[-NUT-case]

"Why would someone be stupid enough to buy a wagonR?" would probably be the question going through most peoples minds here at TBHP when they see this review. Well let me try to explain why!

I had set a budget of about 4L for the new car i was going to buy. Well actually it was 3L and was later increased to 4l.With that budget sedans were ruled out.
The car would be used by me and my wife for commutes within the city for various small errands that one has to do on a daily basis.


The main qualities we were looking for in the car were
1. It had to be easy to drive.
2.It should have a good FE
3.It should have an open and bright cabin as we had 2 kids aged 6(twins) and they like to see
what is going on outside.
4. It should have a good A*S*S
5. It should have most, if not all the conveniences that modern day cars offer.

The cars that we considered at various points in our search were, not in any particular order Alto,Zen estillo,Ritz,Figo,Beat,Vista,Spark,i10,Santro.


The santro would have been the perfect choice but we already had 2 santros in our immediate family and i wanted something new.

My wife's first preference was the Alto. But i had reservations as i had an 800 for a long time and although i had fond memories of the car i did not want a similar car. Mind you the Alto is a very capable car for the city and the interior feels suprisingly spacious for such a small car.

Zen estillo felt downright cheap on the inside after sitting in cars like the Beat and the Figo.

What struck Beat off the list was its very bad 2nd gear performance ( the most used gear in B2B city traffic and also the very significant fact that the visiblity from inside the car is almost NIL especially for a shorter person. The absence of seat height adjust in the beat with its more than average head room is a significant omission by GM.The interior is class leading though as is the external looks which is refreshingly different.


The spark again was a hit with my wife but did not impress me much. The badly maintained TD car from Sundaram mototrs dint help matters.


The i10 especially with the very good 1.1 engine was very attractive but for its price which was significantly more that similarly speced cars of the competition.

Vista coming to think of it had almost all the qualities we were looking for except for the A*S*S

The only 2 cars left were the FIGO and the Ritz. We had finalised the FIGO over the Ritz mainly because of the better visiblity that the figo offered and were about to pay the advance inspite of the waiting period slowly creeping towards the 2 month mark. The best part of the figo was the
handling which was a pleasure. The claimed FE of 15 was a damper but we were willing to compromise on that.


With just 2 days to go before the booking , out of the blue the "blue eyed boy" was announced.
I sincerely question the sexual preference of the guy who came up with that tag!
I went to have a look at the car on the 23rd to both "Cars India" and "Indus" .
Cars India was much more responsive to my quiries and informed me that the car would be put on display the next day and TD car would be avialable in a weeks time.
At Indus the sales rep did not give any information and said they did not
have any idea of the launch although ofiicialy the car was to be launched the next day.
Next day got a call from Cars india informing me that the car was on display and that i could come have a look and so wife and me went and had a look.
The first inpression when you see the car is that it no longer looks like a small car although the look of the car in no way can be termed "good looking".
On the inside it doesn't have the feeling of a budget car like the Zen or Alto or the old WagonR.
Most of the plastics is of good quality and the fit and finish is much better than the older gen car.
I would even say that interior especially in VXI trim feels and looks more upmarket than even the Ritz.
We were promised delivery withing 10 days as the first lot of vehicles were already at the yard. Two days later we had made an advance of Rs 10,000 towards a Brick red WagonR to Cars india.

In the mean time got a call from Indus saying that they had a car on
display and bookings were open. Did not bother with it because of the very tepid response from their side initially.

A week later the TD vehicle was ready at Cars India and i did a TD first and then later did a TD along with wife.

These are my first impressions of the TD i had posted in Eddys thread

"Went for a test drive of the WagonR.
The sales guy i was interacting with had called up saying TD car was available.

The engine is very silent at idle but the vibrations of the 3 pot engine can be felt both from the steering
wheel as well as the door armrest even at idle which i found a little distracting after the super silent and
smooth Beat and Figo .

NVH levels are very low at idle. Gear shift is very good and precise as is the clutch which is not very long .
I found the positioning of the pedals very convenient.

The seating position and seat are very comfortable and you have a very good view .

