Buying and owning a Hyundai Elite i20 & old Honda City Vtec

Once you experience a Honda VTEC with straight pipes, there’s no going back. I don’t think I’d ever be able to drive one stock.

BHPian ManualTribe recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Garage update:

I’m going to mix it up a little here, and bring to you ownership reviews of both my babies.

2015 Hyundai i20 VTVT MT:

Well, the name isn’t that long, but Hyundai decided to call it the “Elite” I20, leaving me with not much of a choice.

I dropped out of my engineering after trying for two years, and that kept things at home very volatile for me. So when I initially went up to my dad and said “Hey, I’ve saved up some cash, could you help me get a loan so that I can get myself the new KTM RC 390?”. The response was rather humbling.

I didn’t give up however, and turned up with double the ante this time, wanting to buy a car(was always more into cars). To my utter disbelief, I was allowed to go car shopping keeping a budget of about 5 lakh keeping in mind I would pay the installments and was asked to look at the Beat, Alto and even the Nano.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re great machines, but I wanted something to call out to me. Something to match my personality and driving traits.

The hottest hatch back in the day was the Polo in it’s GT (TSI/TDI?) avatar. The more economical option being the MPI which just wasn’t juicy enough.

I knew I had to extend my budget if I even wanted to think premium hatch, and well, a couple of heated discussions and convincing later, I went ahead and zeroed in on my probable choices. The Hyundai Elite I20 (as they call it), the Polo MPI, and the Punto. I test drove all three, and though the I20 was supposedly the worst driving/handling one amongst the three, I requested for a longer test drive in one and released it wasn’t all that bad as advertised. Having spent enough time in a previous gen owned by the family, I knew the ride had improved considerably. So it wasn’t like they didn’t listen.

However, the Polo MPI lacked the power and the Punto left me a bit meek, as the guy told me a normal service could take upto a week. I couldn’t imagine being apart from the car for so long, and the I20 on the other hand had a really strong hold in my mind.

In terms of premiumness back in 2015, it was a huge step up from anything else in the market. It packs a decent amount of power, although its not the 100+ bhp mark which is currently hotter than ever.

So I made it happen! 21st November, 2015 I took delivery of the I20, named it Leena and have driven 108,000 kms since.

This car has literally seen it all, as cliche as it is saying that. I was a 21 year old college boy who took up multiple internships to be able to afford what some would call a needless possession.

I gave it my all to have enough money for fuel and expenses at all times. That’s where my hustle started.

The first road trip was from Bangalore to Hyderabad and back. I was accompanied by both my parents, and it went by in a breeze. It was as comfortable as a hatch can get for three occupants. This is where I learnt for the first time, that this car has one downside – being mileage. The FE was an absolute joke! While driven spiritedly, I get about 7-10 kmpl, no joke. When you really do try to get some solidarity in your wallet and shift under 2000 rpms, she manages about 12-13 kmpl. This obviously made my dad a bit upset as he thought any sensible guy in my place should’ve chosen something like the swift, or ANYTHING but with good FE.

To be honest, I loved it though! I loved the note of the stock exhaust, I believe its one of the nicest sounding petrols in the segment. Needs stainless steel piping and she’ll be a screamer! When your car sounds and shifts like you want it to, you’ll never be able to complain about the kilometres per litre it achieves.

Life went on, I graduated and started working, while changing multiple jobs thanks to luck, decisions, the pandemic etc. One thing that remained constant in my life was this baby.

Once I strated working, i obviously had a larger amount of disposable income and well, it all went to experiences. I have driven this car with its FE all over the place. Multiple Goa trips, multiple Blore-Hyd runs and a trip to Kolkata and back.

It has always been the most comfortable ride ever. A gear down whenever I’m in need of a bit more oomph and it never disappoints.

I’ve made sure this car always got the best. A single ding or scratch would mean an insurance claim and making the guys at Hyundai go mad! Because I just couldn’t let them not take my pride and joy seriously! It was always taken care of by authorized Hyundai service centres and runs stock to the day. (Recently got a set of forged rims and Yoko rubber).

The clutch on this is a bit of a tricky one. Not boasting or talking smack here, but if you ever look up TGE TV’s video on him purchasing his dream Porsche Carrera GT, yo’ull hear him say that he got practice of the clutch on a 1.2/1.4 Hyundai.

While you disengage the clutch, it takes a bit for the car to move.

Considering my username, you know by now I’m a sucker for a good shifting knob of happiness. This gearbox on the I20 is just butter smooth as they say. It is just so slick, and fits into the groves like a glove! Though its also stupid expensive to replace, it’s quite the cherry on the icing when it comes to this car as a package.

Ever since the change of rubber, a wider set of tyres have honestly improved handling dynamics by a mile! However, my ideal spec was this car with a set of Lenso Dyna Jager’s, I’ll make that happens soon, I promise.

Needless to say, this car will stay in my garage forever, as it just means so much to me. I quite really grew up through this ownership experience, and I find myself sitting back and looking upon all things cherish-able rather amused. Yes, it has been a bit of a money sucking machine, but which fine automobile isn’t?

