Thread Starter
#1
Idea behind buying :
It was May 2012 and i was travelling with my wife on my trusty Access 125.The dusty roads near our neighbourhood were horrible with traffic that day and it took a while to cover the distance back home.Back to home and i realized that my dust allergy is back again.suffered for 1 week before being back to normal.Thought i could put an end to such kind of struggles if i travel in a car.Though buying a car has always been on mind for the past 1 year but i have put in on backburner.This incident gave me the right fillip and i started researching for the 'right' car.
Petrol vs diesel:
My monthly running in chennai would be 500-600km but i need to do a hometown trip alteast once a month which would
add an additional 550+kms in total to the running.After reading numerous online discussions on Petrol vs Diesel debates
thought buying a Diesel car would give me piece of mind and decided to go for it.
Cars considered:
Please note that the likes and dislikes are solely from my perspective:
1. Chevy Beat - Lt(opt)
Likes : Good looks, LT(opt) comes with all the bells and whistles,3 year Chevy promise ,VFM
Dislikes : 3 pot cylinder engine, more cabin noise, less leg room for rear seat passengers
2. Ford Figo -
Likes : Safe looks,VFM
Dislikes : Poor ground clearance
3. Maruti Suzuki Swift - Vdi
Likes : Proven car, good looks , fun to drive
Dislikes : Too much waiting time
4. A-star AT - Yes, you read this right.The only pertrol car i considered was the A-star AT.This was the first car
i saw when i went to showroom.Dropped the idea after the sales representative informed me that we get 11/12kmpl mileage
and after seeing the poor rear passenger leg room and boot space.A nice city car though.
Beat was dropped because of the enginer,noise and poor rear space, Figo because my neighbourhood has lot of bad roads(bad roards is an understatement) and the ground clearance of Figo is
simply not enough and also for another reason explained later,Swift was dropped solely because of the waiting period of 3 months for Vdi.
I also had Ritz in my mind before going to Maruti showroom.This being my first car, i wanted to play the cards safe by buying a Maruti car(second reason for rejecting Figo).
Ritz:
Likes : Less waiting time, same engine as swift, more rear space leg room/boot space than swift, Trusted Maruti brand , Strong after sales and support
Dislikes: body roll around corners, initially disliked the rear end design but now i realize that there is no other car on road similar to ritz.A Very unique car.One can live with the
quirky rear end design considering all the other positive points.
After considering all the options and researching, settled for Ritz but wanted to give a shot for A-star AT/Swift.So kept my options open and went to showroom.
Buying Process:
Enquired the day before about the opening and closing timings of nearest Maruti showroom.Got a call from a sales representative in the next 2 minutes.He
asked us to give him a call as soon as we are in the showroom.Impressed by the quick response.Reached the showroom the following day - sunday at 11.00AM with wife.
Called up the sales rep, he came and greeted us and asked which car are we looking for.I initially wanted to see A-star AT so we went to the terrace to see the car.
As mentioned earlier rejected the car after the previous mentioned considerations.For some reason wifey hated the A-star from the start and strongly objected everytime
i bringup the topic.
Went to see swift next, have already driven swift before so no point in spending more time i believed.Asked about the waiting time for Vdi, sales rep says 3 months.
I absolutely hate waiting so given up the idea of owning swift and went to see the only option left now in Maruti - Ritz.
The car looked amazing in fire brick red, wifey loved the color and car and said yes.Half the decision made.The rear split seats, Good leg room , Amazing engine made up the other half of the decision.
Asked about the waiting time for Vdi ABS and sales rep says 1 month -45 days ...shocked.terribly disappointed.As mentioned earlier , hate waiting so decided to go for Vdi which is available in a week.
Initially selected the Fire brick red colour.Paid a 5k advance amount for booking.The sales rep filled in details in a new booklet,asked us whether we need finance, provided contacts for
the same.Changed the colour after some deliberation finally to Glistening grey.
OTR: 6.7 lakhs.(including discounts, accessories).