As you start moving the engine responds well to the accelerator, both in the 1st and 2nd gears which a short .
But noise levels rise significantly as you raise the engine. You shift up fast and find yourself in 3rd gear in no
time. Pickup is low in 3rd gear at low rpms although the engine doesn't have any problems pulling even from 20-30 km/h.
Did go to 4th but couldnt find enough road to go to 5th. 4th and 5th are quite smooth. On the whole driving the
wagonR is much easier than the Beat and on same level as the Figo. The handling and feel of the steering in the
FIGO is at an altogether different level which is way ahead of the WagonR.

With ac blower at 2 and music on , engine noise is a distant murmer in normal driving conditions.

Apart from the engine vibrations being felt on the steering, you also feel every minute move the tire makes
tackling the road surface, on your steering which i found really irritating. I can imagine in long drives the
constant twitching of the steering tiring your wrist.

Car was comfortable and the shocks were doing a good job in tackling the road .

The knob for the electrical ORVMs feels good and does the job very well. The headlight/wiper/indicator
stalks feel good to operate and are very smooth and precise.

The handles both on the inside and outside are solid without any play and seem to be fitted well.

The overall appearance of the car(wagon) is not as displeasing to the eye when seen in person .

So overall it is a very good package with the only sore points being the 1L engine which is noisy,rattles
a bit as well as the steering letting you know the exact shape and size of every pothole and bump in
the road you go over.


This was the second Td

"Well did the back to back TD of RITZ and WAGONR and have decided to go in for the wagonR. The Ritz has a much better
engine and handling and you get free accessories with it, i felt the wagonR would be a much better car for a city.

Straight sides , light steering, FE, visibility and a feeling of space and airiness are the wagonR's strong points.

I did check the air pressure this time and guess what the pressure was!
44 45 45 and 55 . The recommended pressure is 33 for all four wheels.
The sales person had no idea about the tire pressure and was even unsure if it was OK to take the vehicle back to the showroom with the reduced pressure.

After correcting the pressure the judder i felt from the steering wheel had definitely reduced and ride quality was improved.

You still feel the engine vibration on the steering wheel but it is very mild.

The AC has a perceptible effect on pick up but is very negligible and has no effect in normal driving speeds in the city.

The radiator is not too close to the front bumper but i dont know what kind of protection the feather lite bumpers nowadays might provide.

The body roll you feel on cornering is uncomfortable only above 50-55 kmph. The car is quite stable otherwise.

OTR for vxi is 4,31000 in chennai.

Am thinking of booking the bakers chocolate in VXI trim.

No freebies! at all. When i asked about the 5L fuel coupon, the answer was "We fill 5L at the yard and at
the most 1-2 L are spent bringing it to the showroom. So you will be left with 3L in the car"

I guess i wont even get the coupon!"


After the TDs's i was satisfied and waited for the delivery. On the 29th got a call from "Cars india" informing me that my car was ready and could they go ahead with the invoicing as they wanted to invoice it before month end.

As i wanted to see the car and do a PDI, i requested them to wait.
Next day went to the showroom and asked for a PDI and the sales rep said he will arrange it at the yard in about 2 hours.
As my house was nearby and i went back home. Got a call about 30 min later and i was told that my car was not in the yard but in their second showroom.
When i asked why it was not in the yard i was given a vague reply about temporary registration and how some cars are kept in the showroom for easier access.
I was a little suspicious but agreed to go see the car at their 2nd showroom which was about about 1 hour from my house. I drove down there and as soon as i reached the shoroom saw the car parked in front of the showrrom with the keys casually tossed on the dashboard. There were footprints on the passenger as well as the back seat carpet . The rubber tags on the wheels had already been worn down. In the sun i could see a lot of swirl marks in the paint on the bonnet.
Seeing the condition of the car i suspect they were using it for TDs in the second showroom. Although the odo read only about 50Km i was not ready to take deliver of this car.
When i informed the rep he made little effort to convince me to take the car and was ready to refund the booking amount minus Rs.1000/ .
It seems that it is a new cancellation policy whereby you loose Rs.1000/ . Later that day the manager called me and tried to make me take
the car or wait for a month to take delivery of a new car. I was not ready for that and cancellation was processed.

