Bought a Maruti Suzuki Ritz LXi - An Ownership Experience


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Well this is my first ownership review on this thread so please take into consideration some points.

All stuff written on this page is strictly according to me or my father’s (who uses the car primarily) opinion. Although both of us have a lot of knowledge/interest and experience respectively towards cars in general we may still be wrong.
Secondly I will prefer to write in points to make it to the point (also haven’t written an anything like this since forever)
Third I am just expressing my opinion and have no intention to hurt anyone’s feelings.

The start

Well it started in Dec 2012 when I had just come home for vacations and came to know that my father had decided to change our 1998 M800 with a new small car. In fact he had booked a white wagonR lxi and I was shocked. I tried to convince him to cancel the booking as I didn’t like the wagonR at all. In reality I wanted my father to keep our M800 reason being although it was 15 years old it had just done 56000 kms. It was absolutely perfect mechanically and on the looks front it was ok .I checked its F.E and it came out to be 16.5 in city. According to me it would have lasted another 15 years easily. But my father had certain problems such as Ac not affective at all, steering hard and also the car was approaching its 15nth year which would have required a FC. Since my dad had already booked wagon R there was no point of arguing (also u get a craving for a new car once u start thinking in that direction) so I didn’t argue much. What I did argue upon was the choice of the car and I won. My dad finally agreed and told me to go ahead and cancel the booking.

What we needed

1 a small inexpensive car
2 basic luxuries like AC,PS,frontPW,CL
3 budget not fixed but we already have a Honda city which has done close to only 25000 in past 6.5yrs thus usage is very less which is divided among 2 cars so there was no need to spend more than 5lakh(P) or 5.5lakh(D) on a car.
4 VFM is very important to me
5 To be kept for as long as it is working (don’t believe & cannot afford to spend money on a depreciating asset every 2/3 years )
6 Most important: I come under the category of enthusiasts so I had to have the best car I could buy in this category after thorough research (after all I don’t get to buy a car every other day)

Shortlisting and selection

I considered all the hatchbacks as budget wasn’t fixed Also base/mid variants were considered as we wanted only basic luxuries like AC,PS,frontPW,CL.
So here goes


Around 3.5 on road->

1 eon –TD it & rejected it because my father felt the engine wasn’t refined and was underpowered. He also mentioned that there was vibration in pedals even at low speeds. So it was out .Mind you it was excellent VFM at 3.3-3.4 on-road but we decide a car by its engine first so it was out.

2 alto 800 & K10 – no need to test drive but somehow felt instead of spending 3.3-3.4L on these cars it was better to spend a lakh more(since we could afford it) and buy a much better car like a brio/beat/i10 base models. After all these cars are based on a 10 year old platform.

Around 4 on road

3 beat P – read the reviews, knew that its engine wasn’t as good as Honda/maruti hence rejected it
4 wagon R – practical but an old platform hence not VFM

Around 5 on road –

Here is where the action begins-
1 Nissan micra/sail uva petrol – their engine wasn’t as good as Honda/maruti hence rejected it
2 polo P – big (remember we wanted a small car for the city),Low FE,unrefined petrol, expensive ASS and also the base model was around 5.5 on road .So it was rejected
(BTW I love a red polo/red punto , they just get my heart ticking but they aren’t very practical- will buy these when I can afford the luxury to listen to my heart)
3 i10 – now this is a fully loaded car at this price(after huge discounts of 50k ) But didn’t go for it as it is very very boring, have driven them so much that a new car wouldn’t feel new at all even if I bought one, Unreliable/low FE,going to be replaced with a newer model soon
4 Brio- Hate the looks inside and out. Didn’t want another Honda (will become boring) although I trust and respect the brand a lot. Somehow this is the only Honda I don’t like. It is immensely practical but I think the maruti twins Ritz/swift overshadowed it in my decision.I didn’t even TD it due to the mentioned reasons

5 swift P – one word-love it in blue/white. A rare choice where both heart & mind agree.
Was in consideration till the end.

6 Ritz P – Gr8 engine,MASS,I like the looks especially the face lifted front unlike others.

Around 5.5 on road

1 figo TDCi- extreme VFM, gr8 car with added advantage of diesel at 50k more. Was in consideration till the end.

Now the final choice-

Didn’t buy figo D Why? – well with low usage diesel was not making sense . Turned out to be a great decision since prices of diesel were deregulated and currently the price difference b/w P&D is down to 14 from 20.

Chose ritz lxi over swift lxi Why? - Remember we wanted a small car for the city and swift is big at least bigger than ritz. With the increase in budget the size of cars was also increasing. Hell even ritz is sorta big for the city (not quite but I think in the city smaller the car better it is).So decided to put an end to my greed .One other point swift was 34k more expensive than ritz even for the base version lxi.

