Thread Starter
#1
I have been a bike lover since my college days and enjoyed riding my fiery red Suzuki Fiero that my father bought for me in 2002. I have covered a lot of ground on my bike all these years, visited many places, and have a lot of fond memories of all those journeys. In 2005, when I relocated to Pune from Bangalore, I took my bike along and covered many places there as well. I brought the bike back to Bangalore with me in 2011 when I relocated back to Bangalore again. Over the years, the fiero has served me diligently, without any major breakdowns or issues.
Never in the past 12 years did I ever feel the need for a car except for the time when my parents or my in-laws visit us here in Bangalore. I never gave a second thought to it, because I used to hire a taxi whenever required and he was always a phone call away whenever his services were required. Till this date I consider hiring a taxi to be much more convenient & fuss free. You don’t have to worry about the mileage that you are getting, no maintenance, no EMIs, and since a taxi comes along with a driver, you need not care about your parking woes or traffic hassles. Lastly, you save yourself a lot of heartburn if a biker or a fellow car driver scrapes the car bumpers or bangs the ORVM at a traffic signal. Trust me when I tell you that this happens a lot in Bangalore, especially at the Silk Board signal.
Nevertheless, going out together as a family was gradually becoming a challenge for us. Even though I received numerous hints from parents, family and in-laws that it was time for me to buy a car, I didn’t pay much attention at the time. However, come 2014, the increasingly frequent requirements of going out together as a group, made me give this matter some serious thought and I started looking at the available car options.
But, before I could look at cars, I had to answer 2 primary questions myself:
Which Car???
Once the above 2 questions about the car type & the fuel choice were answered, I began my search…
Since my father owns a 2006 Wagon R, the very first car that came to my mind when I began my search was the first-gen Wagon-R. To me, that vehicle represents comfort, convenience, space, and above all fuss-free ownership. I am sure that those who own that vehicle can vouch for what I am saying. All these years that we have owned that vehicle, there have never been any issues with that vehicle, except for routine wear & tear. That car is still going strong and we intend to keep it for as long as possible. However, please note that I am referring only to the first generation of Wagon-R’s, the one with the square-ish windows and reclining second row seats. The later iterations, especially the Sting-Ray were a huge disappointment to me. I still don’t understand why the designers at Maruti are hell bent on spoiling such a nice car. Anyways, since our first car was a Wagon-R, all my expectations & requirements from a car were derived with respect to the Wagon-R itself. In fact, so accustomed was I to that vehicle that I was seriously contemplating buying a pre-owned first-gen Wagon-R, but my wife and parents were dead against it. Two similar models in the same household didn’t make any sense to them. I’ve had numerous discussions with my parents & wife regarding this and each time I was out-voted 3 to 1. Finally I had to give in to their demands and look out for other models. However, even though my family had out-voted the Wagon-R, I would compare each & every car to it, be it a hatchback or a sedan. To be honest, I must admit that my judgement was totally biased towards the Wagon-R and other car model’s had very little chances of making it to my final list.
Since the Wagon-R was not an option anymore, I jotted down the following requirements as ‘compulsory’ & ‘must-have’ features, and started looking at the various options available in the market today:
Some other points which were ‘nice to have’ but not compulsory:
I had read up a lot of ownership & official review threads on T-BHP and on TAI on a lot of cars and was very impressed with them; these threads made my decision making a lot easier, so much so that I ruled out a few of the car simply by reading their reviews online. I simply looked at their pros & cons list and compared them against my requirements. Though many people might frown upon this method of selection and may disagree with me on this point, but with the number of choices available in the market today it becomes difficult to try out each and every one of them.
I only looked and test drove the Ertiga, the Skoda Rapid, the Honda City and the Fiat Linea before making my choice. Don’t get me wrong, each of the 4 cars are excellent in their own right and our forum is full of all their plus points, I am only going to list down the reasons why I ended up rejecting them.
Taking all of the above points into account, the Ertiga seemed to be the only logical choice. Mind you, I did wait long enough for the Mobilio to be launched, but the outrageous price quoted for that car and the pathetic build quality made me change my mind. I don’t understand how and why did the people at Honda think that they could push such a crap product in the Indian market and get away with it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the price when I buy something but I do expect the product to be worth the price being quoted for it. The Mobilio with its Brio lineage and Amaze like build quality didn’t really cut it for me.
