The Big 10K

Our long-term Kia Sonet HTX Plus Diesel MT has hit the first of the big landmarks in its existence- the all-important 10K mark and that too within just six months of entering our fleet. Though, to be honest, if you have read our three long term reports and guide to living with the Sonet, then this five-digit breakthrough shouldn’t come as a surprise. We’ve put links to all four reports at the bottom of this story. In today’s day and age where reliability is pretty high this milestone is more of a personal achievement for any owner but it meant that the Sonet had to go in for its third service, something that the was long deserving considering its gruelling schedule over the last few months.

Work order

Now our Sonet had a few minor wears and tear issues but on the face of things, this was a standard third service for the car. In this service Kia addressed the following issues:

Replacement of engine oilTyre health checkWheel alignmentWheel balancing and rotationBrake pad serviceWiper mechanism checkRight rear seatback locking mechanism check

Besides, we had also been facing issues with the wash system for the front wipers or let’s put it this way, we kept filling the pump bottle but when activated there was no spray for the front or rear wipers. This turned out to be a major issue when we were shooting in dusty areas severely reducing visibility. There was also an issue with the right rear seatback not latching on properly. While that was not an issue if the seat was occupied, it became a problem if there was no occupant or sufficient weight on the seatback.

Service centre experience

Today purchasing a car is only 40 per cent of the car ownership experience, the other 60 comes once you have signed, sealed and driven out of the showroom. This includes accessories, running costs, fuel prices and service experience and that’s something Kia wanted us to experience, so we did.

We visited a Kia Service Centre in Pune where along with getting the Sonet its third service, we also got to go through the process of getting the car serviced from two perspectives. The first was the traditional method where we took the car to the service centre and went through the service process.

The second method we experienced was a more recent one that has taken prominence in this era of the pandemic. Using Kia’s mobile app and online processes, we were able to book an appointment for the service of the Sonet. A service executive from Kia collected the car from us, sanitised it, took it away, serviced the car and was returned to us! We have detailed both processes in a separate story and you can read about that here.

CTC

The total service cost for the 1.5-litre/6MT HTX Plus Sonet was Rs 3788.71 and of this, the largest chunk was the cost of the engine oil that came in at Rs 1844.99. In addition to this, there was Rs 425 for an oil filter and Rs 275 for an air filter. Finally, the cost also included Rs 1244 for repairing the windshield washer system for the front and rear wipers. Since this was the third free service, we incurred no labour cost, washing charges, fuel charges or fumigation charges. There was a marked difference once the car had been serviced as everything became smoother, quieter and mercifully it was good to have the wiper wash working once again. The seatback too stopped rattling even when we went over really hard bumps and rough patches.

What's next?

Now that we have had this Kia Sonet in the HTX Plus diesel trim for a while, we plan to use the car over a variety of situations (official rules permitting) and will give you our observations of the good and bad in our next long term report.

Photography: Kaustubh Gandhi

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