Hyundai i20 versus VW Polo Vivo

[Brawler]

AVIS has plenty of i20's.

 

[krisjan]

Sorry to rough up your feathers Gnome - it si obvious you have some kind of "hate" for the Volla - but hey, I am just stating the facts - if you want to get yourself pumped up over that then so be it - so on to answering your q's:

No no no, you have to compare apples to apples, the 1.4 "trendline" costs R119,900, WITHOUT air condition, without a radio, without alarm and central locking, without a service plan, they also mention a maintenance plan, not sure what that is, but it's also not standard.

Now Vivo 1.4 "Trendline": R119,900
(Metallic paint, standard on i20, R840)
(14" alloy rims, i20 steel 15" standard, R2,480)
Air condition: R7,950
Mp3 radio (w/o bluetooh) : R2,210
Alarm and Central Locking: R1,400
Service Plan “Bolt-on” (60 000km): R5,560
Maintenance Plan “Bolt-on” (60 000km): R7,268

I did not include prices in brackets (rims & paint), R144 288, it's getting very close to the price of the i20 there.

You have to choose between the service plan and maintenance plan - you don't take both - the maintenance plan is simply more comprehensive - so then NO, it is not even close to the i20 - it is about R10k cheaper, which is a lot at this price point. There you have your apples, and some extra popcorn for the movie afterwards...

I'm not commenting on that again, as I said before, city driving hardly requires torque, you can gear down when you need torque. You need torque as you drive on the highway, which is why the i20 is more suitable. You can't say engine X running at 4000rpm uses more fuel than engine Y at 3000rpm, unfortunately it's not that clear cut.

I disagree - fuel economy is fuel displaced at a particular rate - so for the same size engine running at a higher rate (revs) the fuel usage will be more - it's that simple. And I would venture to say my friends' bad experience with the Getz is a trend for Hyundai - it's high rev engines - they will be more fuel hungry if you drive them at their optimum performance.
But let's say - ok - it's difficult to substantiate this whole discussion without torque curves/real world measuring for both cars. All people commenting on this issue do not have all the information...all we can say at this stae is that the vivo's optimum is in a lower rev range when compared to the i20, and ultimately the i20 has higher peak figures, but what exactly happens with the i20's torque in the lower range nobody knows...so let's leave it there.

LOL, warning when the lights are still on, that you consider an extra? Wow! My sisters Corsa Lite has that. Hyundai on the other hand automatically turns off the lights, that I would consider an extra.

Yes i consider it a cool extra - none of the rental cars i drove had it in - except if it was so subtle i missed it.

Ok let's get one thing straight, VW are not cheap. You can find plenty of people on this forum who'll contest that view, with a cambelt change cost being around R6 000 it's hardly cheap. Factor in the fact that the Hyundai doesn't need the timing chain to be replaced, ever, during the life of the engine and the i20 is probably cheaper IMHO, the previous generation Hyundai spares weren't expensive when bought from a store like AutoZone. Naturally we are talking outside the service plan now because the i20 comes standard with a 60 000km/3 year service plan.

I have owned a Tazz and recently still drove a Ford Laser - both these cars the services were more expensive than volkswagen - in some cases it was even more expensive than servicing my Audi. So i think you are simply regurgitating some warped perception that you have regarding VW...

You are comparing a 1.1l inline 3 engine to a 1.4 or 1.6 inline 4 engine? Of course the performance will suck.

Good idea, not sure if you can rent an i20 yet but definitely sounds like a plan.

Where did I say it's a 1.1l engine? It's a 1.4 - please follow the link: http://www.hyundai.co.za/Specificat...essionid=f0302a9a9755f67abfe06c14411e7a6e742f
Do you see any 1.1's on that page? I don't...

Anyway - maybe I should also mention this - If you can manage to get over your severely warped outlook on VW - then please note that if support VW you are also supporting the South African workforce to a larger extent. More parts are manufactured locally, and this supports the local economy - the new plant of VW has also created a lot more jobs - to quote:
"VWSA has invested R1.1 billion in a new supplier park located next to their Uitenhage production facility. Five new factories have created 700 jobs and supply various components, including the dashboard, which has gone from being a fully imported item (74% more expensive to acquire than in Europe), to now being locally produced and costing 10% less than the European equivalent. As a result the Vivo benefits from keen showroom pricing and, coupled with a new R200 million parts and accessories centre set to be operational by June 2010, the cost of ownership for the life of the vehicle should remain similarly appealing."
Read more: http://www.sacarfan.co.za/2010/03/first-drive-volkswagen-sas-polo-vivo/#ixzz0qpf18685

I suppose with the i20 it all comes from overseas...so there: another reason to support the vivo...

