My Tall Boy Mate: Pre-worshipped Zen Estilo LXi

[PaulRocks]

Hi All,

I am sharing my experience on buying and owing a pre-owned Maruti Estilo Lxi.

Story:

Being four years of ownership of my lovely M800 (detailed ownership review is in this thread - My 4 Years Trusted Companion: My Maruti 800 Review (Now Sold)), I was planning to upgrade because of my health issues early 2014, I felt the height of M800 is not enough for a tall guy like me and started looking for pre-owned car with adequate height.

My Requirement

• The height of the car should be adequate and ingress and egress should not be difficult.
• Budget is up to 2L.
• With minimal maintenance/service and fuel efficient
• Should be easy to drive in city
• Mileage should not be more than 50,000 KM and age shouldn't be more than 6 years
• Only Petrol cars

Targeted cars

• Swift Lxi
• Hyundai Santro
• Wagon R

I hadn't dealt with any other cars before, and not sure about the A*S*S, so I was not confident enough to try with other than Maruti & Hyundai.

Search started

I looked into a couple of dealers including Hyundai advantage,Maruti true value and Mahendra first choice as well. These are the facts found as per Bangalore market conditions.

Attaching the price list of one of the branded dealer (most of these cars are not well maintained).

• Price of used cars in all branded dealers are exorbitant.
• Maruti,Honda and Toyota holds it's snob value.
• There is no predictable price for Swift cars, it may vary in seller to seller and it's better to avoid pre-owned Swift because of this reason. And all these sellers are adamant to it's face value
• Some sellers will post the ad and there won't be any hurry in selling it and ready to wait for a long time to what they expect.
• If you are hunting in used car market, patience and time is the mandatory apart from knowledge about cars.

Zeroed
The below are the cars that I have ruled out from my list,

• Swift : because of the high price
• Santro: My father in native has been experiencing service complaints in my native Kerala and the routine service bills won't be predictable it may vary from 3000 to 17000. One of my friend had bitter experience with Santro car and it's service centers in Bangalore.

Final deal

All were ruled out and only Wagon R left in my list and I was not finding any Wagon R meeting my criteria. One fine day I have seen an Maruti Zen Estilo Lxi ad in my company portal and the seller's house also near to my house. I just called the seller and inquired and here's the details of the car.

• Model: Maruti Zen Estilo Lxi,Single owner
• Year: 2007
• Color : Red
• Mileage : 46,000KM
• Tires: Changed front two to XM1 higher size and rear tires are original and rear will last for another 5 or 6K KM
• Battery: Changed in 2009, so at the end of it's life.
• Accessories: Pioneer ICE, Remote lock, Changed wiper to Boss, Changed head light with Osram night breaker, fitter Skoda type horn,Changed engine oil to Shell semi-synthetic
• Registration : Kerala
• Asking price: 2L (No negotiation)
• Any other: There's minor scratches in door, rear quarter panel and rear running board. Seat covers were seemed dirty and to be changed.

Deal closed

Since I was in a hurry and I couldn't find any good deal for any Wagon R, I was just thinking of closing the deal. I know that the same F10D engine is used in these cars befor K10 series of engines. I closed the deal with the same amount and the he's not ready for any negotiation and again I am not good any bargaining or doing any business deal. I transferred the money online and took the car and later seller himself changed the registration formalities and didn't pay anything to him for this.

LTT concerns.

Before buying this KL registered car, I was aware that some of my friends are still driving KL cars in Bangalore and just thinking that I can also ride in the same way and I can vouch my petrol bills and toll bills if any RTO authority stops me in the middle of the road. One of my colleagues shared a news that all the outside registered vehicles are being seized by RTO and need to pay Karnataka LTT+penalty to get it released. I just read a thread in T-BHP and many of outside people shared their horrific experience with Bangalore RTO authorities. I get scared and finally mentally prepared to pay if off. One day, I directly went to KR Puram RTO with all the required documents mentioned in their website. They gave a quote for the payment, at first I was not aware when is the entry date to Karnataka, so I gave the same date as in the PUC certificate that was done from Kerala by the previous owner. But they calculated penalty Rs 647 per month and the total LTT comes about 35,000. After a week or so, again I visited the office and took another quote and I gave entry date as last month and this time penalty charged only for one month and the final LTT amount is about 33,000. I took the DD from the nearest bank and submitted it. Attaching their calculations.

Additional burns to my pocket

All the Maruti parts I buy from Neema Auto spares near to my house and fit it from a trusted garage or DIY.

• The back dickey shock was very weak and dangerous if any unknown person handles it, so I changed it that costed me 440x2 = 880.
• Changed seat covers from nearest place, costed 5300 including steering and gear covers
• Bought new wooden seat cover costed 350(with some ebay coupon codes)
• Service bill ,March 2014 : about 1800
• Battery conked off during Aug 2014, replaced with Amaron flow costed me 3500 in exchange with the old Amaron
• Once day I found that air filter cover is very loose and tried DIY, the plastic holders broken and changed the full assembly including filter costed me 540 + 100 for installation
• Service bill ,March 2015 : about 1600
• Changed tires, March 2015: Back tires upgraded to Yoko Earth1 165/65, costed 6500.

Pros

• Very fuel efficient, between 11 and 14 in Bangalore traffic, 19 in high way when we travel to Bangalore to Kerala trip (full tank method). Average noted is 15KM during a Mysore trip (full tank method)
• Very easy to drive in city because of low end torque, frequent gear change to 2nd was required in my M800 and Santro, but 3rd gear provides adequate power.
• Easy ingress and egress for aged.
• Cheap to maintain.
• AC is very chill
• EPS is very light and need only my right hand to drive
• Easy to park and drive.

Cons

• Handling and dynamics is not good, I was more confident in my M800 driving in narrow lanes or traffic and handling is better in Santro.
• Handling is not good in high speeds above 100 and it will be a scary situation, it's better in Santro.
• Feel power lag during highway overtaking with AC.
• Lack of safety features

I drove only Santro,Estilo,M800,and Amby hence I can compare Estilo with the these cars. Handling capability, I can evaluate in this order Santro>M800>Estilo>Amby and service and maintenance wise Maruti always rocks.

Some of the trips done

• Bangalore - Alleppey (2 times) - Maximum speed was 120, given mileage is 18.5 KMPL with 90% AC (Full tank method).
• Apr 2014, Coorg Trip, Got average mileage of 15 KMPL with 90% AC.
• Dec 2014,Bangalore - Mysore - Got average mileage of 15 KMPL with 90% AC.

Final verdict of the deal

The car doesn't trouble me anyway it's good and I am happy with the car. Instead of a 7 year old car, going for a new car was better considering adding up all those cost including LTT.

Some of the pictures of my beauty,

 

[PaulRocks]

Pictures attached.

 

[ss80]

Hi Paul,

Congrats on the Estilo.
I too bought a Estilo Lxi (white) recently and loving it. We bangalore guys are having a meet this coming Sunday. Welcome, be a part of it.

http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...tai-meet-21-august-2016-manchanabele-dam.html

Anand

OT: looks like you stay near Ramamurthynagar. I too buy mostly mgp parts & buy it from Bharat Automobiles on Kammanhalli Main road near my home.

Most of the stuff you mentioned are true and I have gone through it. Earth 1 tyres are good, now they cost 2800 each for the 155/65 variant. Recently one of my friend bought a k series estilo, he upgraded all 5tyres to Yokohama 155/65R13 for 14k