I own 2000 model matiz SG. In short, I just love it ! It is undoubtedly the best small car on indian roads. Most of the service stations in bangalore do a good job, though most of them converted to multi-car stations now. I have driven several other small cars - maruti 800, alto, santro and zen, before settling on Matiz. Couldn’t have made a better decision !
In the last 3.5 years, I have driven 1, 100 km/month on average and I have visited the dealer only twice other than the normal servicing. Both times due to noise coming from the suspension calipers. The front suspension calipers always seem to cause problems - a ticking noise keep coming from them. . After 3.5 years, they start squeaking. Also, I got flat tyres 6 times so far. Just bad roads I guess...
The car has amazing stability on road. My friends having other small cars are quite impressed by its smooth, stable cornering at high speeds. Talking about speeds, I have clocked 140kmph on the highway (so far). It was still accelarating, but I ran out of good road. I do 350km+ trips to chennai regularly. On the fuel economy, I get around 11-13km/ltr in the city (bangalore traffic is real bad) and 20-25km/ltr on the highway. Try beating that and your car will enter into the guinness book of records ! Before the first service, I used to get 17km/ltr in the city.
Suspension is excellent. I hardly feel any tiredness after driving for 4 hours straight. My family members and friends travelling in other small cars can’t agree more.
The only way to accelate past any other car (other than wagonR & maruti 800) is to floor the pedal in a lower gear. This car completely acks power. This is the only crib I have. But for 800cc, it does a marvellous job.
The door panels tend to rust quite a bit. I have seen the same problem with other daewoo cars.
If you want to experience the best AC in small car, let me take you for a drive in matiz ! It is absolutely quiet and cools the car at super-speed ! In comparison, other car ACs doesn’t come anywhere close, especially the Santro AC really sucks. I would love to buy another matiz if possible. Waiting for the revamped model launch in May’04.