[freakmuzik]

Warm wishes everyone!

Starting an ownership thread in T-BHP is equivalent to preparing for my exams! Because, I have spent more time preparing this review than studying for my Quarterly Exams!!

This initial ownership report has been long pending. I thought of uploading it months back but could not because of my Board Exams and Entrance/ Competitive exams. Since all my exams are over now, I thought of uploading it. The review is solely based on my personal evaluation and opinion.



Note: The review is somewhat like a story! LOL. So please do spare enough time if you intend to read it completely! Sorry for the inconvenience.
And I’m not keeping any suspense’s since I have posted about this car elsewhere already!

Car : Maruti Wagon-R VXI ABS

Colour : Superior White

Dealer : Popular Automobiles and Services Ltd, Trivandrum

Date of Delivery: December 27, 2010

Ohk, so some of you might be wondering on what basis I had made up the thread title by mentioning the number of cylinders! The thing is, with the arrival of the Wagon-R in our house, we have vehicles having number of cylinders as 1, 2, 3 and 4, i.e, the Honda Activa, Tata Nano, Maruti Wagon-R and Premier Padmini respectively! I myself found this interesting and seemed funny and rare too and hence such a title!




Things that make me happy:

• Ample space and legroom for four adults
• Light and easy to drive
• Effective Air-con
• Reasonable price + features = VFM
• Urban ride quality
• Safety features-ABS and Dual Airbags
• Precise gear shifts



Things that make me frown:

• General plastic quality
• Boot space
• Lack of low-end response
• Looks
• Engine refinement
• Sound quality of the Audio system

INDEX

1) The need for a new car

2) Needs/ Priorities and contenders

3) The failed hunts!

4) Final search and selection process

5) The Drama

6) Waiting period – the nuisance

7) Delivery

8) Dealership experience

9) Ownership

[freakmuzik]

1) The need for a new car:

I used to live in a 5 member family, i.e, me, my mom, my dad, my sister and......grandmother? NO; Uncle? NO; A human being? NO; A thing with life? YES!; Something that’s able to move? YES YES!!! Ah a Premier Padmini? EUREKAA!!!!!!!!!

Ok everyone, now do not think that I have gone totally mad, but that is how close we are with our PP (=Premier Padmini). She joined our family in 1996 and you might ask why I said that it’s a thing with life! But indeed it is something like the VW Beetle in the Herbie movie! It communicates with us and whenever we give a small hint of complaint, it performs unexpectedly better! So we see it as a car with life.

Forward to 2007 - Our PP’s health wasn’t great, and it used to visit her doctor often. And at once it was so bad that the doctor offered Euthanasia for just a sum of Rs.10, 000 (Ohk! I know I’m going overboard with the “life” thing!). And due to all this, my mom too was suffering a lot as she never got the car for her use. It was a dilemma for the rest in the house; whether to sell it or whether not to sell it! The discussion took weeks, and at last, one thing was clear – no one wanted to sell the car!

So we decided to give her a complete makeover. This also made us think about buying a new car, as we doubted the availability of PP as an everyday car. And hence we began our hunt for a new car by June 2007.



2) Needs/ Priorities and contenders:

The car was mainly aimed at city use and our driving would never exceed 700 km per month. So the possible class of cars is undoubtedly the small petrol hatchbacks.
I started listing out our priorities one by one and here goes the list:


• Good space for 4 large adults
• Easy to drive, good visibility – mainly, ladies friendly! (:-P)
• Average Build Quality
• Flexible cabin, i.e., split/folding rear seats - as we should be able to carry musical instruments
• Average Fuel Efficiency
• Easy entry/exit
• Easy and considerably cheap to maintain
• Width – We did not want the car to be much wide as our car porch is narrow. We wanted some space to be left for people to pass by even with the car being in there.
• Safety –ABS and Airbags, in order of priority.
• Maximum budget – Rs. 4.5 lac to 5 lac


All these made us narrow down to the Chevrolet Spark, Hyundai Santro, Maruti Wagon-R and the Maruti Zen Estilo.


3) The failed hunts!:

Search No.1 – August 2007 :

After experiencing the low seating of the erstwhile Zen (as my aunt owns one), all of us unanimously decided on cars that weren’t so low. My mom especially found it difficult to drive cars which are low. In addition to it, my mom was in love with the Chevy Spark and Hyundai Santro. So, we first decided to go on with her choices.

First we called Deedi Chevrolet, enquired about the prices and booked a test drive. The response was instant and the SA called back immediately asking for a suitable time. They brought the car home, a beautiful white angel. We all loved the cute looks, the supremely refined engine and the well sorted ride. It was a perfect fit in the car porch but the interior space was a matter of concern. Though the quality was top notch, we could never accept the fact that only so much space was available in an Rs4.5 lac car! But we were equally interested in it too. So we put it in the waiting list.

