It was 6 months back when I decided to plan for my fist car. It took me around 2 months of extensive analysis and comparison based on specifications, features, and more importantly the reviews from various automobile related sites to formulate my ideas and requirements.
*My requirements were clearly defined -
Priority 1 - Budget max 4 lacs
Priority 2 - Driving comfort to be optimum if not the best in its class since I myself would be driving.
Priority 3 - Good Mileage since my monthly driving would consist of approximately 700 Km in city and 300 km in highway.
Priority 4 - Low on Maintenance
Priority 5 - Overall Good value for money
*The points that I kept it outside from my consideration -
Looks ** - Looks should be decent if not great. My justification is I am opting for B segment car not a sedan anyway.
Seating - Since my wife and me would be riding it mostly for office going purpose hence 5 people wont be sitting all time and accordingly space was not a constraint.
Resale - I plan to keep the car for atleast 5 -6 years. So Resale was not my consideration to a great extent
That led to short listing of Santro GLs from the list of Xeta, WagonR, Spark and Santro
Now based on my experience of driving my Sunshine car for more than 2000 Kms, here is what I felt.However, I must admit that I am no auto expert or a serious car buff and this review is purely based on what I felt as driver.
*A) Driving Comfort -
Pros -
1)
Very good View from the driver’s seat. High seating position makes the road view very clear. Nevertheless I must admit that the rear seats are comfortably positioned and the support for the legs are quite good. Xeta was eliminated due to awkward viewing angle. Not high enough seats, coupled with high dashboard and then again the low curve of the bonnet makes the judgment awkward.
2)Short and crisp gear shift. The throw is right and accurate making it very easy to change gears in heavy city traffic. Also the mid range torque has been worked upon pretty fine to ensure that gears changes are minimal.WagonR was thus eliminated as the gears are hard and throws are long.Moreover any one who is new to driving would find the Reverse gear extremely hard to place.
3)Good and powerful AC. The AC cools in super cool time and uniformly cools the entire cabin. Spark was eliminated as the two Test Drive cars that I used for Spark, the AC was not upto the mark and took much longer time to cool.
4)Good Maneuverability. Though the Power steering is hydraulic compared to electronic in WagonR, it still is one of the best in its class. This coupled with minimum turning radius of 4.4 m makes parking a child’s play.
*Cons -
*1) The ride in the rear seat is bumpy. Also the guard underneath the front bumper is positioned low. The result is - you need to be very cautious while crossing over a smooth road just after it hits a big ditch. Otherwise it can hit the rod underneath the bumper guard.
2) The Top end version of Santro does not have Rear Defogger, Rear Wiper and Rear Power windows which I believe should be present in the highest variant GLS.
*B) Mileage -
After driving the car for more than 2000 Kms, I am getting a mileage of 15 Km/L with intermittent AC on City roads and **19 Km/L on highways. Here is the data
*Litres Odometer Reading in Kms
*35 22
26.83 451
29 872
17.9 1124
10.02 1759
25 1912
23 2287
*C) Overall Satisfaction -
*Overall satisfaction is very good. I would recommend it for many reasons mentioned above except for Resale value. Since i10 is here, Santro effectively might be phased out.
Seating for 5 comfortably enables one to plan for highway trips, good mileage doesn’t burn your pocket too dearly, good service network if not the best, decent looks and you feel that Sunshine Car is truly a class all-rounder.