Oct 12, 2006 10:22 AM
14259 Views
Hi all,
I would like to share my experience in selecting, booking, buying and driving the new WagonR Vxi.
I was already an owner of a Maruti 800 (4th hand) of the 98 model. The car was in a pretty good condition except for the 4th hand which was an issue. I had been using this car for the past 3 year which had actually made me loyal to the Maruti family. So decision within the family was clear on Maruti.
Budget to buy a new car was in the range of 3.5 to 4.5 lacs. Things which we were looking for in the new car were :
a. Good AC
b. Power steering
c. Ability to carry 5 people (if need be, otherwise we are a family of 3)
d. Not much parking space (since we in mumbai are very miser about space)
e. Mileage around 13-15 km since my old car (without AC) was giving the same
f. Good features (something similar to Honda City, since I fancied the features of the car which my friend had)
After doing a bit of R&D on the internet, blog sites, asking people and test driving all the variants of Maruti from Alto to Swift and Tata Indica, we came to a conclusion of the new WagonR Vxi. The model was just launched in August 06 when we were hunting the car. The moment I saw the features on the Maruti site, our search ended abruptly. The decision was very clear to us.
So the next job was to get a good dealer. Staying in Kandivili, the nearest dealer seemed to be Spectra (Borivili). So we promptly went there. They had the new WagonR on display but did not have one for a test drive. I had already driven the older one so had to do with the touch,feel, look of the new one which was on display.
Tempting was the Lxi Duo version, but lack of LPG filling stations in Mumbai discouraged me from gong for it. Also remember my wishlist to have features of Honda City also discouraged me for going for the Lxi version.
As usual, during booking, the dealer promised delivery of the car in 3 weeks, which I felt was more of a sales talk. I was internally prepared for a 6 week delivery. They took back my old car as buy back for 50K which I feel was a good price taking into consideration the 4th owner. They told me that there will be 10K worth of accessories, but I managed to bargain accessories from MGP list worth 18K (because target was to have features like City)
Then the D-day came when the car ultimately landed up and they informed me about the car being ready. Except for a few glitches during delivery (which Spectra needs to rectify to avoid dis-satisfaction of the customers) the car came to my hands after proper training on the features of the car. They even took a pic of myself with the car.
I sat inside and took a small round. Things were EXCELLENT. The features were just exactly the ones which I had been wishing for till now. Automatic RVM adjustments, power windows (front), alerts for light and key ON, intelligent cabin lights, fog lamps, keyless entries, alarm systems (accessory), crush leather seat covers (accessory), teflon coating (accessory), and the list was endless.
The drivie was excellent. The only problem I faced was in moving from 4th gear to the 5th. The shift is quite hard and sometimes you land up on the 3rd gear in case you are not very carefull. The view on the RVM and the side mirrors are like you are walking on the road. No need to move yourself and your head around to see the back and side vehicles. The suspension was excellent and there was no major jerks in the interior or any major effect on the steering wheel of the car.
The milleage was an issue. I was getting around 10km (with 100% AC in city) since my intial driving stage of crossing 1000km was still not over. I am still waiting for the 1st servicing to get over to get the real feel of the car.
Pickup, brakes, control of the car is excellent. Interiors are good. Exterior is excellent. Overall an excellent buy at the cost of 4.36 lacs (mumbai registration)