Next we called Hilton Hyundai and booked a test drive of the Santro. Their response was not so quick. I had to call them again, twice or thrice, to confirm the time and finally they brought the car home. The test-drive vehicle was not a very well maintained one. To our surprise, the SA was one of our old neighbours which, I guess, made things easier. He explained everything and we went for a ride. First impressions weren’t great. The car never felt to be worth Rs. 4 lac +.The engine was a gem, interior space was fine and the plastic quality very good. But some bits like the rear door panel, which looks very plain-jane just like that of a M800 took us by surprise and did not impress us. Also the interiors looked dated and the rear seat ride was horrible, at least to me! A few not so great roads made me totally uncomfortable. This made us strike off the Santro from our list. It’s definitely a good car, but just that the competition is getting better and newer!

So next we called Popular Automobiles, i.e, dealer of Maruti Suzuki, and booked a test drive of Wagon-R and the Estilo. Their response was great, though the car was not available immediately. We first took a test drive of the Wagon-R. It had a lot of positives, like, the tall seating, great drivers view, powerful A/C, etc. But I never really liked the car much. The quality of the materials weren’t good and the doors felt very light and flimsy. And mainly, the rear seat was extremely narrow and uncomfortable to our liking. So the Wagon-R was not a sure contender but its positives were the ones that we wanted too.

Next, the test drive of the Estilo was not impressive at all. No one liked the interior design, plastic quality, and especially the rear seats. It was nothing but a re-skinned version of the Wagon-R. And none of us liked the styling too. So it was a clear strike off from the list. So, the test drives brought us to a weird conclusion. There were not any cars that suited majority of our requirements.


But thankfully, that was when I came to know about the launch of a new hatchback from Hyundai, the i10. I still remember keeping my eyes glued on to the news channels that telecast the launch of the car, not to have a look at Shah Rukh, but at the car itself! We decided to wait for it to hit the showrooms. Right after its launch in November 2007, my dad and I went to Hilton Motors, Trivandrum to have a look at the car. We were impressed by the looks of the car, the interior quality, space and features. There were many minute details in the car which impressed me a lot.

Unfortunately, while checking out the car, I accidently shut the boot lid while my dad’s thumb was still on its frame and his finger got stuck. Heck! I almost fractured my dad’s fingers! Thanks to the huge external boot release of the i10, I quickly opened the boot. The SA immediately brought a glass of ice cold water for my dad to put his thumb in and asked to be seated in the visitors lounge. All this made me think whether my dad would consider this as a “bad sign” and all. But I was more worried about my dad’s thumb at that moment. Luckily, the X-ray reports said he did not have a fracture! And on the same night, the SA called my dad and the first question he asked was whether he is purchasing the i10 or not! This made my dad furious and gave him an earful. As a result of all this and due to my parents’ busy schedule, the purchase plan was postponed.



Search No.2 – August 2008:

Once again in 2008, I brushed up the plans to buy either an i10 or a Spark (as my mom was too much in love with the spark’s “cutie pie” looks!). Sadly the introduction of beige interiors in the Spark made us not pick this car as it reflected badly on the windscreen. And on further test drives of the i10, even though we loved the car, we felt the reflection of the beige interiors annoying in it too. Also, my mom liked the Wagon-R better in terms of driveability in the city. But sadly there weren’t any improvements made to the Wagon-R as well. As we weren’t able to find a car which properly catered to our needs, we had to halt the purchase plan again!! I was sad, desperate to get a new car (though I used to and still love our PP).



4) Final search and the Selection process:

Search No.3 – June 2009:

We again became keen to purchase on seeing awesome Deewali offers on the Spark and Wagon-R. There were discounts of up to Rs.60, 000 on the spark and excellent exchange schemes and more on the Wagon-R. Hence, we re-started our hunt and test drove each and every car again. I should say all that happened earlier was for good, as, that was the time when I found T-Bhp and gained a lot more knowledge on cars. T-Bhp reviews were excellent and have surely helped us in choosing our car. This was the time when a few changes were introduced to the Santro, like the chocolate colour interiors, etc. After lots of thorough checks and test drives, here is a compilation of our test drive observations. I shall mention it as points for the sake of convenient reading

Guys, do not expect comments on stuff like – handling, high speed stability, etc as the car is aimed mainly at city use.

1) Chevy Spark

Dealer: Deedi Motors –

+ve: Very helpful staff and were pretty quick in calling us back following our enquiry.
-ve: They did not have a proper test drive vehicle and brought a vehicle with disconnected speedo.