Discounts: 4k corporate discount,10k maruti discount for Ritz Vdi , 3k dealer discount.(its actually a free gold coin,asked the sales rep to add the value as cash discount and he agreed)
Accessories added:
1.Kenwood music system - Usb,Bluetooth call facility,CD,remote
2.Nippon remote locking
3.Leather cover for steering wheel
4.Cell phone holding sticky mat
5.Ganesha idol
6.PVC matting.
7.Teflon coating
8.Side bedding
9.Bumper corner protectors
10.Fabric seat covers.
11.A nice Diesel sticker.
To be added list:
1. Tyres upgrade to Michelin 185/70 R14.
2. May be Alloys, if sufficient Vitamin-M is available.
Coming to the delivery process:
After the car loan is processed in 3-4 days the sales rep confirmed the delivery date and promised that he would get all the accessories fitted.Insited that i want a PDI and he readily obliged.
Informed me on one fine day that the car is with dealer and i can come and visit it.Went to the Dealers showroom , the car was parked on the terrace.Felt super excited on seeing it.
Carefully examined if there were any scrathes/dents/the vehicle has been used before.Could not find anything but the car was a bit dirty on the outside.Sales rep informed me that he would
get it cleaned.
Reached the showroom on the delivery day
with my wife.The sales rep delivered the documents of the car and to my horror could see my name incorrect(spelling mistake) on all the documents.This is another story altogether
so not going into much details.
Enough to say that it dampened my spirits.
Was hoping that the car might come with Bridgestone tyres(which i believe is better than the crap JKs) so was disappointed a little after seeing the stock Jks.
Handed over the sweets i brought to sales rep , he took them and then began to give a demo of the car.Took some snaps during the delivery.They asked if it was okay for us if they perform
a token Puja.We said we are fine and then they performed a mini puja and gave us a 5L fuel coupon.
I'm a newbie driver.So did not want to drive the new vehicle back to home so have asked the showroom guys to drop us home which they did ,even though i have not informed them about the
need for that earlier.Appreciated it.The driver drove to a fuel outlet and we filled the 5L free diesel and then proceeded to our home.Took a short trip near our place with wifey
to get a feel of the vehicle.Felt nice , reached home and spent some time reading the manuals.
Ownership experience :
I have travelled aroung 1200kms so far in the car and hear are the comments:Heard somuch about DDIS engine, driving on a highway tells you why you will love this engine and car.
Absolute rocket once the rpm in the tacho crosses 2000rpm.The dash mounted tacho looks cute and is really helpfull to easily keep tab on the rpm.Really good position of the gearknob.
the initial impression would be that the gear throws will be short but it is not so.Found the gear shiting not so smooth for the initial 200kms.It eased up much after 1000kms on the Odo
but comes no where close to being smooth.A little disappointment here.
The front row seats are good, the leg room is really good.But if you extend the seats all the way , the reat seat passengers will not have much leg room.Should be okay for short city runs
but not on long distance travels.Keeping the seats in the middle however leaves decent enough space for both front and rear seat passengers.Passengers in the rear seat mentioned that the
recline is perfect and good enough for them to relax.
The steering height is good.No tilt adjustable steering option here but i really did not feel the need.My height is 5'9", may be thats the reason.I really loved the steering of Ritz.
Boot space is sufficient.should be okay for a small family on highway trips.
Now coming to the Kitna dethi hai question :)
Total distance driven : 1200kms
Distance travelled in city : 500kms
Distance travelled on super smooth highways: 550kms
Distance travelled on super bad roads(speed <10kms,bumpy) : 150kms
Mileage : 15.8 kmpl
Body roll is present around corners.Tyre noise is present and creeps into cabin.Certainly due to the crap JK tornadoes i believe.
However they are decent enough for city driving on other aspects.
Overall experience:
Did i like the Ritz: Yes, i absolutely love my first car Ritzy.
Did the car performed well under different conditions: Yes
Would i recommend this car to others: yes.
Ritz is a very practical car to own.It gives you good handling capabilities, good mileage, Decent interior space , good boot space for small family.Truely a VFM car.
However no car is 'perfect' and the Ritz has its own deamons - Body roll,not so good looking interiors,quirky rear end design,lack of some accessories in its high end version for Diesel- VDI,bad stock tyres.
The positives trumph the negatives of this car.One can live with them considering the cars performance.
