[NVI2112]

Hello Friends,

After making my plans to buy a swift vxi last year had to drop it abruptly due to some funding issues!

Now, this month I had started taking my driving lessons and was thinking of getting myself a WagonR Vxi sometime early july.

However today came across an ad of "FirstChoice" for a August 2006 Swift Zxi for 3,80,000.

Went to see it and appeared to be in a mint condition with the existing odo of 22k. Since I am yet to complete my driving course and get my license, the sales man offered me to give a demo by himself driving it. Had a feel of it as a passenger and it gladdened me. My wife at in the rear seat and found it to be comfortable (me being 5'5" and my wifey 5' the rear seat also appeared to be OK).

Later, as I have a poor knowledge of cars, got in touch with VeriCar and had them access it today itself and over all they gave a rating of 8.7 of 10 for it with their accessement of the cost of the car as 3.6L. Later discussed with the sales guy and though he did not agree to reduce the price directly, offered to put the registration charge of themselves (3K) and further also offered seat covers.

So finalised the deal by paying a token with the remaining upfront to be paid in about 4-5 days time (really have to re-adjust my plans as today had gone across only for window shopping and had no clue that will end up buying it!). Hopefully should get the possession by next saturday.

Outside my family, really rushed to say this to the forum, as this is the place I have spent a lot of time over the year reading up about cars and their features and comparisons! (apart from the information from the forum, my knowledge is absolutely a zero about cars!).

Even spoke to the guy from the motor training school if I can go ahead and buy this one and even with his go ahead, still a lot tensed about "will I be able to drive this vehicle"!

desparetly waiting for getting my license and also more importantly confidence to drive my car..


waiting to drive my car

[ram_hyundai]

best of luck bro and i am sure you wont be in any way saddened by this buy.go ahead and whats the color?i had just bought mine a week back and i am enjoying her.I have a verna also but she is living up to my expectations.take good care of her and she will return it to you too.
ram

[NVI2112]

It is red... Complete Car Details

[prince_pervez]

Hmmm..2006.. 3.8L! ZXi top, but 22K (digital reading). Deal seems ok. If you ask me, I would have made him lose sleep for atleast a couple of thousand grand.
Saw a Zxi 2006 @ true value, Quote on the car was 4.25L for 42K kms reading.
Congrats! Please post some pics of your ride.

[NVI2112]

The insurance that the dealer is offering is of HDFC Ergo.

Can I stick to that or should I get it done from some other company?

[ram_hyundai]

@NV12112-I would sugest you go the maruti insurance way,BTW does the car have an extended waranty?Are you planning to do some mods on her?
Mine is a black one.
ram

[StarVegabond]

Hi Narayanan

Welcome to the Car Owners Club. Do not worry about whether you will be able to drive the car. Think about what all fun you and your family will have with your swift.

Maruti Brand has certain level of assurance with it. Swift is a good car
Once you start driving your own car, your knowledge would improve.
Most of the people in the forum have learnt about the cars in that way only.

Post your first drive experience

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by ram_hyundai

@NV12112-I would sugest you go the maruti insurance way,BTW does the car have an extended waranty?Are you planning to do some mods on her?
Mine is a black one.
ram

I read somewhere in this forum about some malpractices with Maruti Insurance. My suggestion is to go with National, United or Oriental. Much better and honest compared to the private companies. In any case stay away from Reliance or ICICI Lombard.

[ram_hyundai]

Originally Posted by pedrolourenco

I read somewhere in this forum about some malpractices with Maruti Insurance. My suggestion is to go with National, United or Oriental. Much better and honest compared to the private companies. In any case stay away from Reliance or ICICI Lombard.

For your info-Maruti insurance does not mean an insurance company run by maruti.They have tie ups with national,united,royal sundaram,etc.The benifit to the customer is that renewals would be reminded from office.They get additional benifits like 5% discount on the spares,free towing,etc among other benifits,for example,The front head lamps are covered fully in maruti insurance but its 50% for other companies as its a plastic part,cash less transfer etc.
If you want to stick to national or united then take a maruti insurance from the dealer for the said companies.Customers have that option.
ram

[ported_head]

Congrats on your purchase, and the extra safety features are bound to give you additional peace of mind. Don't fret over the price, there is always another bargain to be had somewhere. As long as you got to buy what you liked, enjoy it.