 

[LancelotSA]

krisjan, two posts on this forum and both are in very strong support of the Polo. Are you honestly just a polo buyer or do you have further interests?

 

[krisjan]

krisjan, two posts on this forum and both are in very strong support of the Polo. Are you honestly just a polo buyer or do you have further interests?

hi lancelot - the op if i am not mistaken...yes this topic was my first stumble across some discussion in this forum that interested me - so yes, this is where i decided to enroll here and give my opinion - you want to know my motivation for posting? Well it's a relevant topic as I was in the same predicament as you just recently - needed a new small car for business - i did my research and i believe the polo vivo is not a bad choice...so after reading the rest of the topic i decided to give my opinion, hoping it could help people reading this to make a choice when they need to buy a new car...

Is that wrong?

 

[Pox]

Why are you looking at a new vehicle? 2nd-hand or demo makes waaaaaay more sense.
On another note had this exact same problem last year, was looking for a new car around 120-150k. Almost signed the paperwork for a new 1.6 i20 except I went and got a 2nd-hand Subaru wagon instead. Best buy ever. Cost me 20k less than new i20, has all the convenience features and the nice bonus of a 2.5L engine and permanent all-wheel-drive.
Now just need to pay it off as fast as possible so I can sell it and get a WRX or STi

 

[LancelotSA]

hi lancelot - the op if i am not mistaken...yes this topic was my first stumble across some discussion in this forum that interested me - so yes, this is where i decided to enroll here and give my opinion - you want to know my motivation for posting? Well it's a relevant topic as I was in the same predicament as you just recently - needed a new small car for business - i did my research and i believe the polo vivo is not a bad choice...so after reading the rest of the topic i decided to give my opinion, hoping it could help people reading this to make a choice when they need to buy a new car...

Is that wrong?

There is obviously no problem with that but you obviously realise that on an anonymous forum you could be someone who has further interests in the success of the Polo.It is important for those reading to know that the opinion is merely that and not marketing. We had someone earlier arguing in favour of the Polo would it turned out worked for VW.


When I read your original post I too almost responded but felt it had been covered earlier. It's just a few of the things you point out as positives on the Polo you get with the i20 too and I would have thought that extensive research would have revealed this.

 

[LancelotSA]

Why are you looking at a new vehicle? 2nd-hand or demo makes waaaaaay more sense.
On another note had this exact same problem last year, was looking for a new car around 120-150k. Almost signed the paperwork for a new 1.6 i20 except I went and got a 2nd-hand Subaru wagon instead. Best buy ever. Cost me 20k less than new i20, has all the convenience features and the nice bonus of a 2.5L engine and permanent all-wheel-drive.
Now just need to pay it off as fast as possible so I can sell it and get a WRX or STi

If you look through the thread you will see that this was discussed.

 

[krisjan]

There is obviously no problem with that but you obviously realise that on an anonymous forum you could be someone who has further interests in the success of the Polo.It is important for those reading to know that the opinion is merely that and not marketing. We had someone earlier arguing in favour of the Polo would it turned out worked for VW.


When I read your original post I too almost responded but felt it had been covered earlier. It's just a few of the things you point out as positives on the Polo you get with the i20 too and I would have thought that extensive research would have revealed this.

Hi Lancelot - the biggest mistake of most posters in this forum I believe to be that these vehicles being at the same price point - which is definitely not true - there is an obvious mistake in Gnome's calculation of the price (he added two "types" service plans). And I strongly feel that this misrepresents the vivo...so you are not comparing apples with apples if you consider these vehicles to be at the same price.
As for me being some undercover Volkswagen employee - nope - have nothing to do with the motoring industry at all - so fine, since I am under scrutiny here for my views - this is what i do: www.simulasie.co.za

These really are just my honest opinions - no malicious intent or whatever - let's face it this topic is severely polarized towards the i20 - i think it would really be a shame to silence everyone who has a different opinion from the majority view...

 

[Pox]

If you look through the thread you will see that this was discussed.