Good Bits:

• Cute Looks and apt size for city driving
• Extremely refined and free-revving engine
• Interior parts quality is pretty good
• Chevy 3 years/1, 00,000 km maintenance package
• Good ride quality
• Humongous discounts

Bad Bits:

• Beige interiors – Difficult to maintain and reflects badly on the windscreen
• Headroom is not great and so is the interior space
• Minuscule boot
• Low driving position – hampers ease of driving in the city

2) Hyundai Santro

Dealer: Popular Hyundai -

+ve: Pretty well informed about the car and offered multiple test drives.
-ve: Their response was quite slow and test drives were not offered in time.

Good Bits:

• Extremely proven car
• Excellent visibility with good height
• Low-end torque aids city driving
• Decent sized interiors for the segment

Bad Bits:

• Ride is bouncy and choppy at speeds and seats were firm
• Interiors looked a direct lift-off from the 90’s compared with that of the new launches
• The then newly launched chocolate colour interiors not to our taste and looked cheap
• Top-end version, GLS, does not come with any safety features (XO variant had been discontinued)

3) Hyundai i10

Dealer: Popular Hyundai -

+ve: Pretty well informed about the car and offered multiple test drives.
-ve: Their response was quite slow and test drives were not on time.

Good Bits:

• Interiors did not feel like that of a sub Rs.5 lac car-Very high quality stuff
• Kappa engine had enough grunt
• Good NVH dampening
• Better seats than the rest
• Impressive feature list

Bad Bits:

• Price was a matter of concern. Top end was way beyond our budget (around 5.6 lacs)
• Low-end torque of the iRDE was missing in the Kappa
• Reflection of beige interiors on the windscreen

4) Maruti Wagon-R (old)

Dealer: Popular Maruti -

+ve: Excellent staff and were very approachable. Most were pretty well informed about the cars.
-ve: Not much to say, but tried to make us purchase hell lot of unwanted accessories.

Good Bits:

• Awesome all round visibility
• Extremely easy ingress/egress
• Maruti A.S.S
• Decent number of interior storage bins and a well shaped boot

Bad Bits:

• Horrible gearshift
• Getting long in the tooth. Was soon to be replaced
• Cheap interior plastic quality
• Doors and other parts felt tinny

5) Maruti Zen Estilo

Dealer: Popular Maruti -

+ve: Excellent staff and were very approachable. Most were pretty well informed about the cars.
-ve: Not much to say, but tried to make us purchase hell lot of unwanted accessories.

Good Bits:

• Nimble to drive
• Easy ingress/egress
• Almost fully loaded
• Good boot space

Bad Bits:

• Looks not to everyone’s taste (at least to ours’!)
• Interior plastic quality
• A-pillar obstructs vision
• Gear shift quality

After all this, we wanted to pick the i10 due to its all-rounded nature and we decided to compromise on the beige interiors part. But the Asta variant (the only one with ABS + Airbag) was priced at more than Rs. 5 lacs, ex-showroom. And the car was over 10 cm wider than the rest, so it was kind of a tight fit in our car porch. All this meant that we had to drop our plans of picking the i10.

We were not too keen on the Spark due to the reasons already mentioned. Santro was getting long in the tooth and Estilo did not appeal too. My parents loved the Wagon-r’s ease of driving and height but hated its looks, rear seat space and we were a bit apprehensive due to it being pretty old. But we felt that the Wagon-R would be much easier to use in the city, easier to maintain and better in case of packing our musical instruments and stuff.

Hence, we booked one, a White Wagon-R VXI with ABS/Airbag (though I was never convinced with the decision ) on August 2009 through Popular Motors, purely due to its practical nature. The dealership experience was really good. It was Rs.4, 29,203 on-road. (Un) Luckily, the car was said to be available in a week’s time. We requested the dealer to deliver the car in September 2009 as my dad had to attend a staff training camp.

[freakmuzik]

5) The Drama:

In the mean time, I was really trying hard to get my membership request approved in T-Bhp! And at once, while going through the “Indian Car Scene” section, I came to know about the launch of the new Wagon-R in the first quarter of 2010. I immediately asked my mom whether we can wait till then, but as this was supposed to be our first “new” car and that she had been expecting it for a very long time, she was sad (But, later, the title of our first new car had to be handed over to our beloved Tata Nano). I was in a dilemma as I did not like the old Wagon-R much (no offence to any of its owners!). I convinced my dad saying that the new one would be more spacious and better and all such stuff (Was keeping my fingers crossed!)! Thankfully, my dad approved my cancellation request and cancelled the booking when he returned and we requested the SA to intimate us when the new Wagon-R was about to be launched.

Time passed and my membership request got approved in T-Bhp . I had a look at the spy pictures of the new Wagon-R (A huge thanks to sidindica). It looked way better than the older one, but still I was sure that the looks factor would not be a strong point for the car. We checked out the car at Indus Motors on the day of its launch. Everyone of us liked it and the space available in the car was really good. And right then in April 2010, the same SA of Popular Motors contacted us regarding the new Wagon-R and brought the car for a test drive.

