[satishchugh]

Vehicle: Chevrolet Beat (Diesel) LT
Date Purchase: 22nd April 2012
Mileage Clocked: 10,000 KMs (as on 24th November)
Usuage Pattern: Mostly city drive, including approx. 40-50% on city Expressways. Average run of 1,400-1,500 Km per month. Only one major highway drive (Delhi-Almora-Dunagiri-Ranikhet-Delhi) of approx. 950 Kms during Monsoons.

What’s good:

1. Engine: In city driving I have never found the 3-cylinder diesel engine lacking. However on one instance in a unpaved inclined wet hilly road, I found it gasping for power – I think it’s being too demanding on this puny engine. Further if temperature is below 10 degree celcius, it take a full self to start in the morning.
2. Interiors: Interior quality is very good and the space for bottles and knick knack is also good. I find the dark grey interiors much better than the beige option provided by some other cars. In my personal opinion interiors are better than most of the other cars in its price range.
3. Fuel Efficiency: I have consistently got between 21-22 in city conditions. It has gone as high as 23 (mostly highway) and as low as 17 (Mostly hilly roads) in last 3 months.
4. Air conditioning: It’s pretty good. However I haven’t found the ACC too useful a feature – given GM charged me INR 40,000 for ACC and some other goodies.
5. Overall Build Quality: It's quite a reliable car. Till date I have not faced any issue except with bumpers as mentioned below.

What’s Ok:

1. Headlights: Are good enough and works on most occassion. I would have liked better lightening on highway driving though – esp. on narrow roads with lot of traffic with high beams on.
2. Seating Comfort: I found lumber support lacking for a 6 feet person, but again when you buy a small car you can’t ask for much space and then you will only get limited lumber support. Otherwise cushioning is good on seats.

What’s not good:

1. Quality of Bumpers: The bumpers are too fragile to soak even slightest of hits. Even though I haven’t rammed it anywhere, there are so many cuts and wounds all over the bumpers (see impages). Further if somebody hits it from side, the back bumper become unhinged. I have a feel that the plastic shell/clamp where the bumper sits is fragile. Otherwise the build quality is pretty good.
2. Seat Height Adjustment: Driver seat isn’t height adjustable. Worse, given how they have placed the front seats, one can’t even increase the height of the whole seat using spacers. I have increased the height by approx. 1.5 inch by removing the seat and then getting larger screws fixed, so that I can add spacers. This has improved visibility and lumber support, but this means that I am now too close to rear view mirror.
3. Central locking: LT trim offers central locking but the car can be locked only from driver side. I don’t think it would have costed company much to offer central locking from both the front seat, but it adds to great utility.
4. Dead pedal : I am almost 6 feet high and on those long drives, I sorely miss the dead pedal.
5. Gears: Gears goes right in the slots, however they are not as smooth as I have in my Fiat Palio.
6. For sake of completeness, let me mention the other well-known misses – Small boot space, lack of steering mounted controls, blutooth connectivity and smaller rear window (though I don’t find it claustrophobic). However when you buy a Beat, you know you will be living with these.

Some other items in my wishlist:

ABS is only available in option pack i.e. in LT(O) trim . When it’s already an option pack, why doesn’t company offers the option pack on all trims – I would have loved to buy LS(O) as I value ABS much higher than ACC, music system, roof rails and rear spoiler put together. However LT(O) was going over my budget, so I had to be content with LT.

P.S. How do you celebrate completing 10,000 KM in your car? Well I did a Delhi- Mandawa weekend trip of 800 Km. Two weeks later I did a Delhi-Palampur-McLeodganj-Amritsar trip of approx. 1600Km. All along the car never gave any problem (even on Hilly roads with 5 people and their luggage for 5 days).

[satishchugh]

Some Pics -

Please notice the cuts and wounds on front bumper and joint from where rear bumper gets detached on slightest impact.

[Schoudhury]

Congrats Satish.
I feel beat is one of the most kool looking car in the market today and specially the speedometer and all, they look superkool.

