Why I sold my used Hyundai i10 after just 3 years of ownership

Parted ways with the i10 at 1.15 lakh km in 2021 and it was bought at 80,000 km in 2018.

BHPian Slickshift99 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi folks, been a really long time since my last post on the thread. With a heavy heart, had to let go of my i10 in October 2021, there were issues with the car lately that was going out of my hands to manage, also I had to leave for abroad as my higher studies called, which meant the car would be sitting idle, unattended and worsen to an extent I would not want to see it in.

On the issues now, there was some of other issue popping up every month; week. It was getting unmanageable for Me to upkeep the car in a fine condition. Issues like AC failing every now and then, Radiator going kaput, windshield washer motor blowing up, front suspension sagging (replaced just 10 months ago) and the daddy of all problems - gearbox breakdown on the Delhi-Chandigarh Highway.

I was just cutting costs on my own expenses to run the i10 somehow,i10 was supposed to be a reliable car for a university student like me but the gearbox breakdown had me enough.

How did the gearbox breakdown happen?

I have no idea, to be honest, I would get the car serviced regularly. One day I realised a humming sound from the cars centre console or rather from the firewall section, got it checked at an FNG, he claimed no oil in the gearbox, called up the previous owner and realised that they had never in the 80k km history of the car had replaced the gearbox oil, rather their son who would drive the car. Immediately topped up the gearbox with synthetic oil, and the car was running just fine.

Now on my drive to Chandigarh from Delhi I was about to make a quick overtake, slotted into 3rd from 4th from that yummy slick-shifting gearbox and past I went, now about to slot back to 4th and the gear lever won't come out of the 3rd, that was one scary moment as the car I just overtook was just on my tail. Somehow managed to come to a halt on the roadside, but could not diagnose the issue. Burned the clutch and took off in 3rd from a complete standstill, found a garage on the way but they too couldn't get the lever unstruck. At crawling speeds of 40, I reached Chandigarh in a couple of hours and handed over the car to my FNG.

The next morning I get to know that the teeth of the gears had broken off and there was way too much wear and tear, suggested I get a completely new gearbox upwards of 60k. Damn it was an i10 manual giving me chills of a VW/Skoda DSG

Heck that, I even realised, the car had been involved in some kind of an accident by the previous owner as the radiator housing frame was broken and made do with a 'Jugaad', indicated why the AC and Radiator would go bad every now and then

Here are some pics from the incident

See how one side of the radiator housing frame hangs, it was done with a metal strip and two bolts as Jugaad for the go.

That's the mud from 'craters' on the highway, it was the farmer protest era.

AC cooling core with a leak, as the radiator frame broke and somehow damaged it.

Burned down the clutch plate, thanks to the 3rd gear, also the rusted and broken engine mount bracket.

Spot the missing teeth in the cog.

I couldn't afford a brand new gearbox, so I insisted on getting one from a donor car, it took them a week to find a perfect example and was all done for almost 18k Rupees, replaced the radiator, AC cooling core and the housing frame. The car ran butter smooth then but after knowing all the "secrets" of the car, I was just not confident enough to use it on the highways, my family was also insisting hard to let go of the car and I agreed.

Parted ways with the i10 at 1.15L km for Rs 58k in 2021 and it was bought at 80k km for 80k Rupees in 2018.

Lesson - inspect even the finest of details when opting for a pre-owned vehicle, even if it is one of the most reliable vehicles in the country.

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