I have been going through months of research over what car to buy. My initial picks were Alto, Wagon R, Santro, Indica Turbo, Swift and Getz.
When I first contempled buying a car, I was in Calcutta and had almost settled between a Swift and a Getz. But then I moved to Delhi about 2 months back and my priorities changed. Because of the huge distances I require a car that was fuel efficient. As the car would also be driven by my wife, reliability was a major concern. I didnt want the car to have maintainance problems after some years.
That got Getz & Swift out of the picture in the first criterea.
Indica went out in the second criterea.
Getting behind the steering wheel of an Alto is a job for Gymnasts, so I deleted it from my list too.
So all I had left was a Wagon R & a Santro -- As usual......
Now my cousin has a Wagon R and I had been driving it for quite some time.
The things that went against the Wagon R are:-
Seats- Not proper bucket seats. Even though the new wagon R has better seats, but I still believe that Santro’s Seats are better.
Gear- The Gear shift of the Wagon R is not very userfriendly.
Suspension- Wagon R ride quality is more bumpy.
Dashboard- The dashboard of the Wagon R has got a plasticy feel.
Price- With the launch of the new Wagon R. The Lxi model was coming at 3.79 lakhs (ex showroom) while the Vxi model was almost 4 lakhs. And no discounts at all. While I got a santro Top Model for 3.71 on road, which means a savings of almost Rs 45-50 thousand (on comparisonof 2 top end models)
6 Seating Position- It is higher than the Wagon R and even the back seat is a bit raised, which accounts for better legroom and visibility.
- AC- Santro AC scores well over Wagon R
Advantages of Wagon R over Santro:-
More service centres. The Maruti Network......
More space in the car not for passengers but for utility stuff. Luggage space is a lot bigger.
LPG variant is untested and no idea as to how much of a power difference there might be.
The worst part was that there were no LPG cars available for test drive. I cant understand how may this happen. Even Swift had enough cars for test drive when it got launched. All that I got to see were the Demo cars.
I had decided on the XL model of the Santro which had all the features reqd, but when I went for the drive the feel of the XO (top end) model was too good to resist.
My next job was to call up all the dealers regarding prices of the XO model.
A little bit of bargaining definitely helps.
I finally managed to get Rs 16000 as cash discount apart from the free 1st year insurance and also a Hyundai genuine accessory gear lock thrown in.
MGF Hyundai was an excellent choice and the proactiveness and the courtsey shown by the staff was excellent. Mr Arun Bharadwaj specially desrves a mention. Their workshops are well distributed and even their showroom is in the city centre.
I also got an accessories package thrown in. For Rs.23, 000 I got
Sony Xplode MP3+ FM player with 2 front speakers of 75W & 2 rear speakers of 400 W.
Seat Covers.
Anti Rust Coating
Teflon Coating
Floor Mats (Carpet Style)
Perfume Imported
Leather Headrest
Mud Flaps
Leather Gear Knob.
Cobra Locking System
The drive quality of the Santro Xing ELRX is smooth. I cant comment on the mileage now as I have taken delivery only on the 18th and just driven it for 250 Kms.
I will add to this review once I get the correct picture of the mieage.