Thread Starter
#1
The story so far
Back in December 2015 I wanted to buy a new car. Then I had mentioned somewhere on this forum that I hoped to write an ownership review in 2016. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Yet, I managed to get delivery of the car on December 31, 2016 and now here I am, writing my first TAI ownership review barely days after 2016 ended. Ha ha!
I had been driving an Alto 800 since February 2013. Before that I had been driving the first-generation i10 Sportz in 2008 which I sold to a cousin when I bought the Alto 800. The reason was he wanted a car but tight on budget. It was good riddance for me.
The Alto 800 served me quite well -- parking has always been a big concern at home and office. But in Delhi summer I felt the need to buy a car with a bigger engine when, after turning on the AC, I could barely make any uphill climb on a flyover without losing my dignity or getting foot muscle pain. The 800 was a dud whenever the AC was running. And 80% of the time in a year the sun is always screwing up people in Delhi. Those two months of winter was when I really enjoyed the 800 petrol grunt when driven without any passenger and the AC turned off. I shudder to think of the plight of people who bought the Kwid 800 when the proven Maruti 800 engine itself was so inadequate with today's needs.
The research
Tata Tiago (petrol)
Honda Brio
Kwid 1.0
Budget
(Earlier)
Rs 6 lakh
(Reality)
Rs 5 lakh (on road)
No finance.
The test drive (note: My 800 experience is the baseline that I used to judge my test drive, hence all cars that I drove that's above 800cc were good. The deciding factor then was the budget and other minor, shiny stuff)
Tiago
Great cabin, good engine performance, great looks, but I wanted the top end ZX which overshot my budget. In my next buy four years down the line I will seriously consider a Tata car.
Brio
Peppy engine, comfortable driver's seat, Honda 'reliability', but they hiked the prices in the facelift and I got screwed. I was almost getting the older V MT with ABS (but no airbags) for OTR Delhi Rs 5.5 lakh. But they killed the V MT and kept only VX MT at over 6 lakh. The S MT without ABS and airbag was at Rs 6 lakh, which anyway was beyond my budget. I could have easily got Tiago XZ in that with all the safety features, but Tiago was already ruled out if I have to spend on cash. My plan was if I have to stretch my budget on cash I wanted Brio, not Tiago. So, farewell Brio. But Brio is something that I will miss everyday. Next time baby! (I did get an offer for the pre-facelift VX MT. On closer inspection at Samara, Lajpat Nagar, the VIN showed it was July-made and the vehicle clearly did not look new. I followed my gut feeling and declined, although I was almost about to get it.)
Kwid 1.0
Nice cabin for the price, but I'm not very fond of touchscreen ICE. I like the good old tactile buttons and knobs. Looks good too from the outside. The boot space is to die for at this price. However, the SUV-ish looks did not get me sold. It's after all a small hatch. I can't force myself to pretend otherwise. The 1.0 engine, however, when compared to the K10 test drive, was not at all exciting. It was slow to respond to throttle input and sounded coarse compared to the K10. Also, I have a major parking issue at my place. There are three cars squeezed into a small space blocked by a neighbour's XUV 500. I had to choose a hatch with a smaller footprint. I really wanted to Kwid 1.0 but gut feeling was three weeks down the line I would struggle to find parking space at home and office. If I could ever afford a big car I wanted to buy a big car -- not a fake big car. So I let it pass. Someday then when I have enough jingles in my pocket.
Alto K10 (manual)
It fits in the parking space at home and office. The engine was peppy enough for a single me even with the AC on. Driver's seat was firm and comfortably. Plus, I could afford it with cash right out of the pocket. Ride above 50 kmph till 80 kmph was surprisingly smooth as a four-pot engine. Got it for Rs 3.60 lakh OTR after exchange of Alto 800 (25,000 km run, 2013 March model, in top shape, True Value for Rs 1.8 lakh). Got December cash discount of Rs 25,000 and exchange bonus of Rs 10,000. Lastly, damn corporate discount of Rs 5,000. It was like winning a lottery.
