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Used Verna 1.6 CRDi: Fooled by the dealer but still happy with the car

10th January 2024, 10:40 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

The service centre guy confirmed that the transmission oil change was done on time at 1 lakh kilometres and not early. I was shocked and in denial!

BHPian tangiblewish recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Introduction

A car enthusiast in me will be describing my ownership experience in utmost detail and some of these details are not present even on YouTube or any other forum. I will try to be as detailed and categorised as possible.

A bit of my car ownership history

The first car officially owned by me was a 2006 WagonR VXI facelift with a 4-cylinder 1.1 litre gem of an engine. Bought it from a known friend of mine in my society who deals in cars in his free time. I will cover its unique story in another thread but after selling that car, I had the privilege to own a Hyundai Verna 1.6 CRDI Diesel automatic (4 Speed H matic as Hyundai describes it) owned by another neighbour who was a lawyer and a senior citizen now. I got my car through the same guy (in my society) who showed me my previous WagonR and took a very hefty 60K+ commission on Verna which I came to know very late.

Details about the car

I bought the car this year in April. The car is 2015 manufactured and 2016 registered and I was assured by the guy that the kilometres were genuine and I trusted him despite my younger brother who is now 16 years old telling me to verify the history from Hyundai before buying (My first mistake). The odo read 82K kilometres and I was assured that all services were done in the company till date which stands very true and explains the great condition of the car.

Since the model is SX Automatic, I have all 4 disc brakes as standard even though this is a Verna 4S! For me, 4S stands for 4 speed as it makes utmost sense to me lol. By the time Hyundai released this car and sold for almost 1.5-2 years, they had fixed almost every complaint they received from customers regarding Fluidic Verna. So I have tilt and telescopic steering, a damn good suspension setup surprisingly and a more fuel efficient 1.6 CRDI U2 engine with low friction coating on the pistons. I have it all except for rear AC vents but that's okay since the AC in general is super chilled. The supreme Harmon Kardon 6 speaker setup is a gem to have stock along with 6 Airbags.

A small thing to note is that Hyundai removed the rear armrest cupholders and headrest in the 4S. Like seriously why would they do that? It makes zero sense to me but anyway let's not get distracted and enjoy the eye candies attached below.

PS: I absolutely love the way this car looks and I am so picky about the little design details and overall proportions of a car and this car is just stunning. The thick black border between the hood and grill still haunts me to this date though.

Purchase price and my own expenses till date

5.25 Lakh car price
13K transfer fee
5K for two missing parking sensors (Hyundai original)
6k Fluids change and general service
32K tyres (Continental UC6)
6K New Amaron battery (few days ago)
Other expenses including repairs:- 15k which includes cracked hoses and fixing intercooler pipe. More on that later.

Some insights upon the choice of this car

I just wanted a fuel-efficient diesel sedan because, for some reason, the sedan is the only car type which I like. WagonR gave me 9KMPL in the city with AC and that was so heavy on my pocket and I bought it for learning anyway. My options were Ciaz and City after ruling out Germans as I wanted cheap repairability as well. And then out of the blue, I stumbled upon this beauty and was instantly convinced to buy it.

Before buying this car from my village, my dad who is a Mechanical Engineer and a car enthusiast test drove it and was genuinely impressed with the performance and condition. I came from Ahmedabad (workplace) to my native place and drove the car myself. This was my first automatic car in life and I honestly wasn't even looking for one. When I felt the 128BHP power myself, I was willing to lose a bit of fuel economy for the power and convenience in the city that this car offered. I was a bit disappointed upon hearing about the 4 Speed transmission tho but then turned into a fan of it.

Ownership with good and bad experiences so far

(TRAMSISSION SECTION IS SUPER IMPORTANT)

At the time of buying before the full payment was done, I drove it multiple times and noted that upon full throttle when the VGT spools up at max potential with a beautiful hiss that it makes at around 1800-2500 RPM, there was a very weird sound which nobody picked up till date. the best description would be that there was a scream at the full turbo potential just like a supercharged Dodge Challenger and this was concerning.

I got this checked with the mechanic and it turns out that the intercooler pipe connecting to the turbo had some small oil leak and I got that pipe replaced and have never seen the leak again. Then the beautiful hiss was restored without the whistle scream and the car returned to normal. AC vents were broken as seen on most of the fluidic Vernas so got the side ones replaced and kept the centre one since it was too costly.

Finally, after a full purchase, me and my dad drove the car to my workplace around 300 KMs away and this was the first long run of this car for us. Since the tyres were old, we didn't push the car to limits but the car comfortably did triple-digit speeds on an empty stretch without breaking a sweat with least efforts but that speed was soon diminished when a BMW X7 flew by us at that speed and disappeared in thin air and then we slowed down and were cruising at around 120 ish KMPH. All of this testing and we still got 17+ KMPL average which is commendable considering the very heavy foot driving.

Fast forward a few months and a new sound started coming on full throttle when turbo spooled at max potential. This time it was different. It sounded like AC vents blowing at full potential when you press the pedal and get into turbo range. I got this checked from a local mechanic and he told me this can be a gearbox issue. Even though I am an IT engineer, I wasn't convinced by that since my gut feeling told me it was something else and I felt the behaviour of the car is only noticeable at full turbo range. I told him to check all the main rubber hoses and turns out the main fat hose connecting to the engine which is right beside the engine cover had a small crack because of the age. Got that replaced and the sound disappeared. The replacement part was from Lakhani (yes the shoe company) since the part wasn't available with Hyundai and I wanted an urgent replacement.