...and you mentioned that your previous car was a great 2nd-hand bargain. So not sure why you want to go new.
2nd-hand if you can get a Honda Jazz in your price range then go for that. Best small car you can get, but a bit pricey new.

 

[Gnome]

Sorry to rough up your feathers Gnome - it si obvious you have some kind of "hate" for the Volla - but hey, I am just stating the facts - if you want to get yourself pumped up over that then so be it - so on to answering your q's:

I'm not pumped up, I enjoy a good argument. You present one, I present one, vice versa It's not personal to me.
I don't "HATE" VW, I just don't think much of their tactics (Citi Golf and old generation engines anyone?).

You have to choose between the service plan and maintenance plan - you don't take both - the maintenance plan is simply more comprehensive - so then NO, it is not even close to the i20 - it is about R10k cheaper, which is a lot at this price point. There you have your apples, and some extra popcorn for the movie afterwards...

Ah that explains it, either way, there are plenty of extra's on the Hyundai that the Vivo doesn't have, one of which is a 5 star safety rating, not really worth saving R10 000 for IMHO. But ok I concede, which car WOULD you compare the Vivo to, and which car would you compare the i20 to?

I disagree - fuel economy is fuel displaced at a particular rate - so for the same size engine running at a higher rate (revs) the fuel usage will be more - it's that simple. And I would venture to say my friends' bad experience with the Getz is a trend for Hyundai - it's high rev engines - they will be more fuel hungry if you drive them at their optimum performance.

Hmm, no depends, once again, fuel map determines all, fuel figures would be the way to go. Actual figures, by an independent verifiable source mind you, none of this Hyundai/VW posted figures or some random figure from someone who owns either vehicle on the forum, no offense but bias is a factor.

But let's say - ok - it's difficult to substantiate this whole discussion without torque curves/real world measuring for both cars. All people commenting on this issue do not have all the information...all we can say at this stae is that the vivo's optimum is in a lower rev range when compared to the i20, and ultimately the i20 has higher peak figures, but what exactly happens with the i20's torque in the lower range nobody knows...so let's leave it there.

The i20 will simply increase in torque much more slowly, N/A engines NEVER decrease torque before peak torque. Therefore the i20 increases it's torque up to peak torque, same for the Vivo. Only difference is the RPM band and how quickly that increase occurs.

Yes i consider it a cool extra - none of the rental cars i drove had it in - except if it was so subtle i missed it.

Fairly standard, but ok.

I have owned a Tazz and recently still drove a Ford Laser - both these cars the services were more expensive than volkswagen - in some cases it was even more expensive than servicing my Audi. So i think you are simply regurgitating some warped perception that you have regarding VW...

I'm regurgitating the warped perception found on this forum, you'll find quite a few threads about expensive VW services.

Where did I say it's a 1.1l engine? It's a 1.4 - please follow the link: http://www.hyundai.co.za/Specificat...essionid=f0302a9a9755f67abfe06c14411e7a6e742f
Do you see any 1.1's on that page? I don't...

Could have sworn they were released in 1.1 initially, my mistake then

Anyway - maybe I should also mention this - If you can manage to get over your severely warped outlook on VW - then please note that if support VW you are also supporting the South African workforce to a larger extent.

I'm not going to buy something just because it's local, and local is "lekker". I'm not here to enrich VW SA (and believe me, they aren't assembling locally because it creates jobs, VW are about money first).

 

[krisjan]

I'm not pumped up, I enjoy a good argument. You present one, I present one, vice versa It's not personal to me.
I don't "HATE" VW, I just don't think much of their tactics (Citi Golf and old generation engines anyone?).

hey gnome. k cool. no prob.

Ah that explains it, either way, there are plenty of extra's on the Hyundai that the Vivo doesn't have, one of which is a 5 star safety rating, not really worth saving R10 000 for IMHO. But ok I concede, which car WOULD you compare the Vivo to, and which car would you compare the i20 to?

Against the vivo 1.4 63kW - maybe the more expensive Getz 1.4. It sells for R143,900.
I think on the lower end 1.4 vivo model (55kW) CAR magazine latest compared against some TATA - not sure which one though
Against i20 - maybe the suzuki swift 1.5. New polo 1.4. or sth like that

Hmm, no depends, once again, fuel map determines all, fuel figures would be the way to go. Actual figures, by an independent verifiable source mind you, none of this Hyundai/VW posted figures or some random figure from someone who owns either vehicle on the forum, no offense but bias is a factor.

yes - there are no figures - i was just stating as a rule of thumb (and by simple laws of physics) if you rev higher for the same engine capacity you will use more fuel...but it is as you say - without data we are all just guessing. I was satisfied with my first tank fuel usage - it was the same as VW's combined cycle figures, but it does depend on your driving style...

