[WanderinNomad]

I got a pleasant surprise today, on a boring Saturday at work. A mail announcing my approval to the Team BHP community.
My mood instantly changed and I couldn’t wait to post my first ownership review. I wanted to do this for many years !!
Just a day later I am posting my first post on Team BHP and my first ownership review.

Disclaimer : I have skipped making separate sections for Looks,performance,NVH, interior design etc. since it is an old car.(Have covered them briefly in positives and negatives though ). Instead have focussed on the long term aspects on owning this car.
Any one who is in market for buying this car ( Via Pre-Owned route ) will be more interested in the long term aspects of owning the car.

So here It goes.

You know :
there are some cars which make you feel that they have life in them!
Some cars which have soul!
Which become your life companion!
Which seem to be able to last as long as your lifetime!

I am lucky to own one such car, a universally hated, My very own humble Honda city ZX.



Some specifications of my car:

The car : Honda city ZX
Colour : new warm silver ( golden)
Purchased on : August 2006
Odometer currently at : 99850 km
Plan to keep it : forever
Major Niggles in 13.5 years : None

Positives

+Very Reliable. No breakdowns at all in 13.5 years/1L km
+Longevity of parts. On stock clutch, suspension, brake rotors.
To give a perspective clutch of my Maruti Ritz driven by the same set of drivers was changed at 25k km.
+Hardly any rattles even after so many years
+ Light Controls
+ Superb Low end torque
+ Can easily drive at 120kmph for long hours in spite of low power
+ Excellent FE. More than most saloons and premium hatchbacks
+Excellent space: Both passenger and boot space
+ Parts easily available.

Negatives

- Not a performance oriented car
- Considered an ugly duckling. Especially compared to 1st gen and 3rd
gen Honda city.
- Low Ground Clearance. Sorted out by using suspension spacers for rear.
- Honda service is useless
- Parts are costly
- No safety features: ABS/Airbags



How it was bought in 2006?

My belated grandmother wanted a saloon. A “big” car along with our 1998 phoenix red Maruti 800.My father could not understand the logic for the same and wanted a small car. So we ended up test driving various hatchbacks, sedans and everything in between.

So here are the details of the test drives (Or What I can remember after more than 13 years )

Hyundai Accent GLE : The heavily discounted accent at just 5.8L made perfect sense for us according to me ( Car expert at home ) so this was the first car we test drove . It was a “big” car on a budget. There was a getz too in the showroom and also an elantra at 7.5L for the petrol variant. But they were not considered for some reason.

MS Baleno: A long test drive was taken of a golden newly introduced Lxi variant. Again being an end of the life product it was selling at close to 5.5L. Again a VFM offering. My father who wanted the car buying business to get over with as soon as possible , decided to buy the same but I rejected it because we had still not researched properly ( my indecision made my father very angry if I remember)

MS Esteem: This car was also test driven and rejected primarily due to old age.

MS Swift: This car was just launched and we test drove a Zxi variant. Not too sure about spending 5.5L car on a not “big” car, this car was kept on hold. In the hindsight this was another perfect car for us.

Honda City Gxi : I was completely against this car . It made no sense according to me to spend 7.8L on a car with just 78bhp. Also I had no idea that the ZX variant had quietly been launched and I hated the old dolphin model looks. On the other hand for some strange reason, my father was stuck on the Honda city. According to him that if he were to buy a “big” car it will be the Honda city. So I still remember going to the showroom uninterested. My father test driving a Honda City ZX and much to my dismay coming to the conclusion that this car is on another level altogether compared to all the other cars . According to me close to spending 8L on this car made no sense at all .It was only after close to 10 years later I started respecting this car and understanding the VFM it offered.

Ford Fiesta: This car was just launched and the petrol variant was test driven. Nothing particular to note.

Chevy Aveo: Again exactly same as Ford Fiesta. The car was just launched and was test driven . Both the 1.4 and 1.6 were available and were driven. Nothing particular to note.

