[lilMonSter]

K10 gets an ICE upgrade after a long time. 70k on the clock and i'm still in love with my k10.

[adit mishra]

Originally Posted by shreyan_k10

Hello everyone,
I have a year old k10. The rear doors when shut create a rattle, and also do not shut as easily as the front ones. Has anyone else experienced a similar problem?

My Alto 2008 model suffers from the same ailment. Got used to it over time

[er.sudhansu]

HI Guys,
I have got a new AltoK10B, 2014 model. Unfortunately I'm struggling to get a good mileage from the vehicle under certain circumstances. The conditions are driving it in city (Delhi-NCR) with a/c on-off is returning a mileage of about 12KMPL.

I feel I'm a decent driver and am able to get a mileage of more than 21KMPL on highway with the same vehicle. The way I monitor my city mileage is I fill up the tank to trip and use it for daily commute. At the end of 2 -2.5 weeks I refill it again to trip. The mileage has been consistent at 12-12.5KMPL.

I have shown it to Maruti authorized service centre twice. First time they did a standard electrical test and all parameters came good. The second time they took the vehicle to a road test in which they did a 70 odd km city+highway and the mileage came about 20kmpl (pretty standard with 60KMPL, 2000RPM and decent braking style followed by Maruti). So this rules out any problem with the engine as such. Although the second servicing is due, the engine oils are yet to be replaced as per Maruti specifications.

The only thing left to understand is my style of driving in city that could indicate potential areas that might be causing this issue. To give a heads up to avoid fellow bhpians dropping in standard replies, I drive mostly in 2-3rd gear in city, ac off- on (70-30%), descend in neutral gear on flyovers, no sudden acceleration and braking , gear shift mostly in speed limits and shut down engine if the traffic light is longer than 60 seconds.

So going through all these points, I'm not sure what is causing the vehicle to return such low mileage. Please advice what to do as I'm not sure what is going wrong.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by er.sudhansu

HI Guys,
I have got a new AltoK10B, 2014 model. Unfortunately I'm struggling to get a good mileage from the vehicle under certain circumstances. The conditions are driving it in city (Delhi-NCR) with a/c on-off is returning a mileage of about 12KMPL.

I feel I'm a decent driver and am able to get a mileage of more than 21KMPL on highway with the same vehicle. The way I monitor my city mileage is I fill up the tank to trip and use it for daily commute. At the end of 2 -2.5 weeks I refill it again to trip. The mileage has been consistent at 12-12.5KMPL.

I have shown it to Maruti authorized service centre twice. First time they did a standard electrical test and all parameters came good. The second time they took the vehicle to a road test in which they did a 70 odd km city+highway and the mileage came about 20kmpl (pretty standard with 60KMPL, 2000RPM and decent braking style followed by Maruti). So this rules out any problem with the engine as such. Although the second servicing is due, the engine oils are yet to be replaced as per Maruti specifications.

The only thing left to understand is my style of driving in city that could indicate potential areas that might be causing this issue. To give a heads up to avoid fellow bhpians dropping in standard replies, I drive mostly in 2-3rd gear in city, ac off- on (70-30%), descend in neutral gear on flyovers, no sudden acceleration and braking , gear shift mostly in speed limits and shut down engine if the traffic light is longer than 60 seconds.

So going through all these points, I'm not sure what is causing the vehicle to return such low mileage. Please advice what to do as I'm not sure what is going wrong.

This is what I get. Remember in city driving
. You are driving in stop and go traffic
. You rarely drive above 60, hence it is 3rd or fourth - they consume more
. AC drinks up petrol, especially when you are moving slow. Remember AC consumes petrol with respect to time, while mileage is wrt distance. If you take more time for a given distance, your fuel is being used up by AC more than for traveling.

My consumption patter in the last four years has been
. 8.5-9 in really heavy traffic with AC
. 10-12 in moderate traffic
. 12-15 on open roads traveling mostly early in the morning or late at night
. 19-20 with AC on highways

If you feel that the car has become sluggish with time, then do an Italian Tuning - take it for a 100km drive on highway maintaining 90-100 on fifth. All the carbon and acids in the oil will be gone and your car will be purring for the next three months.

[sugathan]

Got our K10 (superior white) on 21st sept. Felt like the zen that we had owned long while ago. Nostalgic! The "rear door ajar" switches are missing. Will get it fixed during the first service. The AC direction knob is real erratic, actually the positions are all way to vague..

[hothatchaway]

Originally Posted by er.sudhansu

I drive mostly in 2-3rd gear in city, ac off- on (70-30%), descend in neutral gear on flyovers, no sudden acceleration and braking , gear shift mostly in speed limits and shut down engine if the traffic light is longer than 60 seconds.
.

