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#1
Prologue
Soon after the purchase of an first generation face lifted pre-owned Honda city 1.3L Petrol, need arises for alternate fuel option increased daily run of my dad. We started looking for a suitable CNG kit for our recently purchased Honda city, but few mechanics suggested us against the kit for this 1.54L KM old car and this triggers our search for a brand new car for my dad in exchange of this old one.
Why CNG?
Diesel variants are out of list due to high initial capital cost and left us with only two options CNG and LPG, due to scarce availability and higher per km run compare to CNG we choose this fuel option.
We considered following hatchback's in order of our preference:
1) Hyundai Santro
2) Maruti Suzuki WagonR
3) Volkswagen Polo
4) Ford Figo
5) Maruti Suzuki Ritz
6) Maruti Suzuki Alto K10
Test drove all the above cars and finally selected WagonR with factory fitted CNG kit, this time both my mind and heart was saying Hyundai Santro with dealer fitted CNG kit but at last Maruti Suzuki WagonR wins the race.
Why Maruti Suzuki WagonR Green?
Here is the thought process for above mentioned hatchback's one by one:
1) Hyundai Santro: Since the launch of this car i wanted to purchase it one day, but on each occasion I missed this opportunity narrowly due to one or another reason and same thing happened again.
I like the peppy drive and solid built of this car, and design of this car is fabulous my most of the friends had this car but this time spoiler is a few months old new rule of Hyundai according to which exchange bonus will be honored for 6 months old ownership.
Why this rule? To eliminate the chances of old scraped car being exchanged for the benefit of exchange bonus like a 10K, Maruti 800 car being exchanged for 30K (10K cost +20K exchange bonus) but IMO core purpose is still defeated. Hyundai is only going down the drain, so this throws out my favorite car out of the list.
2) Maruti Suzuki WagonR: Being a previous owner of two Maruti cars and out of which one is Maruti Suzuki WagonR itself you probably tend to knows all pros and cons of this car, only good thing in favor of Maruti is that they are cheaper to purchase and easier on pockets to maintain.
I hate trademark rattling noises of Maruti and boxy design of WagonR but still same is VFM, I think people hardly buy this car for its looks; We all like WagonR for its all around view, comfortable seating position, roomy interior and easy ingress/outgress, company fitted CNG kit was the final thing which tilted everything in favor of this car.
3) Volkswagen Polo: Why this car is in the CNG purchase list? Yes it has a soft corner in my heart and sometimes I am little biased towards it. Excellent fit and finish and unmatchable ride and handling, a great car to own, we eliminated this due to compatibility issues with CNG kit, I tried hard to convince my dad for Trendline TDI but rates are quite steep now due to recent few hikes in prices, so this car was out of budget and out of list for us.
4) Ford Figo: Again a very good vehicle with perfect engine but cost cutting is visible at every nook and corner, great vehicle to drive and you will get good VFM overall but still I am not happy with the overall build quality of this vehicle, we was looking for both Petrol and Diesel variant but somehow it didn’t fit in our bills and this car was out of list for us.
5) Maruti Suzuki Ritz: Yes I missed Diesel Ritz quite narrowly during the purchase of my diesel hatchback few months backs, I liked the design and seating height inside the car ingress and outgress is quite easy with big roomy interior, this time too we are looking for both Petrol and Diesel variant but somehow it didn’t fit in our bills again and this car was out of list for us.
6) Maruti Suzuki Alto K10: This car is cheapest to maintain and easier to own, same is the only plus point apart from that didn’t find much to write about it. We ended up booking this car VXI trim but cancelled the booking next day, our earlier plan was to run this car in petrol mode for few months and then opt for aftermarket CNG kit but I somehow manage to convince my dad for factory fitted CNG kit and Wagon R due reliability and more space respectively.
Maruti Suzuki WagonR Cost
Presently Maruti Suzuki WagonR green comes only in LXi trim so no other choice left with us, one pro limited edition WagonR was available with 30K accessories (As claimed by Maruti) but I found them quite cheap on Waggy (no offence please) I out-rightly refused for this limited edition car which they are offering to me on payment of extra 13-15K.
I paid total 4.424L onroad, cost of few accessories were billed separately and above this amount.
Offer, Discounts and accessories:
1) Basic kit for 1.4k to 1.5k which includes mud flaps, temple, textile mat, car perfume.
2) Corporate discount, we got Indian Army corporate discount of 9K
3) 27K cash discount
4) 8K worth free music system which we upgraded by paying 3.5K extra
5) 9.99% special ROI scheme from HDFC and ICICI bank
5) 4.9K paid separately for central lock
Dealer experience:
Initially we booked our car via Magic Auto but due to better deal offered by Rana motors on our old car we switched our booking to them. Our SA kept his promise and deliver this car within 2 hrs after the loan approval.
ICICI Bank experience
We had a horrible experience with this bank in past auto loans and this time there is no exception.
Since our SA at Magic Auto had insisted for this bank we submitted our documents and got the approval within 24Hrs from the bank, the problem started after we tried to transfer this approved loan to Rana motors, the representative of ICICI bank at Magic Auto delayed our file transfer for more than 2 days and they only transfer the file after writing mails to everyone.
No response to our mails from senior management at ICICI bank or Maruti Suzuki. Shockingly Maruti Suzuki customer care refused to accept our complain against their dealer Magic auto which was hand in glove with ICICI bank in delaying our loan file transfer.
I recommend everyone to be cautious while dealing with Magic Auto and ICICI bank.
