I have booked a Furnace Red Palio MJD SDX version from Concorde Motors, Dairy Circle, Bangalore. There is a 15K discount going on , with a audio player and 2 speakers free. The onroad price for the high end SDX came to 5.39 exactly in Bangalore. Expecting the delivery around Jan 9.
Initially was interested in the petrol Palio SLX, but since I drive around 1800 kms a month , extended my strained budget to above 5L, considering running cost benefits of a diesel. I am going to keep the car long term, so not worried about re-sale. This is my first car so checked a lot of other cars before coming to this decision. I already have experiences with the Alto, Inidica DLS , Santro and my brother’s Zen Estilo.
I had also test driven the Swift and i-10 Kappa.
i-10 Kappa Sports was smooth as butter to drive and super silent but priced at 4.89 onroad in Blore, I felt that was costly for a petrol hatch. With the Swift I felt edgy as the edges of the car were not clear, WagonR and Estilo were out of the equation due to space. It was the Palio 1.1 SLX that apealed to me considering the 4.2 onroad price (when I checked in Nov 08) and space and comfort it offered, not to forget decent mileage of above 12/13.
The power and handling of the diesel 1.3 MJD was impressive. Went for a second test drive of the Palio MJD , and with reduced prices at the moment , got it booked.