I purchased my Zen Estilo Lxi in December 2006. The on road price in Mysore was 3.98 Lakhs excluding standard accessories like rubber mats and mud-flaps. In this review, I have tried to cover those points which I felt might not be evident at first sight.
1) Looks:
Exterior:
Well, this is a very subjective area - Some people find the odd looking car cute while others find it toy-like. I found the looks OK.
Interior:
The dashboard looks quite nice with trendy dual tone plastics. However, the quality of some plastic parts are disappointing. The switches on the fascia and the A/c console are poorly finished and look tacky. You can stow plenty of stuff in the dashboard niches. The cupholder, however, is small and will not fit mineral water bottles.
2) Engine Performance:
WARNING: The Zen currently uses WagonR’s F10D engine. Suzuki has decided to upgrade Zen’s engine to a newer model within a "few" months. This will affect resale values of the current models.
MILEAGE: I’m getting around 14kmpl in the city without the A/c on. Note that this is in Mysore where there is not much stop and go traffic. The car returned around 15kmpl on the highway without A/c.
PERFORMANCE: I was quite disappointed with the engine performance. When the car is fully loaded or when the A/c is running, the car begins to crawl and overtaking becomes a pain. Although I dont have the figures, I was not at all impressed with pick-up. Of course, I might be a little biased in this case because my other car is an Accent. I might have been expecting too much from this little car.
3) Comfort: The front seats are quite comfortable. However, the rear seats are "bench-like" and become uncomfortable during journeys exceeding an hour. I recently went on a 3 hour trip to the hills. It was difficult to cram four full size adults into the car! Even if your passengers are moderately tall, you can expect their knees to dig into your back when you drive.
The gear-shift lever has looong throws and you will invariably end up bruising your co-passenger’s knee and shoulder when you shift gears.One very irritating thing I noticed is that there no proper place to rest your left foot when you are not using the clutch. The place next to the clutch pedal is curved because of the transmission housing. It is quite easy to get in and out due to the car’s semi tall-boy design.
4) Transmission:
The gear shift is annoyingly "rubbery" - It doesn’t slot into gear solidly and has an irritating "play". I’m never sure that the gear has engaged fully. It’s close to impossible to find 5th gear on the first try because of this. As I mentioned earlier, the gear throws are long and you will end up grazing the co-passenger’s knee when you shift to 1st or 2nd.
These are faults carried over from WagonR.
5) Suspension/Ride quality:
The suspension is the biggest drawback of the Zen. Even when you go over a small bump that other cars would have handled well, the Zen comes down with a sickening thud. I think this is due to insufficient travel for the suspension.
The suspension is softish - good enough for the city, but not confidence inspiring on the highway. The car’s height and soft suspension mean that corners better be taken at low speeds.
6) Miscellaneous:
The 5-door locking feature is quite nice - When you unlock the doors, the hatch is also unlocked automatically. I see that I’m using the hatch more frequently now because of the convenience.There is no rear parcel tray available and rear passengers will have to make-do with zippered pouches on the front seats for stowing stuff.
The A/c is powerful and cools the car surprisingly fast.There is no provision for fitting a clock. The car doesnt come with built-in speakers. However, speaker grilles have been provided on all doors and also in the luggage area. The thick ’A’ pillars tend to restrict visibility. Maruti has cheaply tried to cut corners with this car - there is no cigarette lighter nor a vanity mirror in the co-passenger’s sun visor. These are small things but tend to irritate customers if missing.
CONCLUSION:
While this is a fairly nice car, it’s far from being outstanding. It would be a good idea to wait for the slew of models slated to launch in 2007.