I am in LUV literally - My Maruti Ertiga ZXI

[ajay0612]

Well friends. The search had started long ago, when my Uno started to give me intermittent troubles and no doctors were in sight. I could not relegate myself to owning anything less than what my car offered: Powerful engine, space, cavernous boot which could eat up my kid’s bicycle after double folding the rear seat.
Somehow I never found sedans appealing. They seemed to cage the owners and were bit too large for what they offered (slightly larger boot than my Uno) for lot of extra money over a typical hatch.

In the meantime, my hill visits during winters involving driving on snowy roads convinced me about the need to have ABS in my next vehicle. Further I always enjoy traveling to natural paradises rather than man made concrete jungles. So invariably I ended up among the hills during vacations. However that took its toll on my Uno as it had merely 155mm ground clearance (G.C.), and owing to this during 11 years of its life the silencer had to be changed 4 times! That made me have a hard look at look at the vehicles with high ground clearance.

My initial short list consisted of Polo, Jazz, i20, & Figo as these had larger boot than my Uno. However none of these had good enough G.C. (I considered SX4 as minimum benchmark on this count so wanted 180+mm G.C.). For a long time I dithered among MUVs, SUVs & XUVs. Mind discouraged me to spend more than Rs 10Lakh on a vehicle which would still guzzle up fuel. So wait continued. Then Auto Expo came and I started to dream about ‘reclaiming my life’. Existing Safari was within budget but its interiors were too utilitarian and I hated that faux wood panel on dashboard. For me, its large turning radius was strict no-no among hills. But Safari Merlin was to cure that excess. I waited, waited and waited but its launch seemed to go further and beyond. Some comments on team-BHP about jump-seats being unsafe sealed its fate for me. Anyway at the time of Ertiga launch it still was not in sight. By the time oil leaked out from front shockers of my Uno and I could not wait any further.

Ertiga offered all I wanted. It was an upgrade on all count, be it practicality, space, reliability, features, luggage space (as a 5 seater), G.C., power, A.C. effectiveness, and was within my budget. You can only imagine how relieved I am on owning a Maruti after living with a Fiat for 11 years!

So here is my LUV:


Customary I ever visit to a temple :-). [My sons and better half in background]


My beloved watching LOV getting Swastick Mark :-)


LUV was booked immediately after launch on 12.04.2012 without even seeing one in person :-).

I chose ZXI as it came with ABS and Airbags. White color was chosen to reduce cost of ownership (cheaper touching/ repainting). Also it is not so enticing to miscreants as it does not stand out . Another reason (big one at that) was that this color was immediately available for delivery. Vehicle was finally bought from M/s Shakumbari Automobiles Haridwar. Ex-showroom cost came around RS 7.45L (included RS 2750 as Logistic Costs??). Insurance cost – Rs 11.5K (after transfer of 50% NCB from my old car). I chose the petrol variant as my annual running is around 6-7K KMs which does not justify extra cost of owning diesel variant.

Next day (13.04.2012) I got a chance to test drive Diesel variant of Ertiga. During brief test drive, all doubts were laid to rest as far as practicality was concerned. You almost walk in the vehicle and don't sink in. There was enough room in the middle row after folding last row. Even after folding the last row (with head rests in place), middle row could be slid back by around 120mm! That clinched it for me.

The Leg Space. Here you can see 2 ladies sitting on middle and last row. The middle seat is positioned exactly where it would have been to allow folding rear seat. The leg space is adequate for both of them after leaving enough room for driver (see II photo - same setting). All 3 of around 5'6".


II photo (position of driver)


A view of dash board

The dashboard is chocolate in color (ZXI variant) somewhat like i20’s color. When driving directly towards Sun, some of it gets reflected on the wind screen but not too much to affect visibility, maybe due to matt finish (except in the middle).*

As regards to on-the-road experience, it was more than satisfying. The car (diesel variant) pulled up effortlessly from standstill (with me and salesman) and rocketed ahead once RPM touched around 2000. The vehicle never felt gigantic and I could feel at home immediately (I had experience of driving my brother's Swift for around 6 months).

I got a chance to drive petrol variant only after owning one on 19.04.2012 :-). Surprisingly the car (ZXI variant) pulls up from standstill even with AC on! One can go as low as 20KM/hr in III gear without stalling (semi-full laod - 4 adults and 4 kids). Petrol variant too starts to gallop once around 2000rpm. That means in 4th gear it is 80km/hr speed before you touch 2000rpm.

The AC has been good enough to cool at noon with outside temperature being 39degC. (The ZXI variant has outside Temp gauge, and also displays real time fuel efficiency figure.). The rear AC has a knob to control and even stop the air flow. There is separate evaporator coil for rear AC vents.

The car looks good from all angles. From front it is more like Ritz. Side profile is the best to look at. From Rear it looks like Innova. From rear 3-qtr it looks a bit Jazzy.

Personally I did not find any of the variants (petrol or diesel) noisy. In my opinion, the engines are just about perfect for cruising.

Gear-shifts consist of short and precise throws and are effortless to change. However I could not find details of gear ratios in the manual.

The suspension feels carlike and never too bouncy. The steering is light but gives enough feedback to feel connected with the road.