Is your commute mostly in crawling traffic? Try and upshift at 2200 rpm and you should see things on the FE front improve. The trick is to get to fifth as much as possible - difficult in most of our cities and involves a lot of left hand/left foot exercise but your handle says Delhi and it cannot be worse than Bangy where I drive my K10

If you're in the 2nd-3rd zone most of the time its difficult to expect more than 12

[er.sudhansu]

Originally Posted by hothatchaway

Is your commute mostly in crawling traffic? Try and upshift at 2200 rpm and you should see things on the FE front improve. The trick is to get to fifth as much as possible - difficult in most of our cities and involves a lot of left hand/left foot exercise but your handle says Delhi and it cannot be worse than Bangy where I drive my K10

If you're in the 2nd-3rd zone most of the time its difficult to expect more than 12

Originally Posted by Aroy

This is what I get. Remember in city driving
. You are driving in stop and go traffic
. You rarely drive above 60, hence it is 3rd or fourth - they consume more
. AC drinks up petrol, especially when you are moving slow. Remember AC consumes petrol with respect to time, while mileage is wrt distance. If you take more time for a given distance, your fuel is being used up by AC more than for traveling.

My consumption patter in the last four years has been
. 8.5-9 in really heavy traffic with AC
. 10-12 in moderate traffic
. 12-15 on open roads traveling mostly early in the morning or late at night
. 19-20 with AC on highways

If you feel that the car has become sluggish with time, then do an Italian Tuning - take it for a 100km drive on highway maintaining 90-100 on fifth. All the carbon and acids in the oil will be gone and your car will be purring for the next three months.

I understand that A/C consumes petrol with time. That's why I use it intermittently switching it on/off. And yes I would say it's moderate traffic as I switch 2-3rd gear most of the time. So as I understand it's a normal and not underperforming. I was expecting something around 15-16 as highway mileage is above 21.

[Aroy]

With start-stop driving for three months or more, the FE goes down a lot. That is why an occasional fast drive on highway is recommended. When ever I take my K10 for 100km drive, the distance is practically free as the FE goes up. For example I normally get 300-330 km per fill of 30L. When I take it for a 100km drive (after filling), I get around 400 to 420 and then 350+ for a few times, and back to 300-320 after three months.

[Samba]

A small 7,000kms review on my Alto K10.

Bought a K10 Lxi last December and has clocked around 7,300kms till now.

To keep it short, i will write my views point wise.


Dimensions-

Small car. Extremely easy to handle inside city and getting parking space is easy.

Engine-

Engine is very responsive. The initial is weak but once above 2,000 rpm its into its own territory. Its a rev happy engine. The mid range with above 2,000 rpm can bring a smile to the drivers face. To extract performace do not lug the engine, it enjoys higher revs. This small car can give much costlier cars a run for their money and if pushed really hard in open roads it can go till 160km/hr.
Though 3 cylinder the engine is smooth but vibration's can be felt faintly in idling specially with the AC on.

Mileage-

Fuel efficiency is good. If shifted at correct rpm with out lugging the engine it returns good fuel efficiency. I get 13-14 with Ac in city and with out Ac it gave me 15-17 in city.
In highways with Ac i got around 16-17 and with out Ac it returned around 17- 19. Though i expected to get 20 up in the highways. Will try more light foot highway driving next time.

Gear box

The shifting is precise but feels a bit stiff. But still i like it.

Ride/ handling and comfort-

Ride is good in good roads. It becomes bumpy specially in the rear in bad roads. The interiors are cramped. Lack of space is evident. Specially in the longer drives.

The handling is good for a small car. High speed handling is nervous and at speeds above 100 one has to hold the steering firmly and the car do not inspire confidence. At high speed the steering gets too light and sensitive to ones comfort.

Braking-

Its okay with in city but in highways i felt the brakes to be strictly average. Its safer to drive with in safe speed limits and use engine braking in highways.

Features-

The Lxi comes with AC and power steering and on the vxi the added features are front power window, rpm meter, front fog lamps and door beading's (The black strip on all the four doors).

The electrical's-

Head light and fog lamps are adequate with good spread of lights. I upgraded to Philips rally vision 90/100 with Philips plug and play relay and the light now is really really good.

The Ac is good. With Ac on the pickup feels a tad slower but in acceptable range. No way as bad as the 800cc Alto.

Few other negative points-


I have addressed rattling sounds twice in this 7,000kms and now again another rattling sound cropped up somewhere from the rear seat. Have to get it fixed.

The engine is capable of doing higher speeds but the car dynamics and brakes do not back up the engine. So driving with in safe speed limit is highly recommended. Remember this car got zero starts in safety ratings.

