[The Goan]

I have had this issue too. It is tar. It smudges if you rub it but does not come out with car shampoo. The solution that worked for me- formula 1 bug and tar remover. Bought one of it. Shake and spay the white foam on the spot, let it be for a minute and then rub it off with a micro fibre cloth.

[kmsithan]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

You get Tar and Bug remover products in the market. Wash the car with shampoo, dry it and use any tar remover product. After application, wash the car properly so that all residues are removed. More details with pictures here:

Thank you Naveen. I will try using one of the bug and tar remover.

Originally Posted by The Goan

The solution that worked for me- formula 1 bug and tar remover. Bought one of it. Shake and spay the white foam on the spot, let it be for a minute and then rub it off with a micro fibre cloth.

Thank you Goan. Just checked out an video of Formula 1 bug and Tar remover. Looks a pretty good stuff. Will update the thread soon with the results.

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by ubermeow

Why are you sounding like a TOI paid advertorial?? Other than good suspension, what else does the Duster actually have that can be construed as relevant to a dynamic market. Duster, Terrano and Go come all from the same family, and nothing more typifies that than the interior of these cars. Which, btw, is old and staid and very much like a hand-me-down version of cars which were sold in Europe in the early nineties. I am not a big fan of Mahindras and Tatas, but atleast they are trying to improve, whereas, some of the international brands in India are just treating the Indian as a third world customer. Money is money, and at this point in time, the indian manufacturers are more bang-for-the-buck than any of the other khalifas of global repute. Renaut, Fiat, Volkswagen, Skoda - they simply don't have a India centric strategy as they are not delivering the right product. As yet!

Ah, ubermeow! What a relief! I almost felt as tho' I was drowning in a sea of vitriol, so vociferous was the assault of Monsieur RSR! I must confess that I'm something of a swadeshi and feel compelled to carry a torch for our domestic auto industry at times. Particularly when I see an overt (& to me unreasonable) bias towards overseas mfrs. It is no secret that some of these worthies have been happily dumping products in our market (take the stink raised sometime back by GM over them having misled Indian regulators about the emission norms from the Tavera's engine) that wouldn't stand scrutiny elsewhere.

Unfortunately, sections of our buying public is still happy to bend over backwards in praise of foreign brand names while looking down their noses at near identical domestic products - e.g. the Renault Kwid and the soon-to-be launched Mahindra KV100. Both basically hatchbacks-on steroids and wanna-be compact SUVs (like their larger brethren the Ecosport, Creta, S-Cross et al). Yet the Kwid gets hyperbolic praise, while the KV100 receives an unholy amount of flack from some of our members! However, ce'st la vie, and one must learn to live with it. And wait for the market response after the KUV100 is launched.

As I've mentioned elsewhere on this forum, our industry has taken just one generation to come from the Ambassador/Padmini/Gazelle era to the present day, when a domestic design studio (DC) bagged the contract (a couple of years back) for the prototype of the Aston Martin Vantage V8 and fabricated it in our very own amchi Mumbai. From my perspective, that's pretty good going.

[RSR]

Originally Posted by shashanka

I almost felt as tho' I was drowning in a sea of vitriol, so vociferous was the assault of Monsieur RSR!

The vitriol in my post was exactly similar to the one in yours, no more and no less! You were able to feel it just because it was aimed at your favourite brand. If only you had thought of other members before pouring your own vitriol against competing brands, my vitriol would never have been posted.

As I mentioned before to ubermeow, this thread is not a one-way street where all rival products of one manufacturer can be bashed deliberately and blindly, without getting a tit-for-tat reply.

This is Team-BHP after all, and not Team-Mahindra.

[Shakensoul]

Originally Posted by shashanka

Unfortunately, sections of our buying public is still happy to bend over backwards in praise of foreign brand names while looking down their noses at near identical domestic products - e.g. the Renault Kwid and the soon-to-be launched Mahindra KV100. Both basically hatchbacks-on steroids and wanna-be compact SUVs (like their larger brethren the Ecosport, Creta, S-Cross et al). Yet the Kwid gets hyperbolic praise, while the KV100 receives an unholy amount of flack from some of our members! However, ce'st la vie, and one must learn to live with it. And wait for the market response after the KUV100 is launched.

That is because if a product has flaws, it deserves criticism and flak. You may be blinded by your patriosm towards Indian brands, but that does not give you the right to question a person's buying decision, no matter if it is Indian or foreign.

A person is buying a vehicle after spending a million bucks and wants a reliable product. The brand he/she chooses is their prerogative. The problem is we think we 'enthusiasts' know everything and everyone else is a ignorant fool who does not know a thing about technology / cars just because a product we like is not endorsed by them.

