Time to write my first review ever on MouthShut_Official.
When it comes to car, everyone has different priorities. Some would love cars with high PS, some prefer milage, some would love the looks of the car and some like me would look for comfort and ride quality. I drive roughly 60 KM atleast twice or thrice in a week. I have the facility of commuting in company provided cab on daily basis to office.
I earlier owned Wagon R and BEAT is my second car. I wanted a car to commute with my friends and family on weekends and as I said earlier my priority was comfort and ride quality. Keeping these in mind ofcourse along with my budget(~5 Lakhs) I rounded my options on few cars like, A-Star, i10, Fabia, Figo, Ritz, Beat and Swift.
Here are my thoughts about the above cars one by one(purely my opinion. No offence to other brand car owners):
A-Star: Sturdy car. Good looks, Ride quality is not bad. But comfort at both ffont and rear was not that good(i’m just 5.10 feet tall)
i10: I was impressed with the car’s performance. Amazing pickup, Good interiors, But the ride quality was poor. It was almost comparable to Wagon R
Fabia: Lovely engine performance. decent pickup, milage but leg room and maintenance cost of the vehicle made me walk out of the Fabia dealer showroom
Figo: Amazing road handling, Very spacious boot. Interiors lacking modernity. Odd placing of turn indicators lever. Nothing much appealed to me in this car except of road handling
Ritz: I didnt like the back look of the car. it looks like half finished. I just considered this car in my list just for heck of it. Was never interested in it as I think it is overly priced for the features it has.
Swift: proven car in terms of stability, ride quality, looks, comfort. No complaints. But I saw and driven enough that I wanted to look at other brands. May be the waiting period was one factor which made me try other brands.
I didnt try Punto, Polo, i20 as they dont fit my bill. And I never prefered any car from TATA even though I heard a lot about Indica Vista cos I wanted a car not a cab.
Finally the only car i’m left up with was BEAT. I and one of my friend walked into Kun Chevrolet showroom in Kavadiguda @ Hyderabad. My heart skipped few BEATs when I first saw the car. The agent welcomed us cordially and was explaining me the features of the car while my hands were itching to hold the steering of this beauty.
Finally after 15 minutes of impatient waiting, I was offered a test drive. As I stepped in the car, I was greated with blue lit dashboard which swooped me off my feet. something which I never experienced in any of the hatchback cars. The seat hugged me as I sat, and I felt so comfortable and relaxed. The upper back and lower back support was so good. I stared for few minutes at the interiors. Everything was so fresh. Out of the box design. Motorbike speadometer gave the dashboard a sporty look. Lot of cub holes rightly placed, which can accomodate mobile, water bottles, coins, books etc. My friend sat in the rear seat and was talking about the ample leg room. He mentioned to me how spacious it is at the rear when compared to i10, Fabia and Swift.
I then turned on the ignition while the windows are all rolled up(i test driven LT LPG Variant) and I doubted if the car didn’t start. I was amazed by the no-noice engine. It was just wow. No words for it. The agent who sat beside me turned on the climate control and with in minutes the interior was totally chilled. However I was little disappointed when I moved to First gear. The gear box was not upto the mark and was kind of sluggish. i10 scores best in the gear box performance. As I stamped the accelerator, BEAT raced decently(Not best when compared to Wagon R, i10, Swift). I asked the agent who sat beside me the reason for this behaviour. He mentioned that the car after starting in Petrol mode would automatchandru021y convert to LPG mode for fuel efficiency. He then pressed a small button to the right of steering wheel and I noticed a red light lit up which indicated the car is now in Petrol mode. I felt the pickup was much better in this mode. The car picked up life after 2500 RPM. The steering was neither heavy not light. It was just perfect and was very responsive.
I took the car on to the fly over and accelerated the car mercilessly. The Beast in BEAT came to life and the car zipped thru the city traffic and was responsing amazingly to my zip drive. The ride quality was so amazing. Smooth and soundless. The car was not bouncy unlike other hatchback models. The brakes performed so very perfect. I noticed few guys on two wheelers and cars taking a prolonged look at the black BEAT I was driving. There was a smile on my face. After a 20 minute thorough test drive, I took a U turn and returned back to the showroom. I felt the drive was so short and was not willing to get out of the comfortable seat and cozy interiors.
We then examined the rear boot space and found it too small. But im no colombus and I wanted a car just for city drive and not for long drives. So the boot space didn’t disappoint me. I was just calculating if it can accomodate Polk DB Marine Woofer.(i forgot to mention that i’m music savy) And I must mention here the quality of inbuilt player. I’m not aware which make it is. I switched on and heard a lousy, poor quality sound. I just examined the stock speakers which came along with the car and found them to be out dated paper cone speakers. So I guessed that changing the speakers whould make a difference to the sound quality(and I was right when I changed the speakers in my car)
Keeping in mind the hike in petrol cost, I booked White LT(LPG) Variant which comes with 4 power windows, inbuild audio player, Tilt steering, climate control. The difference between Petrol and LPG was hardly 35K. I got rid of the stock wheels and got my baby fitted with Alloy Wheels which increased its stability and road handling. The dealer gave me good offer and got few accessories free of cost. I got body mats, 3 Teflon coatings, Insurance from ICICI Lombard for free additional to 15K waiver upfront on the vehile cost. And 3 years warranty offered by GM is really juicy.
I got the vehicle delievered 2 days from the day of booking. All accessories fitted by the time of delivery and a small teddy bear and chocolates and Laptop bag were in the rear seat when I took the delivery. I’m pleased not only with my car performance but also with Kun Chevrolet dealer @ kavadiguda in Hyderabad, I recommed both the car and dealer to those who are aspirant to own the BEA(S)T.
Will attach some pics soon.