I have beend riving Zen for the last 7 years. My earlier car was a Zen and the new one is a Zen too. So that speaks for the comfort and performance of the car. It is good and comfortable, the mileage is extremely good -- mine gives me close to 20 km per litre. And I feel happy driving it.
The trouble is with the Maruti guys. You have to deal with them if something goes wrong. My last car just stopped one day, the mechanics from a Maruti authorised centre were called and they could not figure out anything. The car was towed to the Maruti dealership, who first refused to do the job under guarantee and tried to wriggle out of it. First they said that somebody else had seen it; then they agreed that it was shown to a Maruti ayuthorised service station, who was certainly not "somebody else."
Then they discovered that the wiring was faulty and a short circuit had happened. To wriggle out of their responsibility they came up with a funny excuse that rats had eaten away some wires. I wonder how they came up with rats of all things, except that they were making this excuse often!
The Maruti engineer who was present at the dealership, behaved as if the customer is a fool, that I had never seen a car before in my life. I wonder if this is the training that they get.
In my second Zen, the starter started giving trouble. I was told that the electricals were not covered under guarantee.
The car is good, but pray to God that nothing goes wrong. If it does, be prepared for a lot of excuses and lame reasons from your friendly neighbourhood Maruti dealer.
I wonder how they get these customer satisfaction awards. Don’t go by what the company says and check out for yourself how Maruti deals with customers.