Chevrolet Sail LS ABS TCDi Ownership Review


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Well, buying a new car is a no childs play in this era…. Where competition is tough and you have so many choices. When we were planning for this new car following things were a must have:-

• It should be a sedan ( we have a history of M800, Alto and Wagon r) , so that’s why we needed something new and secondly we wanted to own a “big car”, my brother and me like to call it a jahaaz.

• It should be diesel ( just love that turbo kick and ofcos economy)

• The car must have ABS with EBD and air bags (because we think with the expressways and speed crossing 100 kmph mark, it is a must have.)

• We think of AC, heater, power steering, power windows as standard features.
So our budget was approx 7.5 lac to 8 lac on road.

Here is the list of contenders that were fighting:

Swift.

Honda Amaze.

Chevrolet Sail.

Toyota Etios.

Initially Swift was the main contender and we were almost certain that we are going to buy swift. Everybody knows swift, so I won’t discuss it.

But as were going to spend this huge sum so we decided to check and test thoroughly each car.

• First we went to meet Miss Etios: here are the ratings:

Exterior Looks: Average (and since I see most of them as taxi’s so I was getting this taxi feeling, so hence a no no)

Interior: when i sat inside, I just wanted to get out, bad quality plastic; it looked like as if recycled material has been used. The Dash board – Toyota got to be kidding me, it has a painted speedo meter panel.

Pick up and handling: well after all it belongs to Toyota family, so the pick up and handling was good.

Pricing: the model with abs would have costed around 8 lac INR, which is slightly out of budget.

Decision : Not buying.

• Second in Line was Honda Amaze:

Exterior: Although there are reviews saying it is amazing, but I wasn’t really amazed.

Interior: Frank enough, when I sat in the drivers seat, looking at the dash board, I got the feeling as if I am sitting in Maruti 800. In short it doesn’t give the feeling that a car worth 8 lac should give.

Pick up and Handling: were comparable to all other cars, only the engine makes more noise and vibration (being all aluminium engine). The stereo is decent, but the top end model was getting out of budget.

Decision: Not buying.

After rejecting 2 cars out of 4, me n my brother was getting a feeling that just book the damn swift, but then my brother insisted that we go and check Chevrolet Sail, we went to see the car in Chandigarh.

Chevrolet Sail: First thing which we noticed was the pricing – it was well in our budget and even second top model had abs ebd and driver air bag etc. Hence this car was to be taken seriously.

Exterior: Well we compared it with other 3 cars, its better than Etios and Amaze and gives more bang for my buck. It is longer than swift too which gives it more space in the boot.

Interior: Now for this since only other contender was swift, so we were comparing it with only swift. Three people can easily accomodate in the rear seat of Sail, where as its kind of challenge for 3 people sitting in swift, especially in long rides.

Swift VDI vs Sail LS ABS.

ABS: Only Sail LS ABS had it and that too with EBD along with a driver air bag. Swift vdi doesn’t gets anything.

Space: Sail wins on this parameter big time. In swift, me n my brother along with one more person doesn’t sit comfortably in swift (after all we belong to “khatte peetey khaan daan se”), but when we sat in Sail, we were comfortable. One bad thing about sail is that whoever sits in the middle will have to bear with the seat, as the sail has that folding glass thing which comes out of the seat. It really gets uncomfortable, but then we thought we can modify it when we will get the seat covers.

One thing which we noticed when we went to the test ride is that the Sail has better visibility while driving.

The engine is same in both swift and sail, except that the Chevrolet has tuned it better for city driving.

This second to top model also gets a stereo which is really decent and you may connect upto 5 phones via Bluetooth to it. Swift vdi doesn’t gets anything.

Pickup: it is comparable to swift, actually I must say equal, even with ac on top power, it was performing well.

Boot Space: again sail wins big time.

The servicing schedule of the car is once every 15000kms, whereas for Swift, it is every 10000KMS.

Looking at the price and the features it offered we decided to go for Sail LS ABS.

Booking & Delivery:

My brother went to book the car at Rajvir motors, Shimla. The booking amount was 25000 INR and they promised to get the vehicle delivered by 15th May. Since I was getting married on 28th May, my brother wanted to gift it to me. We didn’t receive any calls from Rajvir motors about the scheduled delivery, it was on 9th May when we enquired, they said that the car will not be delivered by 15th as it is not even billed yet. Our all programme was about to get screwed. My brother wrote an email to Chevrolet stating the situation, they were kind enough to get the car shipped on 18th may and finally the vehicle was delivered to the showroom in shimla on 24th May,2013. The people from staff didn’t even call us then to tell the car has come, it was the finance DSA who took the pain and let us know the car has arrived. The car was delivered on 26th May, 2013.

Other details:

Model : Chevrolet Sail LS ABS Tcdi

Cost of the car 702770 INR

Insurance 21523 from Tata AIG.

Road Tax etc: 23880 INR ( Got it registered from RLA Shimla)

Post Purchase review:

After the delivery of the car, our first trip was to the Sankatmochan Temple, Shimla. We were all excited. My brother was driving the car, since the car was new, he was driving very cautiously. Later when we were about the reach home, we felt the car is not pulling itself the way it should. Our heart was like “What the hell” but then we thought that it must be due the new engine. We also played it safe and didn’t rev the engine much.