The i20 will simply increase in torque much more slowly, N/A engines NEVER decrease torque before peak torque. Therefore the i20 increases it's torque up to peak torque, same for the Vivo. Only difference is the RPM band and how quickly that increase occurs.

Yup - again we are in the dark without the actual curves...

Could have sworn they were released in 1.1 initially, my mistake then

Maybe they did, but my friends bought a 1.4 - maybe I should have mentioned it explicitly, but I assumed people would know I talked about same capacity engine...

I'm not going to buy something just because it's local, and local is "lekker". I'm not here to enrich VW SA (and believe me, they aren't assembling locally because it creates jobs, VW are about money first).

And you believe Hyundai is not all about money first? ______ makes the world go round (you can fill the blank). I'm not saying it should be first priority when buying a car, but all things being equal I'd rather support my fellow South Africans than enriching some other country...

 

[LancelotSA]

And you believe Hyundai is not all about money first? ______ makes the world go round (you can fill the blank). I'm not saying it should be first priority when buying a car, but all things being equal I'd rather support my fellow South Africans than enriching some other country...

I'm going to add half a cent here (not sure it is worth 2c) but that sentiment is fine but in this instance 150 odd posts between a number of members seems to have drawn the conclusion that not all things are equal.

I am very high up on the list of most patriotic, proud South Africans on here and I'm sorry to say I would not base my vehicle purchasing decision on where a car is made. I'll do it with almost every other product but not a vehicle. I looked at the Renault Sandero too and in my mind gave it a bonus point or two because of where it was manufactured but at the end of the day it boiled down to many other far more important features.

 

[krisjan]

I'm going to add half a cent here (not sure it is worth 2c) but that sentiment is fine but in this instance 150 odd posts between a number of members seems to have drawn the conclusion that not all things are equal.

I was referring to "equal" in a hypothetical sense. Yes all things are not equal, especially price...

I am very high up on the list of most patriotic, proud South Africans on here and I'm sorry to say I would not base my vehicle purchasing decision on where a car is made. I'll do it with almost every other product but not a vehicle. I looked at the Renault Sandero too and in my mind gave it a bonus point or two because of where it was manufactured but at the end of the day it boiled down to many other far more important features.

sure - that is why i say it should not be the primary criteria. But again "all other things being equal"...

 

[Gnome]

Initially it had some issues

Such as?

 

[Brawler]

I'm also more popular with the birds.

LOOL

 

[Rouxenator]

VW rides on this wave of "perceived quality" and its bullcrud - they go amakroko long before cars from the East. They are over priced and underspec'ed - go with the i20 anytime. I found out just how bad VW is when I went car shopping last week : http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...t-buying-the-world-car-of-the-year-2010-(Polo)

Also, VAGs are like the cars that people buy when they get to the bar and says "I'll have whatever everyone else is having".

 

[Charl-pc]

Hello just wondering if you did infact go for thr i20? I assume there is a new model out already? Making yours look completely out dated? And the vivo? Minor cosmetic changes and the "old" version still has great trade in value because guess what? Vw hasnt replaced it yet and they wont for a good couple of years.... yes its a stripped down polo 9n3, but..... it shares a **** load of parts from the new polo (non tsi) engen and suspension. . Its also easy to make the vivo look good. Eibach makes great springs for the 6r that will fit... oh and the 55kw version is a bonus for those who arent afraid to chip a car. I would rather by a velociti or rox 1.6i(depends if you want a cat) than a i20 if you looking for good engen power haha! Oh wait you will probably die in a car crash, but you will certainly understand the joy of a small vw....

 

[FiestaST]

^ lol at asking OP what car he chose after 5yrs lapsed.

 

[Colin62]

^ lol at asking OP what car he chose after 5yrs lapsed.

He even registered an account just to ask. We'd all be much poorer without his insightful observations...

 

[kili2]

I have the i20 1.6 and i usually get 6.8 l/100 km highway + CBD driving. I can overtake most car and its very nippy!