Anyways, coming back to my car choice, the Ertiga felt almost like an extension of the Wagon-R in all respects with space for 2 more passengers and a diesel engine. Moreover, that vehicle seemed to tick almost all the right boxes in my requirement list. I could live with the missing Bluetooth calling facilities or the folding ORVMs, but the ZDi edition comes with the steering controls so I was happy.
Booking & Payment Decisions
Now that I had narrowed down the car, it was time to think about the payment mode. Though I had the cash to make an outright purchase, I didn’t want to spend that much cash in one go. I also contemplated taking a car loan but didn’t feel like paying interest while I had enough cash, hence, decided to go for a Car Overdraft Loan. For those who are aware of this facility would know how much relief it provides in the long run. The loan processing took all of 2 days and was processed from SBI.
All things done, I called up the Bimal Maruti guys on 29th September, 2014 and asked them to come and collect the booking amount. I paid Rs. 5000 towards the booking amount and thus began my wait…
While I was waiting for my car to come, I found the time between booking and the delivery date to be excruciatingly unbearable. Neither can you wait for your car to come, nor can you do anything to speed up the delivery process. Nevertheless, after a wait of nearly a month, I received a call from the sales guys at Bimal on 18th October, 2014 saying that my car has reached Bangalore and I could take delivery of the vehicle on the 20th. I was about to say yes to the guy, when I suddenly realised that I need to do a PDI of the car before I could get it registered to my name. Hence, I asked him to wait till I completed the PDI and carry out the registration only after I gave my go ahead. The next Monday, I went to Bimal Maruti’s stock yard with the TAI checklist and completed my PDI. To my surprise, the manufacturing date on the car’s VIN was October 2014 and the car had only 7 KMS on the odometer. I completed my PDI and gave my go ahead to the sales person to get the car registered. The finance dept. guys from Bimal had already completed all the loan formalities and I made the balance payment to them via cheque the same day itself.
Delivery
On 21st October, 2014, Dhanteras day, the SA brought the car along with the keys and all necessary documents for the delivery. Since my house has a temple right across the street, I asked him to take it there for the puja and I took delivery of the vehicle there. I did make a note of the odometer reading at the time and finished a detailed inspection of the vehicle before the puja as well. The odometer reading was 46 which was satisfactory given the distance between my house, the workshop and the RTO.
Never in the past 12 years did I ever feel the need for a car except for the time when my parents or my in-laws visit us here in Bangalore. I never gave a second thought to it, because I used to hire a taxi whenever required and he was always a phone call away whenever his services were required. Till this date I consider hiring a taxi to be much more convenient & fuss free. You don’t have to worry about the mileage that you are getting, no maintenance, no EMIs, and since a taxi comes along with a driver, you need not care about your parking woes or traffic hassles. Lastly, you save yourself a lot of heartburn if a biker or a fellow car driver scrapes the car bumpers or bangs the ORVM at a traffic signal. Trust me when I tell you that this happens a lot in Bangalore, especially at the Silk Board signal.
Nevertheless, going out together as a family was gradually becoming a challenge for us. Even though I received numerous hints from parents, family and in-laws that it was time for me to buy a car, I didn’t pay much attention at the time. However, come 2014, the increasingly frequent requirements of going out together as a group, made me give this matter some serious thought and I started looking at the available car options.
But, before I could look at cars, I had to answer 2 primary questions myself:
Sedan or a Hatchback?
This was the biggest & the trickiest question for me to answer and I spent many sleepless hours trying to decide. My mind kept playing tricks and confused me a lot about this, one day I would decide that a hatchback would be good; the very next day my mind would vote in favour of the sedan. This indecisiveness irritated my family a lot, especially my wife, to whom I would keep telling all my reasons and explanations.
Petrol or Diesel?
Though a diesel-work horse suits you best when your daily running is more than 30 Km/day, the pickup and convenience of driving a petrol engine within city limits cannot be matched. The premium pricing of the diesel models also don’t help. Additionally, having been used to driving the Wagon-R, I still had to undergo the diesel engine driving curve. My daily office commute is about 23 kilometres both ways, which isn’t that great a distance to warrant a diesel work-horse. However, I concluded that going forward, my travels will increase and since I plan on keeping the car for the next 8-10 years, getting the diesel variant would make more sense.
