Alto (Lets Go) - The Story so far...EDIT : Now Updated to 30K - Page 4 - Team-BHP

benbsb29 · 22nd May 2007, 11:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by akroy

Hey Benny, where ??? This is Copywrite Vialation...

Abhi

Well, it helps to have everything documented, and sorted out.
Started off as justification to my better half on the choice of car, later on it became something i could not afford to overlook when the question arises regarding selling the car.

akroy · 29th July 2007, 08:47

Car ODO reads 18450km. I have done 2000 km on the new tyres (Michelin 155/65/13) and Alloys...The drive was mostly city centric besides the tbhp dash to yelagiri and small dash to Ramanagram, Nandi Hills etc...

Some observations:
1) The cornering at high speeds has become unbelievable compared to the stock tyres....
2) I could hardly hear any sounds....Michelin Rocks !!!

3) During the recent TBHP meet at Yelagiri, the speedo went 140+kmph (momentarily touched 150kmph during the downhill drive from Hosur to Krishnagiri)....
One thing that fascinated me was it touched that speed without me doing deliberate test, the handling and cornering was so well that I hardly felt that it touched 140kmph and I was throughout on the fast lane....
4) There is hardly any change in the FE....

Abhi

Rudra Sen · 29th July 2007, 09:08

Abhi, I feel it's about time you post a picture of your car. What's this in the garage flash photography? Take her out today and shoot a proper one.

GeekSrik · 29th July 2007, 10:40

heheh rudra sir, how could you ask him to take it out when you are posting ??? rather abhi, take it to rudra sir's house, and i betcha you ll come out with awesome snaps out of rudra's cams.

or better still put rudra in your car and go off on a long drive say towards hosur reliance pump, there you can get snaps with mountainous terrain all round, awesome!!

abhi, you are very very organized w.r.t. fuel reports. i liked your excel sheet, very good work. and your car colour and wheels look great. i agree that michelin rocks !!

akroy · 29th July 2007, 11:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

Abhi, I feel it's about time you post a picture of your car. What's this in the garage flash photography? Take her out today and shoot a proper one.

You are right Sir, but again even if i take out for a km it is getting dirty thanks to the rains and muddy roads infront of my apartment...

Probably during the next meet, I can take your services to do some shoot for my car....

Abhi

akroy · 29th July 2007, 11:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeekSrik

heheh rudra sir, how could you ask him to take it out when you are posting ??? rather abhi, take it to rudra sir's house, and i betcha you ll come out with awesome snaps out of rudra's cams.

or better still put rudra in your car and go off on a long drive say towards hosur reliance pump, there you can get snaps with mountainous terrain all round, awesome!!

Not a bad idea at all... let me do it in some weekend...

Quote:

abhi, you are very very organized w.r.t. fuel reports. i liked your excel sheet, very good work. and your car colour and wheels look great. i agree that michelin rocks !!

Thank you !!!

Abhi

akroy · 3rd September 2007, 08:41

ODO reading 19793 km

After the bandipur trip the car was due for service. Hence, Saturday Morning (1st Sept, 2007) I reach Surakshaa at 8:30AM, meet Lokesh (who knew that I will be there at that time) and inspect the car. He saw the tyres and rim for the first time and was quit impressed with the looks and handling.

Initially Lokesh told me on phone that he will do the engine decarbonising but on the spot he postponed the idea and told that he will do at 25K when my engine oil change is also due and also this service will anyway cost me more because of all the oil changes, after seeing the underbody he also told that he will do an underbody coating next time...

Now coming to service:
Following stuffs were replaced:
1) 3 Spark Plugs (NGK) - Rs 439.83
2) Gear Oil - 350.22
3) Gear Oil Additive - 293.00
4) Brake Fluid - 275.56
5) Coolant - 208.90

With Balancing, Rotation, Alignment, Emmission total cost of service came up to Rs 3456

In the next Engine Oil change, I am planning to put Mobil1...

MODS: Pls update the thread with 20K km done

Abhi

esteem_lover · 3rd September 2007, 10:18

Make sure they actually put that oil additive in. This is one of the easiest ways for service centres to make money. Why an additive anyway ?

benbsb29 · 3rd September 2007, 10:30

Abhi, good to see another update from you.

