[jeevmenon]

Lots of changes to sB's profile on the left. New avatar, new format for location, the recent special b'day, the resolutions with it, more importantly Distinguished BHPian. Congrats and many more posts from sB.

I need to now write something on this thread or it wont be fair.

Just a minor pt. I heard sell the car after 2 yrs and that car should be one with a good resale value. But you are not buying a car and waiting to sell it in 2 yrs. You want to enjoy it (in all aspects - drive, comfort, style, pride) during the 2 yrs as well and not just the economics. If its economics then this is a good formula. Just back from the extended weekend - a drive to Coimbatore and back, touched 150 on my Sparky for the first time (and I am a safe and recent driver,) constantly hovering around the 120+, good control and was confident. I have my doubts if I would get the same feeling with the Alto. I drove Dad's Alto on Sunday around the city. Hm... just not there for the highways I feel, though there were eyebrows raised when we landed up in Mumbai in my Sparky. "You drove all the way in THIS???"

[knob]

800 - Cheapest box with an engine
Alto - For pure economy with trim.
Alto K10 - Economy and best PTWR
Spark - For an allrounder

[misquitas]

Originally Posted by Gansan

Surprisingly, I learned the 800 is more fuel efficient as well, though I expected the K10 to return more FE.

Can anyone else confirm this? I too have been told by none other than a Maruti service advisor that the K10 is not as fuel efficient as the Alto 800. any reason for this? I would have thought that the newer and refined K10 should have had better FE than the 800. At least the ARAI figures of these two variants seems to suggest that.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by misquitas

Can anyone else confirm this? I too have been told by none other than a Maruti service advisor that the K10 is not as fuel efficient as the Alto 800. any reason for this? I would have thought that the newer and refined K10 should have had better FE than the 800. At least the ARAI figures of these two variants seems to suggest that.

Many Altos sold are of the lowest variant which come without AC. That may be the reason, as with 800 cc engine, AC reduces the FE by upto 5km/l in city drive.

The lowest FE my Alto K10 has given is 12+ in a bumper to bumper traffic with AC going full blast. Some of our fellow forum owners have reported 25+ on highways, which the 800 variant would find hard to match.

Under these conditions my 800 used to give around 8-10, while driving in winters on highway I got 20!

[misquitas]

Originally Posted by Aroy

Many Altos sold are of the lowest variant which come without AC. That may be the reason, as with 800 cc engine, AC reduces the FE by upto 5km/l in city drive.

The lowest FE my Alto K10 has given is 12+ in a bumper to bumper traffic with AC going full blast. Some of our fellow forum owners have reported 25+ on highways, which the 800 variant would find hard to match.

Under these conditions my 800 used to give around 8-10, while driving in winters on highway I got 20!

Thanks for your comments, Aroy. I was seriously considering upgrading my Alto 800 LXI to the K10, but was not sure if the depreciation hit of the 800 LXI as well as the FE figures of the K10 would justify the upgrade.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by misquitas

Thanks for your comments, Aroy. I was seriously considering upgrading my Alto 800 LXI to the K10, but was not sure if the depreciation hit of the 800 LXI as well as the FE figures of the K10 would justify the upgrade.

If your Alto is

1. Less than one year old - not worth it
2. If it is between 1 & 2 years and you run a lot (>1500km/month) worth it
3. If it is > 2 years then definitely worth it.

Alto 800 has a healthy resale value, so you should not loose much. If you transfer your insurance and assuming there is no claim, you gain 2-4k in lower insurance premium. Of course with present day discounts and free bees offered, you have a trouble free experience for next three years - no changing of tyres, battery, clutch, brake shoes etc. That is worth quite a bit.

In the K10 the AC is much better, the engine is phenomenal (with better FE) and you get bigger rims too.

If you can go for the Vxi model. You get fog lamps, front power windows, tachometer and rear tray, amongst other things, for a nominal amount.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Aroy

Many Altos sold are of the lowest variant which come without AC. That may be the reason, as with 800 cc engine, AC reduces the FE by upto 5km/l in city drive.

The lowest FE my Alto K10 has given is 12+ in a bumper to bumper traffic with AC going full blast. Some of our fellow forum owners have reported 25+ on highways, which the 800 variant would find hard to match.

