[chanz2015]

Recently, I bid farewell to my first car and companion for 9 years, my beloved Honda Brio SMT.



I never thought I would be emotional. But the moment I got confirmation on the sale, I got tearful. Brio was the first asset that I owned. It was a dream of many years, and to make it a reality, I had to work really hard. So many memories are attached to it.



How I bought the car in its entirety is a story.

[chanz2015]

Selecting and Buying experience

It was year 2015. It has been 6 months on my new job. Daily commute to office, weekend trips to mall and hometowns were getting very uncomfortable with public transport. The Autorickshaw rides were extremely irritating. By January end, me and my wife decided we should buy a car. Only one problem, both of us does not know driving

Anyway, I joined a nearby driving school and also started visiting car showrooms in parallel. We fixed the budget to be 5 lakhs. Cars we were considering

• Celerio
• Ritz
• i10 Grand
• Brio
• Micra/Pulse
• Punto

Also considered Toyota Liva briefly, but it was above my budget, so dropped it.

As part initial inquiries, called Nissan, and Renault showrooms. The executive at Renault does not know if the pulse was still being delivered or not. A Nissan executive said he would call back but never did. So I dropped those from the list.

I soon had to drop Ritz as well. I connected with three Maruti showrooms in Kochi, and none of them had Ritz for a test drive. Only one had the car on display. When I went to check it out, he tried to convince me to take Swift. Swift was never considered, as both of us felt claustrophobic inside.

Test driving & selection process

As I said earlier, I was still learning to drive. So I had to find a way to do the test drive. My team lead was also car crazy, and he was ready to do it. So we decided he would do the test drives on all cars and let me know his thoughts.

Celerio. The test drive car was pathetic in condition. The passenger seat backrest was broken. It was in an upright position and couldn't be changed. Also, my friend didn't like the AMT. Also, AMT was very new. So it was dropped soon.

Brio and i10 Grand. Brio was an actual test drive car and was maintained in pristine condition. Grand was a delivery car on the way to Kotayam. I didn't like the approach of the showroom, but I let it go anyway.

After the test drive of both, my friends review was this: If you want a peppy fun to drive car, go for Brio. If you want a family car, go for Grand.

So it was decided to choose between Brio and Grand.

Then we started the final scrutiny. My wife was more inclined toward Grand and I was toward Brio.

We visited the Hyundai showroom to finalize the price and other details. I don't remember the Grand i10 model. But it was lacking an audio system and speakers. The showroom was ready to provide us with an audio system and two speakers as an add-on. They quoted the price of the audio system at 7k. When I searched online, the audio system they mentioned only cost around 2K. So I asked about upgrading the system to a branded one and paying the difference, but they were not ready to do that.

Then I went to the Honda showroom. The executive was very knowledgeable. He showed the durability of the glass hatch by slamming it very hard (I was scared as hell when he did that). As I said, my wife was not so interested in Brio especially because of its shape. But once she entered the car, she was blown away by the interior and how roomy it was. We had zeroed in on the Brio SMT version. It included 2-din audio and four speakers. Also had audio controls on the steering wheel.

We still couldn't finalize which car to book. Both showrooms had given us less than 2 weeks of waiting. By the time I got my driver’s license too.

I went through the team-BHP review of the Grand i10 and Brio multiple times. For me, it was head vs. heart. My heart wanted Brio, and my head wanted the practicality of Grand.

Finally, the day to book the car came. So both the Hyundai and Honda showrooms were on the same route from my home. We were still confused about which car to get, but we got on the bus anyway. As soon as the bus conductor asked us for the destination, I blurted out the stop name of the Honda showroom, and that’s how I decided on the car I was going to buy.

We booked Honda Brio SMT. Color red was chosen. Here is the final quote:



I was given an offer to select accessories worth 12K. I selected mats, under body coating, rear sensor, mud flaps, bumber protector etc. We asked for the car to be delivered befor April 14th of that year(Vishu)

The executive called us on 11th/12th(I don't remember the exact date) and told the car arrived at depo. We went to do a PDI and was satisfied.

The loan amount was cleared and we targetted a delivery on 13th. But the RTO had other plans. They delayed the registration asking for some papers and. Finally the registration was done on 20th delivery on 22nd.




The bumber protectors and number plate was not ready on the delivery date. The service person came to our home next day and fitted the number plate. Bumper protectors were fitted at the time of 1st service

[chanz2015]

Ownership

After getting the car, I didn't ride much till May. I only drove when my friends joined me. I went to our home town with a driver. Then in May, I started going to work before 8AM and returned after 8PM just so that I could drive on empty roads. Slowly, confidence grew and became comfortable.



For the next year, I used Brio for my daily commute and to visit my and my wife's hometown.