Take for example, every TATA or Mahindra vehicle has a niggles thread which run into hundreds of pages. Our own TUV thread has niggles reported since the day it was launched. The Creta thread is almost dead with only trollers reviving the thread, even no owner is reporting any niggles just for the sake of keeping the thread alive.

If Mahindra or TATA will make a niggle free product, they will be praised as deserved. If they create half baked products, they will receive flak.

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by Shakensoul

Take for example, every TATA or Mahindra vehicle has a niggles thread which run into hundreds of pages. Our own TUV thread has niggles reported since the day it was launched. The Creta thread is almost dead with only trollers reviving the thread, even no owner is reporting any niggles just for the sake of keeping the thread alive.

If Mahindra or TATA will make a niggle free product, they will be praised as deserved. If they create half baked products, they will receive flak.

Initial niggles are one thing, but ask any heavy user what he prefers, and after Toyota will come Mahindra and then Tata, and even the hated by in city users Skoda finds a mention. Once niggles are solved the Indian cars last well far longer than the Korean and non Toyota Japanese.
Till 3 yrs ago my daily usage was above 150 km, among friends who did such running no one had any Hyundai that lasted 2 Lakh km. Our friend circle has Innovas, first gen Skoda Octavias, Scorpios, even Indicas with 3 Lakh + on the odo. I sold one Indica when it read 3,24,000, and the guy who bought my Innova with 1,90,000 is still in touch with me and he sold it 5 years later when it read 4.5 Lakhs.
A good friend sold his 10 Yr old Octavia with 4.5 Lakh km and got a Creta AT in October. He's already done 15000 km, lets see two years from now what the condition of the car is.
I will be starting such running again some time next year, and will still stick to my Polo TDI for out of city and Ecosport AT for in city usage, and buy another XUV500 AT, two outside rn cars, as half the time I will have to send a sales assistant to a different location.

Rahul

[RSR]

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

Initial niggles are one thing, but ask any heavy user what he prefers, and after Toyota will come Mahindra and then Tata, and even the hated by in city users Skoda finds a mention. Once niggles are solved the Indian cars last well far longer than the Korean and non Toyota Japanese.
Till 3 yrs ago my daily usage was above 150 km, among friends who did such running no one had any Hyundai that lasted 2 Lakh km. Our friend circle has Innovas, first gen Skoda Octavias, Scorpios, even Indicas with 3 Lakh + on the odo.

On the other hand, my experience has been the exact opposite. My running conditions are mostly repeated short distance travel in city conditions (with the occasional highway run thrown in), with the A/C on 100% of the time in a city where it is hot, humid & dusty for almost 9 months in a calendar year. These conditions are extremely taxing on cars, taking a far greater toll on them than when cruising in top gear on highways and logging up kilometres on the odo.

I've had two Indicas before. The first was a 2000 made 1.4 NA DLE, and it was replaced by 2007 made 1.2 Xeta GLS. The first was sold after ~ 75k km on the odo, and the second after 40 ~ 45k km. To be frank, after the first 30k - 35k km, things began failing left, right and centre on both cars, leaving us stranded on several different occasions, once in the middle of nowhere well after dusk. All this despite carefully following the recommended maintenance schedule at Tata authorised centres (the less said about those chaps, including Tata's own Concorde, the better!) When the time came to replace our second Indica, my family threatened to disown me if I shortlisted a Tata car again. The only other car that gave us that much trouble was a Premier 118NE (and to be fair to the 118, unlike the Indicas, we had bought it pre-owned when it had already covered ~ 25k km on the odo).

The Hyundais and Maruti Suzukis we have owned and used in similar conditions for similar distances and years never gave us even one-sixth of the troubles the Indicas caused. The only occasions that have caused some headache was when the battery was dying / already dead and the vehicle wouldn't start in the morning at home, or when some fuse conked off unexpectedly, or a flat tyre. All it took was getting the help of a friendly passer-by in push-starting the car, or using the spare fuse / tyre.

After experiencing the sheer reliability of Japanese & South Korean cars, there is simply no going back to the unreliability & constant headaches caused by vehicles manufactured by the domestic brands.

[mrbaddy]

Originally Posted by shashanka

Unfortunately, sections of our buying public is still happy to bend over backwards in praise of foreign brand names while looking down their noses at near identical domestic products - e.g. the Renault Kwid and the soon-to-be launched Mahindra KV100. Both basically hatchbacks-on steroids and wanna-be compact SUVs (like their larger brethren the Ecosport, Creta, S-Cross et al). Yet the Kwid gets hyperbolic praise, while the KV100 receives an unholy amount of flack from some of our members! However, ce'st la vie, and one must learn to live with it. And wait for the market response after the KUV100 is launched.

