Thread Starter
#1
Circa 2012 :
After owning/driving many cars in my 20 years of driving life, like Landmaster, Premier Padmini, Maruti 800, Maruti Omni, Hyundai Santro, Maruti Wagon R, Maruti Esteem, Tata Indica and Tata Indigo, in mid 2012 we were contemplating of buying a new sedan. I had fixed a budget of upto 9 lacs maximum. I had made up my mind to buy Diesel sedan as we planned to make highway trips in this car. Test drove Skoda Rapid, VW Vento, Hyundai Verna, Mahindra Vertio (new version), Maruti Dzire, Fiat Linea, Tata Manza.
Rapid, Vento, Linea, Verna were ruled out as I did not want to exceed my budget. Though I must say there was an offer for Vento Trendline for Rs 9.50 lacs OTR (after discounts and free Touchscreen ICE) was tempting enough.
Well when the above ones are ruled out its easy deciding. Dzire and Tour were not considered due to lack of space and taxi version respectively.
So final was Vertio vs Manza. Though Verito was newly launched and had proven good FE record, there were no discounts offered and my family did not like the look. Also seating posture is bit lower.
On Sep 2012, I saw an ad of Rs 40000/- off on Manza. Walked into Concorde Motors showroom at Bangalore. We were greeted well, and after quick brief about the car and versions was offered a test drive.The "Elan" version (a white one) was offered to us. Once we test drove Manza we were absolutely floored. The QJD engine had perfect punch for city roads. Took it for a longer drive and even went back to my home to check the parking space fitment. Everybody was amazed seeing the space inside.
Once everything was satisfactory, had to decide the version. The sales person was pushing for Aura or Aura ABS model but I liked the colour Tyrian Wine. It was available only in Aqua and Elan versions in ready stock. Since Elan was out of my budget, I opted for Aqua version. I was skeptical about non-ABS braking. But some search in the internet (including TAI) revealed manza brakes are quite powerful. Ownership reviews from Autosafari, Highway Ranger, Tornado and others had been very helpful to me at that time, though I was not a member.
Next was discounts and offers. After lot of heckling we got around 70k off on the purchase price and I took insurance from outside hence saved few bucks. Basic accessories were offered for free but I negotiated for fog lamps for free.
All set and done did booking with token advance and went ahead with loan processing with SBI. In the meanwhile did a PDI in the Concorde Motors yard. One funny thing happened , when we went for PDI there was no driver to drive us till the yard. Hence the SE offered me to drive any test car to the yard myself. I test drove the same Elan Manza test drive vehicle again. The loan was approved in 5 days and got the car registered and delivered on Sep 18.
So much so for Manza , after 1.5 years now it has clocked around 22k and going strong. I never had any major issues with the car still on.
I would like to highlight the positives and negatives of Manza which I have observed in the 18 months of ownership.
Positives -
Extremely VFM Sedan
QJD Engine
Very good FE (constant 16-17 in city with AC)
Space, Space and Space
Negatives -
Fit and Finish
Poor Brand Image (perception)
TASS (improving day by day)
Couple of pics when the car was new.
After owning/driving many cars in my 20 years of driving life, like Landmaster, Premier Padmini, Maruti 800, Maruti Omni, Hyundai Santro, Maruti Wagon R, Maruti Esteem, Tata Indica and Tata Indigo, in mid 2012 we were contemplating of buying a new sedan. I had fixed a budget of upto 9 lacs maximum. I had made up my mind to buy Diesel sedan as we planned to make highway trips in this car. Test drove Skoda Rapid, VW Vento, Hyundai Verna, Mahindra Vertio (new version), Maruti Dzire, Fiat Linea, Tata Manza.
Rapid, Vento, Linea, Verna were ruled out as I did not want to exceed my budget. Though I must say there was an offer for Vento Trendline for Rs 9.50 lacs OTR (after discounts and free Touchscreen ICE) was tempting enough.
Well when the above ones are ruled out its easy deciding. Dzire and Tour were not considered due to lack of space and taxi version respectively.
So final was Vertio vs Manza. Though Verito was newly launched and had proven good FE record, there were no discounts offered and my family did not like the look. Also seating posture is bit lower.
On Sep 2012, I saw an ad of Rs 40000/- off on Manza. Walked into Concorde Motors showroom at Bangalore. We were greeted well, and after quick brief about the car and versions was offered a test drive.The "Elan" version (a white one) was offered to us. Once we test drove Manza we were absolutely floored. The QJD engine had perfect punch for city roads. Took it for a longer drive and even went back to my home to check the parking space fitment. Everybody was amazed seeing the space inside.
Once everything was satisfactory, had to decide the version. The sales person was pushing for Aura or Aura ABS model but I liked the colour Tyrian Wine. It was available only in Aqua and Elan versions in ready stock. Since Elan was out of my budget, I opted for Aqua version. I was skeptical about non-ABS braking. But some search in the internet (including TAI) revealed manza brakes are quite powerful. Ownership reviews from Autosafari, Highway Ranger, Tornado and others had been very helpful to me at that time, though I was not a member.
Next was discounts and offers. After lot of heckling we got around 70k off on the purchase price and I took insurance from outside hence saved few bucks. Basic accessories were offered for free but I negotiated for fog lamps for free.
All set and done did booking with token advance and went ahead with loan processing with SBI. In the meanwhile did a PDI in the Concorde Motors yard. One funny thing happened , when we went for PDI there was no driver to drive us till the yard. Hence the SE offered me to drive any test car to the yard myself. I test drove the same Elan Manza test drive vehicle again. The loan was approved in 5 days and got the car registered and delivered on Sep 18.
So much so for Manza , after 1.5 years now it has clocked around 22k and going strong. I never had any major issues with the car still on.
I would like to highlight the positives and negatives of Manza which I have observed in the 18 months of ownership.
Positives -
Extremely VFM Sedan
QJD Engine
Very good FE (constant 16-17 in city with AC)
Space, Space and Space
Negatives -
Fit and Finish
Poor Brand Image (perception)
TASS (improving day by day)
Couple of pics when the car was new.
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