Hola! As you might have deduced by now, I have recently booked a Grand Vitara Delta AT mild hybrid from Varun Motors Bangalore in last week of July 2023. This was a long 6 month process which finally culminated in the booking of the Suzuki powerhorse.
Start of Search: I come from a defence background with 3 generations of my ancestors serving in defence services ( Father - IAF, Grand Father - Indian Army, Great Grand Father - British Army). I broke that rule ( not for the lack of trying though, failed SSB twice
), but have been on the receiving end of breaking the tradition. Coming to the point, my dad is retiring next month and had been on a lookout for a good car. He wanted the car to be delivered before his retirement i.e September 2023.
He intends to enjoy his retired days with peace and exploring West and South India. Because he might be travelling long distance almost every month, we were looking for 3 things as must have - Good Safety Ratings, Decent Mileage and Automatic transmission. Our budget was Max 18 OTR. Based on multiple reviews, we zeroed on 4 cars:
1. Tata Nexon
2. Hyundai Venue and Creta
3. Grand Vitara
4. Kia Seltos
We didn't take test drive of Kia Seltos as the facelift was upon us and we didn't want to buy an older model car.
Test Drive Process: 1. Tata Nexon
We took test drive of Tata Nexon XZA first. Visited Tata Showroom in Rajajinagar and the first impressions of the car were amazing, but the experience left a lot to be desired. The following were our impressions:
- Nexon feels and drives well. The driver seat is well positioned. The AMT gearbox in the test vehicle was good and shifted quite smooth which was contrary to what I was expecting. Dad liked the car in one go but decided to shift backseat to understand comfort.
- The backseats were not comfortable. He constantly complained about the abysmal thigh support and lack of space. Since he is planning multiple family trips, he didn't think the space was enough for 3 people to sit comfortably.
- Tata ASS was another issue for me. Team BHp does not review them favorably and going by multiple ownership threads, they make you run pillar to post the moment something goes wrong.
- My father also has good experience with vehicles and was not inclining towards a car with 3 cylinder engine. However, he did mention that the car didn't feel like one during the test drive.
- The final nail in the coffin was tata sales team. The sales representative was constantly on call with others customers during our test drive, so much so that we had to repeat our questions multiple times to get a response. Furthermore, the test drive was pretty short - around 3-4 kms and he seemed in a hurry to end the test drive than to sell the car. Not to mention we had to wait around 45 mins for the test vehicle even after informing the showroom and booking a test drive slot in advance.
We were definitely impressed by the robustness of Nexon. The impressive stance, the loud THUD! of doors, and barely any loose panels had us hooked. But ultimately we decided to keep looking.
2. Hyundai Creta / Venue: These were much simple to reject. We were quite disappointed to see that Venue might look like an SUV, but has much smaller windscreen visibility even when compared to our 2010 Ford Figo. While the Venue certainly sits higher, it didn't seem even as spacious as our old Figo.
Creta was overall good. We liked the looks. It was way more spacious that the tiny Venue. The boot was good. Very feature rich, and a good AT gearbox. We had a good service centre experience as well, and the sales executive gave us a good test drive, answering all our questions, informing us about the features in detail and explaining the price breakup. Our only concern was that even the base Automatic CVT Variant is 20 L OTR in Karnataka, and with no running offers due to higher demand, we had to skip it.
3. Grand Vitara
We were getting a bit frustrated with ourselves and we had started to think that maybe we are asking for too much in our limited budget. One fine evening, we got a call from one of my old buddies and he told me that he has bought a Grand Vitara. He had booked the Strong Hybrid variant and was very impressed about the space, features and overall ride quality. Post call, I had a quick discussion with my father and we decided we give it a shot as well. Called Varun Motors Hebbal and booked a test drive slot. Honestly, we had gone with very low expectations but were pleasantly surprised with the experience at Varun Motors. The following were our impressions:
- The Sales Executive gave us test drive in Alpha CVT smart hybrid variant. The test drive was almost 50 kms long. He asked us to take the car till the McDonalds signal before Bangalore Airport toll booth. The best part, he gave us this long test drive without even asking.
- The car has a very linear acceleration pull. It was nothing mind blowing to be honest and felt pretty mid. If at all, it has to be the weakest part of what is a very solid car all around. This car was not made to create track records, or even perform quarter mile drags signal-to-signal.
- The paddle shifters are a welcome addition though and they do make up for the (lack of) acceleration. They were definitely handy in overtaking fast moving cabs on the airport roads. Otherwise, you will have to plan your overtakes on highways.
- Very spacious - Both in the front and back. The back has amazing thigh support and they even recline a teeny tiny bit. But nevertheless, they were the most comfortable seats out of all the cars we test drive.
- While the Alpha variant has good soft touch finishes everywhere, the Delta Variant we booked has hard plastics everywhere. We intend to change them the day car gets delivered.
- Buttery smooth AT. The AT was as good as the one we experienced in Creta. No complaints there.
- Smart Hybrid is a sham - Sales executive informed us that the teeny LiOn battery will give us boost only while we are climbing an incline or trying to hard accelerate. Honestly, could not make out if it was even working.
- Good Satefy Features - 2 Airbags, All Disc brakes, EBD, ABS, Hill Hold assist as standard. While Grand Vitara has not been safety tested, I was informed that the platform has been rated 4 star on Global NCAP.
- Excellent Mileage: The Smart Hybrid Alpha we test drove had 19.6Km/L as per MID. We were told to expect 15-16 in cities and 18-20 on highways.
- CSD Offers: The sales executive informed us that we can get an additional 1.2 Lakhs discount on OTR if we buy using CSD. My father has never bought any vehicle from CSD but there's first time for everything.
- Excellent Sales Experience - The sales executive was not pushy, gave us in depth information on every question we asked, didn't bad mouth other brands when we told him about the other test drives and honestly seemed in giving us honest information about the car rather than trying us to oversell.
Ultimately the Delta AT we booked was his suggestion. When we told him about our requirements, he didn't try to sell us Zeta AT or Alpha AT and instead told us to book Delta since it covers all things we needed - Good Mileage, Good Safety and AT. The fact that Delta AT comes with Cruise Control was cherry on top! All in all, except for the plastics all around, and the not-so-great pickup, we are pretty satisfied with our booking decision.
Quickly paid 11000 as booking amount and booked the Silver Grand Vitara. We saw Silver color Vitara in the showroom and my parents quickly took a liking to it. Herez them posing with it to showoff to my brother: