few more cars and started to appreciate the joys of driving and now I'm not too keen to go back to my sluggish i20.

BHPian dchatterjee89 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello BHPians,

I'm looking for some advice with my current car and/or a potential upgrade.

I currently own an i20 Sportz variant manufactured in 2017 (Kolkata) and with the car closing in on 5 years and the road tax soon to expire in a few months' time, I'm faced with a decision of whether to keep it or look for an upgrade.

This situation is further complicated by the fact that the vehicle was purchased and registered in Kolkata and moved to Bangalore (where I moved for work) in early 2020 (just before the pandemic kicked off). As a result, I haven't had the chance to drive it properly in the last couple of years (except for short city runs) and have not yet paid the hefty Karnataka road tax. Also, I've been stuck in Kolkata for the past year and the engine hasn't been started at all during that period.

Given all this, I am sceptical about whether I should register the car in Karnataka, pay the repair costs (not fully sure what this would include except for the obvious ones like battery replacement, engine oil change etc.) and stick with this car. This one has run for only 15k km so far which is a big factor that has almost persuaded me to stick with it for a few more years. I would really appreciate some thoughts about what are the cons of having an engine that has not run for just over a year. Are there any long term reliability concerns in such a case?

P.S: I will see the car in person next week for the first time in a year. There might be some other issues that might come up in inspection like wire cuts, rat nests and the like although the car is parked in an indoor garage.

This is my 2nd car (the first was a Hyundai Eon which I drove for around 25k km over 3 years) and at the time of purchase, I was quite impressed by the i20 given the fact that I was used to driving such a basic car at that point. Over time, I've driven a few more cars and started to appreciate the joys of driving and now I'm not too keen to go back to my sluggish i20. I'm sure anyone who has driven this car will confess the engine seems off the boil at the low and mid ranges and overall it's not an engaging drive. I find myself wishing I had considered the Swift in 2017 which a friend of mine bought at the same time. Despite it being a bit cheaper and the overall ride quality is slightly lower than the i20, it is still such a good, fun drive.

I've started looking at options for an upgrade with a budget of around 15L to 17L OTR Bangalore. I'm not set on any particular segment since my requirements are only for myself (no family members to carry around). I will drive the car myself and except for some road trips, I'll probably be the only person in the car. I'm only looking at MT options and so far I've test-driven the following:

Honda City 5th gen i-Vtec: This one was easy to fall in love with. I did not dislike anything in particular and the only things I was a little doubtful with are the engine response in low to mid ranges and the premium back seats.

• I took 2 test drives from 2 different showrooms in Kolkata and while the first one had significant pulling power and great refinement, the other was sluggish and its engine made too much noise. This 2nd car had been driven for 18k km already and by different people but I did not expect such degradation with such low mileage. I've heard and read great things about how rev-happy and lasting the Vtec engine is so I'm not sure how that car ended up like that or if it was a quality control issue.
• Another minor problem I have with this car is how much premium I'm having to pay for the lounge-like experience on the back seats, given no one is ever expected to sit there. But I know this can't be a deciding factor.

Hyundai i20 N line: I drove the DCT variant and it is nothing like an i20 as I have known. But this one is not available in MT so I'm not considering it.

Hyundai Creta NA petrol manual variant (not sure what it's called): Sitting up high with a good view and the panoramic sunroof were the highlights of this car. The driving experience was unremarkable and the 1.5L petrol engine did not seem to be punchy at all. Given the 1.4 turbo GDI is out of my budget, I'm not considering this anymore.

VW Polo Highline plus manual: I had heard a lot of good things about this car over the years (specifically the GT with the DSG, although this comes with a TC now) and all of them are true it seems. The engine just keeps on pulling across all rev ranges and I really liked the suspension across some moderate Kolkata roads. But with VW upselling the Taigun, pausing Polo manufacturing and rumours about this car being discontinued I'm not sure if a purchase would be possible or a good choice. Also, the features and space are a downgrade from my current i20.

Apart from the above, I plan to look at the petrol Verna (expecting it to be comparable to the City but I prefer how the City looks) and Vento (availability issues similar to the Polo). I find the Taigun to be overpriced and since I plan to own a single car I cannot risk buying anything from Skoda due to their infamous after-sales problems.

Apologies for the lengthy post but any advice regarding any of the above would be very helpful since I need to decide pretty soon if I plan to keep my current car or not.

Here's what BHPian AamirHussain had to say on the matter:

The previous i20 is a great car.

The current facelift is not liked by many.

My suggestion is to keep the i20 as many new cars and facelifts are coming in 2022 and 2023.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.