11th January 2010, 13:24
| #256 |
| BANNED Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: delhi
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11th January 2010, 18:28
| #258 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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12th January 2010, 01:13
| #259 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: May 2009 Location: Lucknow
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| Test Drive report for the Chevy Beat Every once in a while a car comes along that changes a company’s fortunes, a game changer that determines a company’s future. The Golf saved Volkswagen back in 1974 and the Grande Punto might be doing the job for Fiat. Now, GM India isn’t exactly in great financial strife, but they’ve had a pretty torrid time in India thus far. All their cars in India thus far have been very capable, but lack of exciting looks and a habit of overpricing has made sure that none of them set the charts on fire. The value of cars that appeal to the heart can no longer be ignored in the Indian market, and GM India has finally decided to take the competition head on. They sent out a strong message with the just launched Cruze, but it is the Beat on which GM India has pinned its hopes. Will the Beat be the game changer for GM in India? Variants:Here’s what we think of it. Let’s start with the styling. Now this is a nice place to start with because the first time you see the Beat, it will stop you in your tracks. The car is just stunning to look at, and it commendable that GM kept the car so true to the concept on which it is based.  The front is very aggressive with the massive grille and prominent swept back headlamps. The Chevy bow-tie on the Beat is surprisingly better in quality than the one on the 6 times more expensive Captiva. The rear is pretty compact with an interesting looking tail lamp cluster with liberal amounts of chrome. The thick bumpers and flared wheel arches lend it a sporty look. The roof slopes to the rear. The car on the whole betrays an earnest effort to avoid the awkward tall boy looks. An interesting detail is the position of the rear door handles. You’ll grope for them where you normally expect them to be, only to find that they’re not there! The door handles are placed where the rear quarter glass should be, in line with the rear window. The vertical orientation means a weird holding angle. Still. this gives the Beat a coupe like look, which is in sync with the car’s sporty styling. The side profile harbors nice atypical curves in the body work giving it a very contemporary look. The car uses steel wheels across the range, alloys being optional only on the top version. But these steel wheels are well designed and made to look like alloys. So you get decent looks for cheap, without going in for tacky wheel covers. The styling though undoubtedly the car’s trump card, is not without its weaknesses. The car desperately needs bigger tires; the present 155/70 14” ones are puny and take away from the car’s otherwise imposing stance.  The Rear is contemporary but not nearly as catchy as the front end. Chevy also seems to have gone overboard with the chrome tail-light surrounds. The paint quality is excellent, and finish good. The quality of plastics at some spots seems to be at best average, but thankfully these parts are limited to the outside. The plastics on the rear door handles and the outer rear-view mirrors are not a treat for the eyes. Panel gaps are consistent, though large. The doors seem heavy and well built, though still not at par with the Palio. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Moving inside; the dashboard immediately grabs your attention. A rather largish design, it has a very futuristic touch to it. The central console jutting out to creates Chevrolet’s signature ‘dual cockpit’ design.  The interiors are all grays and are a refreshing change from the overdose of hard-to-keep-clean beige interiors in most cars in India today. The plastics in the Beat are of a decent quality and the fit and finish satisfactory. We loved the piano black colored plastic inserts in the dash, which lent the interiors an up-market feel. They impart a very smart look and we were left wishing for more spots and dashes of the same. The inserts however do attract fingerprints, although they are easy to remove. A point to note here is the absence of the piano black finish on the PS and LS variants. The PS and LS variants have a rather bland feel to the interiors and did not score very high with us. The top end version comes with an integrated stereo system which blends well with the dash and an information display for the climate control system. The cyan colored lighting which remains consistent in the interiors plays a very important part in increasing the appeal of the interiors. We were quite simply blown away by how good the dashboard look with lights on at night. The dashboard has many useful storage spaces, but the glove box is only enough for your papers and small items. The fit and finish of the buttons and knobs is good, but the feedback from the buttons could have been better. On the whole the plastic quality is good, with good feel and finish. The steering is small, sporty and well finished. The steering mounted speedometer and tachometer are straight lifts from Superbikes and are a very exciting addition. Chevy has been high on innovations with the Beat.  A large cylindrical surround houses the speedometer. A cool digital display that serves the purpose of both the tachometer and a fuel gauge forms the other half of the information console. The digital display is lit in blue, finished in silver and also houses the turn indicator and headlight actuation lights. While this looks great and is different, visibility of the display is hampered by the spokes of the steering wheel while turning. The steering wheel is height-adjustable, but this does not rectify the problem as the digital display is mounted on the steering column. The front seats are very comfortable with good lumbar support and head rests, though thigh support is average the seats rate high on comfort. The large dash may hinder the view for shorter drivers and the lack of height adjustable seats could prove problematic. The thick C pillar and the absence of the rear quarter glass obstruct the visibility at the rear while reversing. However, this isn’t the worst performer on that count in the segment with the A-Star taking the cake for difficulty in reversing. The driver’s seat has a very long travel which borders on being almost unnecessary. The seat pushed back 2/3 should be enough for a 6’ driver. The gear lever is well positioned with respect to the driver. The central console is easily reachable and the large knobs on the Automatic climate control and the in-car entertainment unit rate high on ease of use. The outer rear view mirrors are not electrically controlled, instead using a short stalk that can be used to mechanically adjust them. They are difficult to reach for the driver with the passenger side one being next to impossible to reach. The rear seats are not as comfortable as the front’s with poor thigh support being a problem. The tapering roofline reduces rear passenger headroom, and a tall person might bump his head during ingress and egress. Rear legroom is decent although things get a little cramped when the front seat is at maximum travel. Seating three adults in the rear would