Hyundai Verna (Diesel) - A product of the Fluidic Revolution

Yes!! it was indeed a revolution of sorts. A revolution which has changed the company's fortunes. It was purely a shell design innovation aimed at increasing the aesthetic appeal. All the products which came out of Hyundai's stable after this fluidic design has been really standing out and could easily pass of as a premium segment vehicle. I wonder how the company has rewarded the persons behind this fluidic concept.

Thanks to this innovative design, the new Hyundai Verna seems to be ages ahead of the outgoing Verna. If the outgoing Verna looked "plain Jane", the new one is a "HOT Jane" a Ramp material. 

My cobrother booked one (diesel version) on March 2012 and eventhough the promised delivery date was September 2012, he got hands on the vehicle on April 2012 itself. Reason stated was that the color he booked (purple) was not of any demand. He was lucky Joe, forhe got it before the Tax rise proposed by the Government. Infact this is one of the colors, which in my opinion is best suited for Verna. But people of my State think otherwise.

Before I go into a detailed review the pros and cons

The pros 

- The most beautiful sedan inside 20 Lakh segment (She's a sexy lexy!!!!). 

- The softly tuned suspension and low Ground clearance results in a butter smooth drive (she guarantees comfort !!) 

- Seat cladding simply embraces you from the back. (She will hold you closer) 

- Power is more than sufficient, with minimal turbo lag. (Itz fun to take her for a spin !!) 

- Superb noise insulation, and you won't feel that it is a diesel. (She has a husky tone !!) 

- No diesel clatter and no vibration inside the cabin (She's elegance personified !!!) 

- Airbags and ABS in the middle variant itself (She guarantees safety !!) 

- Gizmos, gizmos and more gizmos. No need of any external add ons as the vehicle comes factory fitted with reverse cam, powerful stereo with USB input, bluetooth pairing, on board information system and a hell lot of others. (She's fully loaded !!!) 

- A veeeery big boot, something which the Indian's like (hmmmmm Now you know why shez a sexy lexyyyy!! )

The cons

- STRICLY a four seater !! Before leaving your company, put your boss in the middle seat of the back row and take him for a ride. There is nothing more you can do to him. 

- Bad underthigh support in the back seat. 

- Low GC and softly tuned suspension means scrapping of bumps in the great Indian roads, especially when the vehicle is fully loaded 

- Service cost seems to be on the higher side (Based on the input received from the service centre regarding the costs, Average cost of normal paid service comes to around Rs.6500/-). Free services with oil changes cost above 3500/-. 

- It is difficult to avoid a jerk during gear shift. (It seems to be a matter of getting used to driving this vehicle and as the vehicle gets older this problem slowly subsides) - It is really hard to find more cons !!

Take a look at this Vehicle, and you will fall madly in love with it.

An aerodynamic feel is writ large over it. The level of detail which the designers went into is evident in each of the lines in the body.

The CRDI engine of Hyundai had already made its impact. Ever since they launched the first sedan with a diesel engine - the accent CRDI, Hyundai engines has been popular with the masses for driveability, reliability, refinement and fuel economy. 

The new generation Hyundai Verna's engine is no different. The power on tap is simply amazing, overtaking is piece of cake. The driver has to take extra care for a smooth drive, otherwise each time he step on the gas, there will be a backward jerk for all the passengers.

Watch the simple but elegant grill design, a signature of fluidic concept. 

Hyundai engineers has shown that a big grill with loads of chrome is not a must for making a style statement. (I don't know what the chrome loving masses will do. Will they buy after market chrome stickters and place it all around their grill and make this look bizzare !!)

Look closely at the fog lamp design. The lamp housing extends to the front, complimenting well with the front grill design. The headlight housing also extends a little backward.

The fog lamps are quite usable ones. The lighting is adequate. A set of projector lamps for the headlight could have taken the design to another level.

This is one of the rare sedans whose side profile also has a great appeal.

Watch that small projection in the body panel which starts from the tail lamp and ends at the fog lamp, passing through the door handles. This projection makes a lot of difference in increasing how things jell together in the side profile. The relatively large body panel on the doors also looks good because of this small projection. 

With this fludic design it is really hard to find an angle from which this vehicle looks bad. See the back profile. Only a selected few will be able to comment in the negative. 

In fact Fludic designers did put a relatively fat chrome strip on the back to satisfy the chrome loving population which forms the majority in India.

When we gazes at the back, the auto enthusiast's eye will certainly fall on the twin silencer. It is more of a cosmetic addition than a functional one. Neverthless it gives that upper market look.

It is only a single bottle silencer which splits up into two towards the end pipe. Hyundai seems to have mastered a trick or two to woo the Indian customer mindset and they have been successfull in their endeveour too if the bookings are to be taken into account.

The reverse sensors come as a standard fitment in this model. My only grudge though is Why they didn't paint it in the same colour as that of the car. 

