Hyundai Getz: End of the road

2004 Hyundai Getz

The nails were piling up for quite some time now and finally someone has gone ahead and hammered it right into the coffin, the Hyundai Getz’s coffin. The car which began life as a upgrade path for Hyundai Santro owners way back in 2004 was India’s first “big” small car. Big it felt, by the way it dismissively thudded across bumps rather than thunking along and while sitting in one, you could easily be fooled into believing that it was more of a small sedan than a big hatchback. The 1.3 Liter petrol engine which pumped out all of 82 Bhp provided a fair amount of zest but it never really managed to light up faces as it was long leggedly sedate. Not exactly a slouch but simply didn’t suit folks whose idea of fun was to go Saturday night draggin’. So, what exactly pooped the Hyundai Getz’s party?

Three words, er four: The Maruti Suzuki Swift. The Maruti Suzuki Swift came, saw and conquered even as it annihilated the Hyundai Getz’s sales, which never really was anything to write home about in the first place, with a combination of radical looks, a brilliant screamer of a 1.3 Liter petrol four potter engine, terrific handling and more importantly a brilliant price tag and the Maruti badge on it’s bonnet. Hyundai responded by borrowing the 1.5 Liter, three cylinder CRDI diesel mill from the Hyundai Accent CRDI. With 82 Bhp of poke and 187 Nm of twist, this oil burner turned the Getz into a fast tarmac scorcher. But the problem was, the Getz was as good as it gets as long the tarmac was arrow straight. Maruti had a bigger ace up it’s sleeve as it pummeled the poor Hyundai Getz once again, this time with another masterstroke of a car, the Maruti Suzuki Swift Diesel.

Hyundai Getz Prime

The 1,248cc Fiat Multijet mill’s 72 Bhp looked lowish on power when compared to the petrol Swift and even the Getz CRDI. But when it comes to diesels, torque is the talk of the town and the Swift D had one hell of a pretty load at 190 Nm of twist. While the Getz’s three potter rattled and smoked, the Multijet Maruti Swift rattled and smoked lesser. With a bunch of twisties thrown in for good measure, the Getz was a distant memory, from just a speck in the rear view mirror on the straight lines. To top it all off, the Maruti Suzuki Swift Diesel undercut the much higher priced Hyundai Getz massively and that was that. The Hyundai Getz was sinking an sinking fast. Rattled, Hyundai India came in with yet another salvo, rather, a three pronged salvo.

The rapidly aging Getz went under the cosmetic surgeon’s scalpel and emerged fresher but then again, there is only so much a surgeon’s scalpel can do. Fresh but not alluring enough but plenty of people found the Getz Prime, notice the prime, pretty and started driving around in them. More so, as the Getz Prime got an underpowered 1.1 liter petrol engine that though a pain to hustle on the highways did a decent, frugal job in town. This, along with a series of massive price cuts suited most folks who liked ambling along town just fine and the Getz Prime’s slow trot turned into a steady canter. Hyundai India smiled but couldn’t laugh all the way to the bank as the Maruti Suzuki Swift sales simply got swifter as people now were prepared to wait for three whole months for the diesel Swift, especially the Artic white one.

Hyundai Getz Prime

Hyundai India changes tack to focus on new products and this means that the Getz gets almost forgotten as Hyundai gets busy battling the Honda City with the Hyundai Verna, which gets the stonker of the 1.5 Liter four pot CRDI oil burner. But the Maruti Suzuki Swift, still is marching on unchallenged. Faced with the Getz Prime’s novelty factor wearing off rapidly resulting in sales dropping, someone at Hyundai gets the wicked idea of plonking a 1.5 Liter CRDI oil burner producing 110 rampaging horses and here we go. The most exciting and wicked Hyundai Getz on Indian shores gets made. The Hyundai Getz plays host to the Hyundai Verna’s 1.5 Liter CRDI oil burner and all hell breaks loose. Fast is an understatement. The way the lighter, when compared to the Verna, Getz was a revelation on the straights.

Hyundai Getz CRDI

The way the thing moved on Bangalore’s outer ring road is still etched onto my mind as I first got a taste of what torque steer was all about. But throw her into the corners, the same old story repeated. The Hyundai Getz 1.5 CRDI, though a stonker of a hot hatch that could leave the Swift 1.3 DDiS dead for good, yes seriously, on the straights was simply a pale shadow of itself when it came to going around a curve. The brakes, what’s that? The 1.5 CRDI motor made way too much torque for the Getz’s stock brakes to handle and even with ABS, an aftermarket performance brakes upgrade was the first thing Getz owners needed. All said, the Hyundai Getz CRDI enjoys a very loyal fan following. Folks, who simply like the rush of pushing the ultra hot hatch to close to 200 kph, more so, with the Pete’s kit plonked on to make the wicked Getz 1.5 CRDI wickeder. With the stonking Getz 1.5 CRDI, Hyundai India has made sure the Hyundai Getz will be remembered by at least one generation of hatchback crazy Indians. And one Indian is here, at 2:55 AM on a chilly Saturday morning hammering down, rather wistfully tapping down, the final nails into the Hyundai Getz’s coffin.

R.I.P Indian Hyundai Getz. 2004-2010. You will be missed.

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June 26, 2010 | By Jay Prashanth · Tags: Hyundai Getz, Hyundai Getz CRDI, Hyundai Getz Prime

Comments

2 Responses to “Hyundai Getz: End of the road”

Anuj on June 26th, 2010 9:09 pm

the car is indeed a brilliant one…but sadly could not sustain the swift competition. I still love driving this car….and comfort is way ahead tat of a swift…rock solid built and that perfect posture n road presence. Great handling….I will always love driving it irrespective of its ageing….a descent car retiring in a descent manner I feel.
RVs For Sale on November 9th, 2010 12:04 pm

Plenty of room due to the high roof line and adequate seating. Adjustable front seats can accommodate most shapes and sizes. Folding the rear seats down makes a surprising amount of space in the back, I have carried a dishwasher in the box and a washing machine at various times and still got the rear door closed. :-)

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