Quite a few motor training schools have Swifts as trainer vehicles. See if you can enroll with one of them. Swift clutch isn't the most forgiving. Also the front fenders can be quite a handful in the initial few months. However, there is not much you can save from Mumbai traffic, no matter how good a driver you may be.

How about a little more insight into the Vericar experience? This one seems to be picking up, the second instance that I have heard of on the forum.

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by ram_hyundai

For your info-Maruti insurance does not mean an insurance company run by maruti.They have tie ups with national,united,royal sundaram,etc.The benifit to the customer is that renewals would be reminded from office.They get additional benifits like 5% discount on the spares,free towing,etc among other benifits,for example,The front head lamps are covered fully in maruti insurance but its 50% for other companies as its a plastic part,cash less transfer etc.
If you want to stick to national or united then take a maruti insurance from the dealer for the said companies.Customers have that option.
ram

OK sorry, I didn't know that. I thought you were talking about a private insurance company started by Maruti. If it's just a tie-up then good.

[NVI2112]

About Vericar, used to see there reference in Carwale and also browsed their website.

Fortunately they were available the same day for the valuation. They said they will run through some 200 checks but some of them could not be done for the following reasons:
1) Breaking at high speed and one more test to see the throwability of the car (forgot the exact term)! This was because the FirstChoice people did not allow us to take the car out for a long drive. We had to do the testing in the lane their showroom exists. They said it is their policy that the cars do not go out of their premise for a very long distance. However, most of the other checks with regards to the driving and manovering were done by Vericar. Also, I had seen other customers doing their TD in the lane itself while I was there.
2) Documentation verification: again the show room person said they will not had it over to Vericar for their inspection however said they will hand it over to us for our verification. The vericar guy gave us a list of things to check and it worked out fine when we ran through the checks. The list being:
a) Check the manufacturing date and registration date
b) compare engine, chasis number and registration number with the documentation created by Vericar.
c) Check for number of owners
d) check for hypothecation and if yes, check for NOC
3) They raised a concern that the engine, throttle body, inlet, exhaust manifolds etc were opened and that they do not expect them to be opened for a car with such low milage (22102 km). However, he also told me that, it was a regular feature with FirstChoice to do a complete refurbishing even where there is no need, based on their past experience. Again the FirstChoice people said that the technicals can be discussed with their technicians and they will not be available to VeriCar. When we discussed it with the sales guy, he informed us that the manifolds probably were damaged (burnt?) do not remember and for repairing it had to be opened and some of it being a practise. [hate my poor knowledge of mechanics!]

But for that over all Jayesh (the Vericar guy) gave a rating of 8.48 of 10. The car being valued at 3,53,000 to a 3,60,000. While saying this, I must also mention, though the sales guy had said I am free to get anybody to inspect the vehicle (though as per him it was not required) when he actually got the car out for the VeriCar guys to inspect the Manager of the showroom called up the sales guy protesting why the VeriCar guys are being allowed to inspect cars. Even Jayesh when I first requested him to come over to inspect the car had pointed it out to me that FirstChoice does not appreciate and objects to their inspecting their cars. Later on the sales guy said the point of contention being that the car value as pointed by Vericar confuses customers and they loose their confidence ( probably lost 3 customers to them). However, in this case, as the sun filming was done (forgot to ask the sales guy which brand it was), engine coating was done and also on bargaining he had offered to pay for registration. Later after the discussion when I tried to bargain a little more he agreed to add Seat covers (yet to select the seat cover). Turned down my request for free insurance and anti-rust treatment. Rather he adviced me not to do anti-rust treatment now even at my own cost and go for it after 2 months when the rain actually starts).

The VeriCar rating average (8.48 of 10), with the split being:
Engine 8.2
Transmission 8.2
Suspension 9
Steering 9
Wheels & Tyres 7.05
Brakes 9
Interiors 9
Body 7.9
Paper work: he could inspect it so no rating from his. but I matched with his documents and they were all matched.

Over all, I should say, it gave me a peace of mind as I have no knowledge about cars and did not want to rely on mechanics recommeded by others! Anycase, most of my friends get their car serviced at the authorised showrooms! So no way for me to know a good car mechanic!!

