Hyundai Grand i10 Long Term Review – Initial Report

Hyundai Grand i10 Diesel Long Term Review

The Grand i10 is perfectly suited to the city, offering excellent mileage and ease of use

Long term cars are something that we journalists always look forward to. Why? Because we use them extensively throughout the months and it always intrigues us whether the long termer will impress or not. After moving on from a certain compact SUV that refused to work properly, I was handed over the Hyundai Grand i10 CRDi as my long termer and to be frank, I wasn’t much excited to have a Hyundai car but still chose to drive it. Read on the story of how this hatchback has managed to convince me that it is indeed one of the best mid-size hatchbacks on sale in India.

To start off with, the Hyundai Grand i10 is quite good-looking and I’ve appreciated its looks from day one. There are certain elements which have a feminine feel but still the Grand hits the right chord with its cute and compact exteriors. The build quality feels good (more on that later) and the paint quality is also quite above satisfactory. My test car is an Asta variant and hence it comes with these diamond-cut alloy wheels which add a very sporty touch to the car.

Lots of storage spaces make the Grand i10 win on the practicality front

The interiors are also very nicely built and sitting inside the Grand i10 is a pleasant affair. Hyundai has played nicely with the colours and there is top-notch quality everywhere which is indeed impressive looking at the price of the car. The hatchback is loaded with features like electrically operated and folding mirrors, keyless-go, rear AC vents and steering-mounted controls. The keyless-go feature is so convenient that I’ve forgotten how the key fob looks since it always remains in my pocket. I’ve been habituated by it that once I walked up to my Chevrolet Beat and tried pressing the door handle only to realise that it doesn’t have this feature. The Grand i10 is strictly a four-seater though and seating 5 passengers can be quite a squeeze.

However, I do have some grouses with the vehicle too. First of all, the Korean car doesn’t have auto door locking which is quite shocking, considering the fact that most vehicles now come with this feature. Since there is no separate boot release button inside the cabin, the Grand i10’s boot lock is connected to the central locking system and hence you need to lock the door manually to lock the boot too, else someone standing outside can easily open it. The audio system sounds nice but the Bluetooth seems to be having a mind of its own. It keeps showing “Bluetooth not ready” even after the car has been on for 20-25 minutes. Usually, the issue gets resolved by turning off the car and switching it on again (sometimes 2-3 times) but still it gets a bit irritating.

My Grand i10 had already done 21,000 kms when it came to me and now the odometer stands at 23,000 in a span of one month. Yes, the Grand has been doing a lot of running. The 3-cylinder, 1.1-litre engine is good on power delivery and while there is some turbo lag below 1600 RPM, the vehicle surges ahead with a good pull once the turbo kicks in. I never expected that this tiny mill will be so good in performance. It pulls the i10 to 140-150 km/hr also with ease and it doesn’t feel strained at all.

The small engine has good punch and feels peppy with excellent NVH levels

NVH levels are pretty decent for a 3-cylinder engine and the revs are audible inside the cabin only at high RPMs. The 5-speed gearbox nicely complements the powertrain and is smooth in its operations with gear throws being very short. Overtaking other cars on the highway is easy and the vehicle provides instant power delivery if it is kept in the appropriate rev range. The car is also returning pretty good mileage figures of around 17-18 km/l with running costs being close to Rs. 3.5 per km.

Ride quality is also awesome on the Grand i10 and considering the number of potholes and craters we have here in Mumbai, I must say that the vehicle does a splendid job of tackling them while also making sure that the ride feels very plush inside the cabin. However, the Grand i10 just isn’t meant to be a sharp handler and the steering is also extremely light which is a boon in city traffic though. The car doesn’t instil confidence while taking corners at speeds and it is best to drive this car sedately. The steering wheel is also a size bigger and I personally would prefer a smaller wheel.

The stock horn on the Hyundai Grand i10 is extremely weak and I really hope Hyundai borrows the horn from the Creta whenever they come out with the Grand i10 facelift. Driving so much in a crowded city like Mumbai does come with its fair share of cons too. While a horse-cart dinged the front bumper of the car at Marine Drive, on another instance a speeding Maruti Alto rear-ended the Grand i10. I expected the rear bumper to have taken quite a beating but surprisingly only one parking sensor (out of 4) got knocked inside the bumper while the Alto’s front bumper suffered more damage. This is why I said earlier that the build quality on this car is really good and I’m very impressed by it.

The Hyundai Grand i10 features in the list of the top 10 selling cars every month and I think it really deserves that spot. It has good looks, equipment, mileage, comfort and a good engine and the only thing where the car really lacks is in the steering and handling department. Hyundai has priced it at a good point too and the complete package feels very value-for-money. Arguably, the Grand i10 has made me believe that it is one of the best mid-size hatchbacks available in India currently.

Further Reading –

Hyundai Grand i10 Review
Hyundai Grand i10 Petrol Review
Hyundai Grand i10 vs Tata Bolt vs Maruti Swift
Hyundai Grand i10 vs Tata Bolt vs Maruti Swift – Video
Tata Bolt vs Ford Figo vs Hyundai Grand i10 vs Maruti Swift – Video