[DCEite]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

Btw, what’s your typical city/highway FE ? A friend is looking at buying the Zeta_AT, but not sure how it fares on FE.

Still early days for me, haven't done tankful to tankful calculation as yet and no highway trips so far.

In city driving with AC the MID is varying between 13.8 to 14.5 kmpl. This is in mix of bumper to bumper and normal city traffic.

My estimate of final tankful to tankful figure is around 11.5 kmpl in extreme bumper to bumper peak hour traffic and around 13.5 kmpl on an average considering all city traffic scenarios.

On highways I believe the AT should give around 18-19kmpl if speeds < 100kmph.

Do note that in AT the engine RPMs are comparatively lesser in 6th gear at 100kmph compared to the MT which is 5 speed.

[sumeethaldankar]

The flat hood is a tad too high which means that the inside edge of the scooped center portion near the wipers is a wee bit higher than the top of the flat portion of the dash. This restricts frontal visibility, especially the front left corner in tight situations is made worse for shorter drivers by the tall ICE display.

I am not clear what this means from the Tbhp review. Does this mean the edges of the bonnet at the left side not visible from the drivers seat? Can mild Hybrid owners comment if they can see both edges of the bonnet from the driving position?

Thanks.

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

I am not clear what this means from the Tbhp review. Does this mean the edges of the bonnet at the left side not visible from the drivers seat? Can mild Hybrid owners comment if they can see both edges of the bonnet from the driving position?

Thanks.

I am 5'11 and I cannot see exact edge but can see the bonnet. Although if I set my seat height at around 80% high, I can pretty much make out the edges, but not see them. I can still see a lot of bonnet though.

Here is a pic from my eye level at 80% height adjusted upwards. See below:

[pappyrohit]

It has been a little more than 10 months since we purchased a blue colour Grand Vitara Zeta AT(mild hybrid). Over the ownership period, we clocked 7500kms. My parents rarely use the car in city as they prefer metro for commute. Most of the distance was clocked on highway runs to our village, averaging about 600kms a month. During this period, I got a chance to spend more time with the car as compared to my last update. Sharing my experience below

Service
- Completed two free services so far. Third service is due sometime within the next month.
- Fuss free service experience. Kalyani Motors (Kanakapura Road) offers free pick up and drop and the staff has been very courteous. No regressions in the car post service.
- Service cost has been less as compared to Honda, so far. Will have to see, once the paid service period starts

Driveability
- City: In city, the car is really comfortable to drive. There’s no dearth of power. Size is a tad too big for me, as I mostly drive a hatchback. It’s a little cumbersome to drive in the narrow lanes of J.P. Nagar inner neighbourhoods. But overall, zero bad experience.
Highway:
- Absolutely comfortable to drive. Can easily hit the speed limit (max 120kph, that too, only on Mysore Expressway) and the car cruises at the speed without breaking a sweat.
- High speed overtakes require a bit of planning and I need to use Physics equations to plan the overtakes.
- I really love the cruise control (I sorely miss this on my Jazz). Makes driving on expressways a breeze.
- Not sure if it’s the seats and/or engine/suspension setup, but long drives do not cause fatigue, like in the Jazz. I feel a little fatigued while driving over a 100kms at a stretch on the Jazz, but not in the Vitara. Lovely cruiser.

Ride comfort
- Really comfortable suspension setup.
- 17 inch wheels and suspension keep low speed ride reasonably comfortable, especially in the pothole ridden city roads. The high ground clearance adds to the confidence to drive over some really bad roads.
- Highway manners are way better than my Jazz. The car is steady at high speeds and barely wallows over undulations and can corner better than my Jazz (soft suspension and undersized wheels on Jazz do not inspire confidence).
- Braking needs a special mention. Brakes are solid and braking is fuss free.
- An anecdote: We were cruising at about 100kmph maintaining two car lengths with the car ahead of us, on Mysore Expressway. All of a sudden, the car in front of us, veered left, hit a slow moving truck on the side and flipped thrice into our lane. If it wasn’t for the strong brakes on our Vitara, we might have been in the path of the flipping car. Fortunately, there was no major mishap, and the driver(only passenger in the car. Poor guy, fell asleep while driving.) of the totalled car survived with just a few minor cuts and bruises. This incident has increased my confidence in the braking system of the car. 10/10
- Fuel efficiency: Suzuki cars are known for their relatively high fuel efficiency. On average I get 12kmpl in peak BLR traffic, and I comfortably manage 18-19kmpl on expressways.