I will say, atleast in my case, the VeriCar was worth its cost of 999/- [They actually returned to me Re.1/-]

[NVI2112]

Originally Posted by ram_hyundai

For your info-Maruti insurance does not mean an insurance company run by maruti.They have tie ups with national,united,royal sundaram,etc.The benifit to the customer is that renewals would be reminded from office.They get additional benifits like 5% discount on the spares,free towing,etc among other benifits,for example,The front head lamps are covered fully in maruti insurance but its 50% for other companies as its a plastic part,cash less transfer etc.
If you want to stick to national or united then take a maruti insurance from the dealer for the said companies.Customers have that option.
ram

Ram, query to you..

When you say the Maruti insurance way, is it that I have to approach a independent, agent and ask them for one of the names as mentioned by you? [national,united,royal sundaram,etc]. Is the HDFC Ergo a name to be included in the 'Avoid List' of ICICI Lombard, Reliance etc?

The major confusion being, how to approach the insurance thing with other agent, with the car still being in the FirstChoice possession (as I said earlier, I have only paid a token till now. Will top up the other DP on wednesday (hopefully my loan of 1.8 should be ready on thursday). So hopefully I will get it on Thursday/Friday. BTW, the insurance on the car currently is valid only until mid-august.

The give a 3 months warrenty on the Engine, Transmission, Gear box.
For extended warrenty he gave me the following options to be chosen at the time of taking delivery:
i) 4K for additional 9 months or 12K km entitleing me to 1 additional free service (labour, washing/cleaning/polishing)
ii) 6k for additional 21 months or 24k km entitleing me for 3 additional free service with (labour, washing/cleaning/polishing)

Chargeble items being:
- lubrication
- consumable parts

He said, I can go for Maruti service after I run through the 2 year warrenty with them. How to approach this? I thought I will go for the 2 year warrenty with them. Is it OK? If not, can somebody guide me how to (and where the Spectra's service center might be) approach a MASS ? and how different it will be in terms of service as compared to the FirstChoice warrenty? I stay at Malad (w), chincoli bunder, Mumbai. So if anybody can guide me , will be much obliged for this.

i)


About additions to the car for now the only thing that really comes to my frightened mind is the 'Parking Sensor'.

The car already has a Sony Xpod with it so the sound system atleast for now is taken care off. Have not really thought of any thing else. What else you might recommend , considering my expertise with Cars?

[ram_hyundai]

Narayan-Check for the following things.
1.Did the car have an extended waranty from MSIL,You can check it with any A.S.S of MSIL.If not then go for a waranty from first choice,Only if not.
2.For getting a maruti insurance go to any maruti showroom and they would have an insurance counter,even the service centre would help you out in this regard.Ask them which insurance company options are there ,from that list choose national or united etc.Get the car in your name and have the insurance transfered to your name.By mid aug when you have to renew the insurance you can switch to maruti insurance.BTW The car would be having the maruti insurance most probably,if in that case dont change it to any other just transfer it to your name,
ram

[NVI2112]

Hi Ram,

Visited Spectra Workshop (they are MASS). They informed me that they are having United India and Royal Sundaram.

As adviced by you I checked with them if the car I am going to buy is having any extended warrenty and unfortunately it does'nt.

The scheme offered by them is more of a Spectra warrenty (they told me I can enroll for it after I complete the 3 month warrenty given by FirstChoice). However, this entitles me to only the Service Contract of Spectra. They have about 4 workshops at the suburb part of Mumbai.

There contract basically entitles me to (They adviced me to go for a 20K km/2 years contract costing 9500/-):
1) Servicing 4
2) Wheel Alignment & Balancing at every 10K Km(excl. balancing weigth) 2
3) PUC at every 6 months 4

Description fo items replaced free of cost
1) Engine oil 2
2) Oil Filter 2
3) Coolant 1
4) Fuel Filter 1
5) Spark Plug 1
6) Gear Oil/Diff Oil 1
7) Air Filter 1

Other
1) full body polishing including completeshampoo upholstery cleaning of (once) this is with some machines and a second cleaning more of external.
2) Some discounts for spare parts [10% on mechanical labour, 5% ON ACCESSORIES, ANTI RUST, CARBON CLEARNING LABOUR, FUEL INJECTOR CLEARNING LABOUR AND A/C SERVICING LABOUR].



Though one thing I need to clarify with the FirstChoice is that do they include the engine/transmission warrenty even in the extended warrenty. If they do so , will it be worth going with them, considering they charge extra for consumables? their 21 month servicing contract available for 6k?