[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by Khushrav

There is not a single stand out feature in this car, not one. Why would anyone pay a premium price (assume its more than 10L Mumbai) for this?

And the same parts bin for a car thats to be positioned higher? What is Suzuki thinking? Just imagine the wasted costs of setting up a different dealership network + makrketing + publicity, what a downer.

Are you jealous that Maruti has developed such a car for the Indian industry?!

All these days people were bashing Maruti for "cheap" tin can manufactured cars that were poor in all areas where the Hyundai won be it interior quality, features, plastics, fit-finish, Features and most important of all - No skimping on safety equipment in this car.

As rightly said by BHPian 'romeomidhun' this S-Cross is a wonderful master stroke. Hope they price it sensibly to get customer in flow regularly.

What I can say is if this car succeeds and does get an impression in the minds of customers that Maruti too can make "Cars" that are not cheap, feature-less and flimsy built. It will only increase the confidence and strengthen the brand hold in the market.

If you are listening Maruti - Get the 1.6L MJD manufactured here locally, increase the localization and then plonk it in the Ciaz, Ertiga and the Swift (limited edition).

Originally Posted by sourabhzen

I would pay for following features:

+1

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

As I mentioned earlier, many people couldn't digest/admit the fact that Maruti has come up with a product that is so competitive

+1000.

Originally Posted by Vigkey

Come on sir, S-Cross gets a LOT of segment firsts and stand out features. I am wondering how you missed all of them. Listing a few I can remember at the back of my hand.

Really sad that you found none of these to be stand out features.

I agree too all of you guys totally. Not sure what Kushrav is wanting to imply with that baseless post.

[sandygordon]

4. DDiS 320 1.6L Diesel Zeta Vs Alpha
The Diesel Zeta would be priced 75k - 1 L lower than the Alpha I suppose, ie 13-13.5 lacs OTR. It would be the best bet for me i suppose. But I will be missing reverse parking camera the most followed by ACC. ACC is of not much significance in our south indian 'persistantly hot' scenario (ac ll have to be in full blast 90% of the time). More over I m never used to ACC. I think the delta skimps too much on feaatures, it does not even have rear wipers or demisters.

Zeta does not get these:
LED Position Lamps
Leather seat upholstery
Leather wrapped steering
HID-Projector headlamps
Auto headlamps
Rain sensing wiper
Reverse parking camera
Auto AC
Cruise Control

Praying for steal pricing of the 1.6ss....
I have not waited like this, so anxiously, outside the labor room at the time of my son's birth, or for my pre / post grad exam results..LOL

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Vigkey

Even though not a deal-breaker, I am not really happy with the positioning of the USB and Aux ports in this car. There is not much difference between this and the much criticized placement in the Jazz. I definitely agree the compartment under arm-rest is better place than the glove box and it is the dangling low quality wires that has warranted the heavy criticism in the Jazz, wouldn't the area below ACC and near the 12V port be the ideal placement of these ports? If I need to hear music using Aux and also use the navigation of my phone or charge the phone in tandem, the current placement makes it impossible. Hyundai's placement is the best IMO.

The Jazz location in glove box was good but the execution was horrible with hanging wires and exposed connectors.

The armrest makes sense because you don't put the phone inside. The connectors sit in arm rest out of way and no wires exposed. There is a small opening for the wires so even if you close the arm rest cover, the wire doesn't get pinched. The phone or ipod can be outside but the connector is hidden. If you have a USB drive, it remains hidden out of sight.

Well Vid, if I am not mistaken, even Duster now gets a soft-touch dashboard since the last face-lift. Yes, Creta does not have it but this is definitely not a segment first feature. And as pointed out in a different post, Punto and Linea also gets soft-touch plastics on the dashboard. I, however, don't think the Zest gets soft-touch plastics - I haven't checked the car out, but do not remember reading such a thing in our review or any other online reviews.

Oh yes, the Duster recently was updated with soft touch plastics. What I was saying was these soft touch plastics were standard before. The Fiesta classic had it, the old gen Honda City, Mitsubishi Lancer all had this. After that cost cutting started and you could only find them on Octavia, Laura, Corolla, Civic segment.

So it's good to see these nice touches make a come back.

[sunsetorange]

The concealed USB and aux ports are ideally positioned for my family. I've already lost half a dozen USB drives in my Figo to my kids pulling them out and throwing them somewhere .

[sathya_g_m]

Originally Posted by sandygordon

I have not waited like this, so anxiously, outside the labor room at the time of my son's birth, or for my pre / post grad exam results..LOL

LOL! Luckily, I am out of the country and will be back by first week of August. So got time to be anxious without my family not frowning at me :-) for being anxious for a car!

BTW, great review! I am on lookout for a car at 10-12L budget and every I refresh, I am inching towards S-cross/Ciaz.

Decision forced by Hyundai/Renault and not by me:

1) Did wait for Creta, they priced it way beyond

2) Was thinking about Verna, looks like they increased price by 30K. Not ready to spend any extra money, given that I didnt like the ride there.

3) Renault seems to have killed 85 PS RxL+, I dont like to pay huge premium for touch screen (usually a garbage for me) and alloy wheels to get ABS. 110 RXL? May be but at that price, I dont want the Duster's interiors :-(

4) Lodgy 110 RxL seems VFM, but 8 seaters cannot be brought under company lease policy (Sigh! their 8 seater is just a 7 seater but just added seat belt and named it 8 seater). I hate captain seat version (Simply my family hates it, 3 seater middle row is a must for MPV in my family!)

