Me: Auto sales & marketing professional for over a decade. Worked with four of the most respected auto brands in India & abroad.
My requirement: Returning to India after an 8-year stint abroad, I was looking for a car that would be economical yet safe and easy to live with (reliable, maneuverable & good quality). The vehicle was intended primarily for suburban use by self and wife. It should be able to carry the two of us, our two daughters and the monthly shopping with ease.
Last vehicle owned: Toyota Corolla & driven for 7 years without a single problem, ever!
My budget: Rs. 3.5 L to 5 L
Other vehicles considered:
Mahindra Bolero (2nd Hand)
Ford Ikon 1.6 (2nd Hand)
Maruti 800
Maruti Alto
Maruti WagonR
Maruti Zen
Tata Indigo
Vehicle purchased: Hyundai Santro Xing XG
Period owned: 8 months. 2700 Kms. No unexpected visits to service centre!
What I like:
The looks. Borrows heavily from its big brother Getz which I have driven abroad. I adore Volkswagen / Audi styling, so I loved the tail lamps that are a straight lift from Volkswagen Passat. Generous styling inspiration visible from the old Volkswagen Polo. Remove the Hyundai badging and any ardent disciple of Teutonic auto styling would tell you it is a Volkswagen.
Love the thoughtful additions like seat under-tray (always thought the old car should have had one), rear parcel tray, provision for rear speaker fitment, fresh upholstery, new instrument binnacle.
The car is longer & wider. All additions in the length have gone to the front & rear overhangs. So more crumple spaces i.e. a safer car & a bigger boot.
Performance seems just as zippy as the old car. The extra weight of the Xing does not affect performance. AC is just superb. Wife finds interior almost as spacious as our good old ’96 Corolla and feels seats are better for visibility.
After 2700 Kms. I have got used to shifting with my right hand and though the gearshift is not as good as my old Corolla it is fun snicking from 5 to 3 to 1. If you know how to work the shifter, you can keep cars much more powerful than the Xing trailing behind.
Fuel consumption as expected – Consistently returns 14+ Kmpl despite spirited city / highway driving with AC mostly off.
- What I dislike:
Read this in the light that my first & only car was a Corolla. That I have been brand manager for Lexus for a very long time and am now product manager for Mercedes. My expectations of what cars should deliver is very large, my pocket is modest!
The suspension is awful. I used to find the Corolla suspension hard (thanks to the Harsh Road Package as it is called in Toyota lingo). By comparison, this feels almost as bad as riding a bullock on a bombed out road.
I miss the door ajar warning – On several occasions a door or the rear hatch was inadvertently left open and discovered only later. Pretty dangerous with toddlers on-board!
Build quality is not as tight as I would have liked – Glove-box lid flops open if the car goes over a bump and the dome-lamp knob keeps falling off. I have been taught the luxury offered by a car is inversely proportional to the number of exposed screw heads – by that count the Xing is pretty down-market!
Except for these few niggling grouses, I am pretty happy with the little zipper. Those of you who are dilly-dallying on the Santro, go for it. The Mercedes-Benz parking lot is full of Santros (Silver & Forest Green mostly). So many Merc employees cannot be wrong!
5800 Km Update
Wanted to change my car ’just like that’. So went for one long last drive with family to Goa. Family comprises the Missus & 2 angelic daughters. Did the entire stretch at a leisurely pace with not a single problem. Relaxed driving with AC on at all times gave me 17.42 Kmpl (ordinary petrol). Missed better lumbar support on the driver’s seat (Wifey doesn’t drive).
Problems till date:
Nothing major -
1) Front passenger door handle has a grab which rattled. Service guy fixed it with a crude washer below the screw. Rattle restarted after 6 months.
2) Cabin lamp button fell off after 6 months
3) Rats in the engine bay chewed up all rubber parts & cables. Service guy used a lot of tape to splice cables. Replaced some parts. Total bill Rs. 1800 To prevent this I later read you can tape an open pouch of very strong Tobacco in the engine bay. The smell apprently drives the buggers away
Bid a tearful adieu to my dear Santro
Sold it off at the local Automart. Miss the little, cheerful silver bug. Since I was happy with Hyundai I wanted to replace it with a Accent CRDi. Though it drives like a bomb, it also costs a bomb. Even with the miserly ’Corporate Discount’ it was way beyond what I felt the car was worth. (Same applies to the Getz).
Got a good ’Corporate’ deal with Honda and so went in for a City EXi (All that you need in a GXi minus, the yucky fake plastic console). The City is a different class altogether in luxury but still I maintain that if you have more sense that money, on Indian roads, for predominantly city driving, you don’t get a car better than the Santro.