Hyundai Accent & Santro comes home and Tragedy Strikes (1999)

In a couple of years of Cielo ownership – we realized on our road trips that although it was a company car provided to us more like a benefit but was taking a good toll on our pockets. Although the car was a breeze to drive and was a damn good status symbol still we had to look for options – in the meantime Hyundai arrived in India and we gladly picked up two of their most sold cars namely – An Accent and a Santro. Basically Hyundai Accent was for my cousin’s use and Santro will be shared between me and my sister in law for more of home use and short trips around the city, office commute etc. The only other options for a medium sedan in India in late 90’s were either Maruti Esteem, Hyundai Accent, Cielo and Lancer, the last two being premium with more power with almost no mileage (Read between 8-10 KMPL) that too when you handle them extremely well. My cousin and I used to almost fly our cars on the highways hence we knew it that none of them would be affordable in the longer run. We couldn’t settle for a hatch back either as we needed a decent boot space too for all our trips. We had almost a couple of trips lined up every month hence a hatch back was out of question. That’s why finally we had to settle for Hyundai Siblings, one for the highways and one for city drive.

I for one, always wanted to buy a Red car and this was my opportunity to grab one with both hands, that too a brand new Hyundai Santro, which was recently launched and unfortunately wasn’t accepted that well for its weird looks. I still remember WagonR by Maruti and Santro by Hyundai were equally hated for their odd looks still they survived and now when we look at the numbers that they sold in last so many years – it just amazes me. Both were based on the tall boy design that you need to actually slide in the car, getting out and in was such a breeze. With its height advantage driving them too was a breeze; the view even for a short guy like me was excellent. My cousin wanted a Beige color Accent and we had booked a Red Santro. The day we got the call for delivery of the vehicles – I was too excited but then it turned out to be sad too as they told us that the Red color was out of stock and if we had to take the delivery of the car on the same day it had to be both Silvers or we need to wait for couple of more weeks. It was almost mid March and I guess some depreciation advantage was their too hence we were forced to take both cars in Silver color only. But that anyways didn’t dampen my spirit of getting a brand new car as soon as I got the keys in my hand. We took the top model of Accent with all the bells and whistles available at that time like Tilt Steering, Manually adjustable rear view mirrors, central locking, some company fitted stereo which wasn’t that great in quality, all four power windows, power brake so on so forth. On the other hand the Santro that we too was the very basic model with no power steering, no stereo, no power windows, no body color bumpers or door handles not even adjustable rear view mirrors, it had only driver side rear view mirror that too should be adjusted by hand and there wasn’t even a bloody lid to do that from inside. So if it rained and you needed to adjust it – you had to first roll down the window manually, adjust the mirror, roll up the window and that was painful. Although Santro was a small car but still now power steering did help me develop some muscles while parking it and taking it out of the parking slot.

Hyundai Santro

Delivery Process: Since my cousin was out of town, me and my friend went to take the delivery of the vehicle and we had all the papers like “power of attorney”, bank loan documents etc in place. To my amazement it took us one full day to take the delivery as we went almost around 11 am and if I am not wrong, by the time we got the delivery it was already 7.30 PM and even they were almost ready to close the show room as soon as we left. This was my first delivery of a brand new vehicle hence I wasn’t at all prepared but my friend was quite an expert and it all went smooth cause of him only. Finally as soon as we got the keys – I took the Santro keys and zipped out of the showroom with my friend in Accent followed me but in no time he over took me and I was way behind him on our way to Noida where we stayed.