On the day two, we planned a little journey to the country side of Shimla, We travelled about 15-20 KM and there was this little light in the dash board blinking, it was such a heart break. We took our owner’s manual and found out the light that was blinking belonged to the Glow plug. We called on the toll free number of Chevrolet and asked for road side help. The dealer called us in no time, on discussing the issue with him, he said that there is nothing to worry, you may drive the car and please bring the car to the workshop tomorrow morning for the rectification of the problem. We told him, that the pick up of the vehicle is not satisfactory.

Next day we went to the dealer, The service manager was really good, he gave us first preference and got the vehicle onto the bay, there they attached the computer to do the MDI ( similar to the tech2 for maruti). The error code P0299 popped up, although they didn’t tell us about what the error code was related to, but they agreed with us that the engine is underboost. They reset the ECM, and the problem was gone. We again went for the test ride and the engine was performing very well.

On the Day 4, we had to go to Kangra, I was really excited as the Engine was performing very well, we started early in the morning. We only covered about 40 kms, The little ******* started blinking again. And the engine again died of power. Long story short – we had to travel about 400 kms with the underboost engine, although Chevrolet Helpline co-ordinated with Jaishree Motors, Kangra for the rectification, but they were of no help.

On the Day 5 again we went to Rajvir motors for the rectification and this time for sure, that we are not going to get settled with the ECM reset, and my the time, we had done our R& D regarding error code P0299. The code is for the condition of Underboost Engine. Possible diagnosis

1. Choked air intake or Diesel Filter.

2. Check for the rubber hoses.

3. Last but very rare, faulty turbo.

Mechanic and Engineer started investigating; they did the thorough MDI etc. Long story Short- there was this faulty Turbo Sensor and a choked rubber hose. After replacing the both, the Engine was alive again. It was performing nicely.

After that I have driven it about 2500 KMS in less then a month, I must the say that I am really very impressed by the car, the way it performs and the handling is superb.

I touched 160KMPH on Ropar – Chandigarh Toll road. I must say that I felt very comfortable at that speed and the car behaved very stable.
The boot space is fantastic, can accommodate 2 extra large suit case and one normal suitcase along with few small bags fixed here and there in the boot. After loading all these heavy loads, the rear of the car didn’t look bent towards the road.

The turbo kicks at about 1700rpm. The Airconditioner is fantastic, after first few minutes on full mode, it runs smooth on no. 1 mode.

After few adjustments to the stereo, it is very good, if you don’t need any sub woofers and all. The Bluetooth connectivity is really good, 5 phones can be paired and while calling handsfree, even people sitting on the rear seat can talk very smoothly.

Seats are really comfortable, but getting extra cushion when getting seat covers won’t hurt. Also I would recommend getting an aftermarket arm rest.

Company fitted gear lock costs only 1000 INR and they don’t even drill into the chassis.

The position of Power window switches is really very bad. It should have been on the drivers window.

ABS EBD works very well.

Atlast, I Think the car is really very good, its VFM. I can recommend it to anybody.

Pics coming soon

sail.jpg

front.jpg

boot.jpg

boot closeup.jpg

diesel in.jpg

diesel lid opned.jpg

stereo closeup.jpg

other knobs.jpg
 
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Re: Chevrolet Sail LS ABS Tcdi Ownership Review.

Congrats for the new car as well as your marriage. Good to know that the initial hiccups were resolved by the dealer at the earliest. Learnt one thing... that swift and sail has the same engine. All the best and wish you many more happy miles on your ride.
 
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Congratulations buddy and a very warm welcome to TAI. I am also a Chevrolet fan having used 2 Optras without any problems. They used to have a 3 year mantenance plan. Did you opt for it. It is really worth the money as all the services and problems (except accident repairs) are taken care of without any payment.
 
Thread Starter #5
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Congratulations buddy and a very warm welcome to TAI. I am also a Chevrolet fan having used 2 Optras without any problems. They used to have a 3 year mantenance plan. Did you opt for it. It is really worth the money as all the services and problems (except accident repairs) are taken care of without any payment.
Hello Srid68
I didnt opt for the 3 year maintanence package, as the car comes with 1 lac KM warranty and secondly the 3 year maintenance package is upto 45000KMS only. For 45000KMS my car will have only 3 services. Total cost of 3 services will be less than the amount paid for 3 year maintenance.
We have all the maruti vehicles prior to this, I must say that the built up quality of the vehicle is far better than Maruti.
 
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What you mentioned makes sense. The Optra needed service every 6 months and my running was lesser. I fully agree that the build quality of Chevy is lot better than Marutis
 
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Hi,
Nice write up and Congratulations. Wishing you to clock many more miles without troubles.
Even in my FIAT Linea i faced the issue sometimes where the car will not perform. Even i press the Accelerator fully, the car will move in normal speeds. By God's Grace that problem was not again noted. In the last 5000 kms, i havent faced that problem.
My guess is it may be due to some bad fuel from the Fuel pumps.
 
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Congrats dude.
Even I vote for Sail compared with sub-4m cars of its price segment. It looks cute in all angles and has got adequate features and space for the price we pay.

Wishing you happy miles ahead. Please do post more snaps (especially the interiors)
 
Thread Starter #11
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Congrats dude.
Even I vote for Sail compared with sub-4m cars of its price segment. It looks cute in all angles and has got adequate features and space for the price we pay.

Wishing you happy miles ahead. Please do post more snaps (especially the interiors)
Will be updating more pics with my 10000KM review.
 
Joined
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Congratulations for your new purchase. Very nicely written review. The vehicle is really value for money, when I took the test drive I just fell in love with it.
 

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