Maruti WagonR : Test Drive & Review

[blue_pulsar]

Originally Posted by -NUT-case

Well did the back to back TD of RITZ and WAGONR and have decided to go in for the wagonR. The Ritz has a much better engine and handling and you get free accesories with it, i felt the wagonR would be a much better car for a city.

The Ritz with all the discounts would be very close to W-R in terms of price. Any specific reason you went with W-R. Please enlighten me.

[-NUT-case]

Originally Posted by ravi@64bhp

^^Nice review there. You are right that Wagon-R is a much better city car than Ritz, though Ritz has its own strengths.

The tyre pressure of 33 is also on higher side (Maruti recommends 33 to get max FE). I always keep 30 for my Wagon-R and the car behaved much better all the time.

Also, please change the tyres to Michelin as soon as you buy the car. The handling of the car will improve drastically. I had a great experience with Michelins on my Wagon-R. Also, consider upsizing the tyres to 165.

Will go by your advice and keep it at 30.I am planning to upgrade and also upsize the tyres as soon as i get the car. I find not many choices of sizes in r14 tyres . Will have to check that. Will increasing the width and keeping pressure a little lower than recommended affect FE too much?

The Lxi model comes with 144/80/R13 . They give upsized tires of 155/65/R14 in VXI. So i wonder how much wider we can go without the tyre fouling with the shock coil springs.

Originally Posted by blue_pulsar

The Ritz with all the discounts would be very close to W-R in terms of price. Any specific reason you went with W-R. Please enlighten me.

The price is almost the same between Ritx Lxi and WagonR Vxi in chennai. The ritz also will get free accessories from dealer.

The car i was looking for will be used mainly in the city . I am an experienced driver but my wife has always had a driver and this will be the first car which she will be driving and the WagonR would be the ideal car for the novice driver( Ease of handling, easy to judge the dimensions of the car and visibilty).


I felt the ritz would be a little overpowered and difficult for her to handle in the city . Also the WagonR for the same price as the Ritz Lxi comes with all the conveniences inbuilt so would make life easier.

[anekho]

Does anyone have a photo of the WagonR in firebrick red?

Cheers!

[ravi@64bhp]

Originally Posted by -NUT-case

Will go by your advice and keep it at 30.I am planning to upgrade and also upsize the tyres as soon as i get the car. I find not many choices of sizes in r14 tyres . Will have to check that. Will increasing the width and keeping pressure a little lower than recommended affect FE too much?

The Lxi model comes with 144/80/R13 . They give upsized tires of 155/65/R14 in VXI. So i wonder how much wider we can go without the tyre fouling with the shock coil springs.

165 would be perfect upsize for the new Wagon-R. It would give perfect balance between handling and FE. I do not think 165 would foul with the suspension. Anyway, put the query in Tyres section and you would get the right choice.

[SANSI]

• Smaller boot compared to the outgoing gen. 180L capacity

Are you not kidding? Very Sure? Old WagonR with 312lr boot vs new WagonR with 180lr boot space? WagonR is known for its very luxurious boot space. Once I considered it for buying only because of its boot space, but ruled out immediately since it was waiting for an upgrade with new engine & look. But to my surprise the enriched new version is not even competing with some other vehicles like swift, i10, etc.(around 230lrs) which are known to be less in boot space. Isn't it a big drawback for the new WagonR? I think it will be one of the deciding factor for its slowdown on sales.

[vivekgk]

Excellent Review. I went to the showroom to take a look and maybe get a TD, but the TD car wasn't available yet. The staff were very helpful, and offered a great exchange price on my old 800.

It's an excellent car if your driving is limited to work/shopping. The ending felt slightly rough when I started it. Better than the Alto's F8D for sure, feels modern, but it lacks that proper 'car feel' that 4-cylinders have. Interiors are excellent for the price, electric ORVMs are a welcome feature on this class, and there was plenty of room.

But I'm not considering it at all. Why? Because I have had my lifetime's worth of three-cylinder motors, and because the boot space is non-existent. 180 litres? Seriously? I can't even pick up someone from the airport with this, unless they're willing to keep the suitcases on their laps.

Maruti is missing out on a huge portion of customers by offering only the K10B and tiny boot. I hope there will be a variant in the future with a proper engine (K12M) and sliding rear seats. I for one am willing sacrifice some leg room for the ability to carry a week's worth of clothes. Heck, the Estilo would be a better deal if it weren't so flimsy.

[HammerHead]

Originally Posted by GTO

Extreme_Torque : Lets face it...neither are you going to buy the WagonR nor am I. But then, neither are we the target customers. We shouldn't look at every new car from the enthusiasts perspective. Lets think from the POV of the mass market here. Remember, at the end of the day, what every manufacturer wants is 5 figure sales for its hatchback...and not enthusiasts praising the handling.

I totally agree to the fact that WagonR was never a target to enthusiasts, for that matter none of the Maruti's except Swift.

