I was happily puttering along in Bangalore traffic on my Unicorn(2nd gen, 2005 make) for close to 2 years and was quite used to the traffic here. Well to be frank getting married somehow makes a guy loose his touch with his prized 2 wheeler. Then gradually household routines turned frequent and weekly shopping trips became whole day affairs.
To add to the mess were untimely evening showers, smoke/dust filled roads, and heaps of bags to be carried around. Just married six months down these things started glaring up, when earlier I used to cared a hoot about these.
So sat over and thought about my requirements in mid Feb. My first car for primarily 2 people, occasional in-laws, a few long trips in a month, decent luggage space, practicality over performance, easy to drive and VFM certainly. No Diesel as I had estimated a max 700Kms run in a month. My office is just 1.5kms from my stay!
With a budget of around 4L(could stretch if I really needed by 50K), the choices in my mind then were Spark, Swift/Ritz, or i10(No TATA as I hated the taxi image, Beat was out as I felt claustrophobic due to the high dashboard and enclosed rear and below par engine performance for specs it had, and punto and polo were both out due to their price tags).
I had a good share of driving on our old 98’ Omni and 99’ M800 but a newbie for newer tech equipped cars. When I went for a test drive for the above cars, I was amazed to see the ease of driving in the new modern cars. The EPS, ECU, ride comforts and the works used to make me tilt to get the first car I TD!Spark was out coz really only 4 ppl can sit in it comfortable and its a very small car. Swift/Ritz though good and I liked was out coz my wife hated both their looks.To her both cars looked like frogs when viewed from the back, +VFM tag in Figo did the trick
why ZXI? well u get a great Audio Unit, electric ORV Mirrors, rear defogger n wipers, theater dimming cabin light, boot lamp, body colored mirrors an trim, crome finished indicators and grill line, tacho, 2 tone upholstry, pseudo aluminium finish on interior doors handles, seat height adjuster more on that later. hence in the end I did shoot a bit over my budget!
Much has been said about the cars characteristics in so many other member reviews but I will put some here based on what I feel as a newbie person handling an “electronic” hatch after spending many years on “mechanical” cars.
1.The car is very easy to drive with controls falling in easy reach. The road view provided is excellent and gives a more confidence inspiring ride. The rear visibility is a bit hampered by thick C pillars(could not understand why its so broad and the designers could have made it more slimmer)
2.Clutch is very smooth and light(its butter compared to the crude omni and 800). Its actually difficult to stall the car as I think the ECU kicks in if you play haywire on the pedals. The non ECU cars on this front are very non forgiving and everything you do will show up on the drive.
3.Gear change roughness on the 1st and 2nd is still evident and hope by 1st service it would smoothen out.
4.Hydraulic PS is very assuring as it gives a proper heaviness and road feedback(found swift/ritz and other cars to be too light and arcade style). Highway lane flicking is razor sharp and you know exactly where your car will be going.
5.Suspension is soft or the long wheelbase or both are playing havoc here as I have scrapped a number of speed breakers even when travelling with only my wife and no luggage. With 5 people it’s a different story as a few breakers will touch even when going over them virtually dead slow.(missed my omni here as it was like a plane gliding over these mountains!)
6.Engine power feels mighty for me upgrading from 34-37BHP cars(others might feel it is underpowered) and I feel it is very good for the city driving. Highway cruising at 100km/hr~2500rpm is a breeze and car is stable and gives a strong hold(cruising at 80 on M800 or omni was an achievement in itself! I would be more confident riding my Unicorn at 80 than on these two)
7.On diesel it might not be so obvious but I have noticed a distinct power difference when driving the petrol car with and w/o AC. With AC if you go below 1000rpm say in 2nd or 3rd gear it feels like u are lugging a truck behind you, even if you stand and dance on the accelerator. A downshift is required to pull off cleanly and without AC this feel is reduced by a good amount. I try to keep myself above the 1500 rpm mark as there is almost a pseudo pickup kick from here onwards. I have observed gearshifts at~2K rpms are useful for a good FE.
8.I do not follow the DTE or the tank full method. I follow the the simple car kms run to the liters put calculation Till date have put 60.5 liters and the car has run 704 kms with DTE showing 34. Hence in all have managed about~12odd Km/Ltr(this is with 60/40 - city/highway runs with 60/40 – AC / w/oAC)
9.The Audio systems is amongst the best for an OEM with the Bass and Treble really being reproduced fairly accurate. Combined this with the 4 door speakers they take up virtually no space but fill the car with sweet sounding music!
10.Don’t know why people crib about absence of 60/40 split seats or rear PW. These features definitely should not be a deal breaker
A few negatives on this car:
1.The LHD car design has literally been made to RHD for India without caring for the indicators and Bonnet levers. It’s a real pain to drive in the night when one has to make frequent pass signals(awful). The quick lane change feature affects the pass signal function and unless you are very steady, you will confuse the oncoming driver by simultaneously flashing high beam and also the Left/Right turn signals!
2.They could have made USB cable a standard on the audio unit. I have been trying all external gadgets to bypass that and still trying to find a cheaper solution.(1124/- is no way coming out from my pocket for a cable) had also tried the cheap FM transmitter/Modulator which goes into 12v socket and has provision for pen drive/sd cards etc, but not happy with the reception. Hence still using the radio and my phone BT function to stream songs
3.Rear windows roll down only 60% and I too wished it would have been better to see it go down more. However the glass view and roominess makes up for the deficit.
4.Seat height adjuster seems to be a serious April Fools Joke! Somehow I keep fidgeting with it so that on long drives I get comfy. Put it too high and you lose thigh support. Put it too low and your bottom simply caves in behind due to the cavity created. Ideally the whole seat platform should rise or fall with adjustment but this just tilts the platform at the back(plain stupid)
5.The non existent bumpers, essential equipment close to the front bumper and the painting charges shown by some members has made me extra cautious. No tailgaiting stunts from me and keep praying no one does that to me also!
On the whole in a nutshell I am very satisfied with the car and planning for long trips on it soon. Will update my car characteristics as soon as I finish 1st service