I’m currently trying to limit the kilometres on this thing, as I said earlier, I want to retain this for as long as possible, and not rack up more miles and service bills for a while. She’ll still get the best attention possible, but just no more daily driver duties. I’m considering the rims afore mentioned and SS breathing for this thing. Will update this thread with time.

2001 Honda City VTEC MT:

As life and car enthusiasts go, the hunger never really dies and you want more and more once you’ve tasted what experiencing a car to the fullest means.

I always wanted to take up a project car. The idea of bringing back an icon to its former glory is just stuff that dreams are made of right? I’ve already spoken about why the VTEC in my previous post so I wont bore you with it again.

But here is how it has been going.

Note: Considering this was my maiden attempt at building a project car, do excuse the times you’d probably say “Why the hell would you do that?”, just bear with me. I’m still learning, and I will keep doing so till my last breath.

I took out a personal loan to fuel this project and build a brand of my own. Which would be a community for like minded car enthusiasts. Enter ManualTribe.

I made a living out of writing once, and considering that I can speak decently enough, I thought I would curate as much content as I can,the kind of content that I would like to consume and take it from there.

I found a car which had a lot of red flags. Thinking these flags would be good for the story, I just shut my eyes and jumped.

Do read the note a scroll up at this point if need be.

I found a VTEC which hadn’t been driven in two years. Went about doing a full overhaul in terms of mechanical and electrical fronts.

This, took a lot of time and money. At this point, I was based out of Hyderabad and all my car contacts being in Blore, it would have to drive down for all these jobs.

Once it was running fine, and I had managed some more funds, I went about to change the breathing on the car. Man, let me tell you.

Also, a dual flow intake and SS piping for the same.

Once you experience a Honda VTEC with straight pipes, there’s no going back. I don’t think I’d ever be able to drive one stock. It just sounds like a big block, foreign engine. You’d never believe it is a 2 decade old Honda!

This was my daily driver for the last year and I don’t think I’ll be able to find such an easy/fun to own/hoon car in the price bracket ever.

The road trips were all solo, and would you believe not getting tired in a 20 year old car with suspension issues? I didn’t either till the time I did the Blore-Hyd and back runs multiple times.

Also, once I changed the breathing with the exhaust, the highway runs were just orgasmic. I would be grinning from ear to ear throughout the 650 kms. It would literally sound like a bomber just cruisiing about. That noise!!

This is one car that turns heads like no tomorrow! There have been multiple instances of people older to me walking upto me and striking a conversation. Just makes my day. No matter how late I am or how urgently I need to be somewhere, I ensure I give them my 100%, considering they’ve put in the effort of starting up a conversation.

You might now believe it, I was once dropping my boss home after a late night and considering the pay difference, it was obvious his locality was full of Mercs, Bimmers and a couple of Range Rovers. I saw a couple of kids come up to me and say- “Anna, super car!” I was in shock. The little dude probably gets dropped off to school in an S350, but he said my car was cool! How could that be? A gent of fine taste I’d say.

Jokes apart, the utter symphony that is, the high revving VTEC unit is a gem. I wish I could one day have a car built to my vision. This one’s halfway there for now.

I pity the generations to come, for they will never really be able to experience and know these few legends, which are slowly being pushed off the roads in the name of FC, NOC and well the newest of them all- green tax and the 15/20 year rules.

The point is, a lot of us are actually ready to go through the whole ordeal. But the constant harassment from the cops even if your car is totally legal and all papers accounted for is what ruins it for me.

Bangalore road regulations are pretty strict, considering back in Hyd, the VTEC was my daily driver and it never caused a problem (there was also an instance when an officer pulled me over and said listen, i like the sound. Make sure when you get the next green you rip it!).

I have nothing but respect for the officials of the law, it’s just that rules in our country are a little obsolete, if I may.

So 20,000 kms after on the VTEC and another job and city move since, I’ve decided to part ways with it and make way for something newer. Just because I don’t want to deal with any more paperwork related running around. It’s an MH car with a few things done and a few things not yet done in the Blore RTO.

For anybody who’s looking for a VTEC, you can take a look at mine, you’ll definitely have to take up the paperwork drama, but atleast I’ve got the fixing the car part taken care of rather well.

Will be sure to write more, as being read and understood by fellow enthusiasts is the next best thing, than to be able to share stories in one another’s garages.

A question to @GTO, could you please help me out a bit here? Hahaha. I think i need some help with the money management bit. I think a couple of conversations with you will help me make better choices, because the bug has bitten me and I’m now hungrier than ever. To pick up something and build it as my own spec.

Currently considering a ’13 Cedia, as it wont have as many paperwork issues, and it seems to be the last of the true tunable cars.

Also, in case things do fall back to normal and office resumes, I’ll have 70 kms of driving to do daily,and I’d rather have something fun. Loud exhausts can always have Valvetronic units installed and that should leave space for 0 complaints.

Keyword: Buying and owning a Hyundai Elite i20 & old Honda City Vtec