OD Garage : Hyundai i10

The i10 after entering long-tern fleet has already seen rather frenetic action registering over a couple of thousand kilometres. The winner of nearly every Indian COTY award, the i10 presents a very valid case for accolades. Now a year in OVERDRIVE’s long term stables will be the i10’s toughest test and she’ll have to prove her credentials on the reliability and economy fronts.

We have already highlighted her myriad virtues in drive and test reports and now we have opportunity to focus on her abilities as urban commuter. To be honest I would not rate her as commuter despite using her precisely for just that purpose since I have discovered several qualities that fall in the luxury prefix category.

Driving to work in Mumbai, from Borivali to our offices in Dadar, takes anywhere between an hour and a half at best to couple of hours at worst. In urban chaos the i10 comes across as superbly comfortable and well endowed to reduce the sting of commuting blues. The suspension is nicely sorted out and irons out most bumps; however for the past few days I’ve been hearing the tie-rods on the front right wheel clicking and knocking. Which only means the stress of having to dampen some of the surface blemishes in Mumbai are taking their toll. This early in her tenure, the suspension noise is not very comforting.

On a positive note the spirited 1.1-litre iRDe engine works double time in managing incessant variations in traffic conditions. One moment I am crawling an inch a second, the next an open stretch of highway compels me to open up her intakes and let her breathe freely. Despite these she returns a highly appreciated mileage figure of 15-16kmpl in the city and maintains nearly the same on the highway, with my foot glued firmly to the accelerator pedal of course. On a rare occasion when I took it easy on a Mumbai-Pune run she surprised me with a 18.3kmpl figure. I am sure she is capable of more though with my heavy foot such figures are not too likely.

She boasts a nice list of features especially the integrated CD player that has very good sound reproduction and is ergonomically a delight. The aux connector is also a good addition to wire ipods into. Hyundai also needs to be complemented on addressing safety issues with even a compact car like i10 offering airbags and ABS, albeit in the Magna (O) trim spec of our test car. The driving lamps illuminate edges of the road perfectly though the main beams from the headlamps could do with more powerful bulbs.

Her light and nimble disposition is admirable. After driving a luxo-barge that consumed at least 20 extra minutes of commuting time, the i10’s lithe dimensions, light steering with superb assist, short throw gears and happy-to-be-revved-hard engine seemed like godsend. In fact biker Vikram found the ease of the i10 operation a boon to polish driving skills with.

I am quite reluctant to let go of this hatchback despite lure of the CR-V which is not the most convenient in urban crawl except to bully her way via merit of her size.

The diminutive i10 is at a disadvantage, having no big on-street presence. But it goads me to buzz past SUVs and luxo-barges by carving through traffic while they wait for gaps to open. Which is when the i10 seems just the place and car to be in...

- Bertrand D'souza