Tata Indigo: A VFM sedan at 5 Lakh. It was test driven by my dad only half way. Much to the embarrassment of the service advisor my father just stopped the test drive half way saying that this car drives worse than his Maruti 800.

Tata Safari 3.0: On my insistence a red Tata Safari 3.0 model was driven as well. The test drive left my father impressed, however the car made no sense for us. My grandmother was not able to climb in due to its height. A diesel was not required owing to our minimal usage. My father had no time or interest to attend the niggles of a safari. Moreover, it was too big for us. So the plan was dropped.Although I was in love with the safari but even I had to agree that the car made no logical sense for us. In the hindsight this was a right decision.


Booking and Dealership Experience

The car was booked in August 2006 and delivered the same month by Divine Honda, Dehradun. Not much to write about delivery experience which was a standard affair, however the service experience for the initial few years was absolutely pathetic as explained in the service/maintenance portion of this thread.
The car costed Rs 7,90,000/- On Road and was purchased in cash outright.
No discounts were offered at all. Honda City was in high demand those days.
The golden shade was selected unanimously by all family members. Other colours available were black, maroon, silver, white, golden, Dark grey. As far as I remember the only other colour considered for a short span of time was white. But golden was favoured.

The car came with a two-year standard warranty and we bought a two year extended warranty too.


Usage pattern for the car

In summary the car was hardly used by my dad who found it too big .In the first 7 year i.e till 2013 , the car did 25000 km only. From 2013 till 2016 the car's ODO crossed 45000 km . From 2016 I took over the car after joining my first job and the usage rose. Now at the end of 2019 the car's ODO stands at close to 100000 km.
Below is a graph showcasing how the car was used over the years.





How reliable the car has been ?
In short. Very.
The car is on stock clutch, stock suspension, stock brake rotors and of course no engine work.

How has the maintenance been ?

Till 2013 it was majorly serviced at Honda ASS. To my surprise till year 2013/Year 7 , all Honda ASS were doing every year was changing the engine oil and filter .The car was on the same engine oil from 2006 to 2010 since the ODO reading was less than 5000 km.I noted this when I was back from college in 2013 and took out the service history. The Honda ASS were just following the ODO reading paying no attention to the time interval at all. This made me very furious and I immediately switched over to outside mechanics getting the entire service done in front of me.

I will attach the complete maintenance log below for those who are interested.

Following components were changed during the ownership-
• Tyres –
First set of OEM BS S322 were changed at 38000 km (Lasted 38000 km and 9 years)-Were changed by me as a precautionary measure since they were 9 years’ old.
Second set of Apollo Acelere were changed at 85000 km (Lasted 47000 km and 4 years)- Costing was Rs 12300 in 2015.
Fantastic set of tyres. I could have pushed them to 10k more. However increased number of punctures made me change them. One thing to note is that during the entire 47000 km these tyres were aligned/balanced just twice.

Third Set: Currently running Yokohama A drives. Costing-Nil
Had ordered Yoko Earth 1 from Amazon, however A drives were delivered. On complaining , Amazon quickly refunded the entire amount making Rs 16k worth tyres essentially free.

• Battery –

First: OEM Amaron lasted 8 years till 2014 and then one day suddenly died on me
Second: Replacement Amaron Flo – cost was Rs 3200 in 2014 - lasted 5 years till 2019. It never died however the crank became much longer.On getting the battery checked repeatedly , no faults were found.
Third: Changed with Amaron Flo in 2019 at a cost of Rs 3100 (Rs 100 lesser in 5 years. Strange !!)

• Other changes through the years-

Brake pads (Front) – Honda Nissin Were changed at 37k , 45k , 65k , 85k.
Mostly have stuck to Bosch aftermarket ones which cost Rs 1000 and last 20k kms.