It was May 2012 and i was travelling with my wife on my trusty Access 125.The dusty roads near our neighbourhood were horrible with traffic that day and it took a while to cover the distance back home.Back to home and i realized that my dust allergy is back again.suffered for 1 week before being back to normal.Thought i could put an end to such kind of struggles if i travel in a car.Though buying a car has always been on mind for the past 1 year but i have put in on backburner.This incident gave me the right fillip and i started researching for the 'right' car.
Petrol vs diesel:
My monthly running in chennai would be 500-600km but i need to do a hometown trip alteast once a month which would
add an additional 550+kms in total to the running.After reading numerous online discussions on Petrol vs Diesel debates
thought buying a Diesel car would give me piece of mind and decided to go for it.
Cars considered:
Please note that the likes and dislikes are solely from my perspective:
1. Chevy Beat - Lt(opt)
Likes : Good looks, LT(opt) comes with all the bells and whistles,3 year Chevy promise ,VFM
Dislikes : 3 pot cylinder engine, more cabin noise, less leg room for rear seat passengers
2. Ford Figo -
Likes : Safe looks,VFM
Dislikes : Poor ground clearance
3. Maruti Suzuki Swift - Vdi
Likes : Proven car, good looks , fun to drive
Dislikes : Too much waiting time
4. A-star AT - Yes, you read this right.The only pertrol car i considered was the A-star AT.This was the first car
i saw when i went to showroom.Dropped the idea after the sales representative informed me that we get 11/12kmpl mileage
and after seeing the poor rear passenger leg room and boot space.A nice city car though.
Beat was dropped because of the enginer,noise and poor rear space, Figo because my neighbourhood has lot of bad roads(bad roards is an understatement) and the ground clearance of Figo is
simply not enough and also for another reason explained later,Swift was dropped solely because of the waiting period of 3 months for Vdi.
I also had Ritz in my mind before going to Maruti showroom.This being my first car, i wanted to play the cards safe by buying a Maruti car(second reason for rejecting Figo).
Ritz:
Likes : Less waiting time, same engine as swift, more rear space leg room/boot space than swift, Trusted Maruti brand , Strong after sales and support
Dislikes: body roll around corners, initially disliked the rear end design but now i realize that there is no other car on road similar to ritz.A Very unique car.One can live with the
quirky rear end design considering all the other positive points.
After considering all the options and researching, settled for Ritz but wanted to give a shot for A-star AT/Swift.So kept my options open and went to showroom.
Buying Process:
Enquired the day before about the opening and closing timings of nearest Maruti showroom.Got a call from a sales representative in the next 2 minutes.He
asked us to give him a call as soon as we are in the showroom.Impressed by the quick response.Reached the showroom the following day - sunday at 11.00AM with wife.
Called up the sales rep, he came and greeted us and asked which car are we looking for.I initially wanted to see A-star AT so we went to the terrace to see the car.
As mentioned earlier rejected the car after the previous mentioned considerations.For some reason wifey hated the A-star from the start and strongly objected everytime
i bringup the topic.
Went to see swift next, have already driven swift before so no point in spending more time i believed.Asked about the waiting time for Vdi, sales rep says 3 months.
I absolutely hate waiting so given up the idea of owning swift and went to see the only option left now in Maruti - Ritz.
The car looked amazing in fire brick red, wifey loved the color and car and said yes.Half the decision made.The rear split seats, Good leg room , Amazing engine made up the other half of the decision.
Asked about the waiting time for Vdi ABS and sales rep says 1 month -45 days ...shocked.terribly disappointed.As mentioned earlier , hate waiting so decided to go for Vdi which is available in a week.
Initially selected the Fire brick red colour.Paid a 5k advance amount for booking.The sales rep filled in details in a new booklet,asked us whether we need finance, provided contacts for
the same.Changed the colour after some deliberation finally to Glistening grey.
OTR: 6.7 lakhs.(including discounts, accessories).