Special mention to the 4-speed auto box which feels like 5-6-speed

The gear shifts are silky smooth and very aggressive if the pedal is pressed down because of the torque converter automatic. I use the Tiptronic function to shift early in city traffic because of the very tall gearing. It auto shifts at second gear at the speed of 20 at around 1500 RPM, 3rd gear at the speed of 40 at around 1850 RPM. Now the magic begins. Up until now, the RPM increases very linearly and no unusual RPM drop is found between gears. But once you cross the 3rd gear at 40 KMPH, the RPM increases till 1500 till you cross 50KMPH and suddenly eases the engine and drops the RPM to 1200 even though the throttle is pressed constantly and no gear is changed!

Now you reach till 65 KMPH and the gear shifts to 4th at around 1800 RPM and increases linearly till 80-85 KMPH then drops till 1300 RPM and linearly increases till 2000 RPM at the speed of 100. The drop of RPM feels like there are two pseudo/ghost gears for better efficiency and drivability. Do note that this car does 0-100 in 9 seconds and there is no loss in acceleration when the RPM drops, it pulls very nicely with a very soothing hiss at around 1800+ RPM.

I have never seen RPM drop between gears at constant throttle but nonetheless, it is very awesome to have a 4-speed behave like 6-speed. There is no mention of these transmission details anywhere on the web as far as I searched. Even Wikipedia has a list of Hyundai transmissions but all torque converter 4 speeds are rated for a very low torque output and not for this engine output. IDK what Hyundai is using. Any details of this transmission's functionality would be gladly appreciated.

Talking about fuel economy, I filled the tank and headed home 8 kms from the JIO-BP pump at midnight where there is less traffic on city roads and see what I got with AC on city roads, 26 KMPL! but in reality, with bumper-to-bumper traffic, it's more like 14 KMPL and easily 22+ on highways and even better if driven at 80-100 speeds which is the car's sweet spot in terms of efficiency.

Notice that the MID is of a different colour than the rest of the speedo? That's because initially the MID was blue and now it's not. More on that later.

After a few months, I finally got my tyres changed. I had options of Yokohama Earth (Japanese) and Continental UC6 (German) the Japanese had longer lasting rubber and 5 years of unconditional warranty whereas Germans had 2 years unconditional plus 3 years manufacturing defect warranty but had much more comfort and grip on offer so went with the Germans for better grip considering my heavy foot. Got the stock size 195/55/R16 at 8K per tyre. Japanese were of the same value as well.

The dashboard was also a mess since half side of the dashboard was sticky and permanently damaged by sunlight and cheap polish by the previous car care centre, so I visited AutoBros near Sanand Circle Ahmedabad to fix the mismatch and he was the only person to successfully fix it for few months with the help of expensive polishes.

I visited many other studios as well and everyone said my dashboard is permanently damaged by heat. Here is the picture of the dashboard after the new polish. The texture difference was hard to pick on camera and spoilt the interior look and feel so did not add a picture of it but I permanently fixed it with a plush cushiony dashboard cover from Elegant and I have been so happy with the soft fur material on my dashboard. It is easy to wash as well and is super premium to feel. It is as soft as a fur jacket or a soft toy in real! Attached a pic of that as well below:

Now comes the part where I realised I got betrayed

Remember when I said I bought two parking sensors which were missing from Hyundai at 2.5K each, I thought the instalment was done and it worked fine since this was the first car with parking sensors that I drove. Later realised that out of the two already existing old sensors, one was non-functional and I went to the Hyundai service center for another sensor and just casually checked for the service history with full confidence about the originality that I had in mind and the guy confirmed that from 2016 till 2022 all service was done at Hyundai including mandatory transmission oil change and the last service was done at 123000 KM.

I was in denial and told him to check again since I told him the transmission oil was changed early in my case at around 70K kilometres as said by the guy selling me the car. The ASC guy confirmed that the AT oil change was on time at 1 lakh kilometres and not early. I was shocked and felt super betrayed. But nothing that I could do since this was my trust and ignorance on this matter. The metre tampering explains the MID discolouration since it might have been opened and damaged while dialling back the kilometres.

There was an insurance claim as well which I was already aware of and it was front and rear bumper, headlights and minor stuff with re-painiting which I was okay with and ASC guy assured me this is a very small and common thing and no concerning part is replaced or damaged. The bonnet insulation cover was missing so I got it fitted with a nice damping material. I was not affected by the diesel sound since this is the most silent diesel motor I have ever heard and the insulation was barely needed but I did it anyway and it looks cool now.

It has been 4 months and still haven't gotten the parking sensor from Hyundai as they said the sensor would be shipped from Korea and told me to look for an old one in kabaadi!

Acceptance and future plans with my beauty!

Even after all of this, I am supremely happy with the car and this can easily gap any car on road (which does not cost a fortune to buy) and all of that with acceptable to good fuel economy. I would request people to share their experiences with this model and if they know any trusted mechanic who has a good knowledge with this car, please share details of the garage.

I have mild tuning plans in a few years and some cosmetic changes since the grille is too white for me, so black plus chrome would be nice and some more suggestions for subtly improving the car's stance would also be greatly appreciated. I have noticed a single tick sound on turning a steering sometimes. Not of Axle, I know that sound and I also have the rare sound of thudding suspensions on bad roads so I need some expert who can figure out the issue and doesn't unnecessarily break my pocket.

I am planning to keep this car till the RC expires since I have known people who have this exact same car going strong even after 2 lakh kilometres with the same auto box without any major repairs.

If someone has any contacts of reliable mechanics and tuners in Ahmedabad, please let me know. Since I am very new to owning cars in real life, some tips and tricks for maintaining an old diesel automatic with high odo would be great as well.

PS: I have also upgraded the headlights and fog lights to blinding LEDs but I keep on low beam and drive responsibly. Let me know if you need details of the upgrade. Upgrade cost was 10K. The black door guards on the white car was bugging me so I changed it to white door guards. 200 Rs from Flipkart