The first impression was very good. The car seemed bigger and more mature. The interiors were airy and spacious. The dashboard looked pretty decent and mainly the seats were very good. The rear legroom was undoubtedly more and the seats too had a much better under-thigh support. More features at almost the same price made it seem pretty VFM too. The driving comfort was better and overall the improvement over its predecessor was instantly visible. But the main sad thing was the reduction in boot space! The decrease of nearly 40 litres was surely disappointing. But, we decided to compromise on that part as the car did have split fold, which the earlier Wagon-R or the rest of the competition did not posses.

Once again, I checked out all the other cars, i.e, i10, Spark, etc. just to make sure that there were no price reductions or any other up-gradations done to them. After all the final checks, I almost decided that the new Wagon-R would be the ideal choice.

I waited and waited for the Wagon-R to be test driven by T-Bhp and was really happy to see the test drive report by Eddy, which was compiled beautifully, covering almost all the aspects! Big thanks to Eddy. The review made us even more confident to book the car.

Regarding the choice of colour, we first decided on the gray as all of us loved the gray colour of the i10 and the pictures of gray Wagon-R made us feel that the colour is almost the same as that of the i10. But on visual inspection of a gray Wagon-R in the yard, we felt that it did not suit the car much. And our next unanimous option was white. At last on May 25, 2010 we booked a White Maruti Wagon-R VXI with ABS/Airbag by paying Rs. 10, 000.


6) Waiting period – the nuisance:

As the days passed, there was no news of the car. The dealer had no clue and stated that the Maruti head office was not responding. In the mean time, I tried contacting the Cochin office of Maruti, but no one ever picked up the phone. At last I contacted a dealer in Cochin from where I came to know that not even a single Wagon-R VXI (with ABS/Airbag) had been delivered in Kerala till October 2010! This was shocking. I was worried wondering whether there was any problem with the ABS/Airbag kit or whatsoever. I contacted their toll-free number and lodged a complaint and immediately received a reply from a Customer care Manager of Popular Motors stating that the car would be delivered soon. But later on there was no information even from him and I had to lodge another complaint in November 2010. Luckily, this time, they took some action and I got a call from the dealer just within 2 days, confirming that the car was in transit! We all felt extremely happy. Hence, we continued with the loan procedures, which we procured from SBT. It was all smooth and fine. I did the PDI using T-Bhp checklist on 13th of December and decided to take delivery on December 24.

7) Delivery:

Unluckily due to the death of the congress leader, K. Karunakaran, all shops, including the dealerships, were forced to shut down on December 24th. This made us postpone our delivery date to December 27th. Only later did we know that the day was really auspicious being ‘Makaravilakku’ (related to Sabarimala).

As decided, we took delivery on 27th December. Sadly, my mom and my sister could not join my dad and me. We reached the dealership only at 6.30 PM as my dad had been to work. The SA, Mr.Darsanunni, led us through all the paper works very well indeed. And I should say, he was very well informed about almost everything. He explained all the stuff, starting right from under the hood. We opted for the 4 years/ 80,000 km's extended warranty scheme.

The invoice break-up is as follows:

Ex-Showroom Price: Rs. 4, 21, 600

Extended Warranty (4 years/ 80, 000 km): Rs. 4, 390

Insurance Premium: Rs. 12, 657

Road Tax & Registration: Rs. 25, 750

Total On-Road: Rs. 4, 64, 397



After all these, we decided to take the car and surprisingly my dad asked me to make the first move of the car!! We then clarified our doubts and then decided to return home. As soon as we just started, I heard a weird noise from under the front passenger foot-well and I felt some vibration too. The time was already 9.00PM. On informing this to the SA, he immediately called a guy from the service division to check the issue. He drove the car for some distance with me in the passenger seat. But then no noise emerged and everything seemed to be perfectly fine. So, we took our Blue eyed (white) boy home. And boy, the A/C was so chilling! It was a really wonderful ride back home, which justifies the thrill of buying a new car!

8) Dealership experience:

As I mentioned earlier, we booked the car via Popular Vehicles and Services Ltd. Our SA was Mr. Darsanunni. He was also the one via whom we had booked the earlier Wagon-R, which we later had cancelled. The dealer promised delivery by July 2010 as the model with ABS was not sought after by all. But sadly we had to wait for a long long 7 months to get the car! Firstly, the SA is a really good guy, very knowledgeable and is keen to know what he does not know. And the atmosphere in the showroom is pretty good too. The SA had come home many times to do many of the paper works. Even in the showroom, most of the staffs are courteous.