be an uncomfortable proposition for long journeys. The rear seats however have decent head rests that are adjustable and provide good support. One great little bit of innovation that we really liked was the indentations in the B pillars for the rear passenger’s knees. Placing the door handles on the window although a smart move, means that the effective window area is decreased for the rear passengers. Opinions were split on whether it led to a claustrophobic touch to the interiors in the rear. The power window switches are well placed and reachable for both the driver and passengers. The front passengers are blessed with a number of storage spots although not all of them can useful owing to awkward placements and small sizes. There are pockets in the doors and some decent spots on the dash. Cabin storage is an issue for rear passengers, with no storage pockets in the rear doors and just one bottle holder between the front seats. The front passengers have adequate storage space with storage pockets in the front doors which complement the storage pockets in the dash. The boot is small and at 170 litres will not hold more than a bag and a suitcase. Obviously, this won’t make the long distance trips any easier. All the other cars in the segment fair much better on the count of storage space. The 60:40 rear splitting seats are something of a saving grace to the miniscule capacity at the rear. The loading lip of the boot is also rather high and this can be a nuisance while loading luggage.   |
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12th January 2010, 01:16
| #260 |
| Senior - BHPian Join Date: May 2009 Location: Lucknow
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| (Contd.) Chevrolet has provided the Beat in India with a brand new 1.2Litre 4-cylinder engine that produces 79 bhp at 6200rpm and a peak torque of 10.91kgm at 4400rpm. The engine is incredibly refined at idle; in fact it is hardly noticeable at all. Mistaken cranks will be abundant thanks to the idling refinement. The Beat can be perfectly categorized as the ideal city hatch. The 1st and 2nd gears provide decent acceleration and the 3rd serves at speeds ranging from 20kph to 60kph. The gearbox is smooth and the gears slot in with ease. Clutch pedal has a smooth motion and would go a long way in increasing the driving comfort in the stop and go traffic. It is not an out and out stonker, but serves well in the city. The ride quality is good and the car feels very planted at city speeds. It is able to handle potholes with reasonable comfort and it takes large potholes to jar the passengers. With the needle hovering above 100kph, the stock tires give out before the suspension does. The steering wheel feels very well proportioned at all speeds. It does not feel light at higher speeds and keeps its poise at higher speeds. The braking is decent to say the least and wider tires would help their cause. The body roll around corners is manageable at city speeds. We wouldn’t recommend this car to someone who likes to take corners at high speeds. Mileage figures have been reported to be around 14-15 in the city without AC. The noise and vibrations inside the cabin are well regulated at lower speeds. However, the engine drone gets very coarse at higher RPMs and high speeds couple the engine noise with tire noise and can get irritating. All worries about the readability of the instrument console are laid to rest in some time as one gets used to it in a jiffy. The digital tachometer is a nice addition. The air-conditioner cooled effectively (at least in the winters!  ), with decent airflow for the rear passengers.All this makes the Beat a great proposition for the city. However, that doesn’t mean it won’t do the job on the highway. After a tire upgrade the car’s planted ride and good handling being a boon on long drives, albeit you stay on the poorer side of 100.  The Beat comes with the front and rear crumple zones; the top variant comes with ABS and dual air bags. The Beat has a reinforced safety cage, 60% of which is made from high strength steel which provides superior protection in the event of a side impact. A 4-star NCAP rating proves that the Beat is a safe car to be in. The Beat starts at Rs. 360,635(on road Delhi) for the base version and this goes all the way to Rs. 476,086 for the top of the line LT with the option pack. GM has priced the Beat very aggressively, which shows how keen they are for this car to succeed. With only 60% localization as of now and a 90% localization aimed, we strongly suggest making the purchase as soon as possible. The car comes in 7 colors: · Linen Beige · Green Cocktail · Super Red · Caviar Black · Misty Lake · Moroccan Blue · Olympic White The Beige, Green, Red and the Blue colors come with an additional price tag of Rs. 5,508. The car has a fair amount of equipment for it’s price for the top variant. But there is one big letdown, while the top end LT version is decently spec’d and well equipped; the same cannot quite be said for the lower end PS and LS versions. The PS and LS versions lose out on the fantastic piano black plastics and a load of other features like the climate control and the factory fitted music system. The fancy dials are replaced with the antiquated sliding controls and the interiors on these variants are just too grey! On the outside, there are no roof rails, no fog lamps, no chrome rings around the fogs, no body coloured door handles or ORVM’s. When you compared the base and top versions from the outside, the base version was kind of like a tiger missing its teeth. It just didn’t have the same road presence as the top end LT variant. In other words, the interiors and exteriors of the Beat vary quite a bit from the base to top end, with the end result being that the top model can easily take on the competition, but you might prefer the equivalent variant of the i10 for the lower end variants of the Beat, especially since the i10 retains its plush interiors with fewer changes from the top to base variant (just the music system and power windows are the changes. Beige trim is retained in all variants of the i10.) Overall, the Beat is really a great car, a Chevrolet that appeals to the heart and to the head. The Beat could well turn out to be the game changer that GM seeks in India. With its distinctive looks and great dynamics, coupled with good interiors, it could well breach the Maruti and Hyundai small car fortresses in the Indian market. Our advice would be to go in for the top-end LT variant. I guess we can sum up all this in two words from Chevy: BEAT THAT! |
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12th January 2010, 02:25
| #261 |
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12th January 2010, 02:30
| #262 |
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12th January 2010, 03:00
| #263 |
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12th January 2010, 05:14
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12th January 2010, 14:38
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12th January 2010, 21:40
| #266 | |||
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13th January 2010, 11:27
| #267 |
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13th January 2010, 16:57
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13th January 2010, 17:21
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13th January 2010, 17:24
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