Hyundai Santro Interiors - Nothing great to talk about

Hyundai Santro: My first experience of driving a Santro was quite good, up till now all I had driven were the likes of M800, Zen, Esteem and Cielo. This was quite a breeze in comparison to all those cars. Obviously you cannot compare the power or BHP’s but what I am saying is the ease of driving. For its size the 1100cc engine with 65 BHPs is too good. It was quite a zippy drive and it will do 100 in almost no time at all, since it had no power steering I found it more stable than its Maruti counterpart. Had no idea of its mileage initially and later we found out after a couple of weeks of driving and two service down the line that it was giving us around 12-14 in city drive. I am sure it gave us pretty better than that on the highways too as very soon we took it to quite a few long drives as it had enough space for our family of 3 adults and one kid with decent luggage space in its small boot. Because of its size and better clearance – parking it was easy too as you needed hardly any space to drag it in, it would easily fit in a space which was enough for two bikes. I remember we once took it all the way to Jammu from Delhi because no other car was available and we had to go at any cost. It was quite a quick drive and we never faced any issue neither while going or coming back – the only issue was my friends right foot which got swollen cause he would not let me drive at all throughout the way. I personally took it to Dehradoon and Mussorie couple of times and never had any issues in driving – coming back on the same day as my nephew got admitted in one of the schools and as a rule we had to visit him every alternate weekend. The highway wasn’t that bad – although mostly single road but still quite manageable, we used to leave early and return by mid night after spending full day with him.

Hyundai Accent

Hyundai Accent: I somehow never liked Accent in comparison to its counterparts like Esteem, Lancer or Cielo, this too was a 1500cc engine with almost 90 BHPs like all of the others. Even after driving it for quite a few weeks I realized it wasn’t as zippy as an Esteem, neither it had a great air conditioning nor a fantastic feel while driving. As per my cousin it did gave him driving pleasure of some sort which I never got from it, still it was quite light in comparison to Lancer and Cielo. Although it’s chunky steering with tilt control was awesome as it felt thick and heavy. It was quite an underpowered car and I hated it on the highways – especially on the hilly drives. I noticed even my cousin would toggle with the Air Conditioning switch too often while going around the hills rather than down shifting. We had done the same drives in our other cars and they never felt this sluggish to tell you the truth. Space wise it was quite a good car with ample of leg space front and back, a damn good boot, other features like a rear defogger, fog lights, day and night cabin mirror, child lock etc were present but it didn’t make it an impressive package. Even on economy front Accent did take a beating from others – we never got anything above 12 KMPL in city and some 13-14 on the highways on 100% AC. Driving it on straight roads was good but even then while over taking you do need to down shift, that was quite a pain – all this while we compared it with Cielo which was such a breeze to drive – you could easily overtake a vehicle even on top gear without the hassle of down shifting. But that I guess that’s what its premium price stood for. There was no concept of ABS or Air Bags at that time and I guess it took them quite a few years to launch the same in India.

Hyundai Accent Interiors

Tragedy: It wasn’t even 15 days that we took both those two cars and a tragedy stuck. My cousin as I mentioned earlier had travelled out of town – called one fine morning and I had to go to pick him up from the Airport early in the morning. I wasn’t too keen on going on this drive that early – mind it – New Delhi airport is quite a distance from Noida hence I called my friend who was with me while we took the delivery of the cars and as both of us were born car maniacs – we never used to say No to any drives – anytime of the day and that rule applies even today – I never say no to driving still. We decided I will drive while we go to the airport and he gets to drive on the way back since my cousin who was like 15 years elder to both of us would anyways want any of us to drive than him. As we left Noida there was a sharp left turn around Noida Film City which I used to take around 80-90 KMPH on Cielo, so I asked my friend “What do u think, would this (Accent) take it the same way our Cielo used to take?” I had a track of taking that sharp turn while tyres screeched and made damn good noise. As both of us used to smoke – usually the windows were rolled down too hence making it livelier. I guess that day we were not destined to have the fun of new car screeching, my friend said “Don’t even try that stunt in this one, I am telling you”, and I paid no heed to his view, thought he would never accept me as a good driver hence I paddled the accelerator a little bit more taking it to 90 KMPH I guess, the turn came, he grabbed the roof handle to stay straight on the seat, I too twisted the steering slightly to left taking the turn, car screeched, tyres burned……………and bang!!! Suddenly I felt as if car moved below us and as I tried reaching for the brakes – Bang!! It hit the divider on right from front – swerved a 180 Degrees and hit the divider again from left and came to a halt. With traffic coming behind us – we could actually see their shocking faces asking “What the heck were you trying to do dude?” and that’s that!!

That was my first accident ever and don’t even ask me how much was the estimate given by the Hyundai Workshop. But it did bloody took them close to 45 days to repair the car and deliver it back to us.

Speed Thrills But Kills – if not – it does screws the car guys so Drive Safe.