A good buy. Review on Hyundai Santro Xing eRLX

Firstly, let me announce that I am no expert on cars and this is my first car/first review on anything even remotely linked to cars...... When I decided I wanted to buy a car after the birth of my daughter, I did some research on different cars and zero'd in on Alto as my choice, mainly keeping budget in mind. But a visit to the dealer changed my mind and I decided I would go for Zen coz firstly, there were absolutely no offers on Alto as it was selling like hot cakes; secondly, alto was a 2+2 seater against zen being 2+3. So, obviously my budget was going up. So I decided to upgrade my ''unbought'' car to Zen... This was the end of March and there was word of Maruti stopping production of Zen (though dealers were strongly denying this and saying that a newer version of Zen was going to come up).. so, Zen was deleted from the scene coz friends advised me against it as ''for all you know, you might not get spares for Zen say after 5 years''. Though I didnt subscribe to that view, decided not to take a risk... This took me to the vehicle that I own now, Santro Xing eRLX............ Okay, now to the point of my review.... I took my car home on 25th March...the first thing that I really liked about it at the start was the ease with which I could manuever the vehicle.. coz I am no expert driver and I had taken my driving class in 2002 and had not taken the wheel after that... but I felt completely at ease during my first drive on the Xing in the traffic of Bangalore.... Last weekend, I took my vehicle for the first long drive... I chose a ''good'' road in that I went on Bangalore-Mysore road... the drive was really good... I drove for some time with a/c on full blast and then reduced it to the second point and it was pretty cool (though I was driving in the hot sun.. and realized next day that bangalore had its highest temp. on that day.. 37 degrees C).. Though (as proclaimed earlier), I am no expert in intricancies, I found the bumper/suspension/whatever to be pretty good without too much of jerks even when I was crossing a bad patch in the road..... I checked the breaking, etc., and I found it pretty comfy and safe........... Overall, the drive was superb.. and my 3 co-passengers also felt the drive smooth and cool..I was averaging 90+ on the Xing (though they hv stated not to drive above 70 till the first service)..... The one major problem I have found is that the pick up is damn bad with the a/c on... even on 2nd gear, the vehicle literally has to pull itself up roads with gradient.... I am in no position to comment on mileage as I am not checking it till doing my 1st service (coz now my wife is also ''learning'' on this car.. post her 15 driving classes...) Will be posting update after my 2nd long trip planned for the 20th.. to Ooty from Bangalore.......

Update dated June 18th....

This has been coming for quite sometime, but couldn't find time to put finger on keyboard (literal translation of pen on paper)...... I did go to Ooty by car on 20th May as planned... From Bangalore I took the bangalore mysore road and had a nice drive because of the wonderful road. I clocked 120 on my santro and was driving with a/c on.. it was a wonderful drive...the one problem that I felt was pickup with a/c on (as mentioned earlier).... then mysore to bandipur.. and then on, I took the less travelled mudumalai route (normally buses go via gudalur bcos mudumalai is a dense forest and a steep climb to ooty).. this route which I took we had 36 hairpin bends.. and even though I was just a novice with only 1000 km of driving in my history, the santro made it look like child's play.. navigation was very very easy.. .I did face one problem .. I was revving a lot on 2nd gear uphill and then again without changing gears, tried to rev again.. at that time, the engine felt "dead" for a couple of seconds...(that was enuff to get all weird thoughts into my mind).....but I realised my mistake.. and then I had no issues.... I had booked a hotel in coonoor (a 18-km drive from ooty in the hill route).. and the three days that I was there, everyday I came to ooty from coonoor and it helped me "perfect" my driving.. and left me wondering whether I could hv done it with such ease if not for my santro.. and finding a parking space in ooty during the summer season is a really horrible thing.. but Santro was wonderful in that aspect too...(A foolish matador driver still managed to hit me on the door while my vehicle was parked and made me replace that.. )

The mileage part, I did fill my tank in b'lore but forgot to fill just b4 reaching ooty (to enable me to check highway mileage).. By the time I fuelled my baby again, I had done some hill driving too (on 2nd gear).. with all that, it gave me a mileage of 13.8 (out of the 377 km that I had done, around 250 was on plains with a/c on.. and the rest 125 was on hills with most of the driving in 2nd gear)... I guess 14 is not a bad number for that road... On return I even clocked 140 on my car.. and I reached Bangalore ring road from Mandya in 1 hour (roughly 90 km).... it was just amazingg.. Am planning on chennai trip this month end (june).. Will update on mileage front after this.......................Ciao...