This was the biggest & the trickiest question for me to answer and I spent many sleepless hours trying to decide. My mind kept playing tricks and confused me a lot about this, one day I would decide that a hatchback would be good; the very next day my mind would vote in favour of the sedan. This indecisiveness irritated my family a lot, especially my wife, to whom I would keep telling all my reasons and explanations.
Petrol or Diesel?
Though a diesel-work horse suits you best when your daily running is more than 30 Km/day, the pickup and convenience of driving a petrol engine within city limits cannot be matched. The premium pricing of the diesel models also don’t help. Additionally, having been used to driving the Wagon-R, I still had to undergo the diesel engine driving curve. My daily office commute is about 23 kilometres both ways, which isn’t that great a distance to warrant a diesel work-horse. However, I concluded that going forward, my travels will increase and since I plan on keeping the car for the next 8-10 years, getting the diesel variant would make more sense.
Which Car???
Once the above 2 questions about the car type & the fuel choice were answered, I began my search…
Since my father owns a 2006 Wagon R, the very first car that came to my mind when I began my search was the first-gen Wagon-R. To me, that vehicle represents comfort, convenience, space, and above all fuss-free ownership. I am sure that those who own that vehicle can vouch for what I am saying. All these years that we have owned that vehicle, there have never been any issues with that vehicle, except for routine wear & tear. That car is still going strong and we intend to keep it for as long as possible. However, please note that I am referring only to the first generation of Wagon-R’s, the one with the square-ish windows and reclining second row seats. The later iterations, especially the Sting-Ray were a huge disappointment to me. I still don’t understand why the designers at Maruti are hell bent on spoiling such a nice car. Anyways, since our first car was a Wagon-R, all my expectations & requirements from a car were derived with respect to the Wagon-R itself. In fact, so accustomed was I to that vehicle that I was seriously contemplating buying a pre-owned first-gen Wagon-R, but my wife and parents were dead against it. Two similar models in the same household didn’t make any sense to them. I’ve had numerous discussions with my parents & wife regarding this and each time I was out-voted 3 to 1. Finally I had to give in to their demands and look out for other models. However, even though my family had out-voted the Wagon-R, I would compare each & every car to it, be it a hatchback or a sedan. To be honest, I must admit that my judgement was totally biased towards the Wagon-R and other car model’s had very little chances of making it to my final list.
Since the Wagon-R was not an option anymore, I jotted down the following requirements as ‘compulsory’ & ‘must-have’ features, and started looking at the various options available in the market today:
- Good interior space along with decent boot space
- All safety features compulsory (Airbags, ABS+EBD)
- Rear-defogger for rainy days
- Decent head space (Wagon-R effect)
- Good ground clearance
- Comfortable during long drives
- Power Windows
- Dead Pedal
- Excellent Mileage (approx. 15+ km/pl). Being an Indian, I find it hard to expect less)
Some other points which were ‘nice to have’ but not compulsory:
- Bluetooth Calling
- Foldable ORVMs
- Steering mounted controls
I had read up a lot of ownership & official review threads on T-BHP and on TAI on a lot of cars and was very impressed with them; these threads made my decision making a lot easier, so much so that I ruled out a few of the car simply by reading their reviews online. I simply looked at their pros & cons list and compared them against my requirements. Though many people might frown upon this method of selection and may disagree with me on this point, but with the number of choices available in the market today it becomes difficult to try out each and every one of them.
I only looked and test drove the Ertiga, the Skoda Rapid, the Honda City and the Fiat Linea before making my choice. Don’t get me wrong, each of the 4 cars are excellent in their own right and our forum is full of all their plus points, I am only going to list down the reasons why I ended up rejecting them.
Skoda Rapid:
- I was and still am very impressed with the Rapid, but my parents and wife rejected that car outright due to the transmission hump in the rear seating area.
- The second reason for rejection was the outrageously priced spare parts.
- Last, and the biggest deal breaker - the scary Skoda After-Sales-Service. The A.S.S is the most important part of a car’s ownership. Simply buying a car is not enough; you need a good service framework to continue the car’s maintenance.
- I simply didn’t like the new design of the 2014 models. It seems that almost all auto makers are trying to imitate the fluidic design of the Hyundai Verna. I consider the pre-2014 design to the best design from Honda till date.
