| BHPian
Join Date: Sep 2023 Location: Gurgaon
Posts: 60
Thanked: 254 Times
| Our new purchase: Invicto Zeta+ 8 seater
Hello everyone,
I have been reading posts on Team-BHP for the last 11 years when I was in college and my father purchased a new i20 Sports Petrol in Nov 2012. We owned a 2005 Alto before the i20.
Soon after, I entered into civil services and my father decided to gift me a CAR to celebrate the beginning of my working life. It is important to note here that I was using a bicycle in college and was not allowed to keep a bike till then. We had a CBZ Xtreme at home and I was free to use it whenever I came home on vacations.
So, we were staying in a Tier 2 town in NCR and we had only Maruti, Hyundai, Skoda, Mahindra, and Tata dealerships in our city. I was not an expert driver at that time and had no idea about driving dynamics, or other technical aspects of a car. My father also treated cars as simply a tool to go from point A to B. So, our Basic selection criteria were Space, Looks, Mileage, and Price.
Having a new Hyundai at home, we didn’t like the interior quality of Mahindra cars except the XUV 5oo, which was slightly above our budget and low on mileage. We didn’t need a 7-str either. Skoda Rapid was rejected as it felt cramped in the rear seat due to the hump, and plastic quality was a notch below Hyundai.
Tata Manza was considered but stories about Tata on the portal scared me. Before we could visit Maruti, my father went to a Hyundai dealer and the owner convinced him of a Diesel Verna. He got his loan approved there and I got a call to come to the dealership to take delivery of the car. Yes, that’s how it was purchased in June 2013, without any test drive or PDI or detailed comparison.
This is how I became a proud owner of a White Fluidic Verna, ready to begin my job. I used it for 6 months before I went to my training academy and wasn’t allowed to keep a vehicle with me. So, my father had i20 and Verna with him for a year, for his monthly usage of less than 1000 km.
After a year, when I went on field training in Chandigarh in Jan 2015, I used my Verna extensively in Chandigarh, Himachal, Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi.
It used to give me mileage of 24-25 on highway drives and 18+ in city, with enough power to cross 100 easily. I never felt that there was anything wrong with the driving dynamics of Verna, as shared by many on this forum. It’s not like I had no other benchmark to compare, as I started driving other cars as well around 2015. Overall, I was superbly impressed with this car and used it for almost 1.3 lakh kms from 2014 to 2022. I used this car extensively across India and it never ditched me anywhere on the road.
After Chandigarh, I shifted to Bangalore for my 1st posting. There was a lot of talk about non-KA vehicles being harassed in Karnataka for road tax at that time. I asked my office to find a way out of this, and my office got me a Karnataka RC with my Haryana number on it. I was asked to just show this to anyone if they ever stop me. I was stopped only once during my 2 years and 2 months of posting there. When I showed the RTO guy the RC, he was also confused and simply asked me to go. Please note that this was not a fake RC or anything but our government offices know how to bend the rule when there is a need. But this was done before Vahan became a thing. So, when I shifted to Delhi in 2018 and checked my vehicle details on Parivahan, it gave a notification that the vehicle was registered in 2 RTOs.
I realized that I should get it removed from Haryana RTO but since road tax was never paid in Karnataka, it may create an issue. Or I should get it removed from Karnataka RTO? Around the same time, NGT ordered a ban on 10+ years of diesel vehicles in NCR. So, retaining registration in Karnataka made more sense. I kept delaying the decision till 2022.
In 2022, I sent the required forms to my Bangalore office and asked the same guy to get them deleted from Karnataka records. Now Verna had completed almost 9+ years and was in its last year of validity in Delhi. I faced no problems with the car and it had a special value for me.
Meanwhile, my father-in-law had a x1 and he was finding it difficult to find drivers to handle the car. So, he offered me to use X1 and give Verna to him, which can be given to drivers without much worry. As he stays outside NCR, the 10-year rule was also not a worry, and we only had to transfer it out of NCR before June 2023. I decided to transfer it to UP but the out-of-state transfer is a little more complicated than within the state. So, taking the easy way out, I got it transferred to Hisar (outside NCR) on a relative's, and the vehicle can not happily be used outside NCR. The process of transfer was fairly simple and completed within a day.