[hothatchaway]

Originally Posted by Samba

The initial is weak but once above 2,000 rpm its into its own territory. Its a rev happy engine.

Once it crosses 10k you will see the bottom end progressively improve. The low end grunt in my 26k done K10 is quite good and am able to crawl in Bangy traffic in 2nd

[abhinav.s]

Originally Posted by er.sudhansu

I understand that A/C consumes petrol with time. That's why I use it intermittently switching it on/off. And yes I would say it's moderate traffic as I switch 2-3rd gear most of the time. So as I understand it's a normal and not underperforming. I was expecting something around 15-16 as highway mileage is above 21.

How many kms has the car run? I think you mentioned that you have bought a new K10B Alto. If it has not yet run 3000kms, then let it complete 3000kms. Till then do not lug the engine and no point getting to 5th gear quickly. Instead use the correct gear for the speed that you are doing and it is better to stay one gear down than lugging the engine. If you read the owners manual, i remember in one of the pages it mentions that until the car does 3000kms there will be a fluctuation in your fuel efficiency. Lot of owners have experienced this with a new car as well with low FE of 10-11kmpl in the initial days. My car gives around 13-14kmpl with ac in Bangalore traffic, and around 20kmpl with ac on the highway with some ghat sections thrown in. You are following most of the things needed for good FE. Also FE depends a lot on traffic conditions. So 15-16 is a optimistic figure given your runs in the city.

[vsathyap]

Welcome to city driving conditions. Even my Alto K10 (25000km) gives an avg of 10-12kmpl in the city. This is mainly due to driving in lower gears and short (<5km) commutes. Slightly longer drives (50km+) in relatively free traffic (early mornings / airport drives) gives me 14-15kmpl If I take it out on the highway,

it is a different beast all together. I can easily manage to get 22kmpl and my record is at 25kmpl on the way from Chikmagalur to Bangalore. A lovely stretch of road and i kept the K10 in 5th gear @ 80kmph. Although it was very tempting to go faster, I did not because the K10 isnt very dafe at higher speeds and I'd also lose on the mileage front.

I am posting a screenshot of the app I use to track mileage. My driving conditions (Bangalore traffic) is as follows:
1 Gear: 15% (signals, jams, stop and go traffic)
2 Gear: 50% (slow traffic)
3 Gear: 30% (few stretches where traffic eases up)
4 Gear: 4% (now THIS is much better)
5 Gear: 1% (Ah the Luxury!)

I use A/C 80% of the time (I dont use it at the first 1-2 kms of the day's drive as I want the engine to heat up nicely before I load it with the AC and use it constantly thereafter)



As you can see, the 14kmpl session was possible due to a airport drive where the K10 could stretch its legs in 5th gear. This was a mix of City and Airpot drive. The other 2 fillups are mainly City Driving

[anky]

In the nine years I drove my Alto lxi(2004-2013) never once did the average go above 12 to 12.5 kmpl , it was always below that figure . I drove in full traffic 16 km two ways total in the day time with ac on 75% . This is mumbai traffic .The car was great and I faced no rattles whatsoever in the period that I owned it . Sad to see it go .

[er.sudhansu]

Originally Posted by vsathyap

Welcome to city driving conditions. Even my Alto K10 (25000km) gives an avg of 10-12kmpl in the city. This is mainly due to driving in lower gears and short (<5km) commutes. Slightly longer drives (50km+) in relatively free traffic (early mornings / airport drives) gives me 14-15kmpl If I take it out on the highway,

I use A/C 80% of the time (I dont use it at the first 1-2 kms of the day's drive as I want the engine to heat up nicely before I load it with the AC and use it constantly thereafter)

Attachment 1294713

As you can see, the 14kmpl session was possible due to a airport drive where the K10 could stretch its legs in 5th gear. This was a mix of City and Airpot drive. The other 2 fillups are mainly City Driving

Thanks vsathyap, that's a cool app way to track it. Yea agree to your judgement that city ride in 1-3rd gear will sink up mileage but wasn't sure the under 5kms drive would suck up more fuel than the bit longer ones. My office commute to-fro is less than 14 Kms per day and it may be a contributing factor.
Recently I've done two long trips about 1100 kms with the Alto one Delhi to Himachal Pradesh and the other to Jaipur. The former one returned a mileage of about 18.5 while the one to Jaipur was just a nick above 21. So no doubt with the highway performance of the engine.

[sugathan]

My K10 is about a month old, was due for the 1st free service. The manual that i downloaded indicates that oil change is required in the 1st service @ 1000km, but the manual that i got along with the car indicates that the oil change is done only at 10k kms. The service guys didn't change the oil though i had asked them. Shouldn't the oil be changed at 1000 kms? How has it been with you guys?