[John Jacob13128]

Cheers White looks amazing , as they say cant go wrong with white. And yes someone i know did upgrade to Philips Night vision and did say he noticed a marginal increase.I myself am looking out for the best solution, do let me know if you do come across any !

[MotoNanu]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

I do have headlamp upgrade on my cards, but want to check the stock bulbs first. I'll arm-twist the dealer again on the warranty part, as I did for the tyres upsize. Perhaps I'll try changing the bulbs of stock intensity first to something better like Osram Night breakers or Philips Night Vision. A few team-bhpians in Hyd did try this out last week for their cars (i-10, Beat, etc) and said there was a 30% improvement.

Meantime, I took delivery of the car. Was a very smooth process and the salesman was really professional, and helpful. He explained all features of the car, opened the bonnet, boot, etc and took pains to explain,despite knowing that I had a Fiesta.

The odo was 24 at the showroom when I took delivery. The DTE was showing 41 kms.

I drove to the tyre dealer, a mere km away, and upsized to Michelin XM2s. I had to pay Rs 7200 as an exchange price for my 4 Appollo Accelleres. Price included wheel balancing and nitrogen filling.

Topped up at a reputed bunk later, and a fill of 41.8 litres cost me Rs 2100. Cheers to diesel!

Here are a few pics. Will start an ownership thread in a month's time.

Congrats vnabhi. Looking forward to your ownership review. Am torn between Polo and Figo. Read a lot but still the 3 pots have not convinced me completely. Figo looks promising as VFM but never sure with Ford maintenance. Hope will get clues from your thread.
Also does change of rubber void warranty? Sorry if it is a naive question.

[sharath]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Guys, the quest has now ended.

Having resisted the company-lease scheme this long, I finally succumbed to my mind and booked a Figo Titanium tdci last week (Diamond white). I'm taking the old model as I'm getting attractive discounts, and we all at home feel it looks better.

It took a week to get all approvals, and finally the car will be delivered tomorrow.

Details are as below:-

Ex-showroom price :570279 (compared to 6.05 Lacs normal price)
Road Tax (Co-paid) :80089
Registration (Co-paid) :2500
Handling(L&F) (Co-paid) :5500
EW :3550 (ouch, i gotta pay for this)
Insurance (Co-paid) :5220 (till march end)

Note: The car will be used by my kids and I'd still use my Fiesta, and my wife the WagonR. We might decide to sell the WagonR after few months, after evaluating its use and need.

I'm going to change the tyres soon after delivery to Michelin XM2s. I'm glad that the dealer has okayed my idea to upgrade to 185/65/14 tyres in place of the 175/65/14 stock size. And it costs only Rs 50 more per tyre.

Freebies being offered are flaps and mats (Rs 2500), teflon coating (1500), leather vinyl seat covers (9000), body cover(1500), pillow set and sun film(2500). I told them I would like to swap the sun film and body cover for some other accessories, and they are ok.

Waiting with bated breath. Will update soon.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Congrats Vnabhi Sir. I am shopping for diesel hatch for my dad and tilting towards Figo. Is the above price only for Corp lease? Let me know.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by sharath

Congrats Vnabhi Sir. I am shopping for diesel hatch for my dad and tilting towards Figo. Is the above price only for Corp lease? Let me know.

Yes it is only for corporate lease with kotak and only on the old model

[MileCruncher]

Congrats Venu Saab on the Figo! It is a good choice and am sure you'll have fun driving it as well.

Cheers

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Congrats Venu Saab on the Figo! It is a good choice and am sure you'll have fun driving it as well.

Cheers

Thanks @MileCruncher. I am kind of missing the Figo and the Fiesta since last Sunday, as I am currently on vacation in Sri Lanka.

I shall certainly put up an ownership thread in a month's time. In any case, my kids will be driving it most of the time.

As regards the question on change of rubber put up earlier, I took the clearance of a Sr Marketing and Service advisor of the dealer before going for it. No worries of warranty for me.

[MotoNanu]

Hi Guys,

I have been following the thread for shortlisting my choices. Now I have a complete different set of requirements for my friend who wants to buy a diesel hatch and following are the 'must haves':

1. Great suspension. the car shall be driven mainly by his father in mostly rough terrain (under construction roads/ rural areas)
2. Good mileage. Expectation is around 17 -19 kmpl

Following factors are good to have:

1. Comfortable cockpit. They already have an Indica, so the feel should be premium to consider an upgrade
2. Practical boot space. The car will be extensively used and practical boot area is needed.
3. Ease of maintenance. The cost of service and spares and availability should be normal.

Punto was one of shortlisted cars. Though I personally like the car and it suits the requirements, I am very much worried about it being a "Fiat" .
Also since Fiat and Tata have parted ways, how will be the scenario in future for Fiat cars?
Looking for your valuable inputs.

[rnidumolu]

They can consider Ritz for the following reasons -

1. As it is used by his father, the tall boy design helps in easy ingress/engress
2. Suspensions are good
3. Mileage is good
4. Comfortable cockpit
5. 60:40 split rear seat gives good boot
6. A maruti product and thus easy to maintenance
7. GC is good

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by rnidumolu

They can consider Ritz for the following reasons -

1. As it is used by his father, the tall boy design helps in easy ingress/engress
2. Suspensions are good
3. Mileage is good
4. Comfortable cockpit
5. 60:40 split rear seat gives good boot
6. A maruti product and thus easy to maintenance
7. GC is good

I agree in full with rnidumolu.

