Finally, a car on the road that beats convention with a stunning design format and supremely feature packed; all this at a price point that’s going to have a lot of manufacturers take a quick rethink on their pricing strategies especially the Verna, Fiesta and importantly the Honda City!
The SX4 by far looks’handsome’ on the road with its advertising leveraging its good design(looks), however step in to the car and one quickly becomes aware of corners being cut to fit in this excellent pricing(SX4 Zxi - top end variant is approx Rs.8.10 Lakhs on-road @ Mumbai). The plastics, buttons, knobs, fabric, etc look a tad cheap especially if you have had a look at the Honda City where finishing is true old HONDA style’impeccable’.
As far as features go on the ZXI variant, no car in its class or segment comes close with exception to the Ford Fiesta(ZXI & SXI - Duratorq & Duratec) at a distant 2nd place. ABS, EBD, Climate Control, Air Bags, Alloys, Steering integrated Music System controls are some of the features that no car in the segment offers at a price point of Rs. 8 Lakhs; incidentally the base version of SX4(VXI) does not offer any of the above but then ticket gets cheaper by approximately Rs. 70, 000/-.
The car drives just as good as anyother in its segment, the only advantage being the overall view from the cabin is awesome. The car rides high on 16" alloys(ZXI) giving one a commanding view of the road ahead and to top it up the 1.6 Litre VVT(variable valve timing - 16 Valves in all) gives this car the acceleration of a wild cat. Mileage is still not being declared by the manufacturers but having done some research off the net, one can expect about 11kms / Litre in city conditions and 15 Kms / Litre on the highway.
To sum it up an excellent Value For Money Car - both variants VXI & ZXI. Mileage issues still need to be addressed besides as on date the waiting period for the car is 8 weeks on the ZXI variant.
MAY 31, 2007
Since my last review on the subject(SX4) thought would let all enthusiasts / members know that I have finally decided on buying the vehicle(SX4 ZXI). Paid the down payment and now a minimum waiting period of 6 weeks to get my hands on ZXI variant in Bombay.
For those of us who have the patience and have been evaluating a diesel car, you might consider waiting a little while longer since Maruti definitely has plans of launching a diesel variant of the SX4. If rumours are to go by then word has it that they will launch the diesel engine on the common rail platform(CRDi, DiCOR, TDCi, etc all mean Common Rail Diesel Engine) with about 90 BHP on the tap. If they can build in VGT(Variable Geometry - a.k.a the Hyundai Verna) with an aggressive pricing platform then Maruti surely will have a winner in both segments viz. Petrol & Diesel.
Incidentally, and this off a magazine article Honda City plans to upgrade its current offering on the ZX Gxi variant with ABS, Airbags & VTEC engine as standard features at additional cost of just Rs.20, 000. Wonder what else a little competition can do?!