Re: Bobo: My 2007 Esteem VXI - Long term Ownership
Bobo Comes to me
I returned from UK in 2012 after my marriage and by then my parents had migrated to Bangalore. Since my sister and my brother in law stay with my parents, my dad had the Esteem and also bought a Honda City. My brother in law had an i20. Since I live near my wife’s place of work I need a car and instead of buying a new car my dad gifted me the Esteem, so bobo is mine and I was so happy and proud to drive around in him.
Wise men make wise decisions
Boy it was the right decision my dad made of not letting me buy a new car. After driving in UK, driving in Bangalore was like driving in a battle field where I am driving to avoid landmines. Bikes coming left right center, potholes so big that, why send any mission to moon, we have bigger craters right here in namma Bangaluru. If you survive all that then the blue color scud missile (BMTC bus) comes to destroy you. In 2012 the roads in Bangalore were so bad that I was contemplating removing all shock absorbers from my Esteem and re installing them once the roads are fixed.
When my dad gave me the Esteem in 2012 even though it was 5 yrs old it had only clocked 20000 km on ODO. He had hardly driven the car. He had replaced the tires with Michelin (very good tiers I still have the same tires and still going strong). Now the ODO reads 75000 kms. So the tires have done 55000 kms.
The car so far
So this is the second Esteem in our family, when I was in college my dad owned a white 1995 Esteem LX which had the original Japanese engine.
Esteem is one reliable car that Suzuki has made.
- The car is 7+ years old and has seen the worst of Bangalore roads still there is no rattling inside or out.
- Very good suspensions. My friend has a VW polo and when 4 people sit in his car it touches all the bumps on the road. Esteem with same 4 people never once has touched any bump. It’s a very low car but with amazing suspensions and GC.
- The car is best suited for Bangalore as it’s a small sedan and can navigate any small road in Bangalore and parking is a piece of cake.
- The plus side is it’s a sedan and has a very good boot space to put all the shopping away.
- The FE is average in city driving I get around 10kmpl with ac on and on highways I get 16kmpl with A/C on.
- The max speed that it can do is 130Kmph and after that the steering starts to shake.
- The A/C is excellent; just fill in the gas when it runs low otherwise no problem and it can be compared to any of the best cars of today.
- Very Reliable. We have done 5 long drives and till date the car has never broken down not even flat tire (touch wood).
There was this one long drive when five of us had gone to Calicut and on the way back we had to cross Bandipur tiger reserve. We were not aware that it closes by 9:30 pm , by the time we reached, the road had closed and we had to take a detour. It was a state highway but the roads were fit only for off road vehicles. But in spite of it besides me everyone else was sound asleep.
There was this time when I was really busy with work and I couldn’t get the car serviced for 15000kms, and not even once did the car trouble me.
I am someone who likes to keep the car in stock condition so it’s still the same below are few pictures I had taken a few days back.