After deciding to cancel the booking from Cars india , i had visited Indus and enquired if they had any dark colours available in VXI trim for immediate delivery .
Was told that Brown and Dark grey were available and so i went ahead and booked Brown from Indus. I had requested for a PDI before invoicing.

About a week later i was informed that the sales certificate had been obtained from the RTO and i could take delivery after full payment.
When i asked them about the PDI they flatly refused saying that it is their policy not to allow any customer to see the car before full payment
and that the car will be shown only on the day it is to be registered in your name.

As i was adamant that i see the car before i made full payment they finally consented saying that it was being considered a one off case as i was coming from Cars india and i could take a look at the car. But here too i was told to visit their second showroom on the outskirts and the car would be brought there from the yard as they dont allow customers to visit their yard. Although i had doubts, i agreed to go see the car.


Me and my wife went to see the car.
Again as we entered the showroom the car was parked outside but this time it was locked. When we asked to see the car , one of the reps there told us that we could not see it as it was booked by another customer and it was being kept ready for registration.
This in a way reassured us. We then informed them that we were the ones that had booked it and had come all this way just to see the car.
After confirming this we were allowed to inspect the car. Although a little dusty the car was perfectly new with no signs of any damage.
The only concerne was the ODO reading of 85km .This was explained as being due to the fact that the yard was a little far off from the showroom.
I was ready to accept the explanation as otherwise the car was in very good condition. We confirmed with the rep that we will be taking this car!
On the way back to our house my wife said "So one more member in our family now" . I guess that about sums up the feeling of buying a new car.





"So one more member in our family now", well god sometimes has a way of balancing happiness with sadness. Two days later i got a call which gave me very sad news.
My grandmother, who i loved very dearly had passed away suddenly. Even though she was 88, she was otherwise in very good health and we were not expecting this. Well life goes on. But because of this sad developement taking delivery of the WagonR got delayed by about 10 days.

But finally the day did come when we could go get our new car. It was the 14th of may. The registration had been done the previous day, so we went to the showroom in the morning about 10.30.
As we neared the showroom we could see the car all spic and span parked near the entrance.

[drsnt]

cograts on ur new car, have a long and happy ride

eagerly waiting for complete verdict as im in pipeline to buy this car or get estillo with 40k discount

[-NUT-case]

We went in and finished all the formalities. I opted to go in for the 4th year extended warranty as well.
The pooja was done and we were handed the car keys. We had decided to take the car directly to a temple near our home and get a proper pooja done , but as it was lunchtime the temple was closed and so went to the sundaram bunk and got a tankfull of petrol afterwhich we went and had lunch in a nearby reastaraunt.
In the evening we went and had the pooja performed.

I had decided to take the car for a road trip in may and so i had about a weeks time to get the registration plates and a few accessories fitted. First was to get sunfilm installed . I enquired at 3M and Llumar
dealership and also at GP road ( Full of car and bike shops) Decided to go for Llumar film Gold Opal 35 for Rs.3000/ at the Llumar dealership in chennai. Got the B-pillar blacked for about Rs300 at GP road.
Got the wheelcaps painted Mattblack for about Rs.700 at a local workshop and got a car perfume for about Rs.400/ .Also got a Lumbar support cushion for about Rs.750.

Am happy with the Llumar film . It is effective without being too dark and i like the slight greenish tint of the film to the grey of 3M. To install the film the guys at Llumar removed the glass form the windows.
It was really frightening to watch the guys rip and pull at the door to get the glass out. I was praying they wouldnt break anything. Guess i dint pray hard enough because a plastic facing below the left rear vierw mirror was yanked a little too hard and a clip broke. So now it is a bit loose. Will try to get it fixed at first service.

After all the talk at Llumar i thought they would do a perfect job which was the reason i went to a dealership and not a local accessories shop. But once i got home and was cleaning the windows, I noticed tiny bubbles at the corners of the back windsheild and also a few on the windows. Went back the next day to the dealer and the manager had a look and said that this kind of bubbles was common in all installs because of dust and that it was unavoidable. He agreed to replace the film if the bubbles enlarged or if more developed.

I decided to leave it at that as i did not want them damaging the defogger coil trying to remove the film.