• Got couple of scratches to the bumber mainly due to traffic in Kochi.
• Once, while the car was stationary on the road, as I was trying to get into the main lane, a Mahindra pickup hit us from behind. The car moved around half a meter due to the impact. The rear bumper took all the force. But there were no scracthes or broken pieces. I have no idea how that happened. I expected at least a broken bumper, but nothing.
• Then a really nasty one to my back door. I was working late. Actually going home after around 20Hrs of work. I was getting out of the car park and saw the watch man sitting on the pavement. I thought there was no room and drove to the left and scratched my back door area. Actually there was more than a meter distance between the car and the watchman. Sleepy head.
  
• Around the first year aniversary of the car a coconut fell on the front windshield while parked at my in-laws. Difficult part was getting the car to Thrissur service center with the broken glass, which was 70 Kms drive. It was the nearest service center at the time.

Soon, I got onsite to germany and had to leave. I had clocked around 17000Kms in Brio within 14 months.



From then until last March, Brio was parked at my in-laws while I was in Germany. Car rode scarcely, mostly less than 20 km a month. A friend came every 2 weeks or so, started the car, and took for a spin once in a while. Even then, there were two instances of battery drain. Brio received salvation only when I was on vacation. During that period, Brio drove between 1000 and 1500 km per month.

Issues faced in this time period were mainly due to the car being stationary.

• I changed the brake bush, updated brake pads.
  
• Two years ago, while on vacation, I smelled petrol but couldn't find a leak. A couple of days later, I was traveling alone and went to fill the tank. While filling, the person stopped in midway and asked to come out. And there was the leak. Petrol was leaking onto the floor like a pump. It was very early in the morning, and no workshops were open. A few minutes later, the flow stopped. I called a friend for advice, and he told me that it was mostly the pipe between the nossle and tank was the culprit. So I slowly drove to my regular workshop, which was around 15 km from that location, and parked the car there till they opened. It turns out the overflow pipe was ruptured due to age, and they replaced it immediately.

Around 2019 I thought of selling the car and listed it here in team-bhp, but soon withdrew as it felt its better to do minor modifications and keep the car fresh, than selling. So did couple of updates.

• Updated the Audio system to a 10 inch Android Touch screen. This was the best upgrade I did. During covid time(2021), we had to travel for some reasons. The touch screen kept my 1.5yr old daughter entertained during these journeys
• Installed reverse camers
• Vinyl stickers - Blackend the Headlights, breaklight and the chrome bar. But soon removed the stickers on light as I felt, the light range was reduced.
• Added new seat covers

After the sticker updates

Even though I clocked around 40K km, the car mostly traveled in the central part of Kerala. My longest drive in the car was to Sabarimala.

Brio was a peppy and fun-to-drive car. I always enjoyed driving it. Never gave me trouble. The top speed that I clocked was 115 km (only once). I never felt confident beyond 100. The car felt jerky after that. My comfortable speed was usually 90. Brio gave a millage of 12 kpml in cities and between 18 and 20 kpml on highways. I get around 16 kmpl of aggregate, usually.

[chanz2015]

Decision and Process of selling

This year, we arrived in India for vacation by the end of March. I gave it to regular service as soon as possible. Suspension needed an update and other regular services. The final bill was around 10k. It has been like that for the last couple of years.

Then, all of a sudden, my wife started to talk about safety, NCAP, and airbags. It seems that one of her favorite vlogers bought a Thar, and they were explaining about NCAP and car safety.

Also, for every airport trip, which is now more frequent, I have to book a taxi or rely on friends with larger vehicles. The luggage space was the main hindrance on these trips.*

My wife and I talked about upgrading the car. I called a couple of showrooms for an inquiry. But as the car will be stationary for most of the year and as another project is going on, we dropped the plan for the time being.

On April 20th, while I was returning to my home from my in-laws home, I met with an accident. My car hit a bike. The pillion rider was hurt, but the issue was resolved. As for my car, the left part of the front bumper and the left headlight were completely broken.


I took the car to my workshop, and they quoted around 25k, so I decided to claim insurance. I had e-digit and the claim process was through their app, where I uploaded the pictures and videos. And after approval, the work started. The parts were delayed for some reason. I finally received the car after around 2 weeks, and the final bill was 14K. And the insurance only covered half of it .*

Anyway, this rekindled the thought of selling the car. We soon left for Berlin. A couple of weeks later, my friend who sold his car wanted a ride until he got his new one. He rode Brio for around a month until he received his new Compass.

Once he got his car, he asked me what to do with Brio. I asked him if it was possible to sell the car and quoted my final price. He connects with his agent, and after two weeks, the car was sold for a price that was 20K higher than my base price.

As soon as I received the money in my account, I became very emotional and sad. The realization that Brio is not mine anymore sank into me. I didn't expect this to happen so soon. A lot of memories were made with Brio.

But that's how it is. We have to move on.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[RollinWheels]

Loved the write up. We have much in common. I am also from Kochi and I also own a 2015 Brio SMT and mine is also Ralleye red!!!

It is not my first car but I still have it and plan to use it as long as I can.

[SnS_12]

We own a 2014 VX MT which will complete 10 years on Oct 30th and the car just hit 60k kms yesterday.

This is a car that I plan to keep as long it’s mechanically possible.