I noticed during the initial drive that the car was pulling slightly towards the left. It doesn’t happen continuously though. The car has barely covered 400 kms since delivery.
BHPian ashvek3141 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
So after nearly 15 months from starting this thread and 4 months of waiting since the booking on 22nd Feb 2022, we finally got home our Kia Sonet HTX D AT on the 1st July 2022!
The initially waiting period was quoted of around 6 months from the date of booking; however, the car was delivered in 4 months and 8 days to be precise. There were absolutely no automatics being shipped / delivered in the Feb & March; atleast this is what my SA mentioned to me. The supplies however started streamlining from April onwards and all of a sudden my dealer got nearly 10-12 D AT’s in June itself! Venue & Brezza facelift effect? maybe? Don’t know, but it did help the customers waiting from as long as Oct / Nov ’21.
The car reached the dealership on 25th June, Saturday evening & my SA informed me on Monday morning. Same day afternoon went to the showroom for the PDI with the trusted TBHP PDI checklist.
The car seemed OK overall in person. The odo had a reading of 34 kms. I did question regarding this to my SA, but it didn’t sense any foul play to me. I think 34 kms is kinda acceptable? Even the TBHP checklist says anything below 100 kms is ok. So I think it is.
No other issues seen holistically; checked the engine bay, the interiors, tyres, etc. Touched and felt the paint too. No rough / irregular finish there. Just a point that I noticed later was that in the pictures that I clicked, the driver side door paint looks a shade off in comparison to the RR door. The difference isn’t quite appreciable in person though. However, if one observes closely, it is kinda evident. I also question regarding this to my SA later in the day; however, he confirmed that there was no repainting or any sort of rework done at their end. I didn’t stress much on this later as we were already waiting for the car since 3 months as we had sold our Swift in March 2022 and were in an urgent need of a car. Moreoever, in today’s times the dealer doesn’t care a damn about the customers queries or request given the kinda market we’re in.
Further verified the VIN on the TBHP and it turned out to be a 9th June 2022 production. The labels on seat plastics were dated 7th June 2022. MRF Wanderer tyres with DOT of 2122 & 2222 (I would have preferred the Apollo Alnacs though). No other issues to report as such and hence gave a go ahead for the paperwork.
Here are a few PDI pics:
This pic shows the difference in the door shade a bit. Also the front door wasn’t’ exactly aligned with the RR door, i.e. when you slide your finger over both the doors, the driver door felt a tad pushed in. Not sure if I’m able to explain this properly. Having said that, I noticed this on another Sonet there too:
The parting line below the curve is not visible. This is where the driver door is slightly inside:
I chose to do the registration and insurance myself as the dealership was overcharging for both and was in no mood to negotiate. Major cons of being the ONLY dealership in the state you see! For registration they were charging nearly 2700/- as convenience fees against the earlier quote of 1500/- on the booking docket. When I enquired regarding the same, the SA mentioned that the quote is ‘default’ Kia system generated and varies as per the dealer.
Kia Preferred Insurance quote given was amounting to 46k INR. I happily got it done outside at 36.5k INR for the exact same cover.
I chose only the following accessories from Kia:
- Mud flaps – 500/- INR.
- Boot mat – 1887/- INR.
They didn’t have the floor mats available and the SA was insisting on the Seltos mats for Sonet. LOL. I respectfully denied and bought the 5D GFX mats from a dealer in Delhi for 3500/- INR. Happy I made this choice.
Apart from this , I purchased the extended warranty and skipped the 3M package. I don’t think it is worth 10k. I can get it done from 3M directly. I am also planning to get the additional 3 years RSA for 3500/- INR during my visit for the 1st service. Think it makes sense for the given price and peace of mind.
With registration & insurance done on the 30th June, we planned to take the deliver on the 1st July.
The delivery was a hush-hush affair. No unwrapping, no ribbons, no cake cutting, absolutely nothing!! Thank God they atleast clicked a pic.
Checked the car again on the delivery day. They had taken off and removed all the plastics from the interior, all of them! The odo reading on delivery day had incremented by 2 kms, i.e. 36 kms.
Did the formalities which took about 20-25 mins, clicked a few pics with the car and off we go!
Apart from the shade difference, another thing I noticed during the initial drive was that the car was pulling slightly towards the left. However, this doesn’t happen continuously though. Seems like it’s got more to do with the steering ‘calibration’ rather then the alignment. I have had enough of this experience with my Hyundai Creta, hence my guess. Somehow, the Koreans still haven’t got their steering systems right; sad. Anyway, I have reported this to my dealer and he has requested to get the car for inspection. Probably I shall get this done during the 1st service itself.
So, that’s a small update for now. The car has barely covered 400 kms since delivery. The rains in my state are crazy since last few days and there’s a alert from the MET department regarding the same. I shall munch more miles coming weekend. Shall keep posted on the driving experience and hoping to pen a detailed review of my car. I don’t see any Sonet D AT owner’s review yet on the forum.
Till then, drive safe.
Keyword: Kia Sonet HTX diesel AT: Delivery experience & initial impressions