- Ground Clearance still not satisfactory – I live in Bangalore and it is a city of potholes and bumpers. Moreover, the area where I live, Vijaya Bank Layout, seems to be especially devoid of plain, tarred roads. My area has a lot of speed bumps immediately followed by deep potholes and construction debris strewn across in all directions; while taking a test drive, the car got scraped twice and each time, I could feel a slight aching sensation in my heart, even though the car was a test car.
- Insufficient foot space between the clutch and the side wall. I tried to adjust my feet twice with different footwear but kept getting my foot stuck.
- Second row seating not sufficient for 3 people. There simply wasn’t enough shoulder space in the rear set when 3 people sit there. Furthermore, my head kept grazing the ceiling when I sat near the windows. Though I rarely sit in the rear seat, I kept wondering what would happen if I was sitting there and we went over a speed bump.
Taking all of the above points into account, the Ertiga seemed to be the only logical choice. Mind you, I did wait long enough for the Mobilio to be launched, but the outrageous price quoted for that car and the pathetic build quality made me change my mind. I don’t understand how and why did the people at Honda think that they could push such a crap product in the Indian market and get away with it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the price when I buy something but I do expect the product to be worth the price being quoted for it. The Mobilio with its Brio lineage and Amaze like build quality didn’t really cut it for me.
Anyways, coming back to my car choice, the Ertiga felt almost like an extension of the Wagon-R in all respects with space for 2 more passengers and a diesel engine. Moreover, that vehicle seemed to tick almost all the right boxes in my requirement list. I could live with the missing Bluetooth calling facilities or the folding ORVMs, but the ZDi edition comes with the steering controls so I was happy.
Booking & Payment Decisions
Now that I had narrowed down the car, it was time to think about the payment mode. Though I had the cash to make an outright purchase, I didn’t want to spend that much cash in one go. I also contemplated taking a car loan but didn’t feel like paying interest while I had enough cash, hence, decided to go for a Car Overdraft Loan. For those who are aware of this facility would know how much relief it provides in the long run. The loan processing took all of 2 days and was processed from SBI.
All things done, I called up the Bimal Maruti guys on 29th September, 2014 and asked them to come and collect the booking amount. I paid Rs. 5000 towards the booking amount and thus began my wait…
While I was waiting for my car to come, I found the time between booking and the delivery date to be excruciatingly unbearable. Neither can you wait for your car to come, nor can you do anything to speed up the delivery process. Nevertheless, after a wait of nearly a month, I received a call from the sales guys at Bimal on 18th October, 2014 saying that my car has reached Bangalore and I could take delivery of the vehicle on the 20th. I was about to say yes to the guy, when I suddenly realised that I need to do a PDI of the car before I could get it registered to my name. Hence, I asked him to wait till I completed the PDI and carry out the registration only after I gave my go ahead. The next Monday, I went to Bimal Maruti’s stock yard with the TAI checklist and completed my PDI. To my surprise, the manufacturing date on the car’s VIN was October 2014 and the car had only 7 KMS on the odometer. I completed my PDI and gave my go ahead to the sales person to get the car registered. The finance dept. guys from Bimal had already completed all the loan formalities and I made the balance payment to them via cheque the same day itself.
Delivery
On 21st October, 2014, Dhanteras day, the SA brought the car along with the keys and all necessary documents for the delivery. Since my house has a temple right across the street, I asked him to take it there for the puja and I took delivery of the vehicle there. I did make a note of the odometer reading at the time and finished a detailed inspection of the vehicle before the puja as well. The odometer reading was 46 which was satisfactory given the distance between my house, the workshop and the RTO.
Last edited:
![[:)]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Smile.gif "Smile [:)]")
Parting Note 
![[clap]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Clap.gif "Clap [clap]")
![[:D]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Big%20Smile.gif "Big Smile [:D]")
, the ‘Kitna Deti Hai’ figures. My review would be incomplete without those details. So, here goes, the initial mileage details are given below:
![[cheers]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Cheers.gif "Cheers [cheers]")
![[;)]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Wink.gif "Wink [;)]")
![[frustration]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Frustration.gif "Frustration [frustration]")
![[lol]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Laugh.gif "Laugh [lol]")
???![[evil]](https://www.theautomotiveindia.com/forums/images/smilies/Evil.gif "Evil [evil]")