John, he trusts the guy who takes care of the service, Mr Lokesh. Hence, it can be assumed that the additives would be actually filled.

akroy · 3rd September 2007, 10:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by benbsb29

John, he trusts the guy who takes care of the service, Mr Lokesh. Hence, it can be assumed that the additives would be actually filled.

Not only that, I stay there in the Service Station and see every proceedings (I returned home with the car at 4PM that day)...
People there (right from owner to the mechanics) know me well and everybody greets me with a smile...

Plus me and Lokesh go for a juice/breakfast when he takes the car for a test ride, sometimes we have lunch together as well...

The empty oil dabbas, replaced pins, spark plugs are there in my boot... Stock Spark Plugs are like new, any takers? I will give it for free

Abhi

esteem_lover · 3rd September 2007, 10:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by akroy

Plus me and Lokesh go for a juice/breakfast when he takes the car for a test ride, sometimes we have lunch together as well...

Abhi

I guess the juice & breakfast settles it then.

Ramsagar · 3rd October 2007, 15:48

nice ride mann...u have taken alto for a nice spin..

amit_mechengg · 5th January 2008, 15:03

great write up about ur alto. i too have an alto and now my perspective towarrds it has changed more. i am loving it more. LETS GO, IN AN ALTO !

BomBatt · 5th January 2008, 19:41

akroy ! So many similarities between you and me !! here it is - Bold letters you and normal me.

"My only love since my childhood was bycycles and each and every corner of Hyderabad-Secunderabad has been done in my cycle (BSA SLR... also burned some rubber of my dad's Vespa NV..."

I also loved bycycles and indeed had a BSA SLR in my school days. I rode it for 10 years from 7th std until graduation ! And also burned some rubber of my dad's Luna moped in between.

"...in one idle month of January2004, me and my friend decided to learn driving and atleast get a license"

One fine morning, during my early collage days, don't know why, I suddenly decided that I need to learn car driving, and I go join one driving school. Something went bad in between and I did not finish driving school then.

"In between all this, couple of years went by, salary increased too, time to get married, now what? Still no car in mind, OK, I will still manage in my bike. First six months, the newly married couple tried all the trips they can in their bike be it Mangalore, Mysore, Shivasamudram-Talakkad..."

As soon as I get married, first thing I did was I bought Bajaj Caliber croma. And in the first 2 years of marriage me and my wifey have done entire Wayanad district of Kerala, Bangalore-Mangalore twice (via Shivamogga - Augombe ghat), 4 - 5 times Bangalore - Chitradurga - Davangere, and twice Bangalore - Shivamogga - Sagar - Siddapur - Kumta - Murudeshwar - Karwar - All on my 110 cc Caliber croma !

"Research: From Day1, it was an Alto as I was in that impression that I cannot afford anything bigger the price of Alto. That’s the typical psyche when you think of your first car. During all this googling, I came across this wonderful site called team-bhp and read almost all the threads in about 1.5-2 months (still didn’t join)"

Again, when I thought of my first car, I did lot of research, bumped into Team-BHP, registered right away and read each and every thread for 1 month. I almost bought a used Alto... just then GM came up with adverts of 50k discount on Chevy Spark and me and my wifey ended up with Sparky.

As far as long journey, we have just done Bangalore - jog - siddapur - kumta trip. I dream of doing a long journey across India some day.

Lastly, I too maintain an excel sheet of fuel and other expenses done on my car !

Only difference, you are an excellent author. All your travelogues are superb writeups. I just don't know how to start. Also I don't yet have a digicam

and don't feel like writing anything without photos.

akroy · 22nd January 2008, 12:43

ODO reads 25700

Somehow managed to go for servicing as I was busy with lots of household stuffs in the weekends...Thought of changing Engine Oil to Mobil1 but just couldnt get the time to go to JC Road and pickup the oil hence settled with the same Castrol magnatac...

Carbon Clean: Engine underwent decarbonization for the first time, they removed the fuel lines and connected to the solvent line of the carbon clean machine and ran the engine for 55min with occassional high revolution in between.

