First service done !
Just finished with the first service of my Ignis Zeta MT. So far I have been very happy with the car and I feel confident in putting down some of my experiences with the car so far.
I had a budget of around 6 lakhs and I wanted a manual car mainly because I find AMT gearboxes to be very boring to drive and I use my car just once or twice a week. My dad had a Nissan Micra CVT which had a smooth gearbox but none of the cars in my budget offered CVTs. And the rubber band effect of the CVT used to drive me insane at times when I slammed the accelerator and was greeting with the RPMs going higher and higher but the car maintaining the same speed as before.
I wanted 4 things in the car I would buy - Touchscreen system with Android Auto, Alloy wheels, Good engine, Reliable car as I wanted to keep the car for at least 8 years since my running isn't much.
At a hard budget of 6 lakhs I only had B1 segment cars or I had to get a base variant of B2 segment cars like the Grand i10 or Swift. Since I was buying the car in March I found lots of 2018 models on offer at great discounts so decided to get a 2018 B2 segment car instead.
Buying process
I had shortlisted 3 cars - Hyundai i10 Grand Sportz, Tata Tiago XZ and the Ignis Zeta. The Santro and Wagon R was also on the table but while I liked the Santro it was priced just too close to the i10 which was sold with substantial discounts so I dropped the idea. The Wagon R had oodles of space but I didn't care for the boxy looks and since its just me and my wife we didn't need the extra space on offer so we dropped the Wagon R from shortlist.
I went about buying the car the wrong way actually because I wanted to buy only 2018 model cars to take advantage of the substantial discounts on offer and most of the showrooms near my place didn't have any old stock left. I placed a request on cardeko (yes I know !) and waited for the calls to come through.
Unfortunately while I received calls from from Hyundai (i10 Grand) and Maruti (Ignis) there were no calls from Tata. And while I never asked for I got calls from Datsun asking me to check out their Datsun Go. After a few days I even got a call from Volkswagen for the Polo who told me they had lots of 2018 models at hefty discounts but still no call from Tata.
I tried calling the nearest Tata showroom which was a bit out of the way from me but no response from them so I dropped the Tiago from shortlist.
i10 Grand Sportz
Pros
- Clean design which generally will please anyone.
- Excellent interiors. Definitely the best interiors in my choice of cars.
- The 1.2l kappa engine is a gem of an engine and every bit as good as the Suzuki K12 engine.
- The dealer without bargaining came down to 6.5l all inclusive
- It had everything I wanted except Alloy wheels which can be easily added in future.
Cons
- The price was still 50k above my budget. I knew I could bargain a bit more by dropping the useless accessories but it was still above by budget by a good margin.
- The variant I was looking at (Sportz) missed out on alloy wheels as well as a rear wiper which was something I also wanted as rains in Mumbai are quite heavy at times. The alloy wheels are easy to add aftermarket but the rear wiper not so much
- He had just one model in the 2018 stock which was Passion orange which my wife didn't care for.
Datsun Go and Volkswagen Polo
I also tried both the Datsun Go and the Polo. Dropped both of those from my shortlist immediately after the TD.
The Datsun Go was so cheaply built it was crazy. Felt like a 4 lakh car masquerading as a 6l car. The interiors looked really really cheap. My old 2009 Alto had better quality plastics.
The Polo was waaaaaay out of budget even after the 40k discount and worse I didn't like the car at all. The space inside was cramped both in the front and in the rear. Rear space was shockingly bad. And that 1.0l 3 pot engine felt so out of place in the Polo that the less said about it the better.
Tata Tiago
After all this I had almost settled on the Ignis but a friend who bought the Tiago put me onto his dealer who was very far from my house. He was a good person to deal with but Tata has got to learn to up their service.
I went to the showroom which is an hour and half away and he didn't even offer to give me a test drive. He just told me the price and that was it.
I asked for a TD but he said the car was out and didn't offer to arrange a TD later on either.
Thankfully my neighbor has a Tiago and he offered to let me drive it for an hour at least.
Pros
- Nice spacious interiors for a B1 segment car.
- Solid body. You can just feel the reassuring thud when you close the doors
- Brilliant music system. Crazy good at this segment.
- Excellent stability. I braked hard and the car never lost its composure. Very reassuring to drive the Tiago.
- For a heavy car the mileage is also excellent. Great features on offer too. Except for touchscreen everything I wanted was there in the Tiago.
Cons
- The poor dealer response had already left a bad taste in my mouth.
- The new XZ version had so many nice features removed and only one car was left in the old model which had the extra features but in a colour I didn't like.
- The Tata service center is a few kms from my place.
- Lastly the Tiago engine never appealed to me. Lots of lag at slow speeds and I didn't like the seating position of the Tiago no matter how much I adjusted the seat and steering wheel
Ignis
Finally I asked the Ignis dealer for a TD which was the last car I took a TD
Cons
- I hated the white colour of the Ingis dashboard. Its a dirt magnet and the TD car looked horrible as the SA himself told me they never give the car for wash even once as it would mean less sales :(
- The build quality is so different from the Tiago. You can just see how light the car is compared to the heavily built Tiago.
- The music system is nice with 4 speakers and two tweeters but no match to the Tiago music system.
Pros
- That engine is a gem. It brought a smile to my face even though its no speed demon.
- The tall body design worked wonders for a person of my height. I just loved the driver seat position and it felt comfortable to drive the car
- Easy ingress and egress
- Aside from the touchscreen it had everything I wanted
- I loved the Ignis Ruby red colour and that was also in stock
Ultimately at the end of the day a combination of the relaxed driving position and that wonder K12 engine won me over. It was a blast driving the Ignis. In traffic the minimal lag and light steering made the Ignis a breeze to drive. On an open road the Ignis has no problems being pushed hard and I had a nice big smile on my face after the TD.
Without bargaining he quoted me 6.3 lakhs but I bargained hard with the SA and he finally agreed for 6 lakhs since my car was a Sept 2018 manufactured model. Only the accessory bundle I didn't get but the SA gave me floor mats and mud flaps on delivery.
So far I have done around 1000 kms and my feedback is as follows
Some of the positives are -
- Fantastic engine.
- Very nice AC. Cools the car in minutes. None of my earlier Maruti cars had good ACs.
- Nice gearbox. Makes for a fun drive.
- Music system is decent. No complaints
- Suzuki's excellent after sales service makes for peace of mind. I get regular calls to book my service and after the service got a feedback call to make sure everything went off smoothly.
- The last positive is rather silly but I love the keyless start. I would have preferred to have a touchscreen system over a push button start but starting the car with the key in my pocket wasn't something I ever expected to find in a low budget car
Some negatives
- I am missing the touchscreen system. I use my phone for navigation but its not as nice as having a proper touch screen system.
- No rear camera which I feel is a must especially in a city like Mumbai where parking in tight places happens regularly. Ill add one after all the free services. So far I haven't had any issues relying on the parking sensors but having a camera is a much better solution IMO.
- Poor safety. There is no two ways around it. The car is definitely not as well built as say a Tata Tiago that is actually a full segment below the Ignis. With two airbags, ABS and other safety features I do fell safe in the Ignis but when I sat in the Tiago I felt much more confident.
- No return to center. Its most irritating to have to manually move the steering wheel to the center after a full U turn.
But all in all very happy so far with the Ignis.