Wheel Bearing: (various tyres) – Changed at 45k ,65k, 90k – One each

Water Leakage: This occurred somewhere at 37000 km mark. Leakage was present in boot and rear seat. Was sorted out by applying a sealant (the colourless one applied between panel joints)

Front Brake Rotors skimming on lathe: Once done at 45000 km

Central Locking Actuators: Were malfunctioning and were changed at Honda for all 4 doors at 8 years and 45000km mark.This costed 8000/-

Some suspension work: At 85000 km, my trusted FNG changed front link rods, lower arm bushes only, front shocker mount – Costed me Rs 6k.

Others: Suffered a partial breakdown. Was on a highway trip with my friends and had filled the tank to the brim. Someone pointed out that the car was leaking petrol which soon stopped. It was later diagnosed to a small rubber ring which was replaced. This ring had cracked due to which the car used to leak petrol whenever the fuel tank was filled to the brim. As soon as the fuel tank became empty to some extent the leakage stopped.
This issue caused a huge scare and took at least two to three months to diagnose.

Accessories added through the years:


The only accessory purchased from the dealer while buying , was an engine guard for close to Rs 2000/-.
This was considered important considering the Low ground clearance of the car.
Other items like beige seat covers, a reverse alarm, a chrome exhaust tip and bumper corner protectors were installed by my father at a nearby accessories store. According to me all looked hideous.
Still the art leather beige seat covers ( of Rathi make ) were used in the car for 10 years , post which I reverted back to original upholstery since the place of my transfer Agra was extremely hot.

The car was kept basically stock over the years. Accessories were added when they became absolute necessities as time passed by.

1 Camera with screen installed for reversing the car
2 Harness with 100/90 bulbs: Later removed due to malfunctioning. Was again added back in 2018 since the car's headlights used to fuse repeatedly every few months.
3 Front Armrest installed
4 Stock Alpine unit fitted with an aux cable. Previously used to accept only CD.
5 Bosch Symphony Horns installed
6 Number plates changed with frame: German type font. The ones that came from showroom had faded after 10 years of use.
7 Tantra Bluetooth kit – Added to make the car BT compatible
8 Autocop Trackpro – Added in 2017 – Costed me Rs 6700 with a yearly subscription of Rs 1500 for the Airtel SIM inside. This became a necessity since the car was going places with me in my transferable job.
9 Transparent mats over stock beige mats: Changed in 2017. The stock ones had become yellow after 11 years
10 Pioneer Touchscreen Head unit – This became a necessity in 2017. The car finally had a clean setup for BT /Reverse screen etc. Replaced the ageing Alpine OEM unit, dangling cables from BT kit and the ugly aftermarket reverse camera screen.
However, it is another story that the Pioneer head unit simply used to hang up on receiving a call via BT with my phone. After numerous trial and errors, it was diagnosed to be an issue with my particular brand of phone (Xiaomi). Also this unit suffered a complete breakdown within one year of buying. Pioneer kept it for a long two months for repairing. The response from Pioneer India Support was pathetic.
However, after the repair the unit is working fine for the past two years.
11 Coil spring adjusters added to rear shock absorbers- Really helped in making scraping over speed breakers a thing of the past.

Bodywork:
In summary , as of now , the entire car i.e all the panels have been dented painted at least once ( Some multiple times ).The only panels which are on stock paint are the hood ,roof , and possibly the left fender and passenger door.
The car has minor scratch/dents/paint fade in almost all the panels. The front and rear bumpers are broken too. This has happened because during the initial years my father was not used to the size of the car.Moreover the repairs were carried out at local workshops with subpar quality in the long run

Just few months back I had asked for a full dent/paint and bumper change from Heera Automobiles Gurgaon (Recommended on the forum). The same was costing Rs 30000/-
However, I was soon transferred to Bangalore and the minimum cost for the same work came close to 50000/- which seemed too high to me so the plan was put on hold.
In hindsight, this was to my benefit. The car met with a minor accident a week back. The windshield, front bumper, front driver side fender and the headlight had to be replaced. The car is currently at the workshop undergoing repair mostly under insurance.

