Hyundai Fluidic Verna – Thing’s I Hate and Love

My Hyundai Fluidic Verna ( Accent Internationally ) was a surprise package to me. The car is actually pretty decent and there are many things I like about it and few thing’s I hate about it too.

REFINEMENT:

The biggest surprise has been the car’s NVH levels and refinement. This is really very close to Luxury car level refinements. Sometimes it’s so hard to tell that you are even driving a diesel engine while inside the car. Very less noise filters in.

FUEL EFFICIENCY:

Surprisingly good. My 1.6 Liter Diesel engine is giving around 17-22 Kmpl. This is after having a heavy ICE system installed on the car.

ENGINE AND GEARBOX:

It’s kind of a mixed bag. Gearbox is short shifting and smooth but slightly notchy. Engine is actually powerful enough for our roads with 126 Bhp and 260 Nm torque.

But,the issue comes up in drive-ability. When you are at low speeds and higher gear’s, the car will start to shudder and the torque is not there to pull you out immediately. You will have to lower gears to get that torque and get moving. In the regard both the Vento and Rapid have better driveability at any gear and speeds.

RELIABILITY:

This is a super reliable car so far ( 30,000 Kms ) with no issues except a broken steering wheel gear. Our pot holed roads are to be blamed more for that than the car itself. Otherwise Hyundai car’s are usually as reliable as a Toyota and Maruti.

RIDE QUALITY:

The Verna has softer suspension setup and solid rear axle. While this  is alright for city riding and smooth straight roads, it’s pretty bad on highway roads that are undulated or generally bad road’s. The car weaves and bounces a lot. The Rapid and Vento are again better in this regard with their slight mature suspension setup.

SERVICE CENTER QUALITY:

Very poor service center experience but this is similar across the range for all Brands in India. No one provides honest, tension free services for their customers except maybe Toyota and Maruti to some extent. Lot of unprofessional-ism, if you’re not around, the SA in all probability is blasting your ICE with volume at it’s MAX.  In my case they even managed to scratch a part of my car’s door during a regular service, I had them repaint the whole door but it was done hastily and at very poor quality level’s. You can still see the paint overdrips now as well as the scratch.

The only solution was to start doing the services myself. Here is a DIY for oil services for Verna ( Accent ).

BRAND IMAGE:

This to me is the biggest gripe with this car. For some unknown reason Hyundai’s brand image is bad in India as it is worldwide. Their car’s are not exactly VFM since they are priced slightly higher than competition, but in their defense their car’s are good. The one thing however that no one can escape from is it’s poor brand image. It does not make you feel special owning this badge but at the same time you are going to find it very difficult to hate the car for any other reason.

RESALE VALUE:

All car’s in this price range and above have very poor resale value except for car’s from Toyota’s range such as the Innova and Fortuner. A 5 year old Verna ( Accent ) easily loose’s 50% of it’s value. Now that is depressing.

CONCLUSION:

Hyundai make some pretty decent car’s and for the average buyer their car’s are honestly more than enough for most. If only their badge value was more snobbish, we would not need to search for another car brand.