Creature comforts and Safety
- Way more leatherette and soft touch materials than my Jazz. Feels a little premium
- ICE works fuss free. It had one minor glitch once, in like 9 months. I am no audiophile and I find the sound quality excellent to my taste.
- Cruise control works like a charm. I really do not miss ADAS features as it would make the driving experience more boring, imho.
- Auto headlamps are tad bit too sensitive. While driving under random tree cover on the road, headlamps turn on and the interior consoles dim, making it hard to read information.
- 6 airbags and decent build quality. Hopefully the car would be rated 4+ stars in crash ratings.
- The car is a little sparsely kitted as compared to its competitors (Creta/Seltos), but I do not particularly miss anything. The current spec suits our needs.
- Sorely miss 360 degree camera and integrated TPMS. It’s available only on Alpha variant. We had to skip Alpha variant as the sunroof was hampering my headroom.

Overall, very happy with my ownership experience. We would really love to keep the car for a long term and are not planning to upgrade it anytime soon.

Photoshoot


A little dirty after driving through the rain near our farm



The Bordeaux colour interior trim is really attractive


Front three quarters. Really worried that a flying pebble or stone might hit the low hanging projector lamps

Signing off

[bijims]

Originally Posted by pappyrohit

Overall, very happy with my ownership experience. We would really love to keep the car for a long term and are not planning to upgrade it anytime soon.

Great to see that you are happy with the car, considering it's a Maruti, You should be good for the long haul and hope you have many more great miles ahead!

[sapien]

Originally Posted by pappyrohit

Driveability
- City: In city, the car is really comfortable to drive. There’s no dearth of power. Size is a tad too big for me, as I mostly drive a hatchback. It’s a little cumbersome to drive in the narrow lanes of J.P. Nagar inner neighbourhoods. But overall, zero bad experience.
Highway:
- Absolutely comfortable to drive. Can easily hit the speed limit (max 120kph, that too, only on Mysore Expressway) and the car cruises at the speed without breaking a sweat.
- High speed overtakes require a bit of planning and I need to use Physics equations to plan the overtakes.
- I really love the cruise control (I sorely miss this on my Jazz). Makes driving on expressways a breeze.
- Not sure if it’s the seats and/or engine/suspension setup, but long drives do not cause fatigue, like in the Jazz. I feel a little fatigued while driving over a 100kms at a stretch on the Jazz, but not in the Vitara. Lovely cruiser.

- An anecdote: We were cruising at about 100kmph maintaining two car lengths with the car ahead of us, on Mysore Expressway. All of a sudden, the car in front of us, veered left, hit a slow moving truck on the side and flipped thrice into our lane. If it wasn’t for the strong brakes on our Vitara, we might have been in the path of the flipping car. Fortunately, there was no major mishap, and the driver(only passenger in the car. Poor guy, fell asleep while driving.) of the totalled car survived with just a few minor cuts and bruises. This incident has increased my confidence in the braking system of the car. 10/10

Excellent write up, specifically- thanks for sharing the drivability part, wish there was something like this available when we were searching for a new car.
This should help anyone considering the mild hybrid models. Strangely no MS or Toyota dealers were having TD vehicles for non hybrid variants when we were searching. After several attempts I could barely get a test at late night on internal roads for km or so.

Also, which was the car which toppled in the accident? Seems to have excellent body shell.

[pappyrohit]

Originally Posted by sapien

Excellent write up, specifically- thanks for sharing the drivability part, wish there was something like this available when we were searching for a new car.
This should help anyone considering the mild hybrid models. Strangely no MS or Toyota dealers were having TD vehicles for non hybrid variants when we were searching. After several attempts I could barely get a test at late night on internal roads for km or so.

Also, which was the car which toppled in the accident? Seems to have excellent body shell.

- We didn’t face any difficulty in getting a test drive for a non hybrid model. Our SA arranged a test drive in GV Alpha variant, the very next day. They had quite a few variants available, MT, AT, AWD and hybrid.

