Celerio VXI AMT: Ford Figo Sold. Hi Friends,
I don't know how to put it, but the everyday things that we take for granted are actually not so easy. Just for instance Walking, Getting off the bed, doing your morning jobbies, Getting into the car and driving off to the office. I recently met with an accident, it is posted in another thread. Then i realised that all mentioned above is so not easy. Any-ways the bottom-line is that i would not be able to drive for at least 6 months and could stretch to more.
I had a Ford Figo TDCI. It was a beautiful car, the service was amazing and more over Mrs. and me loved it. As my wife had just started to learn how to drive in mid December, she is not comfortable with the concept of gears yet. She is able to control the steering, brakes and acceleration. But all with Gear shifting actually takes some time to get used to it.
Keeping all the above in mind, I decided to go Automatic for my Mrs. so that for the time that I would not be driving we would still be mobile. I really did not want to spend around Rs. 1500 for a round trip on a taxi(That's average you will pay for trips in Delhi). Selection of Criteria
- Wanted a small car, as we love hatchbacks.
- Didn't want to spend a bomb. As the money is being directed into a different direction as of now.
- Didn't want anything too eye catchy.
- Wanted something economical to run, bit of low mileage would have been no problems.
- Would prefer diesel, but nothing in the market. Options of Cars.
The first option that came to my mind was a Brand new Celerio AMT. After considering the situation we decided to look for a used car which can be bought in the money that came in selling the FIGO. The only good options were available as Hyundai i10 AT.
Delhi being a good market for used cars, we started to look for a car on OLX and other sites. There were not too many i10's in the market and then the pricing was weird. There was too much of con jobs going on with the descriptions and stories being told by the sellers.
We decided to keep it safe and clean. This is the car that will be primarily be used by my Mrs. , so did not want to buy something that has a hidden skeleton.
So we selected a Maruti Celerio VXI AMT. Booking and Delivery
We decided on the 17th that we wanted to buy the Celerio. The phase of negotiations and bargaining started with the dealerships around NCR. The only problem was that the car was to be registered in Bathinda my home city. After working out all the costs we realised that the price difference is not too much in Bathinda after working out all kind of taxes. There were no discounts what so ever on the AMT. Still we managed to squeeze around 5k (every penny counts at this time). We booked the car on the 18th. Wanted to get a Silver car, but it would have taken some time to get one. The sales guy offered a Pearl White ready for delivery and i took that. The car was delivered on 19th. Sales experience
Nothing to write home about. Actually poor.
Oh and we drove for just 5 KM to reach the petrol station and had to push the car into the Bunk because the car ran out of fuel !!!!
Will keep posted about the further. Initial Observations.
- Car comes with sort of no equipment what so ever.
- Even in VXi model Body colour Door handles and rear view mirrors are not there.
- The antenna is way too long, reminds me ones I have seen in offloading thread on the forum.
- The car comes with a Night Rear view mirror.
- Mid provides some real good information. Driving and overall experience.
Since the day we bought the car my brother has been driving it around. the car has done around 500 KMs. He mentioned that the car feels bit sluggish when in automatic mode, it could be because of low power of the 1000 cc engine. The downshifts are slow and these could be a reason of discomfort in a few situations. Manual mode is a pleasure to drive and the best part is that you do not have to downshift when you are braking.
One main observation is that the car feels too light when driving at high speeds, it seems to be floating rather than sticking to the road. Last time he had this feeling was when he bought his Ritz and it had the 165 section tyres( the first 200 Kms were driven on them). The cars floats on the road and it does not feel anything like the Ritz, Figo or the Zen and Alto K10 he has been driving.
The car was driven to Delhi on this Sunday, a trip of 360 KM. The car was comfortable and AC was performing good and over all millage till now has been 16.8 Kmpl. the MID shows 16.9 KMPL so the calculations are close. I hope this does improve but I am not complaining.
I had not seen the car before I planned to buy it, I drove one last year in august some time and could not remember what kind of seat covers it came with. The car has Dark brown seat with some light brown inserts. We like the colour, the material is not as good as the Figo seat. I do not like to get seat covers. I think these should be good enough and the upkeep should be fine with a scheduled after 6 month wet/dry clean.
Steering wheel is nice to hold, will get a leather cover for it. In Figo I had a custom leather cover stitched. I had it for around 65000 Km and it was good till now. Modifications and Aftermarket additions.
We have already Cut the "Way too long Antenna" and shortened it to around less than a Feet. We added the old Pioneer head unit and the Bull audio speakers. The amplifier, subwoofer and tweeters are still to be installed and will be done here in Delhi. I will post a few photos when it will be done.
Tyres have been changed from JK Vectra 165/70/R14 to Yokohama ES400 (Earth 1) 185/65/R14. I retained the recently bought HR racing alloys from my Ford Figo. Being multi PCD the alloys supported 108 and 100 PCD so I used them with Celerio.
I do have a spare set of MINDA trumpet horns, that were water damaged. But i have seen that they do have a tendency to work again after a few weeks of not being used. so i will get them checked, if they don't work then i will order a Steble horn. Money Spent
Ex showroom: 483431
Handling: 3500
Insurance 15819
Road tax :and registration 35114
Cow Tax: 1000
Discount: 3000
free accessories: Mats, Mud flaps, Car perfume and Body cover. (costs around 2500)
Tyres Buy back: 2100 each (Total: 8400)
New tyres: 4000 each (Total: 16000)
Fitting of tyres: Free
Wheel Balancing: 200
Car stereo fitting: 400
Total spent till now (No fuel included): 541500 (Rounded) THE BEST PART.
I took my wife for driving the car. She liked it and is very happy to have it. When she was learning the geared Alto K10 that we have, she was always apprehensive about taking the Uturn. so the first thing she wanted to do was take a U turn at a junction. She loved it when she was able to do it without any major input from Me. PS. The most weird thing was paying a tax called COW TAX
Last edited by desideep : 23rd February 2015 at 13:16.
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