Advice on Buying First Car

[adhiraj]

Planning to buy a new car for myself. Really liked the Scross Zeta variant, as it has most of the utility features in it only missing out on auto wiper and headlights probably.
But having secong second thoughts on it because everyone says MS build quality is not safe and no ESP and TC feature in the car (really think I want this, as it may help in the rain or other unforseen instance).

I don't want to upgrade again in a few years. Want to use it for long term - full 15 years if it doesn't give trouble.

That said I like its drive feeling with the light and smooth clutch and gear shifting. The spacious nature of the car is also something I like. Boot space is okay for me.

Also, tried the Nexon due to its safety features but was not happy for the uneven acceleration and the clutch felt like having a kickback during the release, which i think will be a problem in heavy traffic driving in city and put strain in the legs. Both clutch and gear did not feel good. Also there was a lot of noise and vibrations in the car.

My requirements:
1. Drive should be smooth, light and relaxed.
2. Mostly city drive with little bit vacation riding (once in 2 months). Will want to go to hill station vacation rides as well.
3. 30km per day city travel in medium to heavy traffic (will shift back to bangalore after the pandemic)
4. Safe for highway rides at speed of about 100-110kmph.
5. Spacious.
6. Should have most utility features like automatic climate control, rear window wiper-defogger, an okay music system and such.

Questions:
1. How important is ESP and TC in cars? Should i not worry and just buy Scross? Is it not that useful? At what speed does ESP become useful?
2. How about build quality of Scross?
3. Should i wait for the 2022 model relaunch, will it probably have ESP included this time.
4. Any other suggestions.
I am a novice in terms of mechanics of cars so long post.

 

[vikyjoshi]

hi Adhiraj,

Welcome to TAI.
Suzuki cars are synonymous to car for an average Indian. Almost everyone goes for Maruti when they want to purchase their first car and why they wont. Suzuki makes fuss free cars. Generally their cars offer fuss free ownership. they skim on Safety aspect and provide fuss free ownership and good features. Thus thier car sell and sell really well.
I had owned WagonR for good 6 years it was good city car, ASS was not cheap by any means. I felt car was neutral. It was like any other car. then I purchase Storme, the Dreaded white elephant, the Tata car the famous Hit or Miss Tata service expeirence baggage. 8 years, 0 breakdown, annual expense almost same as WagonR and even today I turnback look at my Storme after parking it. This is pure indulgence and am lovingevey bitg of storme. Arethere any gremlins in Storme, yes there are, the interiors are elegant but very less bare features. Kitna deti hai should be called Kitna peeti hai for Storme. i get 10 KMPL in City aand 14KMPL on Highways. But it brings joy on my face.

So moral of the story is, if you buy the car you love/like then you tend to ignore the slight niggles that come your way. IF you dont then even small tick sound will ruin your ownership experience. So for your car you should buy the car you like.

Safety its an important aspect. I would choose Safety any day, and now we have cars in every segment which have high safery ratings thanks to Tata and Mahindra for that. Suzuki definitely skip on this aspect and I detest them for this.

now SCross is said to be best built Suzuki car but that not tested so will not consider it safe car like Brezza (which has been tested and unlike other cars it scores healthy 4 stars) Mechanically SCross is sorted, lots of space and engine department wise Suzuki does produce very refined petrol engines. So apart from safety there is nothing to complaint about Scross.

ESP comes in helps in high speed and loss in traction scenarios where it helps in maintaining the direction of car and prevents over and under steer of car. So yes its good to have feature in car esp when you would be doing frequent high speed drives.

 

[bbarve]

4. Apart from Nexon which you have already tried, I can suggest 2 more options to you - Venue and jazz/wrv. With Hyundai/Honda it will be smoother service experience for you than other, but at the same time it will be bit expensive too.
From safety perspective, these are very good considering the safety rating. Feature-wise they are rich too. So I think good to have test drives before you decide. All the best for your purchase. Do update us about it. :)