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Pre-owned Maruti Suzuki Ciaz AT: An ownership experience

11th June 2021, 14:32 by Rahul Nagaraj

Where this car shows some chink in its armor is when you try to do any sort of enthusiastic driving.

BHPian RoadGlide recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

It has been quite a topsy turvy journey to finally end up with this car that I have parked in my garage. But at the end of the day, my family and I are quite satisfied with this purchase and look forward to putting many joyous kilometers into this.

And by the way, it was the first time my family was convinced for a pre-owned car. Prior to this, all our cars were brand new, so this led to some interesting experiences as well, so please bear with me on this.

Just a brief summary of the positives and negatives of the car:

Positives:

Interior cabin space.
Ride quality
Decently loaded (Apple Carplay/Android Auto, Auto AC, Cruise control, Auto Headlights, Keyless entry and go, etc)
Value for Money (even when new)
Wide spread availability of service network
Good looks (subjective)

Negatives:

Lack of power when accelerating hard.
No manual mode on the gearbox
Body roll when pushed hard
Some interior plastics do not feel premium
Engine very loud at mid to higher revvs. (Not Pleasant)
Laggy HU at times. Not acceptable.

This review would be divided into a few parts:

Introduction

Let’s go back in time to 2014. We were living abroad and had moved back to India. And we needed a 7-seater car on an urgent basis, but without breaking our bank. We had tried seeing some used examples of Innova’s and XUV500s back then. But somewhere, we all had a fear of buying something used as that is unknown territory for us. Then out of the blue, a friend suggested we to check the Ertiga out. And thus, my family went to the nearest Maruti Suzuki Arena (back then they were not called Arena) showroom and checked out the Ertiga. The final factor that sealed the deal was that the car was bang in our budget. We picked up a granite grey Maruti Suzuki Ertiga ZDi for 9.2 lacs on road, which seems like a good bargain, considering the current prices of new cars.

We used the car in every possible way. It was used for my dad’s office runs. It was used to haul our business load in the middle and third row. It carried our whole family for several road trips. It even served as an ambulance for me when I got into a motorcycle crash (Remember this incident for a further reference!) I used it for many dates as well. Okay, sorry for the unnecessary information. But in short, you get the point. It was a fantastic all-rounder that did everything we asked it to. And yet, it never failed to give below 15 kmpl in city driving. And we got 18-19 kmpl almost every time on the highways, of which this car spent a lot of time on it.

In August 2018, when I completed my studies and I got a job, the Ertiga was my default hand-me-down. I put it to some good use on my daily commute of roughly 100 kms to and fro, and through some really good, and some really bad stretches of Delhi and Noida. And that’s where I realized how Ertiga was incredibly efficient and cheap to run. And by then, the car had almost 125,000 kms on the odo. Since it became my personal car, I had to spruce it up. I got a Quantum UK remap on it for the more oomph. And to complement the slight bump in power, got grippier Continental MC5 tires with a wider profile (195/60/R15). The lights on the stock setup were quite insufficient for my needs, so I upgraded it with Morimoto FXR 3.0 projectors with Morimoto HIDs, courtesy BHPian Ashir. While at it, I also got the audio upgraded. Out went the stock speakers and in went Rockford Fosgate Prime series components in the front and Rockford Fosgate coaxials in the back. All these changes were done over time so that my daily drive would improve gradually over time.

But at the end of the 5th year (2019), the car had over 150,000 kms. And as I mentioned above, I had gotten into a motorcycle crash (a pretty bad one!). I had a metal plate installed into my left knee. And with dad was also approaching the psychological age barrier of 60, both of us struggled to drive a manual on a daily basis, thanks in no small part to the infamous traffic of NCR. Being the young at heart and soul in the family, it was no surprise that it was me who had to be behind the wheel most of the time. My dad avoided driving as much as possible, so that he did not have to live up with a manual, and needless to say, I was voted to be the designated driver even when everyone was sober, when it was time to hit the road.

We have a TATA Tiago XZA (AMT) as well in our garage that my sister uses, and by default, everyone else in the family opted to drive that, for they did not have to fiddle with a clutch. And before you start thinking, well, I still had to drive the Ertiga. With all this build-up, it was evident that an AT was the need of the hours. And with a heavy heart, we had to convince ourselves, that our trusty Ertiga had to go.