This is my first car from maruti stable. Swift had a waiting period of 5-6 months, tried hard to find the old model swift from many dealers, some had the petrol version which I was not interested. Didn’t like the rear design of the new Swift and vdi was out of my budget Did love Fiat Punto, Ohh man, I loved the steering feel, a tiny bulge to hold it firmly, beautiful. liked the seating position as well as the wipers, finalized in my mind that this is the car for me. Asked the dealer to bring it to my house for a test drive. And the issues propped up.
Punto won’t fit in my rented house garage , was upset , thought of moving to a new rented house for a moment.Took her for a drive , then came a U turn near 80 feet road Indiranagar, couldn’t make it in single attempt, Thought for some time whether my wife will be able to handle punto all alone and then dropped my plan , may be Fiat will be my next car I will prefer once my wife becomes expert in driving I am unhappy with maruti dealers and I feel MASS does a better job.
If you are a kind of person who does adventure trips like night driving and traveling to remote places, One must opt a maruti, at least we can get a MASS nearby to deal with the situation Purchase price : Rs.6.47 lakhs in Bangalore (ex showroom : 6.21 + 26k accessories (music system + seat covers + 4 JBL speakers)) They warned me that time of electrical warranty if I purchased system from outside. I did a big mistake by buying it from showroom, could have got at a lesser priceUnder chasis coating and sun film were provided free by the dealer.
Michelins cost me Rs.4600 per tire, and alloys cost me Rs.14k for a set of 4. After running the stock JK’s for 7800 kms , I got 7k for set of 4 during buy back.Investing in Michelins and upgrading the headlamp with Philips night vision 100/90 is the best thing I have done so far.
Overall Review:
Purchased in august 2011, have completed nearly 18000 kms
upgraded the tires to Michelins xm1+ 185/75 from the Jk’s provided.
enjoy driving her on the highways and in city due to higher seat positions, its somewhat easy to drive, gives a confidence .
have been using Mobil 1 supersyn synthetic oil. So that I can drive her till 150000kms .
5.Mileage :In City she has been giving around 15/17 with/without AC . On highways , gives 20 kms/lit with ac
- Maintenance Cost:I have been very particular on this , service centre quotes high amount by trying to add irrelevant stuffs. I ask them why this is needed and try to remove it from the checklist . servicing comes around Rs.2000 (this is excluding oil charges as using synthetic will increase the cost by 3k) . I feel Maruti earns money during servicing.
7.Ride & Comfort:Initially I felt bad for city roads, but now , it seems that the suspensions have become soft and handles well in cityFor highways some roll is prominent during cornering and have to apply the brakes a bit ( may be for milli seconds) , just to get the confidence :D
Upside:
Practical car for a small family. good roomy feeling , feels like a small innova after upgrading the tires .
Good diesel engine , love to drive along with the turbo.
Good ground Clearance. I dont think I have ever scraped her underbelly in Bangalore, Tamil nadu nor Kerala. Compared to honda city where I have to stop and climb over a speed breaker.
Heavier than Swift and also good boot space
Pretty tuff bumper , body panels and bonnet
6.Tail lamps are high mounted , which provides more visibility for vehicles behind us duirng rains .
- European designed car , I think it was first known as Opel Agila Downside :
1.Very difficult to judge through small roads for first time drivers.
Prone to rattles but I feel that comes along with Maruti
Have to upgrade the tires to 185/75 to get the feel of the vehicle on highways.
Turbo should have kicked @1800 rpm
No rear wiper nor defogger, zxi variant tires and auto folding side mirror option for higer end diesel, zdi version should be introduced
Some more insulation so that engine noise is reduced a bit
Blind spots are present but can be easily managed after 1000kms of driving using some techniques
gearbox sometimes doesnt do its duty properly, shifting from 4th to 3rd is difficult sometimes
No music system and speakers for a 6 lakhs car
Brakes are not as sensitive as Hyundai I10
Update :22500 kmsdone my 4th service , very expensive (around Rs.7k)I have just changed what has been mentioned in their service manual. I feel maruti service is the most expensive. The quality of gear box oil and other stuff is not good, so they ask us to change it during every 20k kms. I dont think there is any need to change the gear box oil every 20k kms, should last for 50k kms.People should opt other car manufacturers IMO.
1st service (1150 kms ): Rs.1200 -oil change only
2nd service (5000 kms) : Free
3rd service (10000 kms) : Rs.5500
4th service (20000 kms) : Rs.7000 (maruti calls it major service, which is not at all required for a car which is less than 4 yrs old. Whats the use of paying so much initial upfront cost for buying their product and then paying so high service bills.)Moreover they are increasing the car prices at an exhorbidant rate. Within 6 months , they have increased the car prices by 50 k
Completed 25000 kms in 10 months , doing great ...done wheel alignment that’s it. 5th service@ 30000 kms , changed the oil and cost came around 4500 including labour (11 months) Update
45000kms December 2012 : Unfortunately I need to sell as I had to move to US
Got good resale for a car that had run 45k in 15 months .
45000 kms service cost me around Rs.14000 . changed brake pads also even though it could have lasted for some more time . Was a good experience with Maruti servicing , just need to find the right service centre, everything goes on smoothly.
Anyways next purchase will be a petrol only , I missed the smoothness and silent nature of petrol engines . Sometimes I feel that the engine is off whenever I drive petrol Ritz