Discounts: 4k corporate discount,10k maruti discount for Ritz Vdi , 3k dealer discount.(its actually a free gold coin,asked the sales rep to add the value as cash discount and he agreed)
Accessories added:
1.Kenwood music system - Usb,Bluetooth call facility,CD,remote
2.Nippon remote locking
3.Leather cover for steering wheel
4.Cell phone holding sticky mat
5.Ganesha idol
6.PVC matting.
7.Teflon coating
8.Side bedding
9.Bumper corner protectors
10.Fabric seat covers.
11.A nice Diesel sticker.
To be added list:
1. Tyres upgrade to Michelin 185/70 R14.
2. May be Alloys, if sufficient Vitamin-M is available.
Coming to the delivery process:
After the car loan is processed in 3-4 days the sales rep confirmed the delivery date and promised that he would get all the accessories fitted.Insited that i want a PDI and he readily obliged.
Informed me on one fine day that the car is with dealer and i can come and visit it.Went to the Dealers showroom , the car was parked on the terrace.Felt super excited on seeing it.
Carefully examined if there were any scrathes/dents/the vehicle has been used before.Could not find anything but the car was a bit dirty on the outside.Sales rep informed me that he would
get it cleaned.
Reached the showroom on the delivery day
with my wife.The sales rep delivered the documents of the car and to my horror could see my name incorrect(spelling mistake) on all the documents.This is another story altogether
so not going into much details.
Enough to say that it dampened my spirits.
Was hoping that the car might come with Bridgestone tyres(which i believe is better than the crap JKs) so was disappointed a little after seeing the stock Jks.
Handed over the sweets i brought to sales rep , he took them and then began to give a demo of the car.Took some snaps during the delivery.They asked if it was okay for us if they perform
a token Puja.We said we are fine and then they performed a mini puja and gave us a 5L fuel coupon.
I'm a newbie driver.So did not want to drive the new vehicle back to home so have asked the showroom guys to drop us home which they did ,even though i have not informed them about the
need for that earlier.Appreciated it.The driver drove to a fuel outlet and we filled the 5L free diesel and then proceeded to our home.Took a short trip near our place with wifey
to get a feel of the vehicle.Felt nice , reached home and spent some time reading the manuals.
Ownership experience :
I have travelled aroung 1200kms so far in the car and hear are the comments:Heard somuch about DDIS engine, driving on a highway tells you why you will love this engine and car.
Absolute rocket once the rpm in the tacho crosses 2000rpm.The dash mounted tacho looks cute and is really helpfull to easily keep tab on the rpm.Really good position of the gearknob.
the initial impression would be that the gear throws will be short but it is not so.Found the gear shiting not so smooth for the initial 200kms.It eased up much after 1000kms on the Odo
but comes no where close to being smooth.A little disappointment here.
The front row seats are good, the leg room is really good.But if you extend the seats all the way , the reat seat passengers will not have much leg room.Should be okay for short city runs
but not on long distance travels.Keeping the seats in the middle however leaves decent enough space for both front and rear seat passengers.Passengers in the rear seat mentioned that the
recline is perfect and good enough for them to relax.
The steering height is good.No tilt adjustable steering option here but i really did not feel the need.My height is 5'9", may be thats the reason.I really loved the steering of Ritz.
Boot space is sufficient.should be okay for a small family on highway trips.
Now coming to the Kitna dethi hai question :)
Total distance driven : 1200kms
Distance travelled in city : 500kms
Distance travelled on super smooth highways: 550kms
Distance travelled on super bad roads(speed <10kms,bumpy) : 150kms
Mileage : 15.8 kmpl
Body roll is present around corners.Tyre noise is present and creeps into cabin.Certainly due to the crap JK tornadoes i believe.
However they are decent enough for city driving on other aspects.
Overall experience:
Did i like the Ritz: Yes, i absolutely love my first car Ritzy.
Did the car performed well under different conditions: Yes
Would i recommend this car to others: yes.
Ritz is a very practical car to own.It gives you good handling capabilities, good mileage, Decent interior space , good boot space for small family.Truely a VFM car.
However no car is 'perfect' and the Ritz has its own deamons - Body roll,not so good looking interiors,quirky rear end design,lack of some accessories in its high end version for Diesel- VDI,bad stock tyres.
The positives trumph the negatives of this car.One can live with them considering the cars performance.
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