I have been a proud and happy owner of the Ritz Diesel from 2 years and 72K Kms. No problem in maintenance and driving.

1) You can literally walk into the Ritz without bending much to strain your back. Door open wide enough so getting in and out is a piece of cake even for elders.

2) As the general notion is tall boys design leads to heavy body roll and bad handling. Wrong, On corners I am faster and can cope with the sedans safely.

3) I get a mileage of 20+ kmpl on average.

4) Ergonomics is the best in this cars as all fall well within the reach of the driver except for the left side ORVM adjuster which is far and you have to bend to adjust it. Wish Maruti had provided with electric adjustment.

6) Service is cheap and availability of parts is good as the customers needs not wait for long if a problem arises.

7) GC is good no doubt. 165mm is a nice one considering our crater full roads.

Anurag.

[thoma]

Folks, our family is looking for a diesel hatch to keep it long terms. Resale is not too much on our minds, but the fuel prices are. We have only close to 1k kms running per month. Maybe it can increase by another couple of hundred. But I, being a die hard fan of diesel engines with low end grunt, have convinced dad to go for a diesel. So diesel it is, unless anybody succeed in changing my mind, sighting upcoming fuel costs.

We had test driven some cars and have zeroed in on the Micra XV and the Swift VDi for various reasons. We are on an already extended budget of 7 lacs OTR. We all liked the Micra for its drive-ability. We don't do more than 100 kmph often. So the point where the Swift scores most over the Micra is not as important to us - top end grunt. But the other point where the Swift scores, market acceptance, do concern us.

Can anybody give me some of the real negatives in going for the Micra. Dad is running on 64 and he just loves the ingress-egress and the ease of driving and operation of the Micra. But, the point why I came over to this thread is the frugal numbers the Micra is doing. I am concerned about the 700 the Micra does in a month vs the 17000 the Swift does. Our previous purchases, the Matiz and the Baleno were quick to exit the market soon after we bought. Can anybody alleviate my concerns in going for a Nissan in the long term perspective? Please do share other thoughts too on the Micra XV vs Swift VDi.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by thoma

Can anybody alleviate my concerns in going for a Nissan in the long term perspective? Please do share other thoughts too on the Micra XV vs Swift VDi.

I do not own either. To my knowledge the Nissan is more expensive than the Suzuki and not many are a big fan of the so called cute Micra design. Personally, I am not a fan of the Micra design. As a car, there is nothing wrong with it. The diesel engine in the Micra is a proven unit so nothing can ever go wrong. The build, material quality of the Micra is probably better than the Suzuki. What is unknown is long term ownership and service costs. If you must know this, discuss with the dealer or visit a Nissan service station and ask for general up keep costs for the Micra. There should be nothing to worry about during warranty, it is after this period where costs start to spiral out of control. This is where the Suzuki trumps the Nissan by miles. The Swift has been around for close to 8 years now. It is popular because it is bomb proof, cheap to run, fix & service is available even on the moon. As resale is no concern for you, you should be good to go with the Micra.

The cars you owned previously, the Matiz and Baleno were not popular cars but in no way were they bad. What I do know is parts for the Matiz are probably no longer available and for the Baleno, they are available easily but are expensive. It may end up being the same story owning a Micra in the long run. If owning a Matiz and Baleno did not hurt, it should be the same for the Micra. If you ask me, the Matiz is so much better looking than its replacement, the Spark and I've driven a modified Baleno quite a bit and boy oh boy is it a hoot to drive.

[thoma]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

The Swift has been around for close to 8 years now. It is popular because it is bomb proof, cheap to run, fix & service is available even on the moon. As resale is no concern for you, you should be good to go with the Micra.

Thanks sandeepmohan. True that Maruti has got service options, but it is not getting any cheap either.

But guys. While I skimmed back a few pages on our Micra thread, found the below. Have anyone got some solid info about this? This is concerning given that I am/was about to bet my money on an XV diesel!

Originally Posted by scofield

Last week we had a Renault Pune SE visited our society to show Renault Pulse to one of the residents. I was leaving at that time so checked out the car and asked him as to what is the difference between Pulse and Micra.
The very first statement he said " Sir !! Come 2013 Jan , Nissan Micra will not be available in diesel and instead Renault Pulse will be available in both engine options."

[pganapathy]

@thoma - given the success the duster is enjoying Renault/Nissan is not going out of the market anytime soon. Of course that does not mean that they may not phase out the micra/pulse if sales are bad, but am assuming it is 1,000+ a month for them so don't see why they would shut it down in a hurry.

If you find that the micra meets all your requirements, there is no reason to not go for it eyes closed.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by thoma

Can anybody give me some of the real negatives in going for the Micra. Dad is running on 64 and he just loves the ingress-egress and the ease of driving and operation of the Micra.

Have you decided that you dont want to bring the Ritz into the equation? Because that is one more guy with lower price and but the exact same spec as Swift.

[thoma]

Originally Posted by ampere

Have you decided that you dont want to bring the Ritz into the equation? Because that is one more guy with lower price and but the exact same spec as Swift.

You are true. The Ritz is much VFM over the Swift, but it has been skipped more on the basis of looks by all members in the family. The Ritz, Indica, Fabia, Pulse, Punto and the Sail are the ones we skipped all-together. The Punto and the Pulse just because we have the closest dealer/service 70 kms far :(