At the time of writing this review, I have booked my Wagon R. But let me tell you guys that the decision to zero down upon wagon R was not very easy for me. I was always sure about one thing that I will put in my hard earned money in either Maruti or Hyundai which are the top two companies in Indian market. I had three options in my mind: Santro, Wagon R and i10. I have listed down all the pros and cons which came to my mind about each one of this cars:
1)
Pros: A very good car in terms of pick up, mileage, AC effectiveness, durability, to an extent good resale value & good discounts on purchase. I had almost booked the santro but decided to drop the idea because of the below points
Cons: Xing is an old model which is more tentative to be either discontinued in the near future or refurbished to increase the sales which has seen a continuous downward incline in 2011 compared to previous years. So, if I buy a Santro at this point of time, it will not look new by any means and will have less resale value after 2-3 years compared to other cars.The interiors of Santro Xing are not very refreshing and bear the same old look.
2) I10
Pros: A good car doing well in terms of sales figures and has achieved a good customer base in a very short span of time. Good and refreshing looks perfectly suites to young generation. I decided to take a test drive before finalizing it which saved me from committing a mistake.
Cons: I took test drive of the Sportz version, which is the highest version available. The car is having a good pick up, good AC effectiveness, good feel of road grip, silent cabin which is not spacious enough to prove itself worthy of 4 lakhs plus price tag. The biggest issue of the car is its power steering, which I felt was very heavy. It performed well at lower speeds, but once the odo touches 30-40 km/h mark, the steering wheel becomes really heavy. I asked the sales person why is the electronic power steering so heavy but he was not having a proper convincing explanation for it, on the contrary he said that the Era model has a little heavier steering than the sportz version. I was surprised to know this and immediately decided not to buy this car as there is no point in buying something which don’t give you good space and ride quality after paying a big sum. I also inquired about the car with my mechanic who also said that i10 feels heavy while driving compared to Santro which has hydraulic power steering.