So ritz it was – in silver Why Silver? I don’t know if it’s only me but I kind of like only one or two colours on a particular car. I think ritz looks best in silver. (I haven't seen the new grey till now so I don’t know about it)
So ritz lxi was booked in silky silver

Buying-

Wasn’t home while taking delivery of the car but here is the price breakup approx.
Ex showroom price – 4.44
On road – 4.78
Discount – 13k
Exchange with M800- 50k (with bonus)
Accessories – none
Got to see the car around 15 days after taking delivery and it looked stunning. Now it was time to spruce up the car.

Aftermarket accessories

I was pretty sure that I will buy aftermarket accessories this time (coz they are VFM) when I decided to get the base model lxi so here goes.
Already fitted

1. Cl/key less entry-Autocop DX model -3100
Was fitted by an excellent technician without any wire cutting.
2. mats-rubber – 450
Didn’t like the packy poda or the noodle carpet ones

3. wheel caps(with black rims painting)- 900
600 for aftermarket ones 300 for black painting
4. side and rear protector-350+700
Side ones are aftermarket the rear one is MGA from outside dealer
5. body coloured door handles/ orvm & side guard side and rear protector- 1500
I find the painted protectors much better. What do you guys think???

Now the price of these accessories will seem very good. But it was a pain to get them fitted. In the process I have completely lost my faith in aftermarket dealers. It’s a pain to deal with them. I have faced them before and knew they are a pain in the a** but their incapability and disrespect for other’s cars just baffles me.Anyways I still have to get each of the accessories fine-tuned so to say.
Very small things have to be done such as
1 after fitting autocop I find the inside door locks very hard have to find a solution
2 a part of side protectors have come off will get them stuck

Still to be done

1. power windows front -6800
2. music system with front speakers-5000

Now some pics . Will continue the ownership experience in next post.

The car with the wheelcaps & painted side protectors
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IMG_0743.JPG

Painted rear bumper guard Mga
IMG_0744.JPG

IMG_0744.JPG
Ciao for now
 

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Thread Starter #3
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Congrats of your Ritz.Nice review.Any plan for alloys?
Cannot even think of them right now ( dad's cars u know and explaining spending money to parents on alloys,ICE is impossible[frustration] )

I think the wheelcaps (ritz design w/o the suzuki logo as they r aftermarket) which costed 600 and the painted rims ( costed 300) look OK for now.
I can still think of going in for swift/dzire wheelcaps which look slightly better.

right now i will just be going in for

1 front PW- MGA
2 ICE

next upgrade will be to get a

1 Tacho install from Vxi variant ( i love to rev and without tacho i am afraid to harm the engine )
2 rear parking sensors ( dont need them per se but good to have )
 
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Nice crisp review support with pics buddy

I never liked that MGA design for Ritz wheel caps. Yes Swift wheel caps are good.

When I have asked for the price of Ritz wheels caps was Rs.1600/- and I felt not worth and get some after market once but their quality is really poor and they got broken.
 
Thread Starter #5
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Nice crisp review support with pics buddy

I never liked that MGA design for Ritz wheel caps. Yes Swift wheel caps are good.

When I have asked for the price of Ritz wheels caps was Rs.1600/- and I felt not worth and get some after market once but their quality is really poor and they got broken.

Swift ones r definitely better IMO too Could have bought those but just didnt know back then.

The quality of mine ones is as good as MGA ones i feel they costed 600rs There were cheaper wheelcaps too at various price points of 300 & 450.Try to find good quality ones and they should last as long as MGA i think
 
Thread Starter #6
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Thanks for the replies guys I will reply to you but first I will complete my ownership review....

This is how the car looked on taking delivery
IMG_0737.JPG

IMG_0738.JPG

IMG_0739.JPG

IMG_0740.JPG

I asked my dad to check the odo reading in the car before taking delivery and it was 25km.Also decoded the pin it was feb 2013/Jan 2013 (don’t remember) so everything seemed fine

As I have mentioned in the post I got to see the car after 15 days of taking delivery as I was off to college.

The car has done 2450 kms as of today.

Before proceeding further I will like to inform everyone that we did not take a test drive of Ritz VVT / swift VVT/brio/i10 .Reason being we had driven all these cars at some point of time. Other reason was that Ritz P / swift P are considered among the best petrol hatchbacks engine wise so we did not find it necessary to TD these cars. They are almost considered a no-brainer in this segment.
Mind you , as will be clear from my buying procedure mentioned above in this thread, I am a person who does a lot of research before buying any expensive product so I did not just carelessly buy a car without a TD.I have a fairly good knowledge of Indian auto industry and some things are pretty obvious here such as Ritz VVT / swift VVT / brio have gr8 petrol engines or polo has the best build. To me (& dad) engine & its reliability is the most important thing in a car so we decided to go for a Ritz P.It was a safe choice.

