I finalized Zen Estillo LXi in July 2009 for Rs 3.35 Lakhs( with discount of Rs35000) on road, and to my surprise I came to know through forums of various auto mags that MSIL is considering revamp Zen Estillo due to its shrinking sales, it was relaunched in Aug 2009, except change in engine, and front looks, nothing was new in it, on road in Hyderabad priced at Rs.3.95Lakhs, a hike of Rs60000, felt not good bargain as no dealer in Hyderabad was offering discounts even in year end, which I felt is foolishness in still waiting for a car that doesn’t have any "glamour "on roads, I could hardly find any Estillos even after 5 months of launch in Hyderabad. Since I had the plans of buying a new car and was going through specs pros n cons of all similar cars in a auto mag, in which under Zen Estillo VXi, remark was “try Ritz LXI instead of Zen Estillo VXi”, just this line made me to think about Ritz, until then I never dared to see the price/specs of Ritz because I always felt its beyond my reach(my target was to buy a car with on road price of less than 4lacs).
Very next day I dared enough to see the vehicle had a test drive and immediately decided drop Estillo from my mind and enquired about Ritz LXi, since year end sale was on I could bargain a bit and brought to a on road price of Rs4.15 lakhs with basic accessories. It is a different class of vehicle which cannot be compared to either Zen Estillo or Wagon R(except in cost) it is spacious, has a peppy n silent engine, silent cabin, smooth transmission, efficient ac, superb pickup, fuel efficient( I am getting 14-15KMPL in Hyderabad and had a long 400km highway non stop drive to Rajahmundry in hot summer with complete ac on, 5 persons and boot full of luggage, started with full tank and again tank filled at Rajahmundry with 22ltrs of petrol i.e to say it returned 18kmpl(speed not exceeding 80KMPH throughout journey, that too from a vehicle which has run for less than 2000km by that time and the list goes on.
Till now the vehicle is driven 4000 kms and mostly in city and returned mileage of 16+ on tank full to tank full calculation with 100% AC on. When the vehicle was bought in Dec 2009, only few vehicles were seen on Hyderabad roads and I had to think whether to go or not to go ahead with Ritz, got it now I feel proud of it, hardly one year of its launch now you can find many no. of Ritz in nook and corner of India, very surprised to see many no RITZ’s in Gangtok, In Hyderabad Diesel version is more sought here but diesel was never in my mind as again I had to shell out another 80K without much use as my usage is roughly 600KM per month, if running is less than 2000KM per month its waste of buying a diesel engine vehicle taking into account the cost escalation, maintenance etc.
Six months of experience with my Ritz is excellent, except had a bitter experience of being hit by a lorry from back damaging entire rear of my Ritz(which is the only part not liked by most of the people), back door, glass, tail lamps rear bumper all were replaced with new ones, Mitra Agencies in Hyderabad repaired the vehicle in promised time and dealer might have earned very little selling car to me but could gain a lot with this accident job which was around Rs 50000+, vehicle was made brand new car in 20 days no one can say the vehicle had ever met with a accident. After this repair work I do not feel as I am driving a accident vehicle, I still feel my vehicle is new, I erased accident totally from my mind and feel myself proud of my vehicle.
I can confidently suggest any one buying WagonR or AStar or Estillo, to just have a look on Ritz once, test ride Ritz, I am sure you ‘ll definitely change your mind or think again before going ahead for buying estillo, astar, wagonR. Compare top end of these models price wise with a basic version of Ritz., definitely at almost same price of these vehicles one can buy Ritz Lxi, it does not have power windows, central locking, wheel caps which can be fixed if required at an affordable price elsewhere later but u cannot upgrade a vehicle. My little hint to all new buyers is don’t hesitate to look in all aspects price wise feature wise and finally size wise too, it looks jumbo when compared to estillo or wagon R to our eyes but compare specifications on brochure its size is few cms more than WagonR. I hope my review on Ritz would be useful to all aspiring car owners, who is in search of buying a new car from India’s largest manufacturers of Car.
The car was speed tested with 5 occupants, AC on, believe it or not the speedometer touched 170KMPH, it was possible on outer ring road in Hyderabad, the vehicle was driven by my friend and I was just watching street light towers passing every second, speedo pointer on 170KMPH, of course cabin noise increased a bit but travel feeling at such speed was something special, of course bit frightened and my pulse rate increased too, I cant believe even now.