I did the PDI with the flawless and truly extensive checklist of T-BHP. We took delivery at around 8 PM and hence we were not given the gift package or something that they usually give and I would never recommend anyone to take delivery after 6 PM, especially from this showroom as the delivery bay is not at all well lit, nevertheless my dad I checked the car as thoroughly as possible using a torchlight. The paper works went on smoothly and our SA explained each and everything perfectly. We had taken the loan from SBT, which was pretty easy and smooth too.

We were not given any freebees even after such a long wait. When we told this to one of the SAs’ there, the reply was that they would consider giving discounts only if we buy more accessories from them! Actually, the SA had promised us the basics, i.e, the mud flaps and floor mats, but later told us that his team leader did not allow him to give the freebees. We did not argue as we didn’t want to spoil the mood.

After delivery, Popular motors have something known as the “20th day home report” for which the SA comes home and enquires about things like customer satisfaction, etc. As Mr.Darsanunni had been to training, they had sent someone else to collect the report. My dad told him specifically to give a call before he comes as my parents are rarely home! But he never called us and came home all of a sudden when I was the only one home. I asked him to give me the papers so that I shall hand it over to my dad to fill it. But he asked me to just sign the papers and give it back. I then signed “for” my dad and later saw him ticking all boxes with positive replies. As soon as he left, I called dad and informed the same and thankfully he somehow had a blank copy of the report. So he filled in all the particulars along with the episode that happened and faxed it to Popular’s Head office. The next day we received a call and two senior Customer Care managers’ came home and apologized and offered us the freebies and took down everything we had to say. Kudos to Maruti Customer Care. I have to say they were very prompt in response.

Overall, I should say that the experience was pretty fine, but the initial impression at the time of booking made us expect more from them. The thing that I hated the most was the lack of communication from them during the waiting period. I made numerous calls and sent mails and even then got no response from the dealer, other than the one and only reply from the Customer Care Manager! Transparency is something that I would have loved in such a situation. I hope they improve on this aspect as the lack of transparency makes the customers lose faith on the dealer and makes one think whether any cheating or malpractice is taking place.

[freakmuzik]

9) Initial Ownership Report:

I just thought of adding in what I generally feel about the car in all departments. So, I composed something like a mini review myself.

Design and styling:

The car looks much better than the previous generation Wagon-R in all angles! The proportions are better, slightly longer with a longer wheelbase. The car now has a more mature look to it.

The new ones’ front looks more appealing compared to the slab-like front of the earlier car. The chrome strip on the grille and the prominent Suzuki logo stands out, so does the blue tinge in the large headlamp cluster. In comparison, the fog lights look tiny but it does have a good throw.

From the side, the car looks better than the old one with its sloping roof and the alloy roof rails. But still, it’s nowhere near to an extent where we can term it as “good looking”, especially while comparing it with a Chey Beat or even an i10. The slab like doors doesn’t help things either.



I primarily do not like the rear looks of the car which, according to me, looks confused and cluttered. The chrome in the front grille is very fragile and gives a cheap feel on a closer inspection, whereas, the embossed chrome treatment at the rear looks and feels good.



Even though the wheel arches try to add muscle to the car, the puny tyres tend to nullify its effect. The 14 inchers seem small to me but I did like the wheel cap design. Alloy, at least as an option, would have been well appreciated. The ORVMs’ are huge and chunky. One thing that I would have loved was a centrally placed antenna. The old styled positioning over the drivers’ door seems too boring!

The Blue eye!


No chrome surrounds, looks nothing great, but does the job pretty well


The reflector pattern looks nice


Notice the slab like side, the only saving grace being the wheel arches


Doors open really wide


Huge and useful ORVM...


....and it goes the other way too!


The trademark Wagon R panel gap


Old fashioned flap type handles should have been replaced with pull type


Pretty decent wheel cap design


The roof rail does improve the "looks factor"



Overall, the car, by the looks of it, puts forward a notion of being a no – nonsense, practical and spacious offering.



Interiors, Comfort and Practicality:

The effect of the longer wheelbase (by 40mm) is clearly evident once you step into the cabin. The space has improved tremendously. As mentioned earlier, the interiors are way better than the previous generation and look better too. Ingress and egress is very easy, thanks to the doors that are long and open almost 90 degrees and to the tall-boy design. The first thing that comes into picture is the well fit and good-looking Audio system, with a chunky knob, that comes with 4 speakers with one on each door, though the sound quality is outright cheap. But it does come with a good number of options like the mute button, Aux-in and the same can be used for an USB via an adapter, etc., though an independent USB port would have been better. The steering is of ideal size and feels quite OK to hold, but it does not have a very good grip.