In December 2022, we were blessed with a kid. After this, we found X1 to be lacking in space if we were traveling with my parents and baby and his stuff. The practical boot space of X1 was less than Verna.
Maybe I had mastered the art of driving Verna, but I liked it much better than X1 if we considered factors like driving with peace of mind, VFM, low service cost, etc.
At the same time, my father was bored with his i20 (yes, we don’t give up on our cars) and gave it to my sister to be used as a beater. In 2018, we also purchased a Baleno Alpha CVT for my wife. My father got a taste of Automatics from this and wanted an Automatic as his new car. In July 2023, I was out on an official tour and I got a call that my father had booked a Swift AMT. I immediately called him to change it to something with better safety ratings. He went ahead and changed it to Nexon ZXA+ again without talking to me. I liked Nexon when I used to commute in a Nexon EV for a while. But after reading not-so-good reviews of Nexon AMT, I went with my dad to get a test drive when I came back.
This initiated a series of events which ultimately led us to purchase Invicto from Chandigarh.
So, now we were looking for a regular Automatic (for convenience) Petrol( NCR) car.
1. Nexon: Experience at the Tata showroom was average, with salespeople having minimal knowledge of products, but they were cordial. Test drive vehicles were not available but they offered to bring it home, when available. We were now prepared to spend ~13 lakhs OTR for Nexon ZXA+.
2. Astor: While coming back from Tata, we spotted an MG showroom near our home, and went there. My friend had good reviews of Astor CVT, with okayish mileage. When we entered, the sales girl told us about a 75k cash discount on Super CVT. We thought that this was also priced close to Nexon, and a far superior vehicle. Then they told us that it’s not being manufactured, but has a 1.5 lakhs discount on the next variant Smart. This variant had all the bells and whistles except ADAS and was coming at around 16 OTR. Since my father was the primary user, we didn’t plan on a Turbo engine. The test drive was also satisfactory and we didn’t feel the difference in its build quality in comparison with X1.
3. Kushaq and Slavia: As we were already crossing 16 lakhs, we thought of checking some more options. Hyundai and Kia were rejected as we wanted a change after owning Verna and i20. We were offered the lowest variant of Slavia AT 1.0 for 16 and Kushaq at 16.5 lakhs. This was a very alluring offer.
4. Taigun and Virtus: now we were greedy and headed to VW to see if they have better discounts. However, VW salesperson convinced my dad to consider 1.5 engine, which took our budget around 20-21 lakhs for an Automatic. We found VW versions to be better looking than Skoda.
5. XUV 700 and Scorpio: As we touched 20 lakhs, we discussed that home that why not consider a 7 str to accommodate our need for more space!!! We headed to the Mahindra showroom as Tata doesn’t have a Petrol engine in Safari. MG Hector Plus was very cramped and in 3rd row and mileage was very poor.
XUV was liked by me and Scorpio N by my dad. At this point, we started calculating how much we would have to spend immediately. We decided to go for Bharat registration to save some money upfront.
XUV 700 AX7 Petrol AT was coming at around 26.26 lakhs OTR, and we could postpone expenses of around 2 lakhs by opting for BH registration.
Scorpio N was a little cheaper but seats were comparatively more upright and less comfortable according to me. Hence, our mind was now ready to spend around 25 lakhs.
6. Hycross: As we were now in 7-str Petrol Automatic 25 lakhs territory, we drove to the Toyota showroom nearby. Had a PATHETIC experience at Toyota, by far the worst customer dealing. No one was interested in talking as if it was a langar and we were there to ask for a vehicle for free. We just got out of the showroom and thought about the after-sales experience, if the sales experience is like this. Maybe it was the particular showroom or specific guys present there on that day, I just started hating Toyota.
