I was planning to buy a car for some time and was thinking if I should go for a petrol car or a diesel car. I already own a Wagon R for the last 7 years and although it has given me a very nice mileage of 15-16 still I could feel the pinch of getting it tanked up as petrol price was something that was the first thing to be increased among all.
Anyways my decision was made simpler by a recent hike of Rs. 3 for petrol and I decided to go for a Diesel Car.
In the Diesel car range I had three choices i20, The Ford Figo and the Maruti Ritz. I did not consider Swift as it is very common on the roads. I had to strike out i20 as it was going out of budget costing almost 6.5 lacs.
I took the test drive of Ritz and I was very impressed with it, though the test drive car was badly used and had troubles with the gear shift but overall it was great. The best thing is the kick that it gets as soon as it gets into the turbo mode. It was effortlessly cruising at 80kmph before I could even realize so I was 70% in favor of going for the Ritz.
I was considering the Vdi verison as it had the maximum features of the two diesel version although it was still low in fatures compared to the Ritz Zxi Petrol. The next day I went to a Ford Showroom to take a test drive of the Ford Figo. I liked the Zxi version which had all the features like rear wiper and defogger, factory fitted music system with bluetooth, electric OVRMs.
All this at a price almost similar to the RItz Vdi, in fact less if you consider the 6500/- package that they include in the price which has the anti rust and teflon coating. The test ride was decent enough and the pull was uniform all across unlike the sudden surge in power as in case of Ritz.
After this test drive my preference for Ritz went down to 55%. I still liked the Ritz but I was getting more space and features in Figo at the same price.
Then came the Deal breaker.. I was talking abt how the features of Figo impressed me to the Maruti salesman and then he suggested I go for the Ritz vdi Genus. The Genus was a special edition car which had some additional features. For just Rs. 16K extra , the Genus had keyless entry, a blue touch to the dashboard like the Zxi, Tilt steering, Rear wiper and factory fitted Music system.
This narrowed down the difference of the two plus the lack of power windows in the rear of Figo was a bus turn off. So finally I went for the Genus and after some bargaining and cajoling , got the deal finalized at a little over 546K on road for Gurgaon.
Its been one week since I got the car and I have driven it for almost 500kms. The ride quality is excellent and you are in another world cut off from the outside noise. You really enjoy the drive as it actually feels powerful, just put it in 2nd gear and even without pressing the pedal it is easily going at 25km/h.
And the most remarkable thing is the turbo kick you get as soon as it hits the rpm of 2K, it just zooms ahead leaving everything behind. The seats are nice and hug you comfortably, the view of the road is excellent and you feel in control. Maruti is known for its After Sales and Service and that’s what keeps it ahead of the competition, however what Maruti lacks is planning and bringing in the newest technology, the factory fitted music system lacks a USB port although the SX4 now comes with it now.
Since I have been driving a Wagon R and I am used to the many small useful utilities offered in it, I was missing them in the Ritz. Like the cup holder, and a small tray under the steering that the Wagon R had and also a bottle holder between the front seats for the rear passengers.
The Ritz has only one cup or bottle holder in the front which already had an ash tray, It has two bottle holders on the front doors but lacks a bottle holder on the rear doors not even door pockets so no cupholders for the rear passengers.
I somehow fail to understand why the top version Vdi has less features compared to the Top version ZXi Ritz Petrol although the latter costs less than the Vdi.
Anyways, overall I still feel that the Vdi is a very good buy and will save you lots of money in terms of travel cost if you have been driving a petrol car.
I just checked the latest mileage yesterday and I am getting 17.25 kmpl in city driving. I intend to take it for the first service by the end of the month and then will see how it does after that as the first 1000 kms is the running in period so stay tuned for further updates.