FE:
Highest: 18.5 kmpl on highways with speeds from 80-100kmph
Lowest: 10 kmpl in Bangalore city
Average (city): 13 kmpl
Average (Highway): 16 kmpl

Final Notes :

I am attaching the detailed maintenance log. It covers the bodywork done over the years as well.
Looking back this is one car which I started respecting after close to 10 years of ownership. Of all the cars considered in 2006 , I do not think any car would have served us so well for so long.
We bought a petrol Ritz Lxi in 2013 to change our 15 year old Maruti 800.This car is considered one of the best cars in its segment however, every time I drive the Ritz it makes me remember how superior the city is both in terms of driving and maintenance wise.
That is saying a lot for a 13 year old car.
This car is my daily driver and will continue to be so even if I go in for a second car.
I am currently getting the exteriors of the car restored slowly keeping budget in mind .

Attaching some pictures over the years.

2013-A barely driven protected car at 25000 km













2019- A well used daily driver at 100000 km



city service records.xlsx

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Long-Term Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[WanderinNomad]

The car welcomed new year 2020 with a new set of updates.
Unfortunately the I had met with a minor accident last week.The accident was with a two wheeler, while both me and the two wheeler rider were absolutely safe the car took the brunt.
The front windshield, front driver side fender, driver side headlight and the front bumper were damaged.












Quickly I claimed the insurance via Edelweiss and handed over the car to Popular Automach, HSR which was one of the cashless garages under Edelweiss.
The total bill came close to 33k. Out of which 12k were borne by me.
A week later got the car back.
Standing up to fight again.





There was a silver lining in this accident. Had a project in mind for a long time to refurbish the car. Had stopped because the entire project was costing close to 50k in Bangalore, a city I have just been transferred to.
It made no financial sense to spend that amount and had resisted the temptation.
The car requires a dent/paint job on all the panels except the roof. Replacement of Both Bumpers. And certain minor things like changing a broken side impact beam , a rusted Honda logo etc.

I was not informed that the insurance company pays a large portion of money in case of denting/painting jobs and we are required to shell out only a small amount. If I was aware of this fact I would have made a claim each time the car had got these scratches/dents and always maintained the car ship-shape.
In fact this was first time in almost 14 years that a claim was being made.
I had always considered insurance just a legal requirement for such older cars. In fact the car was only on third party insurance this year.I had bought a separate comprehensive insurance in October 2019 because I was being transferred and the packers & movers moving the car was only ready to give insurance while the car is being moved , if the car was on comprehensive insurance.
Anyways this incident made me aware of this fact.
Both the front bumper and front fender panel were replaced and painted at a nominal cost from my side.
Both these panels already had a lot of scratches/dents /or were broken before the incident.
This takes me closer to the project of getting the car refurbished by exactly 2 panels.

Also gifted the car with a spare tyre cover ( thanks to boodmo ) . Again this part was damaged for a long time.



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[adi_gt]

I have owned the same colour and year manufactured car. It was a pleasure owning this car. No breakdowns, fuss free ownership. Only problem was the low ground clearance. But overall a full VFM car.

[WanderinNomad]

Originally Posted by adi_gt

I have owned the same colour and year manufactured car. It was a pleasure owning this car. No breakdowns, fuss free ownership. Only problem was the low ground clearance. But overall a full VFM car.

How many km did you drive the car before moving on ?
Coincidentally your signature shows RTO numbers of all the three cities I have lived in the recent past . Just moved from Agra to Bengaluru.

[adi_gt]

Originally Posted by WanderinNomad

How many km did you drive the car before moving on ?
Coincidentally your signature shows RTO numbers of all the three cities I have lived in the recent past . Just moved from Agra to Bengaluru.