Under these conditions my 800 used to give around 8-10, while driving in winters on highway I got 20!

I don't think so. I am yet to see the basic variant of 800cc Alto (w/o AC) on the road anywhere in Chennai or Bangalore. Come to think of it, I have only heard of such a model, never seen one so far, not even in the show rooms. AFAIK the most popular 800cc Alto variant must be the LXi. I have not seen too many LX variants (AC, but no PS) either.

IMO the AC makes a difference of ~ 2 KMPL in the city and 1 KMPL on the highway for the 800 variant. My city FE is 14 - 15 KMPL with AC and about 17 w/o AC. But this is not for bumper to bumper traffic, I rarely encounter it on my route. For highway drives it is 20 - 21 with AC, 21 - 22 without.

If anyone is interested, I can conduct a "highway mileage test" on my Alto and show an FE of 28+ KMPL! I have repeatedly achieved this figure over a period of two years. But this is not achievable under actual highway use!

[misquitas]

Originally Posted by Gansan

I don't think so. I am yet to see the basic variant of 800cc Alto (w/o AC) on the road anywhere in Chennai or Bangalore. Come to think of it, I have only heard of such a model, never seen one so far, not even in the show rooms. AFAIK the most popular 800cc Alto variant must be the LXi. I have not seen too many LX variants (AC, but no PS) either.

IMO the AC makes a difference of ~ 2 KMPL in the city and 1 KMPL on the highway for the 800 variant. My city FE is 14 - 15 KMPL with AC and about 17 w/o AC. But this is not for bumper to bumper traffic, I rarely encounter it on my route. For highway drives it is 20 - 21 with AC, 21 - 22 without.

If anyone is interested, I can conduct a "highway mileage test" on my Alto and show an FE of 28+ KMPL! I have repeatedly achieved this figure over a period of two years. But this is not achievable under actual highway use!

I have seen a few Alto Standard cars (no PS/AC) here in Goa, but it is true that the most common variant is the LXI. My alto LXI is a May 2008 model having done 43,000 kms and hence I was wondering if it made sense to upgrade to the K10. But Gansan, your FE figures are amazing. I have got an average of 19-20 kmpl under nearly all driving conditions.

I have had trouble-free service on my Alto 800 so far and while many tend to write off the car for its puny size and poor cabin space, I have realised that this is actually its strength in a way. While trying to find parking space along some of Goa's busiest roads in Panjim and Margao, I'm glad I am in an Alto as it can easily fit into a tight parking slot. I smile when I see Swift/Ritz and other broad hatches giving these small parking slots a miss and ending up circling the area numerous times to find a wider parking slot.

Similarly, while entering/exiting a ferry along some of the routes here in Goa, I am rarely petrified of 2-wheeler riders brushing past my Alto. The black plastic/rubber bumpers don't even show any signs of a scrape. Even if there is a small scrape or a dent, repairing it is easy and cheap. But I have seen bigger and wider hatches/sedans willingly give up a slot in the ferry simply because their cars will either not tightly fit into a ferry or they would find a slot so tight that the car could run the risk of scraping some paint off the body while negotiating other vehicles.

So, big is not always better.

[JustCause]

Originally Posted by misquitas

I'm glad I am in an Alto as it can easily fit into a tight parking slot. I smile when I see Swift/Ritz and other broad hatches giving these small parking slots a miss and ending up circling the area numerous times to find a wider parking slot.....

So, big is not always better.

This post of yours reeks of immense practicality of the Alto. With cars getting longer & broader, its very difficult to find a parking spot which will swallow your sedan/big hatch without creating problems of getting out/scraping.

Moreover, the Alto is also a very light car & can easily be pushed into a tight parking spot after the passengers get out.

It doesn't make sense for you to upgrade to the new K10 given the current equation you have. Your current one might have its own share of scrapes, dents & you tend to be a bit carefree about it. Not that I'm implying that you don't take care of it but, the same scrapes/dents in another brand new car will cause atleast some amount of heartburn.

Moreover, if you keep it for another 2 years, you don't stand to lose too much on depreciation anyway.