- It was a white colour Hyundai Elite i20 (pre facelift model). The impact with the truck totally the front of the car, but the passenger cabin seemed to be unaffected.

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by DCEite

- Front driver's door continues to annoy, as it does not close in one attempt. I recall that the other display cars in the showroom had the same issue.

Finally found out the root cause of this issue.

Its the air pressure as described in this Youtube Shorts Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0Pm1qDd5sg

As suggested in the Video, I re-tried closing the driver door with any of the other door window or door open, and Viola, its works perfectly.

But still, I am not sure why this issue in this particular car(Grand Vitara) only. I have owned several vehicles in the past but never came across such air pressure issue.

If its a design issue Maruti must correct it as soon as possible.


On a side note, I have been experiencing a feeble suspension noise (kind of a "klunk") from the front while going over speedbreakers, but only after cold start. Once the car is run for a couple of KMs, the sound is no longer there on the same kind of speed bumps.

Any idea what could it be ?

[izzikio_rage]

For the Vitara Manual owners, is it just me or is the gear shift very hard (combined with a heavy clutch). My whole reason for getting a manual was the amazingly slick gear shifts in my old swift. The gear shift was light and a small push meant it would move into the next gear almost on its own.

In the vitara it takes more effort and the gears tend to get stuck, or caught and you have to literally force them at times.

Has anyone found a solution to this? Even after 10k km and all 3 services done it still is an issue on my car

[ksaurabh21]

Originally Posted by aks812

Its a feature added by Maruti in cars made post March 2023, they basically did a cost cutting by not putting weight sensor and instead added a sensor only in the seatbelt buckle hence the rear belts have to be always buckled.

Question to Grand Vitara owners who bought it recently: do you need to keep the seat belt always buckled to prevent the beeps even when the seat is empty?

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by ksaurabh21

Question to Grand Vitara owners who bought it recently: do you need to keep the seat belt always buckled to prevent the beeps even when the seat is empty?

As I said earlier and also from FronX review, Maruti has removed audible beeps for rear seats from May'24 onwards in its Nexa lineup.

However only central console display would show unbuckled seatbelt sign.

So to answer your question, there is No need to keep rear seatbelts buckled when they are empty, as there are no more audible and continuous warning tones now.

[shivmarwaha]

This seems to be one off case with your car. My Vitara is almost two years old and from the first batch of cars. The clutch is super light and gearshift is slick. Get your gearbox checked asap else they will charge you for the clutch replacement

Originally Posted by izzikio_rage

For the Vitara Manual owners, is it just me or is the gear shift very hard (combined with a heavy clutch). My whole reason for getting a manual was the amazingly slick gear shifts in my old swift. The gear shift was light and a small push meant it would move into the next gear almost on its own.

In the vitara it takes more effort and the gears tend to get stuck, or caught and you have to literally force them at times.

Has anyone found a solution to this? Even after 10k km and all 3 services done it still is an issue on my car

[TorqueIndia]

Maruti is offering hefty discounts on Grand Vitara hybrids, as demand slackens. Strong hybrid discounts are now at 1.3 lakhs.

Maruti nexa was able to move only 5K strong hybrids in H1 2024.
Averaging around 800 units per month, less than 2 units per month by each nexa outlet.

FE

[ex-innova-guy]

Originally Posted by izzikio_rage

For the Vitara Manual owners, is it just me or is the gear shift very hard (combined with a heavy clutch). My whole reason for getting a manual was the amazingly slick gear shifts in my old swift.

This is not an issue with my Hyryder MT. The gearbox is as slick as ever and each gear slots precisely. Do note that my past experience was with the cluttery diesel Innova, whose gear level wasn’t exactly slick!

[izzikio_rage]

Originally Posted by ex-innova-guy

This is not an issue with my Hyryder MT. The gearbox is as slick as ever and each gear slots precisely. Do note that my past experience was with the cluttery diesel Innova, whose gear level wasn’t exactly slick!

My comparison has been with the gear shifts of Ciaz, Swift and Tiago. This one seems to be a bit clunky. Essentially gears in the shift were a joy to use, this becomes a pain in start stop traffic