User-friendly and easily reachable controls



Steering is of ideal size, though the grip isn't great



The plastic quality is generally average and in certain places, very poor. For instance, the door pads are very fragile (the ones in the i10 were light years ahead!). The gearshift console isn’t fit very well and when I asked the SA, he said it was common to all Wagon-R’s! I have mentioned more about the fit and finish and quality in the next paragraph. But I do have to mention that the plastics and the fit and finish are better than the previous gen Wagon-R. The instrument console is easy to read, though I found the tachometer to be a tad smaller than expected. The odo fonts are legible with the orange backlight and it comes with two trip-meters. And there is also a provision to adjust the instrument console brightness! There is also a 12V power socket on the left side of the steering wheel.

Storage space is only just about sufficient, but should be enough in most situations. The car altogether comes with 3 cup-holders: two on either ends of the dashboard, right below the Air-con vents and one for the rear passengers’ between the seats. The rear cup-holder is pretty small and of no real use though. None of the half litre bottles I tried were a perfect fit and 1 litre bottles do not fit in either! The quality of all the cup-holders’ are poor and it’s something that can come off easily. The front ones are push types, i.e, they slide out when you push them. The front cup holders do close properly in my car, which wasn’t the case with the demo car and the quality of it seemed better in mine too.


The glove-box is quite deep and can hold a good number of stuff in it, like a couple of CD’s + owners’ manual/service booklet + a few more stuff. The innovative under-seat storage basket is a good thought and is of a decent size. I have once stored there three 2 litre water bottles without any trouble. Initially, I found it a bit difficult to lift the seat base unless I had reclined the seat almost completely, but I had not faced this difficulty in the Demo car. It must be due to the firmer seat as mine is a new car. Though the under-seat storage is very useful and handy, I would have loved if it were a draw/ pull out type, like in the Chey Beat as that would be a much more easier task than lifting the seat base. The door pockets are quite slim and can’t hold more than a few papers and stuffs. And there is not a single proper space to place a 1 litre water bottle! There is a small cubbyhole in front of the gear lever to keep your mobile or other small stuff that comes with a soft rubber padding that prevents scratches on your mobile or even can avoid rattling due to the mobile phone.

Pretty legible and easy to read instrument clusters. Tacho could have been bigger



The brightness of the instrument console at maximum



12V power socket up front



Front passenger cup holder - do not expect it to chill anything less than the height of a decent water bottle!



Driver cup holder - positioned little more closer to the A/C vent than on the passenger side



The not so usable rear cup holder



Deep glovebox can hold quite a good number of stuffs



Pretty spacious and usable under-seat storage



Slim door pockets. Note the absence of a bottle holder in all 4 doors!



Safe place to keep mobile phones - Rattle and scratch free



Talking about the boot, it’s disappointing at 180 litres which is much less than that offered by the competition, sans the Chevy Beat and Chevy Spark. But the 60:40 split folding seats are a boon, which largely improves the flexibility.

Low on space, but well shaped without any intrusions



Split folding seats (60:40)

[freakmuzik]

Nextly, the air-con is really effective, even without sun-films. Speed 2 is more than sufficient, but Speed 1 is almost inexistent, which I have to check with other owners too! It cools the cabin in no time. The central vents are pretty much of no use in controlling the air flow, as the level of adjustment that it offers is very limited and it cannot be shut too. But the side vents are good and can be completely shut, though its quality is pathetic and gives a feeling that it would break apart anytime! I find the vents of my Nano to be much sturdier.

Now coming to the front seats, they are pretty large and offer good levels of support. Under-thigh support is good, though not great. The seat compound is not so firm hence should satisfy both short city and long highway usage. It’s easy to find a comfortable driving position, thanks to the tall seating and ample seat adjustments. As a bonus, the car also comes with a tilt-adjustable steering only for rake, which offers a decent range of adjustment. The positioning of pedals is spot on.


Coming to the rear seats, it’s definitely a huge improvement over the earlier car and is much better than most of the competition. The under-thigh support is sufficient and the seatback angle is good (though I prefer it to be a tad more inclined). And the increase in legroom is phenomenal. But the seat feels a tad more firm than the front ones. Seating 4 large sized adults is an easy task, but 5 would be a bit of a squeeze, mainly due to the width constraint of the car. But this again is possible in a much better way than in the earlier Wagon-R, thanks to better packaging of the interiors.


Decent legroom with front seats being adjusted for a person of height 5'9



Rear doors open complete 90 degrees



Seat pocket behind drivers seat conspicuous by its absence, thought its present behind the passenger seat!