Once everything was done i did a bit of detailing with some stuff i got from the Us. Used clay bar , Prewax cleaner, Sealer and wax. My 6 yr old daughter took a look at the car after that and named it "Chocobar"



















A road trip with pics/ 1000kReview and FE fig to follow.

[avishar]

Looks like you dipped the entire car in a tub of chocolate!

[bottle]

congrats! which shop did you get the bpillar stickering done at?

[Amartya]

Congratulations on the new car. I liked the way you explained your purchase decision, it made sense. The colour you have chosen is quite uncommon but I think it looks good, and mods you've done are in good taste.

The only problem with this colour is the slightly blue tinted headlamps/indicators. Later on, give a thought about smoking that part, it wil gel perfectly with your matt black wheelcovers.

Enjoy the car, condolences for your granny's loss, but like you said, life goes on.

[-NUT-case]

Originally Posted by drsnt

cograts on ur new car, have a long and happy ride

eagerly waiting for complete verdict as im in pipeline to buy this car or get estillo with 40k discount

Thank you. Except the engine which the etillo and this car share , the wagonR is better in every way. But the added weight and the more powerful AC reduces the engine performance a little.

Originally Posted by avishar

Looks like you dipped the entire car in a tub of chocolate!

Yum!

Originally Posted by bottle

congrats! which shop did you get the bpillar stickering done at?

I dont remember the shop name. It was a very small shop nearer to the mount road end.

Originally Posted by Amartya

Congratulations on the new car. I liked the way you explained your purchase decision, it made sense. The colour you have chosen is quite uncommon but I think it looks good, and mods you've done are in good taste.

The only problem with this colour is the slightly blue tinted headlamps/indicators. Later on, give a thought about smoking that part, it wil gel perfectly with your matt black wheelcovers.

Enjoy the car, condolences for your granny's loss, but like you said, life goes on.

Precisely why i choose the colour. The only 2 colours unique to the new WagonR are powder blue and brown . And i liked this colour. The Blue in the headlamp cluster is not the indicator but the parking lamp.I was infact thinking of smoking it but decided to leave it as it was hardly noticable. My granny was a good person and if i can be half the person she was i would be thankful. Thank you for your concern.

[naj]

Hello,
Why doyou say that you were stupid to book the wagon -R.
Nobody is stupid.
Wagon-R is a very practical city car.It looks grown up ijn the new shape.
Congrats!!! and enjoy the car.And please keep us posted with your reviews.
Cheers ,
Naj

[StreetAddict]

Originally Posted by naj

Hello,
Why doyou say that you were stupid to book the wagon -R.
Nobody is stupid.
Wagon-R is a very practical city car.It looks grown up ijn the new shape.
Congrats!!! and enjoy the car.And please keep us posted with your reviews.
Cheers ,
Naj

. Maybe we're just too eager to wait for the complete review to finish.

[Amartya]

Rated the thread 5 stars because this has a nice amount of detail, solid rationale behind product purchase, and minimal but high quality mods.

The only thing I am not that happy about, is the title of the thread, seems a trifle gimmicky. -Nut-Case, please don't be offended by that comment, it's purely my personal opinion.

If you don't mind my asking, what was the reason that the Vista got knocked out of the fight?

[akshay4587]

I like the new Wagon R and I love this color.
Nice review,thanks for sharing
Congrats

[tanwaramit]

good writeup, nice standing out mods.

Congrats on the car.

[FiatMyLife]

Congrats on the WagonR!

The title says 1000k review. What does this mean? You drove 1000*1000 kms already or it means 1000kms review?!

[prince_pervez]

Whoa! What a long OP. Nice car. Congrats on the new purchase. Drive safe!

[SchumiFan]

Congrats on your new WagonR. Do post about the music system's sound quality and F.E. along with more pics. Your car looks yummy

How is the A/C, is it powerful enough to cool the car within say 15-30 minutes during afternoons? I had a tough time with the call taxis this summer with their inefficient A/C's, they almost were like Air Cooler than Air Conditioner.

And 'Blue Eyed Boy' means the favourite one. Considering the sales that it is returning to Maruti and the Blue lights on the head lamp cluster, I think it is an apt name.