I think no one really complained about the outgoing WagonR and it finding 11-12K new houses every month proves the same. It served its purpose very well. Don't know if its only me, but I thought with "New WagonR" Maruti will be trying to capture No.1 position in its segment which is currently with i10.

I understand that the new WagonR is improved w.r.t. interior space/gear shift/some good utility stuff but is no match to the overall quality of i10. IMO 3-pot engine is the biggest let down after looks considering its current competition.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by HammerHead

I totally agree to the fact that WagonR was never a target to enthusiasts, for that matter none of the Maruti's except Swift.

What's so "enthusiatic" about the Swift ? We have the 1.3l petrol Zxi and it's a disappointment everytime I take it out for a drive. Racing thru the gears is good, I agree, but you cant keep doing that everytime, right ? Most of the time, you want a car which is good at normal driving and the 1.3l Swift-P sucks at that.

Except for the handling and safety (airbags and ABS), where it scores bigtime. The 1.2L K-series is another thing altogether, I agree - I drove the Ritx-P and that was awesome. The Swift-diesels are wow too.

And about no other Maruti's being enthusiastic-friendly, checkout the track-day thread on tbhp. We have the puny 5-gear M800 giving much bigger cars a run for their money. Ofcourse, its a little bit the violin, lots more who plays it. The old Zen and Baleno are other enthu-friendly examples that you missed.

Originally Posted by HammerHead

IMO 3-pot engine is the biggest let down after looks considering its current competition.

So true. More so when coming after the Alto BS-IV disappointment. But then the general buyer does not really care about a 3-cyl or 4-cyl engine. I wouldn't know the difference if I was not on tbhp.

[HammerHead]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

And about no other Maruti's being enthusiastic-friendly, checkout the track-day thread on tbhp. We have the puny 5-gear M800 giving much bigger cars a run for their money. Ofcourse, its a little bit the violin, lots more who plays it. The old Zen and Baleno are other enthu-friendly examples that you missed.

Sir you got me wrong there!! I'm talking about cars from Maruti which are on sale as of today.

[vinaydas]

excellent review.
The Wagon R is the if not one of the Most Sensible buys in our market today.
This is one car that makes sense and that is the formula for its success for so long.

[-NUT-case]

Originally Posted by anekho

Does anyone have a photo of the WagonR in firebrick red?
Cheers!

Take a look at this review . It shows a F.Red WagonR

YouTube - First look of new WagonR

Originally Posted by vinaydas

excellent review.
The Wagon R is the if not one of the Most Sensible buys in our market today.
This is one car that makes sense and that is the formula for its success for so long.

You hit the nail on its head there. It took a lot of courage for me to go and
book this car, taking into account the ridicule i would be facing for buying
this.

Even my parents were making fun of me, my mom going so far as to
say she will not get into one.

But then at the end of the day, i feel no
other car seems to end up with "tick" marks on most of the right boxes as
this one.

[longhorn]

@ nut-case : nice review there. Trust me the WagonR will make much more sense than the Ritz if its going to be mostly city drives. Moreover the WagonR's flat side panels are more suited to city driving. The Ritz performs better on the open road where you get the stretch the K12M.

Do check with other dealers too. If the colour + variant of your choice is available with them, delivery is immediate, else it will take around 25 days. Looking forward to an ownership review + lots of pics very soon. I believe yours will the first new WagonR on tbhp!

[anekho]

Originally Posted by -NUT-case

Take a look at this review . It shows a F.Red WagonR

Ah, thanks a lot buddy! Firebrick red looks pretty decent - but I like the grey and 'blue eyed boy' blue more

[-NUT-case]

Originally Posted by longhorn

@ nut-case : nice review there. Trust me the WagonR will make much more sense than the Ritz if its going to be mostly city drives. Moreover the WagonR's flat side panels are more suited to city driving. The Ritz performs better on the open road where you get the stretch the K12M.

My thoughts exactly!

Do check with other dealers too. If the colour + variant of your choice is available with them, delivery is immediate, else it will take around 25 days. Looking forward to an ownership review + lots of pics very soon. I believe yours will the first new WagonR on tbhp!

Will do so . Not sure when i will get it though.

Originally Posted by anekho

Ah, thanks a lot buddy! Firebrick red looks pretty decent - but I like the grey and 'blue eyed boy' blue more

Yeah silver and dark grey are the best colours for this car, dark greay being my fav colour but wife dint want a grey as she wanted a more brighter colour for a small car. Hence have gone with Bakers Choco brown!

The F.red is almost the same as previous gen WagonR and makes the car look smaller too.

[SCH]

Originally Posted by -NUT-case

Hence have gone with Bakers Choco brown!

.

Bakers Choco Brown, being a darker shade would be hard to maintain, the sea breeze blue or silver would have been a safer bet.. Any way the color is a personal choice .... and I was just sharing my opinion. Good luck for your New Wagon R.