Buying experience
I went to Bagga Link Maruti in Defence Colony, from where I got the Alto 800 (also by cash) back in February 2013. I looked for the same salesperson, who was a nice fellow. But he had gone to Toyota. I somehow ran into the same accessories guy, who recently got promoted and got the entire accessories shop floor to himself. Some greetings later, he referred me personally to a saleswoman who was apparently a much nicer person than the average salesmen there.
It turned out true. The rest of the guys were busy and not giving bhao since it was December and the crowd was quite big. And Alto K10 was a small fry anyway. But this girl assigned to me helped me in every possible way, even calling me at 9.30 pm from her home to give update about the car delivery and paperwork when I SMSed her.
I took the test drive, paid by cheque and a week later, the white Alto K10 VXi came. Went for PDI to the Bagga stockyard a day before delivery. VIN was December 2016, checked the tyre date (got JK Tyres), etc. Zero-dep insurance was from Bajaj for Rs 15,000.
Paid accessories
1) Fog lamp
2) LED sill guard
3) Gear lock
4) Remote central locking and alarm (Nippon, Alto VXi comes default with key central locking)
5) Philips Xtreme Vision headlights
6) Body side moulding
Free kit
1) Floor mat (hard fabric type with Velcro)
2) Perfume (it had a horrible chemical smell, I threw it away and got an organic dry leaf packet instead)
3) Mud guards
Miscellaneous note
1) Chose white colour because I was bored with the Granite Grey Alto 800 before. Also, I drive on Ring Road late at night after work and there are lots of truck on this road. White may be more visible to the sleepy drivers.
2) Safety in Alto K10 is zero (except for driver side airbag)
3) I can't go for car finance as I have a home loan running and marriage might happen year-end.
I named the car Roadrunner after my handle on TAI :-)
The cabin is much better than Alto 800. The plastics are good for the price, especially the upper dashboard portion, but nothing that merits a genuine praise. In fact while fixing a gear lock the plastic broke by an inch near the gear lock keyhole. The steering is a wee bit heavy, which I like. But it's a pain while tight parking and turning. I do feel something is wrong with the servo, and have kept a mental note to get it checked in the first service. There's a heavy steering and an abnormally heavy steering -- mine is the latter one. The steering has no active return function, and there's some play in the centre.
The ICE looks nice but the sound quality is poor. The doors vibrate at even medium volume. I wanted to add two rear parcel tray speakers and keep the stock ICE, but the accessories guy said it's not possible. Is this true? If I want total four speakers I will have to buy a new ICE head unit with four speakers.
In idle the three-pot shakes the car, though not as violently as in Alto 800 with AC on. I can live with this for the money I paid. You get what you pay for, right. That said, it's in the third and fourth gears between 60 kmph and 80 kmph that this aam aadmi rocket shows its true face -- the car is blazing fast. It can easily reach above 100 kmph (which I have not tried) but it won't be fun; 80 kmph is the best cruising speed for this pocket rocket.
A week after I got the car I got MGA 13 inch alloys installed; did not upgrade the stock tyres which were JK Tornado. The alloys look plain but not that bad also. They go well with the pocket rocket. The accessories guy said it's probably Enkei make, which I also believe as Enkei on its website has listed Maruti as one of their clients.
On the overall scale I'm quite happy with the car. It ticked all the needs on what I expected from a car at this point of time. I definitely wanted to ride a premium four-pot hatch, but the cost did not justify my running and expenses for now.
Pros
1) Small footprint, easy to park, easy to ride in day-to-day heavy traffic
2) Peppy 1-litre engine, decent power for self-drive in city, does not strain the leg
3) Does not gulp large quantity of fuel
4) Maruti service network
Cons
1) Zero safety
2) Vibration
3) Crammed rear seat
4) Not stable on high speed
5) Subjective: Somehow I felt from using two Maruti cars by now that they tend to develop rattles fairly early in their life. Two weeks down the line this time I can hear disco music from the dashboard, the same happened with Alto 800 just after I bought it four years ago.
Next up: Will buy a dash cam. Any advice would be appreciated. I want a discreet cam. Saw a couple of Transcend but they have chrome rings near the lens and will attract thieves and unnecessary attention.