I would like to add a point here. You mentioned yourself that both are hatchbacks-on-steroids which is what most of members here agree. Now you can look at the launch presentations of both products. Renault never claimed Kwid to be wannabe UV, but Mahindra did that which certainly draws people's attention on why they are claiming it to be a UV when it is not. In fact I have the same problem with Creta's tagline (The Perfect SUV) too.

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by RSR

On the other hand, my experience has been the exact opposite. My running conditions are mostly repeated short distance travel in city conditions .............................These conditions are extremely taxing on cars, taking a far greater toll on them than when cruising in top gear on highways and logging up kilometres on the odo.

These are vey different opposing conditions, and a car good for one may not be good for the other.
The Skoda products which are maintenance headache for a city dweller are also a trouble free mile muncher for daily highway travellers. If you visit factories in the interiors 300- 400 km from major cities you will see many salesmen comming there in old Octavias many with a few lakh on the odo running trouble free. But the same car used by city dwellers often has problems with turbo, intercooler, Ac compressor etc.
many cars which run trouble free in city get hammered due to sudden un expected potholes encountered at 80 kph on country roads.
What I have seen is many of the Marutis, and Hyundais run untouched for a lakh and half km, and then deteorate fast.
Only Toyotas run well in all conditions.

Originally Posted by RSR

The Hyundais and Maruti Suzukis we have owned and used in similar conditions for similar distances and years never gave us even one-sixth of the troubles the Indicas caused. The only occasions that have caused some headache was when the battery was dying / already dead and the vehicle wouldn't start in the morning at home, or when some fuse conked off unexpectedly, or a flat tyre.

The problems you state here are not the falts of the car, and any and every car can face them.

[RSR]

Originally Posted by Rahul Rao

These are very different opposing conditions, and a car good for one may not be good for the other.

Not really. A car that's supposed to be reliable must be reliable in all conditions. Otherwise, it's just conditional reliability, and doesn't have much meaning. German cars with complicated electronics are known to perform fairly well in suitable home conditions in European countries, for instance. Put them in the harsh, varied & demanding environs of Africa, Asia, Australia and the United States, and their reliability levels fall way, way below their Japanese & South Korean counterparts. Conditional reliability doesn't count as meaningful reliability.

On the topic of foreign environs, why haven't the products of domestic companies been able to make even a small impression in terms of sales in the markets to which they are exported? Why are they not even exported to (or locally assembled to be sold in) certain demanding but very lucrative markets across the world? These are companies that have been in the business of manufacturing passenger vehicles for decades or even half a century now. Why do they usually come a cropper when it comes to foreign markets? They may have purchased foreign automobile companies (even brands with a hardcore fan following), but when it comes to their own products from the parent brand, their performance overseas is dismal to say the least. Why?

Even Chinese automobiles have been able to make a tiny impression in many overseas markets. I don't mean China-made foreign vehicle brands, but real Chinese brands. It's true that many of them play up their low price factor in such markets (and earn the cheap tag), but not all do that. Some have real big overseas ambitions of their own. Great Wall's Haval and Qoros are two companies that can shake up their segments in the markets they choose to enter.

Why can't products made by the domestic companies perform well in overseas markets? It's not as if Indian brands (even in the automobile space) are seen as less worthy in overseas markets. Bajaj and TVS have been able to make a small, but notable impression with their (two-wheeler) exports to certain markets, and Hero is also set to do the same after parting ways with Honda. The products of Bajaj, TVS & Hero have to do a delicate balancing act in such markets - they cannot go head-to-head against the established Japanese "big four" two-wheeler brands, nor can they go on a price war with the innumerable, cheap Chinese two-wheeler brands.

If the domestic two-wheeler companies can put up a fight and emerge with moderate sales in overseas markets, then why aren't the domestic passenger vehicle companies able to do the same? Why?

many cars which run trouble free in city get hammered due to sudden un expected potholes encountered at 80 kph on country roads.
What I have seen is many of the Marutis, and Hyundais run untouched for a lakh and half km, and then deteorate fast.

That's mainly because the Maruti Suzukis and Hyundais have covered much of the lakh-and-a-half kilometres in the most demanding, taxing, repeated short distance driving in urban conditions with heavy traffic, instead of cruising down empty highways in top gear for a majority of those lakh-and-a-half kilometres.

Subject the Tatas (like my Indicas) to the same conditions right from the beginning, and they'll start to deteriorate very badly starting at ~ 50k km itself.

Having a great run in the taxi segments for more than a decade with very few competitors doesn't mean they're better or more reliable than others. Just wait and see what happens once more & more players enter all the taxi segments.

Already, just take a look at the sales charts to see which car is the no.1 player in the fleet market for C1 segment sedans. Or, take a look at the Mumbai black-and-yellow cab market to see which car has practically replaced the age-old Premier Padminis.

