Need help: Confused between Hyundai i20 Turbo DCT & iMT models

Which one would be more fun to drive given the fact that it would not have the dynamics of the i20 N Line?

BHPian Tanmay8488 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Greetings, everyone!

Before I start this post I would like to thank bhpian Motorhead23 for solving all the queries that I and others had regarding the Grand i10 Nios facelift.

I was thinking of getting the Nios turbo and thus I called up a dealership in my city, thankfully they had a test drive vehicle, not the Nios but rather the Aura. Both cars share the engine and the manual transmission like their Naturally Aspirated and CNG counterparts.

Unfortunately, the test drive didn’t last too long as their TD route was too short but driving the car did plaster a smile on my face. Once I got done with the test drive the sales representative told me that the car has six months of waiting and is only made by order, this statement did not surprise me at all as I knew that this was a low-volume variant for Hyundai so parallelly I started looking for Nios’ elder sibling, the i20 Sportz iMT.

The price difference between the Nios turbo and i20 Sportz iMT was less than a lakh. After a few days, I went to enquire about the Sportz iMT variant of the i20 and got to know that the six-month waiting period was applicable to the iMT and DCT variants of the i20 as well. I took some time to process this and then visited another dealership but their answer was no different.

The first dealership I visited was also a Signature Hyundai dealer which meant that they deliver the ‘N-Line’ models, the Tucson and the Alcazar Signature trim. I saw a few i20 N-Lines in their stockyard which was located in the basement of the same premises as their dealership. Recently, I spotted a few brand new and unregistered i20 N-lines in my city and all of them were the top-end N8 variants which made me think that’s why the waiting period is less for the N-Line when compared to the regular i20 turbo models when both share almost all integral mechanicals like the engine and the gearbox except the steering and suspension setup.

The vehicles available in the stockyard were all N8 DCTs which made me think that any customer who walks into a Hyundai showroom with an inquiry for an i20 automatic would be showcased and delivered either an N-Line or Sportz iVT depending on the type of dealership, the former would be the case with the Signature dealerships and the latter with the non-Signature ones and this is what I observed from the delivery trends and new cars I witnessed on the roads.

Any i20 (Sportz or above variant) with a small badging on the driver-side fender is either an iVT, iMT or DCT vehicle depending upon the engine of course. To further investigate I would look at the grill of the new vehicles, the turbo ones have a badging on them as well which makes them easily distinguishable. This was for the regular i20 whereas it is quite easy to identify an N-Line and differentiate it from the regular i20. I know that a lot of customers not just of the i20 but also of the Venue buy the NA petrol models rather than the turbo ones and I feel that the sales of Venue turbo petrol might have dropped as compared to the pre-facelift model as the facelift is available in more variants in the 1.2 Kappa trim.

All this chaos made me post my query in the Nios facelift thread, wanting to know whether the turbo petrol engine would be carried over to the new model as well or not as was being reported by many news portals. My rationale behind reverting to Nios was simple:

  • It was a manual which made it my first preference and
  • I thought that with the facelift Hyundai would certainly start producing the turbo model once again even for a short period of time which would provide me with a window long enough to procure the car.

A part of me also thought that the facelift would come with the iMT but I was willing to take the risk. Later, bhpian Motorhead23 shared that the last batch of the turbo models was already manufactured and sent to the dealers and that Hyundai has discontinued the iMT models of the regular i20 and was completing orders through the N-Line for any existing bookings of the same.

This piece of information led me to contact the two sales representatives at the two dealerships I had visited earlier and I asked both of them to send me the updated price lists for the Nios and the i20. To my surprise, the ‘Sportz Turbo’ variant was still listed in the price list which I received from one of the dealers. Perhaps, this will change once the facelift eventually launches this month. Personally, I do not consider this list to be accurate as the prices for the Corporate edition are still listed which was discontinued officially unlike the diesel and the turbo petrol models. I am attaching the price list for reference:

This was the same case with the i20, both the dealerships have still listed the iMT models.

I consider this sub and its members more reliable than the dealers as time and again whenever I have discussed my interest in these models I haven’t seen much enthusiasm from the sales rep’s end.

To dig further into the case I went to Hyundai’s official website and made use of the Click to buy page to see whether I am able to book any of the models that I am interested in online. I couldn’t select the Grand i10 Nios maybe because they already have updated the site with the details of the facelift but visitors can’t access that page yet. When I selected the i20 I found out that there are no Turbo iMT versions listed as an option on Click to Buy. The only turbo models listed for the regular i20 were the Sportz DCT, Asta DCT (which was already discontinued last year and is not mentioned in any of the price lists I have received), Asta (o) DCT and Asta (o) DCT dual tone. I have no clue what to make of this.

Coming back to the confusion these are the following conclusions I have made after thoroughly assessing the situation:

  • Hyundai has not communicated with the dealers properly when it comes to the production and availability of the variants. I interacted with a few dealership personnel and they told me that their training for the new vehicles wouldn’t commence until the launch day or sometimes it would start even after the car is already on display which makes answering customer queries difficult for them.
  • I believe that the Sportz and Asta iMT variants have been secretly discontinued and the dealers haven’t been updated about the same but this makes me think how did the dealers update their price lists? Hyundai surely must have given them the new ex-showroom prices for all the variants across models after which they add the RTO, Insurance, etc. to present the customer with the On-Road price. If so is the case then why didn’t they let the dealers know that they have discontinued certain models and shouldn’t take any bookings and orders for the same?

I am left with the following variants of the i20 turbo to choose from:

  • Sportz DCT
  • Asta (o) DCT
  • N-Line N6 iMT
  • N-Line N8 iMT
  • N-Line N8 DCT

Sportz DCT is priced very closely to the N6 iMT. N6 iMT is pretty similar to Asta iMT (as the infotainment was downsized with the update, both offer a sunroof) Asta iMT, although its availability is a question mark in itself, would have been my pick as it was not much more expensive than the N6 (which is based on the Sportz supposedly, but misses out on Climate control which Sportz got with the update last year). Asta iMT would have missed out on Cruise control and rear disc brakes (as per the updated brochure, Sportz and Asta iMT don’t have cruise control but the N6 does get this feature). N6 also lacks LED projector headlamps, and a rear washer/wiper.

Coming down to the most important question of all: Should I buy the Sportz DCT over any of the iMT variants?

Even the N6 doesn’t come equipped with all of the bells and whistles as it is an entry-level variant for the N-Line which means that I am already compromising on many features that the i20 has to offer due to my budgetary constraints. Should I go ahead with the Sportz DCT? Which one would be more fun to drive given the fact that it would not have the dynamics of the N Line? I haven’t got a chance to test drive the turbo i20 and I don’t think I will.

Also, I don’t think that I would be able to stretch my budget for the i20 N-Line N8 DCT as no one from my family would allow me to spend 13.5 lakhs on an i20 as we already have the Elite i20 Asta (o) in our garage which was priced at 9.02 lakhs in 2019, some of them will even insist that I buy the 1.2 Kappa Asta (o) which is cheaper than all the variants I have discussed in the post. I keenly await reading insights from my fellow Bhp-ians.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

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