Tilt adjust has a modest adjustment range



Spot on positioning of the pedals




On the ergonomics front, most of the controls are easy to reach. I especially love the large chunky knob of the audio system which is very much easy to use. The adjustment for the mirrors, power-window switches, the lights and wiper stalks, seat adjustment levers, A/C controls, etc are easy to use. But I found the positioning of the internal boot release and the fuel lid release inconvenient to use as they are right down on the floor close to the seats. I would have liked if it was positioned close to the hood release, which comes right under the head-light levelling control. Another annoying thing is that the centre console rubs the front passengers’ knees if the seat is not pulled back enough, which, I guess, is because, the centre console is oriented to the left.

Thankfully, there are front as well as rear cabin lights, which are pretty bright and find a lot of use, especially for people like me, who lose stuff in the car and try searching for it late night ! And the theater dimming feature definitely adds to the 'feel good' factor!!


The cool looking and nice to operate audio control knob


Easy to use controls, but would have liked it to be positioned a tad more backward



Control stalks are of good quality and easy to use




Ergonomically good positioning of the hood release lever



Poor positioning; Can easily get damaged by constant ingress/ egress and difficult to use. ^^ such a position would have been ideal



Front passenger seat needs to be pulled back enough so as to avoid rubbing of knee with the center console



Rear cabin light does a reasonable job of lighting up the cabin



Ride and Handling:

The car has not been driven much and I will be able to drive the vehicle only after this October as I’ll be turning 18 only by then. But as a passenger, I have put down all that I have observed.

The ride, as mentioned many times in T-Bhp, is really good in the city limits. It absorbs the bumps if dealt at a moderate speed and the suspension is not so noisy either. I felt the suspension to be on the softer side, as expected in a city hatch, but not as much to make the ride uncomfortable! Due to the soft setup, the car does tend to get a tad bouncy at speeds greater than 80. The tires shod in my car are Goodyear GT3s' and are pretty acceptable. There isn’t much tyre noise either and I find them to be quite comfy.

The handling is neutral. The steering is superlight but does weigh a little more than the previous gen Wagon-R at speeds. It feels much more planted and stable than the earlier gen. The EPS is a delight to use in the city though. (These observations are mostly from my dad and my few short drives in grounds, etc.). Body roll is definitely present, but is much more controlled and almost on par with the rest in the segment.

Engine, Gearbox and Driving Experience:

The engine is free-revving but is not so refined and sends in a good amount of vibrations indicating clearly that it’s a three-pot motor. But once used to, it’s fine to live with it, though I still love the silent cabin of the i10! The low-end pick up is definitely not a thing that K10B can boast of, or more correctly, it’s poor. But once past 2000 rpm, the motor pulls along cleanly and has enough power to get to good speeds. You can easily notice a sudden surge once the engine crosses the 2000 rpm mark. Hence, bumper to bumper driving is not something very comfortable with this car. The power is adequate to overtake, but with a full load, it does tend to show signs of strain. The A/C does tap some power off the engine and it can be clearly felt. The clutch feels light and the play is OK as well.

The gear box is pretty good, especially compared to the old Wagon-R’s and even otherwise, thanks to the cable operated mechanism. The gear ratios seem to be well spaced. The gear knob is very good to hold as it fits in your palm perfectly. It slots accurately and is something one would surely appreciate.
Braking is pretty good I guess as there have been no instances where it has been checked!



The K10 heart - Poor low end, but has a relatively punchy mid-range and is free-revving



The engine bay has lots of free space



Nice to hold gearknob



Fuel efficiency:

FE is good as the car gave 16.56 km/l in moderate traffic with Air-con in the first tank-full. I have attached the logs that I made as an Excel document, though I have been unable to do tank-full to tank-full after the first fill. Expect it to easily return more than18 km/l in the highway with the Air-con. The average FE till date is 16.3 km/l of which around 60% is of pure city driving.

Car record.xlsx



Conclusion:

I can easily say that we are one happy MARUTI WAGON-R customer, mainly due to the car itself, and of course a little due to the dealer and the SA. I found the car to be an excellent choice, fitting almost all the requirements at an excellent price (Hope you listen, Hyundai). But if Hyundai had the i10 priced a tad lower, a bit lesser than 5 lac, or at least if they had offered the safety kit on the Sportz trim, it would surely have been my pick but nevertheless, Wagon-R is an excellent choice at this price. I know it’s not right to compare with an i10 as it has better quality interiors, 1.2 litre engine, etc. If you are looking for a practical, spacious, easy to use, cheap to maintain, not so expensive car, if you are not always in a boy-racer mood and if you can overlook the refinement and boot space part, look no further. The Wagon-R is one ideal choice.

[freakmuzik]

Other bits:


The following two pics show the reason I had to wait for 7 months!
The ABS kit




The bag hook in the front passenger footwell



Following two pics show the tacky fit and finish




The door lock has a fragile feel to it



The springs on the hinges of the grab handle could have been covered



Not a single layer of insulation material under the hood



Buttons integrated in the key itself, but quality is poor



Noticed some rust. Is it something serious and should I get it checked?