Drove for 80k km before I moved on to Jazz Automatic. Yeah nice coincidence regarding cities.

[Durango Dude]

When I was on the look out to replace my 6 year old Hyundai Accent, I test drove this iteration of the Honda City, I was just blown away by the user friendly nature of the car. But I went in for the Hyundai Elantra as the Honda City at that time was almost bald as far as safety features were concerned, but Elantra had airbags, ABS, TCS, alloys, 9 CD changer etc and came with huge discounts. I kept it for 14 years and sold it recently.

[Equus]

Mine is 2007 Nov GXi 10th Anniversary model and has run 72K. I am a huge fan of this car too - sweet child of mine! I wouldnt want to sell it but its not being used much as the Duster does the duty mostly!

I have the same problem with the front seat belt (driver side) actuator. Havent replaced it though. Replaced front discs recently but thats it except for brake pads. Stock clutch! Changed battery once in 2014 (OEM lasted 7 yrs) and running fine! Tyres changed once at 47K! Never once broke down or troubled me!

[Storm2.0]

Nice to see existing owners of 2nd Honda City on this forum after a long long time.
Even I have the 2nd gen City Zx 10th anniversary edition and it has started to show it's age.
But the car is very well built and had good quality interior plastics which were also well screwed together. The faux wood panels though out of fashion now was a symbol of class and luxury back in those days.
I'm after my dad to either spend 60k to bring the car back to shape or sell it to buy a new car (or a very new used car ).
I find the service cost of Honda to be reasonable especially compared to Hyundai, where the annual service cost of Eon was close to annual service cost of my Honda City Zx (For Eon paid Rs 4500 and for City paid Rs 5000 change ).
About a year back got new Goodyear assurance tyres installed and this time thicker ones (185mm wide). It has enhanced the looks of the car and also improved weight of steering and has improved grip levels.

[WanderinNomad]

Originally Posted by Durango Dude

When I was on the look out to replace my 6 year old Hyundai Accent, I test drove this iteration of the Honda City, I was just blown away by the user friendly nature of the car. But I went in for the Hyundai Elantra as the Honda City at that time was almost bald as far as safety features were concerned, but Elantra had airbags, ABS, TCS, alloys, 9 CD changer etc and came with huge discounts. I kept it for 14 years and sold it recently.

When we were buying this car in 2006 , Elantra petrol was selling at huge discounts . The car's on road price was close to Honda City .
Even optra had the same fate.
But I still think it was the right decision to go for Honda City and not the other two discounted D segment cars .
If going for an Elantra or optra , diesel made more sense .

By any chance did you own the petrol model ?
How reliable was the car for 14 years
How many kms did you drive the car before selling it ?

Originally Posted by Equus

Mine is 2007 Nov GXi 10th Anniversary model and has run 72K. I am a huge fan of this car too - sweet child of mine! I wouldnt want to sell it but its not being used much as the Duster does the duty mostly!

I have the same problem with the front seat belt (driver side) actuator. Havent replaced it though. Replaced front discs recently but thats it except for brake pads. Stock clutch! Changed battery once in 2014 (OEM lasted 7 yrs) and running fine! Tyres changed once at 47K! Never once broke down or troubled me!

I too have the problem with the driver side front seat belt not going back to the position . However the belt functions perfectly and does not require change as per Honda.
One other niggle of this car is the driver side auto power window not functioning and returning back while closing the window . This has been there for the last 10 years although I have even replaced the Rubber beading once on Honda 's suggestion .
Can you post some pictures of the car . Hardly any pictures of this car in the forum .

