Is it a car? Nope, its India's first small MUV. Review on Maruti Suzuki Wagon R

It's been quite sometime since the automotive fanatics got someone to fight with. And looking at the latest reviews of autorag magazines, every Tom, Dick & Harry acknowledges and still tries to put down a good product. The point of their review appears pointless when they start out with "a good refresh for the product has bought out the best, however, the rival product is still the better one." Their mentality seems to border on this one line when reviewing automobile products.

Let me quote you the best example. 10 years back, when the Matiz and Santro were launched, Maruti-Suzuki launched the WagonR in India not just to compete as a small car, but also provide additional features as a small multi utility vehicle without much ado.(If you are looking for winners, The winner in this category is undoubtedly the Matiz aka Spark which has survived a lot of changes and still comes up with enough numbers to be the flagship product for Chevrolet. now being replaced by the Beat. This is despite tethered to Daewoo's bankruptcy, bad marketing and yet, the car sells decent number of units).

The WagonR was then compared to the survivor, Santro. And while Santro hyped up a good product, it was never the Tall boy it claimed to be. In every measurement, it was beaten hollow by the WagonR except for the interior options. A decade later, we have a few more nuts comparing the same WagonR to the i10 now that the Santro stands no chance!?!(AUTO BILD India July 1st edition, by yet another yob called Vikrant Singh) I mean the point of all these comparisions is only to demean the WagonR. Besides, paid marketed reviews(I vouch for the fact that a member of this site too change not just his opinion, but rewrote his review about a resort once he was provided a short stay at the resort. He had provided a bad review on it earlier) there is also the biased fanboys who seriously seem to demean a product. I mean the ratings given for boot space for the i10 are much higher despite the lack of flexibility in it. When did the i10 ever get so flexible?!? So when he compares the categories - Feeling of space, Boot space/Flexibility/Visibility, Payload, it immediately points to a paid marketing gimmick as he rates the i10 either better or equal to the WagonR in this category!?!

The WagonR is successful since it's the only MUV(Multi Utility vehicle) in the small car segment. It would remain the success just as the pickup is to the middle Americas since it is the utilitarian requirement of the region. It fits the bill - being small, right pricing, enough power and good mileage to fit in the small car category. An additional bonus is its chameleon like ability to transform itself into a mini load transporter, or ideal for that extra baggage for that nuclear family of 4 on the weekend trip/trips to the airport. But if you are looking for actual usage patterns, I know this family who came down to his son's town to attend a wedding. The number of people 22. The car, WagonR. The rear seats folded and there you go all seated on the bottom. When 22 people sprang out of the car at the wedding hall, imagine the surprise of the cameraman! He caught the last13 people on camera!

Another instance of its flexibility is the Happy legs ad on the xylo. Ever tried it in your WagonR? That's a done deal on the WagonR.

That speaks volumes about the utility of a car. In the bottom of our Indian hearts, we want a car to be the be all and end all of our needs. We are not looking for a high flier, but as a first car, this absolutely serves our multipurpose jaunts! If you look at the collectors Edition of the Auto India(this month) there are over 12 models with similar shapes and volumes seem to point to a high million plus just for the shape and practicality. That's a terrific record for a single car!(The stats are for 2009)

So when a nut compares a car like the i10 as fanboys tend to do, I wrongly begin to understand that the i10 has foldable seats too! i10 is good as a car, I do not deny it, but the Ford Figo is miles ahead of it in every aspect, so is the Chevrolet Beat and all within the same price band! Note that the 3 cars are in the same category and much more refined than the WagonR in terms of quality of trim & interiors. And why do these idiotic editors keep away from reviewing an i10 against a Ford Figo or a Chev Beat? Obviously someone is not paying them to do it. The one point these cars lack is the MUV usefulness to fulfill a task most Indian households desire. And that is why you still see'decent' numbers being totted up by the WagonR. If the WagonR needs to be compared, it should be against another small MUV like the Honda Vamos, Honda Life or Honda Zest(All these are the 660 cc cars targetted in the same single segment in Japan.) or even the Citroen Nemo or C3 Picasso. What I mean to say is that while all major manufacturers have a model in the WagonR shape and category as MUV, only Suzuki has actually launched it in India. I mean even Honda has a significant presence in India and they could have launched the Life or Zest at the same price point as WagonR instead of the hyped up dud called Jazz.(Give it a break - The pricing is horrendous inspite of the current 55k discount) Mind you, none of these cars are available in India, the closest I see is from M&M - the yet to be launched Xylo mini.

And so, while I really think the plastics on Maruti's interior are really insipid(due to the same colors of plastics), they were never meant to cater to the luxury market. If they were, they would have launched one of its top end versions. Fact 1 -Sold over 5 million cars in all its variants and is now nearing 10 million makes it the hottest small car.Fact 2 -Is the WagonR a benchmark for small cars?You need not read the article postedin the New York times just to ascertain this fact. Its functionality is enough. Maintenance cost wise, Maruti again scores on all aspects, with all its models being cheap to maintain.(Source - Autocar, July 2010) So someone pls tell this to the nuts. Is there anything you are looking for in a small car, which is not available in the WagonR?