I was in a requirement to purchase a car for my wife. Need is for a small car that is drivable in narrow roads and high traffic for dropping kids to school and for visiting stores for purchases. As usual even this time I was doing lots of homework and visited various web sites for reviews, comparisons, ratings and then visited almost all car showrooms in Trichy. The cars that I shortlisted are Santro, i10, Alto, Alto K10, Astar, estilo, spark, Figo, Nano.
Santro - We already used Santro for four times and obviously it went down to the last in my family though I personally preferred it as it is now available as optimally loaded GL Plus for 4.07 L on road. Santro still I love it.
i10 - unreasonably very expensive though it has good interiors, dash, new design. Another main reason that made me to distance away from long relationship with Hyundai is its unethical and unreasonable pricing, poor marketing(at least in Trichy), their showroom and service location(15 km and located in 4 lane busy highway).
In addition, sometime back we went with cash to Hyundai showroom with the intention to take i20 for immediate delivery and the marketing people who were sitting there in the cabins were more interested in continuing their chat with one another than attending the customer. the approach was "leave your address(and leave us alone) we will get back to you, now do not disturb us". The way they speak till now is "we are on high demand and actually not interested in marketing it actively" and this is well reflected in very high price, lack of discounts. Though their service is good, their location, approach, price and attitude distanced us totally from our 11 years of Hyundai relationship for purchase.
Figo - In spite of worst resale value, expensive maintenance, unfriendly customer support of Ford we decided to visit the showroom, the car is good for the price and the space it offered but again the dealer response was pathetic, "we are on top of sales, you must be a lucky person to be in queue and get our car if required" was the approach. sales guy in the showroom is not even ready to speak unless I opt for the top most model of Figo. we were not interested as the car is the second parallel car meant only for local city use, which I mentioned clearly but response was pathetic. If sales response itself is in this way we can not expect much on post sale support.
Nano - Tata motors dealers usually never care for customers both sales and service. This time it was different, there was a real good response in the showroom, we took a test drive on Nano, it was really good for its price, kids loved it but lack of boot door(at least like regular hatch), kind of sealed rear engine, auto like engine sound and question of safety on occasional drive on high way all made us to keep it one step below.
Spark - Dealer was good, car was ok but the location of the dealer is more than 20 km in a National Highway, I can not even imagine taking risk of allowing my wife to drive all the way in a busy NH just for service. Insane!
Finally we went to Maruti Show room(PLA) as it less than 2 km from our place and within the heart of the city(including service center). A warm, immediate, simple welcome, no pushing on any model, patience to listen to our requirement, off-the-shelf availability, choice of colors, choice of pieces, patience to explain in detail in tune with our changing choices, friendly simple environment all amazed us. In maruti, we were considering Alto, Astar, Estilo.
Astar - Color, look and features are very good but my wife was looking for handy small car and this seemed to be slightly bigger and muscular, though I never thought on these angles it was interesting to see how ladies are very systematic and clear in their approach than their male counterpart were we always look for bells and whistles of features that may or may not be required.
Estilo - It is value for money and very decent in space and features, I personally preferred Estilo though the market trend may not have a favorable note for it. Some how my wife did not like the van like look of it and said clear no!
Alto - Small car, reasonable space, required power, easy driving, reasonable price with power steering, AC(LXi) though I was not comfortable with the choice, my wife was very clear and quickly and firmly opted for it. My need is this, this model suffice and enough. finalized was the approach from her. We booked the car with red color with black bumper [she never cared on body colored bumper:( ]
Alto K10 - we were about to leave the showroom after finishing the formalities though I was not fully ok with the choice. I saw a white colored another alto, first I was wondering why they have two similar colored alto there, It looked better and slightly different though not much noticeable. The marketing person noticed my curiosity and came to me again and explained it is Alto but K10 and explained the features. 1000 cc engine with the same mileage(20.5) of 800 cc, body colored bumper, internally adjustable outside rear view mirror(comes only with right side mirror), better interior, bigger engine room and bonnet, nice looking rear design including refreshing tail lights and headlights, more leg room space and better look, tubeless tires all made me finalize on it immediate.
The price difference is only 30K for Alto LXi to Alto K10 LXi. We went for white color and opted for the same piece displayed in the showroom. We got a discount of 15K(20K for Alto) and some free fittings. The deal was straight forward, honest and clear and again value for money at 3.37 L on road!
Though it was hard to convince my wife for the price difference I really finalized immediate and the sales person accepted to redo the laborious paper work with the same smile on his face. I really appreciate this dealer(PLA) and particularly this matured, simple, sincere, understanding sales person Mr. Sivakumar. Amazing simple guy, truly an asset to them. He is one important reason to write this review in spite of my busy and tiring schedules. One day process, next day evening we got the car and it luckily happened on our wedding day!
Regarding the car, though I use(and love) my black fully loaded Elantra CRDi of 2000 cc(an amazing car. I can talk pages and pages on its performance and excellence, you may see my review on it) Alto K10 is amazing for its price. As of now I drove it for a week and we covered around 200 km following are my feedback on it
The engine is very responsive, AC chills pretty fast and very effective, Steering is very very very smooth you can really drive it with your little finger, the front seats are concaved in the rear giving more space to the rear passengers, integrated head rest, good interiors, digital dash showing fuel level, two trip meters, odometer are really good and very intuitive. Head light level adjustment switch is useful and located in a convenient location. Engine is very quiet and you have to keep a watch on the dash to make sure it is running. simple front grille, large chrome Suzuki logo on front and back, clear headlights, body colored bumper, reasonable boot space, tubeless tires. The drive is pretty smooth, suspension is very reasonable and buffer out the bad conditions of our typical road.
I whole heartedly recommend this car to anyone for the value it offers for its price. It is a cute, baby like yet powerful car to its class and truly a value for money!
Review update after nearly 5 years
It is almost 5 years now since we purchased this car, covered more than 12, 000 km, very very little maintenance. After years we did only few slightly expensive maintenance other than the usual regular maintenance! 1. Recently changed the battery to Amaron(excellent battery sure worth mentioning) 2. Right side drive shaft(not sure how it is damaged but we were told it happened due to the rubber cover gave way and opened leading to damaging drive shaft)
Sometime I used to take this car to Chennai / Bangalore(around 350 - 400 km one way). I drove it more than 160 km speed even in rainy days, breaks are good, vehicle is pretty stable, fuel consumption is just less than half tank one way, very less cabin noise.
We all still love this amazing car, very cute baby like look but filled with power, mileage at lowest maintenance cost! Highly recommended whole-heartedly!
Recent Alto K10 comes with more mileage(around 24 kmpl) giving engine but the look is completely changed which none of us really liked except for its good interiors. Maruti should really bring back the previous model with recent updated interiors and engine!