Here are the few pics to start with, will soon post lots of pics and details about this car
Index
1) Post 1000KM and first service updates
Soon after the purchase of an first generation face lifted pre-owned Honda city 1.3L Petrol, need arises for alternate fuel option increased daily run of my dad. We started looking for a suitable CNG kit for our recently purchased Honda city, but few mechanics suggested us against the kit for this 1.54L KM old car and this triggers our search for a brand new car for my dad in exchange of this old one.
Why CNG?
Diesel variants are out of list due to high initial capital cost and left us with only two options CNG and LPG, due to scarce availability and higher per km run compare to CNG we choose this fuel option.
We considered following hatchback's in order of our preference:
1) Hyundai Santro
2) Maruti Suzuki WagonR
3) Volkswagen Polo
4) Ford Figo
5) Maruti Suzuki Ritz
6) Maruti Suzuki Alto K10
Test drove all the above cars and finally selected WagonR with factory fitted CNG kit, this time both my mind and heart was saying Hyundai Santro with dealer fitted CNG kit but at last Maruti Suzuki WagonR wins the race.
Why Maruti Suzuki WagonR Green?
Here is the thought process for above mentioned hatchback's one by one:
1) Hyundai Santro: Since the launch of this car i wanted to purchase it one day, but on each occasion I missed this opportunity narrowly due to one or another reason and same thing happened again.
I like the peppy drive and solid built of this car, and design of this car is fabulous my most of the friends had this car but this time spoiler is a few months old new rule of Hyundai according to which exchange bonus will be honored for 6 months old ownership.
Why this rule? To eliminate the chances of old scraped car being exchanged for the benefit of exchange bonus like a 10K, Maruti 800 car being exchanged for 30K (10K cost +20K exchange bonus) but IMO core purpose is still defeated. Hyundai is only going down the drain, so this throws out my favorite car out of the list.
2) Maruti Suzuki WagonR: Being a previous owner of two Maruti cars and out of which one is Maruti Suzuki WagonR itself you probably tend to knows all pros and cons of this car, only good thing in favor of Maruti is that they are cheaper to purchase and easier on pockets to maintain.
I hate trademark rattling noises of Maruti and boxy design of WagonR but still same is VFM, I think people hardly buy this car for its looks; We all like WagonR for its all around view, comfortable seating position, roomy interior and easy ingress/outgress, company fitted CNG kit was the final thing which tilted everything in favor of this car.
3) Volkswagen Polo: Why this car is in the CNG purchase list? Yes it has a soft corner in my heart and sometimes I am little biased towards it. Excellent fit and finish and unmatchable ride and handling, a great car to own, we eliminated this due to compatibility issues with CNG kit, I tried hard to convince my dad for Trendline TDI but rates are quite steep now due to recent few hikes in prices, so this car was out of budget and out of list for us.
4) Ford Figo: Again a very good vehicle with perfect engine but cost cutting is visible at every nook and corner, great vehicle to drive and you will get good VFM overall but still I am not happy with the overall build quality of this vehicle, we was looking for both Petrol and Diesel variant but somehow it didn’t fit in our bills and this car was out of list for us.
5) Maruti Suzuki Ritz: Yes I missed Diesel Ritz quite narrowly during the purchase of my diesel hatchback few months backs, I liked the design and seating height inside the car ingress and outgress is quite easy with big roomy interior, this time too we are looking for both Petrol and Diesel variant but somehow it didn’t fit in our bills again and this car was out of list for us.
6) Maruti Suzuki Alto K10: This car is cheapest to maintain and easier to own, same is the only plus point apart from that didn’t find much to write about it. We ended up booking this car VXI trim but cancelled the booking next day, our earlier plan was to run this car in petrol mode for few months and then opt for aftermarket CNG kit but I somehow manage to convince my dad for factory fitted CNG kit and Wagon R due reliability and more space respectively.
Maruti Suzuki WagonR Cost
Presently Maruti Suzuki WagonR green comes only in LXi trim so no other choice left with us, one pro limited edition WagonR was available with 30K accessories (As claimed by Maruti) but I found them quite cheap on Waggy (no offence please) I out-rightly refused for this limited edition car which they are offering to me on payment of extra 13-15K.
I paid total 4.424L onroad, cost of few accessories were billed separately and above this amount.
Offer, Discounts and accessories:
1) Basic kit for 1.4k to 1.5k which includes mud flaps, temple, textile mat, car perfume.
2) Corporate discount, we got Indian Army corporate discount of 9K
3) 27K cash discount
4) 8K worth free music system which we upgraded by paying 3.5K extra
5) 9.99% special ROI scheme from HDFC and ICICI bank
5) 4.9K paid separately for central lock
Dealer experience:
Initially we booked our car via Magic Auto but due to better deal offered by Rana motors on our old car we switched our booking to them. Our SA kept his promise and deliver this car within 2 hrs after the loan approval.
ICICI Bank experience
We had a horrible experience with this bank in past auto loans and this time there is no exception.
Since our SA at Magic Auto had insisted for this bank we submitted our documents and got the approval within 24Hrs from the bank, the problem started after we tried to transfer this approved loan to Rana motors, the representative of ICICI bank at Magic Auto delayed our file transfer for more than 2 days and they only transfer the file after writing mails to everyone.
No response to our mails from senior management at ICICI bank or Maruti Suzuki. Shockingly Maruti Suzuki customer care refused to accept our complain against their dealer Magic auto which was hand in glove with ICICI bank in delaying our loan file transfer.
I recommend everyone to be cautious while dealing with Magic Auto and ICICI bank.
Here are the few pics to start with, will soon post lots of pics and details about this car
Index
1) Post 1000KM and first service updates
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