[arun_kun]

I own a spark and driven alto(old n k10), and i can surely say that for city driving Spark is the best. It has good low end torque which doesnt need much gear shifts. And we can mostly stay in 3rd in most of the city traffic. It looks lot premium than Alto. Its pretty peppy to drive. its really roomy.

And on highways , at around 100km/hr steering feels light but same is the case with alto.

Only advantage which alto enjoys is the good resale value. It always blows me off man.

[supremeBaleno]

While I am a big fan of the Alto's compactness which indeed is a boon in the city, how much more wide would an i10/Spark/Estilo/WagonR/Santro be to make parking tough for the latter ? A few cms ? For eg, the Estilo is 2cms wider than Alto.

Till a couple of months ago, if I had to buy a city-runabout, I would have blindly chosen the Alto. The M800 would have been good too, if it only had PS. But after driving my friend's 3-year old Alto-Lxi recently, I was disappointed. The huge play on the steering coupled with the hard clutch and overall lightness (flying around feeling) was bad. Not sure if it was only his car, but a hard clutch at 3 years (20K kms) was hard to accept - at 6years, the clutch of my Baleno is lots softer.

Yeah, it is small, it is FE, it is cheap and resale is awesome (my friend is moving to a Ritz and was offered 1.85L for his Alto), but that car seriously needs an allround overhaul by MSIL. Have driven a K10 briefly, but other than engine, it is mostly the Alto I guess.

Well, actually a better version of the Alto is available - called the A-Star. But the price keeps consumers away.

[arun_kun]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the OT. Here is thread for Chevy Spark technical/known issues/ niggles/Other problems/solutions Thread : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...ns-thread.html

I request all the Spark owners to share the info so that it will be useful.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

But after driving my friend's 3-year old Alto-Lxi recently, I was disappointed. The huge play on the steering coupled with the hard clutch and overall lightness (flying around feeling) was bad.

No hard clutch or steering play in my Alto. My only grouse is the clutch bites towards the end of the release - but the MASS guys say that is the correct play, so that is that. No flying around feeling either, this side of 100 KMPH.

No such issues with my BIL's 2004 model Alto LXi either. May be it just feels different after driving the Baleno, or something wrong with that particular car.

[misquitas]

Originally Posted by JustCause

This post of yours reeks of immense practicality of the Alto. With cars getting longer & broader, its very difficult to find a parking spot which will swallow your sedan/big hatch without creating problems of getting out/scraping.

It doesn't make sense for you to upgrade to the new K10 given the current equation you have. Your current one might have its own share of scrapes, dents & you tend to be a bit carefree about it. Not that I'm implying that you don't take care of it but, the same scrapes/dents in another brand new car will cause atleast some amount of heartburn.

Moreover, if you keep it for another 2 years, you don't stand to lose too much on depreciation anyway.

Your advice is well taken. While I take every care to avoid scrapes and dents on my Alto, these things happen whether you like it or not and when you least expect them to happen. In that eventuality, there is less heartburn to encounter a scrape in an Alto than (let's say) a scrape in an SX4.

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

While I am a big fan of the Alto's compactness which indeed is a boon in the city, how much more wide would an i10/Spark/Estilo/WagonR/Santro be to make parking tough for the latter ? A few cms ? For eg, the Estilo is 2cms wider than Alto.

The Wagon R and Estilo have almost the same width as that of the Alto. I was referring to the wide-bodied hatches like Ritz, Swift, I20 in my earlier post. An Alto is 1475 mm wide while a Ritz/Swift is about 1680 mm wide. the difference is a good 20 cms. In a tight parking slot, this 20 cms can make quite a difference. More so, when the car exiting the parking lot happens to be an Alto/WagonR/Estilo/Spark and your car happens to be a wide-bodied hatch.

By the way, many posts in this thread seem to be comparing the Alto 800 with the Spark. Why is the Alto K10 not being compared with the Spark?

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by misquitas

By the way, many posts in this thread seem to be comparing the Alto 800 with the Spark. Why is the Alto K10 not being compared with the Spark?

That may be because the K10 has a better engine which gives it

1. Better AC
2. Better Performance
3. Better FE

Most of the comparisons harp on the space and comfort and not on the performance and FE. If you want a basic single/double occupancy vehicle with good performance, there is none to beat the K10.