Non height-adjustable seat belts



There is no way to check the water level in the windshield washer tank other than to fill it up and check!

[.anshuman]

Note from Support: Thread moved from Assembly line section. Thanks for sharing the detailed report

[sajo]

Great and super comprehensive review! Enjoyed reading it. The pics are great too.
Thats really good city FE are you getting. What sort of traffic is it usually driven in ? I am really suprised at the lack of insulation material under the hood. I wonder how much it would have cost Maruti to put that simple feel good material in place.

I am rating this thread 5 stars.

[freakmuzik]

Originally Posted by sajo

Great and super comprehensive review! Enjoyed reading it. The pics are great too.
Thats really good city FE are you getting. What sort of traffic is it usually driven in ? I am really suprised at the lack of insulation material under the hood. I wonder how much it would have cost Maruti to put that simple feel good material in place.

I am rating this thread 5 stars.

Thanks a ton.

The traffic mostly would be moderate, the normal trivandrum traffic. But at times gets really worse. Its never as heavy as it is in the metros and the other bigger cities. And a part of the driving is done by dad while he takes the car to office occasionally via the NH47. Though its called an NH, the traffic during the office hours is too much due to the presence of Technopark, the IT park, en route.

The credit for the good FE goes to my dad . He drives very carefully, accelerates steadily and never goes above 2.5 k to 3 k RPM in any gears.

[aaggoswami]

1) Congrats on the new car! Its one of the best city hatches around. We have CNG Waggie ( the factory fitted one ) and can tell you its very practical car.

2) Regarding AC sapping power. You will feel this more in city as the motor lacks low end punch. On highways, it wont make much of a difference.

3) Ride quality. As you said, its much improved, but IMO, its not that soft. At very low crawls, I could feel reasonably deep potholes which are not felt later on at speed.
IMO the new wagon R's suspension feels the best at between 40-90 kmph. One can say that the suspension is more refined and does a good job in this range.

4) I felt that the door are overall heavier than previous car. My cousin in A'bad has a Kappa i10 and when he tried to close the door, he could close it only partially. After a day in A'bad with Waggie, he appreicated that the overall the car feels more solid than the kappa i10 that he has.

He also drove the car in A'bad a bit and his remarks did mention about a lot of engine noise and poor plastics as compared to i10. i10, he said, has better interior fit and finish along with much better NVH. I agree with this fact that engine is very noisy.

5) Performance. Quite good overall. Take this : 70 to 80 kmph acceleration in 5th gear is slower than 100 to 110 kmph in 5th gear. This speaks about range where K10B has grunt. I experienced this on E-way on this Thursday ( 30-06-2011 ). After 110 kmph, the car is a bit floaty, but overall its much better than earlier generation.

Enjoy the car and keep updating the thread.

[rrahul_2778]

Lovely pics. I think the GTO style of reviews is getting more and more popular in TBhp.

Congrats on your new car. I did a couple of TDs on the new Wagon, but I found the lack of low end response too much to my dislike. Ended up booking a Ritz VDI (jumped a segment, and petrol to the popular D model). Will be taking delivery of my car the coming week.

[IQBAL VEERJI]

Originally Posted by freakmuzik

Other bits:


The following two pics show the reason I had to wait for 7 months!
The ABS kit
Attachment 571022
Attachment 571023


The bag hook in the front passenger footwell
Attachment 571025


Following two pics show the tacky fit and finish
Attachment 571026
Attachment 571027


The door lock has a fragile feel to it
Attachment 571028


The springs on the hinges of the grab handle could have been covered
Attachment 571029


Not a single layer of insulation material under the hood
Attachment 571030


Buttons integrated in the key itself, but quality is poor
Attachment 571031


Noticed some rust. Is it something serious and should I get it checked?
Attachment 571032


Non height-adjustable seat belts
Attachment 571033


There is no way to check the water level in the windshield washer tank other than to fill it up and check!
Attachment 571034

Hi, Boss I am releaved I have a compony in the plastic covers on seats in new car still not removed MATTER.

[bluevolt]

Congratulations on your WagonR. I like the way you have written this review with all those very nice pictures, rating it five stars

Enjoy your WagonR and drive safe.

[vishygk]

Starting an ownership thread in T-BHP is equivalent to preparing for my exams! Because, I have spent more time preparing this review than studying for my Quarterly Exams!!

It shows in your review; very informative and helpful to prospective buyers. I have one question,do you think this is easy/comfortable to drive for a really short person ?(5 feet tall - My mom's height!)

[Saanil]

Very well written report and some nice pictures too. Wagon R is one of the most practical city cars. The only problem I have with it are its looks. But then it is a VFM car which is what people want. Enjoy driving your new car!