One thing is common in both the above cases, both cars don't carry the domestic T badge, despite them being the undisputed king of the fleet market for years. Just wait for a couple of years and ask these yellow board operators which cars they find reliable and long lasting. There may be no need to even ask, their purchases would be giving the game away by then!

The problems you state here are not the faults of the car, and any and every car can face them.

Precisely! It's not as if my Indicas did not have a dead battery or a flat tyre. My pre-V2 1.4 DLE with its inadequate stock size of 155/70 R13 tyres (coupled with shoddy JKs) gave us the most frequent trouble with flat tyres, until I had them replaced with 165/65 R13 ones. Tata were also forced to change the stock size to 165/65 R13 on the V2.

A flat tyre or a dead battery was actually sort of a "relieving" occasion with the Indicas because we knew it could be solved in a jiffy, compared to some unknown component under the hood going kaput all of a sudden and leaving us stranded.

I used to have a bright yellow "Live to Drive" Team-BHP sticker on my blue Indica Xeta. As we were (rather frequently) seen pushing it to the side of road due to something going kaput suddenly, or pushing it inside the compound after having it towed from somewhere, the unfortunate joke going around was that a "Live to Push" sticker would have been more apt.

[Arjun Reddy]

In the market for the Creta top end. Thought I will book in Feb and probably an early April delivery date.
Now I have decided to wait for the Tucson, check it out and the pricing before booking the Creta. Would in make sense to wait and pay maybe around 5 lakhs more OTR? It will predominantly be used as a daily runaround and will be driven by my driver in city.

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by RSR

Not really. A car that's supposed to be reliable must be reliable in all conditions. Otherwise, it's just conditional reliability, and doesn't have much meaning.

Then Renault Duster, Toyota Corolla and Innova are the only cars that do not have conditional reliablity. Dont know about Etios, as I havent seen many with 1.5 Lakh + on the ODO. None of the Hondas, and only the Ritz and Older Swift from Maruti has sustained long distance hammering on broken rural state highways, but the urban failures from Europe do far better here. A few Swifts have faced engine lock due to stretched timing chains which is supposed to last a lifetime, but a costly cylinder head job with chain replacement at about 2 Lakh km solves it. (Not recommended by maruti, but all heavy users do it)

Originally Posted by RSR

German cars with complicated electronics are known to perform fairly well in suitable home conditions in European countries, for instance. Put them in the harsh, varied & demanding environs of Africa, Asia, Australia and the United States, and their reliability levels fall way, way below their Japanese & South Korean counterparts. Conditional reliability doesn't count as meaningful reliability.

The German cars and even the home grown Mahindra do well in Australia which has equally harsh environment. They also work fine on broken rural roads in the Indian hinterland where as I mentioned above non Toyota Japanese cars do not survive.
In late 90's my own Esteem was beyond aligning doors, and that is not due to any accident, but the part of A & B pillar where hinges fit had turned ie pulled rearwards near the top due to weight of door, and that was a mere 5 Yrs and 2.4 Lakh km, this was only due to my bi weekly run to Mumbai over diversons and broken roads in the Ghats when the express way was under construction, seen this often with Accents, Verna and Honda City, etc
Hyundai seems to have improved considerably and the Creta seems really good, but even today previous bad experience with other vehicles makes heavy users reluctant to look that way, and it still remains a city dwellers car.

If you want to discuss this further start a new thread called conditional reliablity, please no more discussions here, as it goes off topic.

[Vid6639]

Guys, let's get back to the Creta. Any further Off topic posts will be deleted.

[BNM]

Sat Nav

I have never used the sat nav in my creta (haven't felt the need to since I mostly drive between 2 points). Anyway, the problem is, I sometimes suddenly hear a loud "Curve ahead" announcement coming out of the HU. Happens at random curves but repeatedly on one particular curve on the way to my sisters place.

Anyone else experience this? Can it be fixed?

[RSR]

Originally Posted by Arjun Reddy

Now I have decided to wait for the Tucson, check it out and the pricing before booking the Creta. Would in make sense to wait and pay maybe around 5 lakhs more OTR? It will predominantly be used as a daily runaround and will be driven by my driver in city.

Yes, I think it does make sense to wait for the Tucson. It's a size bigger than the Creta with larger engines, and the rear seat should also be more spacious & comfortable (since it's primarily going to be chauffeur driven).

The pointers we've had to the price have been conflicting so far, so I guess it's worth waiting for the unveil. The Auto Expo isn't that far off, either.

Originally Posted by BNM

Sat Nav

Anyway, the problem is, I sometimes suddenly hear a loud "Curve ahead" announcement coming out of the HU. Happens at random curves but repeatedly on one particular curve on the way to my sisters place.

Anyone else experience this? Can it be fixed?

I think RavenAvi might have the answer. I spotted this image in his review of the SAT-NAV system in his ownership thread, which might be just what you were looking for!