PS: Will post more photos soon.
Back in December 2015 I wanted to buy a new car. Then I had mentioned somewhere on this forum that I hoped to write an ownership review in 2016. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Yet, I managed to get delivery of the car on December 31, 2016 and now here I am, writing my first TAI ownership review barely days after 2016 ended. Ha ha!
I had been driving an Alto 800 since February 2013. Before that I had been driving the first-generation i10 Sportz in 2008 which I sold to a cousin when I bought the Alto 800. The reason was he wanted a car but tight on budget. It was good riddance for me.
The Alto 800 served me quite well -- parking has always been a big concern at home and office. But in Delhi summer I felt the need to buy a car with a bigger engine when, after turning on the AC, I could barely make any uphill climb on a flyover without losing my dignity or getting foot muscle pain. The 800 was a dud whenever the AC was running. And 80% of the time in a year the sun is always screwing up people in Delhi. Those two months of winter was when I really enjoyed the 800 petrol grunt when driven without any passenger and the AC turned off. I shudder to think of the plight of people who bought the Kwid 800 when the proven Maruti 800 engine itself was so inadequate with today's needs.
The research
Tata Tiago (petrol)
Honda Brio
Kwid 1.0
Budget
(Earlier)
Rs 6 lakh
(Reality)
Rs 5 lakh (on road)
No finance.
The test drive (note: My 800 experience is the baseline that I used to judge my test drive, hence all cars that I drove that's above 800cc were good. The deciding factor then was the budget and other minor, shiny stuff)
Tiago
Great cabin, good engine performance, great looks, but I wanted the top end ZX which overshot my budget. In my next buy four years down the line I will seriously consider a Tata car.
Brio
Peppy engine, comfortable driver's seat, Honda 'reliability', but they hiked the prices in the facelift and I got screwed. I was almost getting the older V MT with ABS (but no airbags) for OTR Delhi Rs 5.5 lakh. But they killed the V MT and kept only VX MT at over 6 lakh. The S MT without ABS and airbag was at Rs 6 lakh, which anyway was beyond my budget. I could have easily got Tiago XZ in that with all the safety features, but Tiago was already ruled out if I have to spend on cash. My plan was if I have to stretch my budget on cash I wanted Brio, not Tiago. So, farewell Brio. But Brio is something that I will miss everyday. Next time baby! (I did get an offer for the pre-facelift VX MT. On closer inspection at Samara, Lajpat Nagar, the VIN showed it was July-made and the vehicle clearly did not look new. I followed my gut feeling and declined, although I was almost about to get it.)
Kwid 1.0
Nice cabin for the price, but I'm not very fond of touchscreen ICE. I like the good old tactile buttons and knobs. Looks good too from the outside. The boot space is to die for at this price. However, the SUV-ish looks did not get me sold. It's after all a small hatch. I can't force myself to pretend otherwise. The 1.0 engine, however, when compared to the K10 test drive, was not at all exciting. It was slow to respond to throttle input and sounded coarse compared to the K10. Also, I have a major parking issue at my place. There are three cars squeezed into a small space blocked by a neighbour's XUV 500. I had to choose a hatch with a smaller footprint. I really wanted to Kwid 1.0 but gut feeling was three weeks down the line I would struggle to find parking space at home and office. If I could ever afford a big car I wanted to buy a big car -- not a fake big car. So I let it pass. Someday then when I have enough jingles in my pocket.
Alto K10 (manual)
It fits in the parking space at home and office. The engine was peppy enough for a single me even with the AC on. Driver's seat was firm and comfortably. Plus, I could afford it with cash right out of the pocket. Ride above 50 kmph till 80 kmph was surprisingly smooth as a four-pot engine. Got it for Rs 3.60 lakh OTR after exchange of Alto 800 (25,000 km run, 2013 March model, in top shape, True Value for Rs 1.8 lakh). Got December cash discount of Rs 25,000 and exchange bonus of Rs 10,000. Lastly, damn corporate discount of Rs 5,000. It was like winning a lottery.