Originally Posted by Storm2.0

Nice to see existing owners of 2nd Honda City on this forum after a long long time.
Even I have the 2nd gen City Zx 10th anniversary edition and it has started to show it's age.
But the car is very well built and had good quality interior plastics which were also well screwed together. The faux wood panels though out of fashion now was a symbol of class and luxury back in those days.
I'm after my dad to either spend 60k to bring the car back to shape or sell it to buy a new car (or a very new used car ).
I find the service cost of Honda to be reasonable especially compared to Hyundai, where the annual service cost of Eon was close to annual service cost of my Honda City Zx (For Eon paid Rs 4500 and for City paid Rs 5000 change ).
About a year back got new Goodyear assurance tyres installed and this time thicker ones (185mm wide). It has enhanced the looks of the car and also improved weight of steering and has improved grip levels.

How many kms have you driven the car and how old is it ?
In my view there is hardly any logic for selling this car since it will fetch you hardly 1.5 Lakh . Mechanically this car is perfect and requires almost nil maintenance.

My car too runs on 185/65/R14 Tyres. The car came with 175/65/R14 BS S322 . Changed them with 185/65/R14 Apollo accellere at 37k km . At 85k ODO again stuck with the same size with Yokohama A Drives.

Can you post some images of your car and what requires 60k to bring it back to shape . As mentioned in my ownership review I was in the same situation and was about to spend 50k for complete denting /painting of the car .
However the solution is to wait for some time so that Bangalore traffic can do it's evil deeds and then go the insurance way each time .

[Durango Dude]

Originally Posted by WanderinNomad

By any chance did you own the petrol model ?How reliable was the car for 14 years
How many kms did you drive the car before selling it ?

I had a petrol top end (GLS). It was totally reliable till we sold. It was very sparingly run to be exact had run only 36918 kms in 14 years. After I got the Honda City it was reserved for recreational use and by my daughter. I used to get it serviced once a year at HMP. Compared to Elantra I'm using the Honda City CVT more, it's run 17500 kms in a shade less than 3 years.

[Storm2.0]

Originally Posted by WanderinNomad

How many kms have you driven the car and how old is it ?
In my view there is hardly any logic for selling this car since it will fetch you hardly 1.5 Lakh . Mechanically this car is perfect and requires almost nil maintenance.

My car too runs on 185/65/R14 Tyres. The car came with 175/65/R14 BS S322 . Changed them with 185/65/R14 Apollo accellere at 37k km . At 85k ODO again stuck with the same size with Yokohama A Drives.

Can you post some images of your car and what requires 60k to bring it back to shape . As mentioned in my ownership review I was in the same situation and was about to spend 50k for complete denting /painting of the car .
However the solution is to wait for some time so that Bangalore traffic can do it's evil deeds and then go the insurance way each time .

Our car has done around 94,000 km on Bangalore roads and it will turn 12 in March.
Rs 60,000 was just an estimation because-
1. The car requires re-painting and bodywork since surface level rust and bubbles has started to appear at many places and the paint has lost its shine, this is more evident since our car is white in colour.
This partly our fault because we pressure washed the car using borewell water through all these years. Also the bumpers have developed several bad scratches and have slightly misaligned due to minor impacts by the bikers and rash taxi's.

2. Suspension rework needed. Each and every bump and undulation is felt in car now.

3.Ignition coil replacement- as the car jerks severely sometimes while accelerating in 2nd or 3rd gear or driving at lower speed in higher gear(not recommended I know).

4. Windshield will require a replacement because of too many scratches developed on surface and a very minor crack formed when a flying stone hit the car once.

5. All the rubber beadings have started cracking and have become hard.

6. Passenger side ORVM has become lose (though functional). Honda says replacing the whole unit is the only option.

7. In previous service Honda SA said that some bushes needed replacement in the transmission unit. Not very sure about the exact part name.

8.The steering wheel material has become very fragile. Will need to leather wrap it.