Continuing,

Here’s is summary of good, bad and some other points

GOOD

1 excellent ground clearance (can really tackle bad roads) – did not expect it to be so good
2 Great suspension-ride is big car like – expected because the car is somewhat a large hatch (compared to wagonr/brio/i10)
3 space /boot is good
4 looks great and masculine (contrary to popular opinion but then I am comparing it to what could I have got for the same price i.e. brio (looks like a toy), i10 (feminine & too common)
5 Doesn’t seem to rattle and feels solid compared to competitors


BAD (these are troubling so I will elaborate each point)

1 engine has no power in 2nd gear – yes u read it right the famous K12 feels underpowered in city. Surprised after reading so many gr* reviews of this engine. Well I was too. The car does not pickup from the lower gears at slow speeds u will have to downshift to first otherwise the car will stall. Hell my 15 year old M800 used to pick up in even 3rd gear at crawling speeds. This single thing is a big negative in city
2 gearbox not slotting well into reverse- yes again I was surprised maruti may have flimsy light cars but they make great engines & gearboxes. Apparently it is not so.The gear does not slot in completely when u r slotting in reverse leading to the grinding sound which is heart wrenching. U have to be very careful while slotting in reverse. The SA during first service told that this is due to the fact that the reverse gear is not synchromesh Don’t know whether this is true or not.
3 AC not affective at all – Well I know Ac of different cars vary in their cooling capacity so I may be wrong. I will better explain this point with a comparison. I have a city ZX ( 1.5lt - 78bhp -idsi engine ).On a hot afternoon with temperatures outside in the range of 40 degrees, I have to run the AC at speed 4 for say 5 minutes initially and then I am comfortable at sped 1 or speed 2.In fact I cannot tolerate any higher speed. I am very comfortable if I follow this procedure
During the exactly same afternoon I mention the AC speed at 4 continuously throughout my drive even after an hour drive I require it to be at speed 4.During this period I may even feel a little hot and wish the AC was better.
Also I think that periodically the AC throws out hotter air even though the temp knob is at maximum. This happens for few seconds and then its back to normal performance

One more point. My dad who has an eye for detail and is very experienced when it comes to cars also has the same feelings. He recently drove someone’s brand new brio and he felt that the car has much better pickup in 2nd gear and has much better driveability in the city.

I hope I can somehow solve the problems above and be satisfied with my purchase. I intend to visit MASS soon and will keep on updating this thread

Ciao for now
 
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@PH

Nice review man, what is your experience about body roll on Ritz and the bumpyness
Yeah there is body roll but that i knew about before buying the car since it is a tall boy.Believe me it is still much much better than other tall cars or ladder on frame SUV's I will say it is pretty good for such a tall vehicle.On the other hand i find the ride and suspension setup spot on......imparts a big car feel.
 
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Honda city Zx has great A/c which cools its larger cabin within minutes even the car is under the hot sun. May be the A/c non effectiveness you feel in the Ritz is may be due to you compare the same with city. The other 2 problems you mentioned is usual in a Maruti petrol car except 800. regarding the Bumpyness, I think it is less in petrol version compared to Ritz diesel. Right?
 
Thread Starter #12
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Honda city Zx has great A/c which cools its larger cabin within minutes even the car is under the hot sun. May be the A/c non effectiveness you feel in the Ritz is may be due to you compare the same with city. The other 2 problems you mentioned is usual in a Maruti petrol car except 800. regarding the Bumpyness, I think it is less in petrol version compared to Ritz diesel. Right?
You maybe correct that i find the ritz's AC not as affective in comparison to the honda city.To give u an idea about the difference,I will say if i rate the AC of city 10/10
I will rate the ritz'z AC only 4/10.I somehow dont feel that there should be so much of a difference b/w the ac's.This is the reason i wrote that ritz's AC is inaffective.


The other 2 problems you mentioned is usual in a Maruti petrol car except 800.
I have no idea regarding the same.

regarding the Bumpyness, I think it is less in petrol version compared to Ritz diesel. Right?
I dont know,but i dont find the ritz as bumpy as Gurrala74 mentioned.So again u may be right .
 
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If I am not wrong here, the diesel one weighs more than a petrol one, so diesel one should be more planted and should not create bumpy feeling[thinking]
 
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If I am not wrong here, the diesel one weighs more than a petrol one, so diesel one should be more planted and should not create bumpy feeling[thinking]
No Gurrala,the diesel one weighs more than a petrol one, diesel car has more stiffer suspension.In Ritz, front seats this is OK, but in the back seats the body roll and this stiff suspension makes the travel difficult compared to other petrol cars in local roads.

Little OT- My friend has Ritz VDI which crossed 65K km in less than 2 years and the stock tires lasted almost 60K including spare. As per him, traveling in ritz back seat is like traveling in a bunch and he loves to travel in my Esteem rear seat. I also experienced the same.
 
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