And boy!, that is some serious mileage you are getting from your car.
Bdw, could you please let us know why do you feel the ACC is not an useful feature .
Also, does the beat diesel comes with the maintenance pack which GM is famous for .
Let us know some more about the service and maintenance cost towards your beat.
Drive safe and keep the thread updated .

Cheers.

[HydroXidE]

Hi Satish, congratulations on finishing 10k.
I too have the Beat LT TCDi in Sanddrift Grey. I too am 6" tall and I agree with your points.

Your FE is excellent. I haven't checked my FE yet. I've covered 800 kms in the car. I'll start checking it after I finish 1K.

What tire pressure do you keep?. 32 psi is what is recommended, however, what I found was that the car was delivered to me with more than 40 psi in the tires (perhaps to boost FE, not sure). Did you get the above FE with 32-psi or with something higher?

Also, since you've been on stock tires and the stock steel rim, can you let us know if you faced any sort of issues with these?.. I too am planning to stick to stock for the first few years.

Also, what % of your driving is with AC on?

At what RPM do you generally shift?.. My gear shifts are between 2.5k and 3k.. when I'm really throttle happy, I shift mostly at 3k

How has your experience been on hills and hairpins? I find the A-pillar side visibility pretty annoying.

[satishchugh]

Yeah, fuel efficiency is good for this 3-pot diesel engine. In fact this is one of the reasons, I opted for Beat.

ACC is a useful feature, but not too useful to spend the kind of money GM charged me for it.

Yes, Beat also comes with the maintenance package. Basically GM has two plans -
1. CP - Regular service cost (Labour, oil change etc.) will not cross 23,000/- for next 3 years or so. This is free plan, you don't pay anything upfront. At the end of 3 years, if your total service cost (excluding accident, spare changes due to misuse etc.) is above 23,000/- then GM will refund you amount exceeding 23,000/-.
2. CPCC - You upfront pay 17,000/- and then you don't have to pay any service charge for next 3 years. I opted for this plan and GM hasn't charged me anything till date for any service (oil changes, wheel alignment). The did charge me for fixing one accessory (both for screws and labour), but that wasn't covered anyway.

So, I haven't spent any money on maintenance till now (13,500 KM in 9 months as of today). I have spent around 11,000/- on accessories, their fitment and fixing once.

Lastly, I would recommend the reverse parking camera as the most useful accessory for any car. At around 6,500/- this is also most value for money safety equipment

Thanks HydroXidE for your insights, esp. on visibility across A-Pillar while driving in hills, which I should have included in original review. I also felt that the visibility across A-Pillar to be low while taking sharp turns or hills.

For me even the frontal visibility is reduced on sharp turns because I have got my seat heightened and the rear view mirror is covered by a larger mirror for reverse parking camera screen. This reduced the distance between my eyes and rear view mirror and also blocks a part of front glass. I believe this will be faced only by taller people (I am 6') and others may find it just fine.

The fuel efficiency has increased over period. for initial 2000 KM, it was in the range of 16-17 Kmpl. In the observation period of last three months, I have used heater at about 50% of times.

Tires & Tire Pressure: I think GM recommends tire pressure to be 34 psi. I usually maintain 33 psi as it's mostly used by 1 or 2 people. On my recent trip to Himachal, I kept it at 34 psi because all 5 seats were filled Stock tires have been good so far. But yes whenever I change, it will be an upsize.

I have not been bothered about RPMs on gearshift. I usually try to up-gear as soon as possible. Further I think it's a quite an effort to take Beat Diesel above 3000 RPMs.

Originally Posted by HydroXidE

Hi Satish, congratulations on finishing 10k.
I too have the Beat LT TCDi in Sanddrift Grey. I too am 6" tall and I agree with your points.

Your FE is excellent. I haven't checked my FE yet. I've covered 800 kms in the car. I'll start checking it after I finish 1K.