Buying experience
I went to Bagga Link Maruti in Defence Colony, from where I got the Alto 800 (also by cash) back in February 2013. I looked for the same salesperson, who was a nice fellow. But he had gone to Toyota. I somehow ran into the same accessories guy, who recently got promoted and got the entire accessories shop floor to himself. Some greetings later, he referred me personally to a saleswoman who was apparently a much nicer person than the average salesmen there.
It turned out true. The rest of the guys were busy and not giving bhao since it was December and the crowd was quite big. And Alto K10 was a small fry anyway. But this girl assigned to me helped me in every possible way, even calling me at 9.30 pm from her home to give update about the car delivery and paperwork when I SMSed her.
I took the test drive, paid by cheque and a week later, the white Alto K10 VXi came. Went for PDI to the Bagga stockyard a day before delivery. VIN was December 2016, checked the tyre date (got JK Tyres), etc. Zero-dep insurance was from Bajaj for Rs 15,000.
Paid accessories
1) Fog lamp
2) LED sill guard
3) Gear lock
4) Remote central locking and alarm (Nippon, Alto VXi comes default with key central locking)
5) Philips Xtreme Vision headlights
6) Body side moulding
Free kit
1) Floor mat (hard fabric type with Velcro)
2) Perfume (it had a horrible chemical smell, I threw it away and got an organic dry leaf packet instead)
3) Mud guards
Miscellaneous note
1) Chose white colour because I was bored with the Granite Grey Alto 800 before. Also, I drive on Ring Road late at night after work and there are lots of truck on this road. White may be more visible to the sleepy drivers.
2) Safety in Alto K10 is zero (except for driver side airbag)
3) I can't go for car finance as I have a home loan running and marriage might happen year-end.
I named the car Roadrunner after my handle on TAI :-)
The cabin is much better than Alto 800. The plastics are good for the price, especially the upper dashboard portion, but nothing that merits a genuine praise. In fact while fixing a gear lock the plastic broke by an inch near the gear lock keyhole. The steering is a wee bit heavy, which I like. But it's a pain while tight parking and turning. I do feel something is wrong with the servo, and have kept a mental note to get it checked in the first service. There's a heavy steering and an abnormally heavy steering -- mine is the latter one. The steering has no active return function, and there's some play in the centre.
The ICE looks nice but the sound quality is poor. The doors vibrate at even medium volume. I wanted to add two rear parcel tray speakers and keep the stock ICE, but the accessories guy said it's not possible. Is this true? If I want total four speakers I will have to buy a new ICE head unit with four speakers.
In idle the three-pot shakes the car, though not as violently as in Alto 800 with AC on. I can live with this for the money I paid. You get what you pay for, right. That said, it's in the third and fourth gears between 60 kmph and 80 kmph that this aam aadmi rocket shows its true face -- the car is blazing fast. It can easily reach above 100 kmph (which I have not tried) but it won't be fun; 80 kmph is the best cruising speed for this pocket rocket.
A week after I got the car I got MGA 13 inch alloys installed; did not upgrade the stock tyres which were JK Tornado. The alloys look plain but not that bad also. They go well with the pocket rocket. The accessories guy said it's probably Enkei make, which I also believe as Enkei on its website has listed Maruti as one of their clients.
On the overall scale I'm quite happy with the car. It ticked all the needs on what I expected from a car at this point of time. I definitely wanted to ride a premium four-pot hatch, but the cost did not justify my running and expenses for now.
Pros
1) Small footprint, easy to park, easy to ride in day-to-day heavy traffic
2) Peppy 1-litre engine, decent power for self-drive in city, does not strain the leg
3) Does not gulp large quantity of fuel
4) Maruti service network
Cons
1) Zero safety
2) Vibration
3) Crammed rear seat
4) Not stable on high speed
5) Subjective: Somehow I felt from using two Maruti cars by now that they tend to develop rattles fairly early in their life. Two weeks down the line this time I can hear disco music from the dashboard, the same happened with Alto 800 just after I bought it four years ago.
Next up: Will buy a dash cam. Any advice would be appreciated. I want a discreet cam. Saw a couple of Transcend but they have chrome rings near the lens and will attract thieves and unnecessary attention.
PS: Will post more photos soon.
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