Thankfully, I wasn’t overtaking any car at that time and could safely come to a stop at a side else this could have been fatal for my family.
BHPian Prithviraj recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
This is definitely not the kind of experience with my new Hyundai Verna I wanted to post here on Team-BHP. I was noting down all the moments with the car since its delivery to make a detailed review. But I had to share this heartbreaking experience here first!
Took delivery of my Starry Night Hyundai Verna S manual variant on 17th of February 2024 from Gajraj Hyundai Kalikapur Kolkata. The delivery was mostly smooth apart from the car having some hairline scratches and some false promises from the dealer side, which was compensated by 1 year extended warranty during delivery.
Coming from a Tata car (Tata ZEST XT 2014 petrol) and from a 1.2 litre engine I was enjoying the refinement and the power difference the car had to offer. But alas my joy was short-lived, and here I am instead of writing a happy ownership report, writing with frustration and grief!
It’s almost two months and our Starva (Yes, we do name our cars after delivery) hasn’t done much mile-munching. Mostly that was because we were out of town for 10 days post delivery and office travel weekly is three days. Time for the first service was coming and we decided to do a 400 km round trip to the nearest coast – Shankarpur.
We set off for our destination on 13th April 2024 at 7 am. After having our breakfast at Kolaghat we set off for our destination. Suddenly at around 120-130 km mark, and when we were doing 60-70 kmph I felt the accelerator response dropping and the car having no response to throttle input. Thankfully I wasn’t overtaking at that time and could safely come to a stop at a side, else this could have been fatal for my family!
While trying to restart the car and move forward I felt the following issues:
- No acceleration response when pressing the accelerator pedal
- Car shaking tremendously after starting or when the accelerator pedal is pressed
- There was fat-fat (something bursting) sound coming from the exhaust
- Burning smell from the engine bay
- No error code or light in the instrument cluster
I had to decide that it was not fit for the journey and had to call the Hyundai Road Side assistance team. On contacting the RSA team we were provided with towing of the car to the nearest Hyundai service center in Haldia and were assisted with a cab.
All these took 4 hours approximately to arrive, and I had to arrange a separate car for my aged parent-in-law and my daughter of 2 years of age so that they weren’t stranded on the road for 4 hours in 40-degree temperature.
Currently, the car remains in the Haldia service centre without any specific diagnosis of the issue from 14.04.2024 till date. This shows how major the issue is and the car has grave manufacturing defects which are not even diagnosable by the team even after all this time. How in the future I will be able to trust the car to use it to go longer distances if it can’t complete 180 km one way? Wondering if Hyundai always provides this kind of unacceptable quality of cars!
I feel cheated and frustrated even after paying for a car priced almost 14 lakhs on the road.
I have today mailed all the details to their support channels and am yet to receive any response from them. But I am LOST currently and my mind is wandering on many things:
- Did I get sold a bad inventory?
- Maybe this is a small issue and will be rectified soon.
- Should I still be patient and wait till they repair.
- Do I ask for replacement/refund/ move to consumer court for selling a faulty vehicle and ask for compensation?
I for that matter am still hopeful that tomorrow the SC will find the exact issue and sort it out (Chances are slim as per current proceedings) and I enjoy the rest of the ownership. But sadly that seems remote and maybe we have a long fight coming up with HMIL.
I would appreciate other experienced BHPians’ help who have owned Hyundai vehicles and if anyone has similar experiences and how they sorted the same. Or if I can get any contact in Hyundai where the escalation of the issue may result in resolution, and us getting back our Starva fit and fine again!
Any suggestions, feedback would really help for my next steps.
Here’s what BHPian SilverSmoke had to say about the matter:
Feeling sad for you. If the car broke down so early without any incident, I am sorry to say you might have bought a lemon. Also, alloys & tires are not stock – did you change them or get it done in the showroom itself? Maybe during the change something was tinkered with, & the company might deny a warranty.
Keep all records documented & if possible video graph everything. Car & engine bay shaking with strange exhaust pops points towards misfiring cylinders or cylinders with after burning of unburnt fuel in the exhaust lane. Checking of fuel lines & ignition lines – wiring / spark plug / ignition coils / battery health will certainly help. Don’t get disheartened, it might also happen because of bad fuel.
Here’s what BHPian Nanolover had to say about the matter:
Did you by any chance refuel before the journey and the pump attendant inadvertently put diesel instead of petrol? Long shot I know but still hazarding a guess.
Here’s what BHPian arindam_xeta had to say about the matter:
It’s really unfortunate that your dream ride came up with such issues so early in its life. it’s yet to go for its first service I guess. I know how passionate you were about this acquisition. But, we have to face the ordeal if we have to, the worst feeling probably is to see your family suffer on the road in harsh weather conditions.
Please maintain and keep track of all events as many have suggested here. Hyundai has a good repute in the Indian auto market and I hope they will take some logical action. In whatever direction this goes keep us posted on this platform.
Keep an account of the expenses you incurred after the incident happened since you are not getting any service from the car after paying in full for it, ex: the car you rented on the highway. Keep an account of the same to ask for compensation, especially if this situation continues beyond a reasonable time.
The fact that you are here in Kolkata and the car is in Haldia with not much progress in diagnosis is definitely an awkward situation to be in when the problem cannot be sorted quickly.
Would it not be prudent to ask Hyundai to shift it to a more reputable, read more equipped and major service center in Kolkata at their cost? Otherwise, you can ask for compensation for shifting. Also, that enables you to physically speak to people and see the car in the flesh if need be.
Did they offer any loaner car?
Here’s what BHPian ninjatalli had to say about the matter:
Don’t jump the gun. In this forum, people throw terms like “lemon”, “consumer court”, etc as if they are talking about something they do on a regular basis. For your car to be a lemon, you would have observed several manufacturing issues affecting its functioning from a safety, value or utility point.
Something stopped working and that should have been diagnosed quickly by the service centre. It’s odd that the center hasn’t come back for the last 4 days but that’s a problem better resolved by heading to the center and asking the folks head on; assuming your repeat phone calls and emails haven’t got you any proper response.
I would ask you to do some leg work to get this on a higher gear. Make all the noise you can. For instance, ask the moderators to add the service center name to the thread heading. Then share this thread in all your email, social and phone conversations.
To me, more than a serious car issue, this looks like a service center issue; maybe they haven’t given your car the effort and time it needs to diagnose the issue. Till they come back with a diagnosis, it’s early days to start wondering if your car can be a lemon or sorts. Focus on that first. If they haven’t been able to figure out the issue even after 4 days of serious diagnosis, let them say that in official communication. They would have an initial guess of what is not working, that they are trying to confirm.
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