Following are the expenses (incl. of Taxes):
Engine Decarb + Throttle body Clean = 1404
Total Servicing Cost = 2578 (which included R-B-A, EngineOil, OilFilter, balance Wts etc)

Total Bill came out to Rs 3982

My Alto's second birthday falls on 17th Feb, probably in Mar-Apr, I will change the stock battery to some better one (so far no issues with the stock but heard from people that it is better to change stock after 2 years, Lets see !! will take a call depending on budget and battery-health)

Abhi

Mods: Pls update to 25K

29th July 2007, 08:47	#47 (permalink)
akroy Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,489 View My Garage	Update with New Tyres and Rims... Car ODO reads 18450km. I have done 2000 km on the new tyres (Michelin 155/65/13) and Alloys...The drive was mostly city centric besides the tbhp dash to yelagiri and small dash to Ramanagram, Nandi Hills etc... Some observations: 1) The cornering at high speeds has become unbelievable compared to the stock tyres.... 2) I could hardly hear any sounds....Michelin Rocks !!! 3) During the recent TBHP meet at Yelagiri, the speedo went 140+kmph (momentarily touched 150kmph during the downhill drive from Hosur to Krishnagiri).... One thing that fascinated me was it touched that speed without me doing deliberate test, the handling and cornering was so well that I hardly felt that it touched 140kmph and I was throughout on the fast lane.... 4) There is hardly any change in the FE.... Abhi __________________ ------------------------------------ 2003 Bajaj Caliber115 \| 2006 Alto LXi ------------------------------------

29th July 2007, 10:40	#49 (permalink)
GeekSrik BHPian Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 830 View My Garage	heheh rudra sir, how could you ask him to take it out when you are posting ??? rather abhi, take it to rudra sir's house, and i betcha you ll come out with awesome snaps out of rudra's cams. or better still put rudra in your car and go off on a long drive say towards hosur reliance pump, there you can get snaps with mountainous terrain all round, awesome!! abhi, you are very very organized w.r.t. fuel reports. i liked your excel sheet, very good work. and your car colour and wheels look great. i agree that michelin rocks !! __________________ blog.chowchowbath.com the Bengaluru blog

3rd September 2007, 08:41	#52 (permalink)
akroy Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,489 View My Garage	Car completes 20K Service... ODO reading 19793 km After the bandipur trip the car was due for service. Hence, Saturday Morning (1st Sept, 2007) I reach Surakshaa at 8:30AM, meet Lokesh (who knew that I will be there at that time) and inspect the car. He saw the tyres and rim for the first time and was quit impressed with the looks and handling. Initially Lokesh told me on phone that he will do the engine decarbonising but on the spot he postponed the idea and told that he will do at 25K when my engine oil change is also due and also this service will anyway cost me more because of all the oil changes, after seeing the underbody he also told that he will do an underbody coating next time... Now coming to service: Following stuffs were replaced: 1) 3 Spark Plugs (NGK) - Rs 439.83 2) Gear Oil - 350.22 3) Gear Oil Additive - 293.00 4) Brake Fluid - 275.56 5) Coolant - 208.90 With Balancing, Rotation, Alignment, Emmission total cost of service came up to Rs 3456 In the next Engine Oil change, I am planning to put Mobil1... MODS: Pls update the thread with 20K km done Abhi __________________ ------------------------------------ 2003 Bajaj Caliber115 \| 2006 Alto LXi ------------------------------------

3rd September 2007, 10:18	#53 (permalink)
esteem_lover Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Madras Posts: 4,995 View My Garage	Make sure they actually put that oil additive in. This is one of the easiest ways for service centres to make money. Why an additive anyway ? __________________ If you can use, some exotic booze, Theres a bar in far bombay Come fly with me, we'll fly we'll fly away - Frank Sinatra

3rd September 2007, 10:30	#54 (permalink)
benbsb29 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Bangalore - Back To ChaoS Posts: 2,325 View My Garage	Abhi, good to see another update from you. John, he trusts the guy who takes care of the service, Mr Lokesh. Hence, it can be assumed that the additives would be actually filled. __________________ "Wise are they who invested in a diesel powered automobile" - Benny

29th July 2007, 09:08	#48 (permalink)
Rudra Sen Team-BHP Moderator Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 3,670 View My Garage	Abhi, I feel it's about time you post a picture of your car. What's this in the garage flash photography? Take her out today and shoot a proper one.