What tire pressure do you keep?. 32 psi is what is recommended, however, what I found was that the car was delivered to me with more than 40 psi in the tires (perhaps to boost FE, not sure). Did you get the above FE with 32-psi or with something higher?

Also, since you've been on stock tires and the stock steel rim, can you let us know if you faced any sort of issues with these?.. I too am planning to stick to stock for the first few years.

Also, what % of your driving is with AC on?

At what RPM do you generally shift?.. My gear shifts are between 2.5k and 3k.. when I'm really throttle happy, I shift mostly at 3k

How has your experience been on hills and hairpins? I find the A-pillar side visibility pretty annoying.

[model-t]

Satish : Congratulations on an amazing buy . I have a Chevy Beat LT LPG . I brought this because I could not wait for the Diesel to come in .

I think Beat is a fabulous buy. It is stylish , looks great and is peppy to drive in the city. The only compromise I have to make in the daily drive is the lack of a dead pedal (It is sorely missed) and funny reaction of the tires at high speeds. I should have upgraded the tires on the first go but somehow missed it. My car has done around 17K and the 2nd service cost at 10K cost me a bomb (I think upwards of 9K ) . The third cost me around 2.5K so I am expecting another bomb to drop on the 25K service. I think it is best to buy Chevy cars with the 3 year promise as you have done. It works out to be a lot cheaper than doing it on your own cost .

Apart from the few things I have mentioned , it has been a great buy and I have done 4 long trips in it already.

Happy Motoring !

[satishchugh]

I am surprised at your service costs. What all they did? Was there any part replacement?

[satishchugh]

28th July 2013:
I am now 15 month old and have covered 20,000 KMs. So Satish took me on a half day trip to Manger Bani, the only remaining Aravali Forest around Delhi. The original idea was that I will be standing on a road while Sachu and friends walk through the lush green Manger Bani, appreciating the Monsoon beauty. However our guide suggested taking me inside. And boy I had to cover 3-4 KMs of pure trail, replete with water filled track. When I reached the end of the trail, there was mud all over me. Still I got a pat on the back for not touching the ground even once (thanks to my 175mm GC), clearing even the dreadest pathole (even with my punitive 1 L engine).

Next morning Neeraj Bhai, who gives me a bath every morning, was very unhappy seeing me covered with so much mud, but then what’s life without a bit of mud-slinging :-)

I know, it’s quite some time since you heard my story (the last one was at 10,000 KM), so I will ask Sachu to post something tomorrow.

[docgb]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here.

I own a chevy beat diesel for the last 3 years (LS variant) and am about to complete 50,000 km on it come next month.

I found it adequate in highways contrary to the general feel. In fact I've made two trips from chennai to vizag (about 900 kms) in around 13 hours twice with 5 people including me (4 adults and 1 kid). Not to mention the numerous 500 kms run I've made in this stuart little all around tamilnad and andra. Even without ABS, the brakes are superb and the vehicle doesn't sway from side to side on sudden braking at 120 kms/hour with bridgestone tyres.

It has withstood my abuse in the worst of roads in chennai city without scraping the underbody even once. Gives me 17km/lit. in city and 22-24 km/lit. in highways with ac always on.

Very good built quality. It is yet to squeak/rattle after all it had gone through in the last 3 years.

I'm yet to spend a rupee on regular service. Just extended it for another two years where I just need to pay for the engine oil change during service. My experience with KLN motors chennai is better than with Service Masters for my earlier maruti zen.

Engine noise is the only drawback I feel when I travel in my friends' other cars. Not to mention the relatively limited visibility and the long clutch play. And oh, I'm yet to change the clutch as it remains as supple as on the day I bought it.

Numerous bumper scrapes and little dents around everywhere is what tells the age of my little angel, thanks to the two wheeler maniacs in chennai (the largest two wheeler populated city, and probably the least regulated).

Looking for fiat punto tjet release eagerly, having read the engine's performance from the enthusiasts here.....let's see.......