As the vehicle pulls up effortlessly even with AC on, it is easy to drive in the city. The vehicle is perfectly suited for long highway runs as the engine gets a surge in power after around 1800 rpm.

The jacks and keys are neatly stowed away in a side compartment in the boot. The boot itself is small. It may be enough for a days journey but definitely not good enough for vacations. I could not find any dedicated mounting points for the roof carrier. At present I have no clue how to carry the luggage of full load of people. Any suggestions?

A days driving and visit from guests has made me buy Foot Mats as very first accessory (The original floor matting is beige in color and gets dirty very fast). Cost of foot MATs - 2K (purchased from market).

As they say, a photo can speak more than thousand words. So here it goes:

Youngest Vs Oldest


Jazzy looks


Or is it Innovish?


Wait.. It looks like a Swift.


Nah. It surely is Ritz..y :-)


No fights please. Lets us move inside.

The Dashboard


Central Console (at bottom - Charging point & USB port). Charging point is a must have accessory in this age of Wide Screen mobiles:-).


Chrome Inserts


Stereo Controls on Steering


Steering Tilt Lever (black at bottom)


Head Light Beam Adjust


Front Quarter Glass


Passenger Cup Holder. Push it Open/ Push it Close.


Front Door (Driver side) 1


Front Door (Driver side) 2


Little Middle Hump :-) (middle row)


Seat controls for going to Third row


Evaporator coil in the middle roof-mounted AC. (Photo taken from driver side)


Middle Door


Rear Bench Arm Rest


Head Rest Removing push-button (on the side)


Luggage Bay


Under-ground storage (under the Luggage Bay floor)


Jack stow-away compartment


Engine Bay (Left)


Engine Bay (Right)


Front disc brake


Rear drum brake


No roof rail mounting points :-). However roof seems to be equipped with stiffeners.


Rear Brake light and Washer nozzle (black dot on RHS)


Thanks. May you all be in LUV soon :-).

I have gathered the data about gear ratios of Ertiga. (These ratios were not available in brochure/ service book. I tried to find the details from Maruti Call centre too, but they too did not have these details!)

In the table below, I have compared it with SX4 and Dezire on this aspact. The relatively shorter gear ratios of Ertiga make it pull easily from stand still even when loaded. Any observations?

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line (The "Assembly Line" Forum section) to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[amitwlele]

Congrats Ajau on the Ertiga. So is this the first on the forum? Wishing you a trouble free long term ownership. With a Maruti i guess trouble free is given in most of the cases.

One request - Can you post a snap of the boot space available with the last row not being folded?

[HappyRoadie]

Heartiest congratulations to you. First Ertiga on forum. Looking lovely in white. Excellent report. Today saw Ertiga in flesh and it looks lovely. Interiors and knee room seems good. Wishing you many happy and safe miles. Do post more pics of interiors and exteriors.

[vigsom]

congratulations on a zzzoooom upgrade ; and it must be feeling great to own the first LUV on the forum.

Enjoy the difference !!!

@amitwlele - the bootspace with the third seat up and down is here(post #763)
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...2012-a-51.html (Maruti Ertiga 7-Seater : Auto Expo 2012)

[androdev]

Wow. Congratulations and wish you a happy ownsership! Was not expecting an ownership review this soon!

Please post more pics.

[CARDEEP]

Congratulations @ajay0612 for LUV. This one surely looks good in white & spacious for people with average height. Wishing you many-2 Happy Miles ahead.

[neel385]

Congratulations Ajay. Wish you may miles of happy and safe driving on your new ride.

Could you elaborate on how does the vehicle behave in hilly tracts and how comfortable is it in climbing up slopes with load.

[devil_klm]

Congrats Ajay for being one among first owners of earthiga and first in teambhp.
Wishing you lot of happy miles and trouble free ownership ahead

[amitk2kin]

Post deleted by the Team-BHP Support : Please do NOT post one-liners that add little or no informational value to the thread. We need your co-operation to maintain the overall quality of this forum.

Please read our rules before proceeding any further.

[bala80]

Congratulations on your new acquisition of an fantastic car. I'm very impressed with what I have read and seen of the ertiga so far. Really appreciate the way the jack compartment is finished. I hope the car gives you miles and miles of troublefree ownership experience.

One question, Does maruti recommend synthetic oil for ertiga like the swift? What is the service interval?

[vigsom]

ajay,

what all do you think can be stored in that compartment below the boot plank?will it take small travel bags(say 3ft long by 2ft wide by 2 ft deep)

maybe you could post a pic of the whole space so that members can get some ideas.

[ultimatechamp]

Congrats Ajay.

Extremely thoughtful pictures and informative writing too.

[ajay0612]

Originally Posted by bala80

One question, Does maruti recommend synthetic oil for ertiga like the swift? What is the service interval?

Maruti recommends oil coming under classifications SG, SH, SJ, SL or SM. Further they say that SAE 5W-30(1) is the best choice for good fuel economy. No idea what these alphas mean :-P.

Service Intervals:
I Service - 1000Km or 1 Month.
II Service - 5000Km or 6 Months.
III Service - 10000Km or 12 Months.
All above are free services :-).

[deetjohn]

Congrats ajay0612 on the LUV. Lovely vehicle you got there. If only it came with all black interiors!

And thanks for the pictures with good detail.

How is the rear visibility when parking in reverse?