Fell in love with driving thanks to my little Maruti Suzuki S-Presso

Covid forced me to buy this little guy and I have totally fallen in love with driving ever since. A car - however basic, gives a great deal of freedom in our journeys and a degree of safety from the elements.

BHPian darkfantasy recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Just thought I'd provide a short update on my S-presso which has completed 4 years now.

As a first-time owner, it's been a very satisfactory experience overall. This little guy may not wow you with many features but what it does - it does with aplomb.
The car has covered about 25k km and except for wiper blades/filters nothing else is replaced. The battery is still stock and the car still cranks on the first try. The key is also still on its stock battery. I guess the upside of having a basic car is that there are fewer components that could go wrong and create a bad taste in ownership. The tires are also stock and they are adequate if you are not very enthusiastic in your driving. The car is parked in covered parking, so the paint/plastics are as good as new except for the few scratches it has picked up in traffic. Luckily there are still no rattles(I've babied the car over bad patches of roads) and the engine seems to be getting more silent with each service.

The plastic bumpers also have their advantages. I was rear-ended multiple times by two-wheelers and once I expected major damage on hearing a loud bang. But what could cause a dent/ paint scrape in metal, leaves no traces of collision in the bumper plastic at city speeds.

As others have pointed out, the car is a breeze to drive within the city because of its narrow dimensions. Reduce the tire pressure to 28PSI for city drives and you can have a compliant ride too even when the car is not loaded. Out on the highways, the jittery and lightweight nature of the car is well-masked once it's fully loaded and it feels relatively solid and planted. The upright seating position also helps in keeping us fresh on long drives. It is easily possible to drive 12+ hours on a single day in this car. If you keep the speeds at around 85 you can cruise along on our highways all day long. Of course, anything more, and it quickly gets nervous.

Because of its lightweight nature and narrow width, it has decent offroading capabilities too. Although never intentional, there were tricky situations multiple times on dirt roads during the monsoons and this little guy just managed to glide through without any drama. It does not dig into mud like bigger cars and it does not run out of steam on steep inclines either.

On the mileage front, I get about 12 to 18 within the city depending on traffic, and about 23 to 26 on highways depending on the load (all MID figures). The AC is ON always and it chills the car in no time even during the peak summer.

Before I bought this car, I was a Fastrack/Ola/Uber person despite loving cars and following team-bhp regularly. In a city like Chennai I thought driving was not a sensible option. However, covid forced me to buy this little guy and I have totally fallen in love with driving ever since. A car - however basic, gives a great deal of freedom in our journeys and a degree of safety from the elements. It makes traveling joyous and brings together family and friends like nothing else. And in our country, where personal spaces are a joke and basic civic sense is zero on our shared public spaces, it makes sense to put a barrier of metal and glass to reclaim a bit of that personal space. I loathe to take public transport nowadays even for long distances and that's precisely the reason why I'm looking at Brezza/Exter as an upgrade. The S-presso can do highway rides occasionally but with the increasing intensity of rashly driven bigger cars post covid, I believe it's time to move on.

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