After weeks of thinking over the car and then trying to get a DDIS in short order, she's finally here.
Why this car?
My initial thoughts were to buy a basic car, the only two requirements being an a/c and a power steering in a budget of 3.5-4.0L OTR (rough cut - wasnt too particular on it). I wanted a hatch as it would mostly be two people in the car. Was willing to sacrifise the space of a boot for the ease of parking of a hatch.
My initial consideration set was: Alto, Wagon R, Santro, i10 and the Spark. After driving all of these, I found Wagon R to be the only one suited to my height and driving posture. Unfortunately, its a mind numbingly boring car to drive IMHO.
So I moved to the next level of hatches - UVA, Palio 1.6, Getz and Swift. Wasnt too keen on a Swift as I had already kept one for a year in Bangalore and thought it would be embarassing if my first and my second car were the same.
I rejected the UVA after a test drive - didnt like the feel of the car. The Getz had the same height/driving posture problem - although to a lesser degree than the Santro. Liked the Palio but was scared off by the FE and the spare costs and availability (things like bumpers, headlamps etc - which I expected to change a couple of times in the first year of driving).
So I was finally back to the Swift. Now the choice was between the petrol and diesel. Although my running doesnt strictly justify a diesel (1000-1200 km a month), two factors convinced me. First, I found its FTD factor to be better than the petrol. Second, I figured I would recover a large part of the initial investment through the resale value and the rest through running costs.
Waiting period and delivery
I decided on the car in the last week of December. I wanted the ABS version. I decided early on that if the wait for that was too much, I'd go for the LDI (wanted the car before March). Didn't really bother with the regular VDI - I'm a fairly spartan chap and didnt really see any attraction in the nice to have extras it offered.
Initially, I was trying to get the car early through someone my fiance' knows at MUL. Unfortunately, that didn't work out. So I scouted around the dealers in Mumbai around the middle of Jan to find out if any of them had a white Swift VDI with ABS or an LDI available ready delivery. Waiting period being committed on the ABS was still two months odd - too close to risk. On the 19th, I found out Sai Service had a set of 2008 LDI's they had just recieved. I immediately went down to the Andheri Sai Service and booked one.
The car was finally delivered yesterday after the loan and registration formalities
. I'll post some pics later. Will also post a review of my experience with the folks at Sai in the dealership reviews section.
Tomorrow, I plan to upgrade the tyres and get the ICE install. Then I can really start enjoying myself.
@mods, please keep the thread open for some time. I'll post an initial ownership review once the run in is done.