9. Also need to get some electrical work done because certain panel lights such as lights for AC knobs do not work (thanks to the scam service station Carnation who goofed up with the car big time by putting substandard parts and not balancing & aligning the wheels leading to premature balding of tyres)

Apart from all these things the car drives like a charm. Everytime I'm reminded there is no replacement for displacement and 4 cylinders smoothness cannot be matched by best of the 3 cylinders out there (I realize this better because I have an Eon which is has a 0.8l unit and has only 3 cylinders).
Apart from these issues the car is perfect mechanically.
Last year the AC had started giving trouble so got the AC overhauling done (now it chills lime anything).
Exide turned out to be a wrong choice of battery. It lasted only 2 years and even under replacement under warranty had to shell out 50% of the battery's cost.

As you mentioned above even my car's driver seatbelt doesn't retract on it's own and the driver side window is a gone case. Honda says replace the motor which costs 6k (the same was replaced under a global recall around 2011-12) and FNG says to replace the beading I'm confused.

You are right it does not make sense to sell the car now. Only thing that bothers me is the lack of ABS and Airbags. If given a choice I would like to go back to 2008 and push my dad for the vtec+ variant which had dual airbags and abs.
But this car is special for me since I learnt driving on this very car. My dad was generous enough to allow me to hone my driving skills on this car.

I'm uploading some recent pictures since you have asked for it

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by Durango Dude

When I was on the look out to replace my 6 year old Hyundai Accent, I test drove this iteration of the Honda City, I was just blown away by the user friendly nature of the car. But I went in for the Hyundai Elantra as the Honda City at that time was almost bald as far as safety features were concerned, but Elantra had airbags, ABS, TCS, alloys, 9 CD changer etc and came with huge discounts. I kept it for 14 years and sold it recently.

That Elantra has become a legend in itself. Such a motivational thread that is to keep one's car for as long as possible. I wonder when and how I can reach half of those many years. My humble Wagon R was one such but the itch of a sedan made me exchange her.

With regards to the City, I wonder why Honda Service is considered useless by @wanderinnomad So far I have heard of good after sales service from all Japanese brands in India (except Nissan)

[TSIVTEC]

Originally Posted by Storm2.0

As you mentioned above even my car's driver seatbelt doesn't retract on it's own and the driver side window is a gone case. Honda says replace the motor which costs 6k (the same was replaced under a global recall around 2011-12) and FNG says to replace the beading I'm confused.

You are right it does not make sense to sell the car now. Only thing that bothers me is the lack of ABS and Airbags. If given a choice I would like to go back to 2008 and push my dad for the vtec+ variant which had dual airbags and abs.

Can you also elaborate more on the differences between the VTEC plus and the other ZX models.As you have mentioned above,my car did have it's driver side switch panel replaced in 2012 if I'm not wrong.It was an amazing car for its time which we had to sell in 2014 at 80,000kms as we were shifting to Bangalore and had some financial constraints.Posting a pic as I couldn't resist to..

[WanderinNomad]

That's one good looking car. (People will find this statement funny since noone except me likes the looks of this car )
Tafeta white is such an elegant shade . That is the only OEM colour in this car I would like to change the shade of my car to .

Some solutions to your problems from my side .

1 try to get the bumpers changed and car panels dented /painted under insurance next time you have a minor bump ( which will eventually happen in Banglore traffic ) . Remember insurance pays almost complete amount for painting and denting . Any new damage can be claimed even if it is on an older panel .
Get a good comprehensive insurance ( I have Edelweiss which worked out excellent recently )

2 get suspension checked outside ASS by a good FNG. They will change only sub parts . Sometimes only a boot / Rubber bush change is required .
As mentioned I refurbished my suspension at 85k km for less than RS 6000. Child parts are pretty cheap .

3 have you ever got injector and throttle body cleaning ? May be that solves the jerking issue at low gears .

4 Again go the insurance way . Even a stone hit can be claimed . 100% of the glass cost is borne by insurance

6 Find the right shop ,get it repaired for just a 1000 bucks. No change is required.
I got mine done via popular automach hsr

For power window , do not replace the motor . Beading can be changed for Rs 1500 but that will solve the issue for 1-2 years only .