7. Invicto: It struck me that Maruti has also launched a version of Hycross recently. We moved to Nexa PASCO at Sikanderpur Gurgaon. Despite the rush and crowded place, Nexa guys were far more professional and arranged a test drive immediately. We had a test drive of Nexa Blue Alpha 7 seater and took it home to show to my wife and mom. They liked the presence of the car but rejected the Nexa blue color as it looked horrible in the rain, and the 7-seater(Captain seats) was also rejected because of the baby. It’s easier to sit with a baby on a bench seat instead of captain seats. So, the only option we had was Zeta+ 8 seater. The showroom had Bronze colour on display which was looking good. On my way back from Sector 55 to Sikanderpur, I reset the mileage to zero and it gave me 19.5 for around 8 km on a decently crowded road.
Satisfied with everything, we again compared Invicto and XUV. If we go with BH registration, we will save around 2 lakhs in XUV. But my dad was impressed with the better mileage and better reliability of Invicto. On safety aspects, we found out that Invicto and Hycross are manufactured in the same plant with the same standards, and decided to trust Toyota.
So, we booked 8 seater Invicto in Gurgaon on 8th August 2023.
BH Registration: When we enquired about BH registration, we were informed by showroom people that Haryana is not offering BH registration yet. I checked in Delhi but they need an Aadhaar card with a Delhi address.
I asked my contacts to arrange an early delivery. I got a message on 11th August that the car has been planned and will be sent to the dealer within a week.
After this, I initiated the online process for a change of address in Aadhaar. It was also done online within 2 days and I also got a call by the 18th of August that the car reached the yard. On the same day, I read on this portal that Chandigarh has waived off-road tax for Hybrid vehicles completely.
Road Tax waiver in Chandigarh:
This waiver has 2 conditions the vehicle should be registered in Chandigarh and should be purchased in Chandigarh. I cannot buy a vehicle in Gurgaon and register it in Chandigarh for this benefit.
So, I made an online booking for the same variant on 19th August, and then again requested someone to see if this car could be shifted to the Chandigarh dealer. Since the dealers were not connected, it was not possible. But luckily, I was told that they would arrange a new car in Chandigarh within 2 weeks.
So, I then initiated the process for a change of address again to my Chandigarh home. The car was delivered in Chandigarh on 30th August, and I got the Chandigarh address updated in
Aadhaar on 2nd September.
After I got the pics of the car being unloaded in Chandigarh, I asked Gurgaon Nexa to cancel my booking.
Experience in Chandigarh NEXA:
We took delivery of the car on 3rd September. The experience was good but the lack of even a basic floor mat and mudguard was bad. The dealership offered complimentary accessories of Rs 5000, but all they had was chrome garnishing. We asked them to give a cash discount of Rs 5000 and adjust that in the extended warranty, which they obliged with.
It cost us 24.83 lakhs for the car, and around 1.2 lakhs for Insurance, extended warranty, and other expenses.
The dealership informed us that registration file for hybrid cars was accepted at RLA only directly from owners and dealers/agents were not allowed to handle this. Maybe they were making excuses because I was not paying them any commission. I asked SA to just prepare the file and get it handed over in RLA after which I will coordinate.
After taking delivery, we drove from Chandigarh to Gurgaon and got a mileage of 21 kmpl, which impressed all of us.
After around 2 weeks, I called SA for the status of the file. They were still not ready. They delivered the file to the RLA office after another 2 days. The next morning, I got an SMS with my registration number which I could check in the Parivahan App. I had to just transfer some 2000 Rs on Google Pay to the RLA guy for genuine charges (hypothecation etc).
In the end, I paid around 26 lakhs for Invicto which is around the same price I would have paid for XUV (with regular registration). Invicto has lower running costs, a hybrid engine, and superior space as its pros, whereas XUV has better tech.
Very much satisfied with the power, space, and comfort. My family is also happy with the color choice.
Additions: All I have added in the Car are Autofoam seat covers, floor mats, and a Dashcam, which cost me Rs 36,000. |
14th September 2023, 21:10
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