3rd October 2007, 15:48	#57 (permalink)
Ramsagar Newbie Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 48	nice ride mann...u have taken alto for a nice spin.. __________________ Many Miles To Drive....ALTO

5th January 2008, 15:03	#58 (permalink)
amit_mechengg BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Pune Posts: 716 View My Garage	great write up about ur alto. i too have an alto and now my perspective towarrds it has changed more. i am loving it more. LETS GO, IN AN ALTO ! __________________ " I dont Drive Fast , I Fly Slowly "

5th January 2008, 19:41	#59 (permalink)
BomBatt BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 54	akroy ! So many similarities between you and me !! here it is - Bold letters you and normal me. "My only love since my childhood was bycycles and each and every corner of Hyderabad-Secunderabad has been done in my cycle (BSA SLR... also burned some rubber of my dad's Vespa NV..." I also loved bycycles and indeed had a BSA SLR in my school days. I rode it for 10 years from 7th std until graduation ! And also burned some rubber of my dad's Luna moped in between. "...in one idle month of January2004, me and my friend decided to learn driving and atleast get a license" One fine morning, during my early collage days, don't know why, I suddenly decided that I need to learn car driving, and I go join one driving school. Something went bad in between and I did not finish driving school then. "In between all this, couple of years went by, salary increased too, time to get married, now what? Still no car in mind, OK, I will still manage in my bike. First six months, the newly married couple tried all the trips they can in their bike be it Mangalore, Mysore, Shivasamudram-Talakkad..." As soon as I get married, first thing I did was I bought Bajaj Caliber croma. And in the first 2 years of marriage me and my wifey have done entire Wayanad district of Kerala, Bangalore-Mangalore twice (via Shivamogga - Augombe ghat), 4 - 5 times Bangalore - Chitradurga - Davangere, and twice Bangalore - Shivamogga - Sagar - Siddapur - Kumta - Murudeshwar - Karwar - All on my 110 cc Caliber croma ! "Research: From Day1, it was an Alto as I was in that impression that I cannot afford anything bigger the price of Alto. That’s the typical psyche when you think of your first car. During all this googling, I came across this wonderful site called team-bhp and read almost all the threads in about 1.5-2 months (still didn’t join)" Again, when I thought of my first car, I did lot of research, bumped into Team-BHP, registered right away and read each and every thread for 1 month. I almost bought a used Alto... just then GM came up with adverts of 50k discount on Chevy Spark and me and my wifey ended up with Sparky. As far as long journey, we have just done Bangalore - jog - siddapur - kumta trip. I dream of doing a long journey across India some day. Lastly, I too maintain an excel sheet of fuel and other expenses done on my car ! Only difference, you are an excellent author. All your travelogues are superb writeups. I just don't know how to start. Also I don't yet have a digicam and don't feel like writing anything without photos. __________________ Two things menace the world - the order and the disorder.

22nd January 2008, 12:43	#60 (permalink)
akroy Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,489 View My Garage	ODO reads 25700 Somehow managed to go for servicing as I was busy with lots of household stuffs in the weekends...Thought of changing Engine Oil to Mobil1 but just couldnt get the time to go to JC Road and pickup the oil hence settled with the same Castrol magnatac... Carbon Clean: Engine underwent decarbonization for the first time, they removed the fuel lines and connected to the solvent line of the carbon clean machine and ran the engine for 55min with occassional high revolution in between. Following are the expenses (incl. of Taxes): Engine Decarb + Throttle body Clean = 1404 Total Servicing Cost = 2578 (which included R-B-A, EngineOil, OilFilter, balance Wts etc) Total Bill came out to Rs 3982 My Alto's second birthday falls on 17th Feb, probably in Mar-Apr, I will change the stock battery to some better one (so far no issues with the stock but heard from people that it is better to change stock after 2 years, Lets see !! will take a call depending on budget and battery-health) Abhi Mods: Pls update to 25K __________________ ------------------------------------ 2003 Bajaj Caliber115 \| 2006 Alto LXi ------------------------------------

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