I am not a person who have driven lot of cars, I’ll be very practical eventhough I owe Santro Xing eRLX XL. I bought car on eve of Gudi Padwa i.e 30 th March 2006 almost 4 1/2 months back, before that I have done lot of research which car to buy thr’ net, friends, test drives etc. I have driven one of my relatives Wagon R 4000 k.m I was quite impress with Wagon R except it’s look , gear shifting and back seats, I was firm to purchase petrol car eventhough my monthly running is 1500+ km. I sorted three cars Santro, Indica and Alto, as one of my friends Indica Petrol ( now Indica Xeta ) was very poor on mileage it was not my choise and I believe Tata are better in Diesel engine, I was very obessed with Maruti and was confused between Alto and Santro, the only plus point in Alto was it’s mileage as many owners claims between 18 to 22 km/ltr and santro owners claims 13 to 16 km/ltr but ride, comfort, driving pleasure is far better than alto ( before purchase I driven both recently purchased cars upto 200 kms ).
To be frank you can’t compare alto with santro, everybody has its own perception and own requirement as Indians we are very price cautious so we become bias towards our requirements, as alto is 800 cc and santro is 1100 cc they are uncomparable, u can compare santro with wagonR. If you are looking for only mileage don’t think go and buy alto ( better than maruti 800 ) straightway but if you want comfort, driving pleasure, decent mileage and to be proud owner from your heart santro is the best option I swear.
My experience with Santro is far better than I expected I have driven 10000+ km, it is too smooth car and believe me I’m getting mileage around 18.5 km / ltr on highway and 13 km/ltr in pune city with lot of potholes (now increased mostly due to rain) and lot of traffic jam, it is hassle free, good seating arrangements. enough boot space, excellent AC and the most important it gives immense pleasure of driving, it is very very comfortable to drive compare to any other car in it’s segment, the only concern is it’s back suspension are little bumpy at high speed with three peoples back side and if u are driving on bad road else it’s really value for money.