Reversing this car has been made very easy, thanks to the reverse camera which is neatly hid underneath the number plate. The integrated operation of sensors and the camera has made it possible to give audio as well as video feedback to the driver.

The alloys and tyres has a lot of say in the overall character of the vehicle. The 8 spoked alloys are nothing but classy ones. The 16 inch tyres makes the car look bigger than what it is. These 16 inchers fills up the wheel well unlike in some cars where the tyres are too smaller for there well well showing up the dirt inside the wheel wells. 

This fellow comes with disc brakes all around. Watch the rear disc brake in the above picture.

Open the boot and one statement to describe it is "you can move your home here".

Enough of the exteriors. Now lets get inside and see how convenient it is for the passengers. Afterall this is the most important aspect to decide on the car more than the external appearance. External looks will not last long to impress if the internal convenience is not good coz this is the place where owners spent their time the most

Watch the front seat legspace.

This is comfortable enough even for the "The tallest Indian". The legspace combined with the superb seat cladding makes the front seat of the Hyundai Fluidic Verna the place to be in.

See how the cladding is ready to embrace you

To make matters a little more comfortable there is a hand rest at the centre too which will make lovers and just married couples all the more happy coz of their slim design.

Underneath the handset their is a small storage space too.

Before we go into the other features available for the driver, let us see the back seat.

See the back seat. The seat cladding is not as much pronounced as that of the front seat, still some amount of cladding is there for two passengers.

The above picture is taken with the front seat slid back 75% of the maximum. This front seat position is comforable to a 6 feet tall guy.

With this front seat position, Watch the space available for a 178cm guy at the back.

The leg space is adequate

To give an idea on thigh support watch these legs.

You can see that underthigh is not touching the seat. The height difference between the seat top and the floor of the car is too less. Hence our legs will be angled up and thighs won't touch the seat. In the front seat since our legs can be stretch underneath the dash board thight support is good. In the back seat this can cause problems to people who are taller than 170cms.

The back seat handreast is really big and both the passengers will feel happy.

This protrusion due to folded handrest, the bump in the footwell at the centre and the slight rise in the middle seat owing to the small dip given for the window passengers makes life difficult for the middle seat passenger. It seems that Hyundai tried to give a head rest for the middle seat passenger just to market this as a five seater.

The front seat head room is more that adequate. There has been lot of reviews which stated that the back seat head room is not sufficient since the roof by virtue of design tends to slope downwards more at the back side. Even though this is true, it is not a concern for people below 180 cms. See the head room in this picture. 

Now back to the convenience at the front. The glove box is really huge too.

The dash board is having an upmarket feel, thanks to this classy instrument console.

There is automatic climate control, FM/AM player, CD/MP3 player, AUX input, USB input, bluetooth pairing etc

Getting everything as part of the company fitted instrument console is a boon as the aftermarket gizmos are known to develop issues pretty sooner.

There is a small storage space underneath instrument console, which also houses the 12v socket and the USB socket. 

Very nice of the designers to keep the USB interface here as in most of other cars the position of USB interface hinders with the driver's hand movement.

Underneath the handbrake too, there is a storage space.

The steering wheel also looks classy. The audio controls and phone controls are present in the steering wheel itself.

I wonder why they didn't provide cruise control, though it may not be of any use in 90% of Indian roads.

The instrument console behind the steering wheel has the RPM meter, speedometer and a host of other info on a digital meter which includes odometer, fuel status, current fule consumption, average fuel consumption engine temperature etc.

The driver side footwell is pretty deep too. The dead pedal is a boon to have in long drives.

The internal rear view mirror is pretty useless, thanks to the smallish rear windshield.

Luckily this rear view mirror also doubles up as the reverse camera display.

Without this reverse camera it is really difficult to reverse this vehicle. The warning lines overlayed on the video display also helps a lot.

The front door has controls for all the power windows, central door locking, Outside rear view mirror adjustment and a button for retracting the outside rear view mirror.

The retractable outside rear view mirror has been a segment first.

There is a sun glass holder integrated with the interior lights

Normally we have seen vanity mirrors for the front seat passenger.

But now Hyundai has provide a mirror for the driver too. Are they promoting lady drivers or did they think that beauty consciousness of male drivers has gone up.

I tried to cover most of the aspects of this beautiful car in a point of view of the common man who is not much well versed with the other technical details of the car.

This car is a stunner both in looks and performance. Strictly a four seater. This might be slightly overpriced but QUALITY comes at a COST ...

Sharing some beautiful shots when we made a Waynad drive just to enjoy this beautiful mean machine.

and last but not the least let me sign off with a picture of the owners toooo..

Disclaimer: All the views expressed are purely personal. These views can differ from person to person. The service centre experience is based on the service center near my dwelling city. It can be a different experience at your place. If time permits just visit the service centre during evenings when customers will be taking delivery of their vehicles and see how existing customers are dealt with. You can even talk to some of them and get a direct feedback. Kindly take a proper test drive before buying this vehicle.