5) Ecosport, SUV!, Really!? It is too small inside. My Santro seems more spacious than EcoSport. Charming but not practical for me.

6) Ertiga, no luggage room. Last row folded down is not flat at all. Big No from my family.

Leaves me with Ciaz/City/S-cross.
7) City Worth the premium? SV iDTEC, if priced less that 10L Ex-showroom would have made my decision easier. But it is priced at 10.17L Ex, so on-road jumps another 50K. Can Stretch and get this at 12.4LOTR, but heart/head is not favoring City.

8) Ciaz Good overall, didnt find underpowered at all. Will TD once again to be sure. My family at rear seat think seats are kept small to increase Leg room, not sure if long drive will make rear seat passengers feel under thigh support a problem?

9) S-cross--> Except looks, ticks all the boxes. If priced well, looks like they have my money.

If they price well. They will have my money!

Note: will never shop at Tata/Skoda/VW. Any other car left for me to consider at 10-12L?

[Vigkey]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

The Jazz location in glove box was good but the execution was horrible with hanging wires and exposed connectors.

Totally agree Vid, it was the horrible execution that received the flak and it was justified. But IMO, glove box is still a bad location for the ports - be it with bad wires or well integrated ports. Anyways, that is for another thread and I guess it is bordering here.

Originally Posted by Vid6639

The armrest makes sense because you don't put the phone inside. The connectors sit in arm rest out of way and no wires exposed. There is a small opening for the wires so even if you close the arm rest cover, the wire doesn't get pinched. The phone or ipod can be outside but the connector is hidden. If you have a USB drive, it remains hidden out of sight.

Oh, thanks for the clarification Vid. This makes a lot of sense!!! I did not know there was a provision to keep the phone outside the arm-rest console and still connect to the port. No complaints on that regard now And as others pointed out, to keep USB drives safe, such concealed locations are much better. So that is a thumbs up to Suzuki!!!

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Are you jealous that Maruti has developed such a car for the Indian industry?!

Totally agree Anurag. I too think some of our folks are criticizing S-Cross for no valid reason that I can comprehend and that is really shocking. On the other hand, shouldn't we be happy that Indian brands like Maruti (even though not exactly an Indian brand - the role of Maruti and Indians in this brand is undeniable), Tata and Mahindra are really upping the game and giving us superior quality products which are also feature rich and not over-priced?

Till date, Maruti was rightly accused of giving featureless products with not so admirable quality to Indians - Maruti is doing its best to correct this with the S-Cross and to an extent with the Ciaz and Swift facelift.
Tata was rightly accused of giving us products with niggles and reliability issues and with poor quality - Tata has given us the Zest with a lot of premium appeal wiith loads of features and very less niggled reported at a very reasonable price.
Mahindra was rightly accused of giving us products with a lot of niggles and not of great quality - Mahindra has given us the XUV with features that shames products commanding much more premium and they seem to have really worked on the quality as well.

All three of them are trying to do as well as Hyundai and have almost succeeeded in that. They are doing much better than Honda also. Even if we do not lap up these products, we should not criticize them without reason. My 2 paise.

[sandygordon]

Originally Posted by sathya_g_m

3) Renault seems to have killed 85 PS RxL+, I dont like to pay huge premium for touch screen (usually a garbage for me) and alloy wheels to get ABS. 110 RXL? May be but at that price, I dont want the Duster's interiors :-(

My family is frowning at me now.

The Renault duster RXL 110 is also in my contention as discounts upto 60k is available now. Seems like it does not have the passenger airbag. SA at Renault was sure of its presence but the brochure says otherwise.

So 12.5 L OTR + 35k for anthracite alloys + audio upgrade to AVN (pioneer/alpine) with good ICE at 50k + Seat covers @ 10k will make it about 13.4 OTR, which I think is a better package than the equally priced creta diesel sx base. The RXZ 110 with navigation and leatherette is available for 14L after discount as well.

So I will consider the S cross 1.6 first, if not in my budget range (creta case) I might consider the Duster RXL/RXZ as well.

[ramzsys]

Originally Posted by ashishpotdar

I like everything that Maruti has done to up the game but Indian consumers will be bowled over by the Creta. Because it looks like an SUV.

Also, as per reports, the S-cross doesn't have the ride quality/handling of an SUV.

Creta wins in that department, displacing the Duster. Sigh.

[vibbs]

I think it can be safely said that none of the new age Maruti cars look cheap for the segments they are in. They match every other manufacturer except perhaps Hyundai when it comes to interior quality. The Swift, Ertiga, Dezire, Ciaz all look par for their respective segments in the interior quality department and in fact better than what Hondas and Toyotas provide for the respective price. Just that the public is not yet willing to see it.

S cross might just change it. Ertiga first and now Ciaz has made a Maruti saleable close to 10 lakhs. S cross will just further it. I am convinced this is as honest an attempt that can be to give India a good car irrespective of what you call it. Hope it does well.

Originally Posted by ramzsys

Also, as per reports, the S-cross doesn't have the ride quality/handling of an SUV.

Creta wins in that department, displacing the Duster. Sigh.

How is that a negative? I mean not having the ride and handling of a SUV? Typically SUVs do not have ride and handling characteristics comparable with Sedans. They are bouncy, have much more body roll and handling is not a patch on Sedans.

Duster is an exception because of its non-SUV like ride and handling characteristics. Which is what every Cross over tries to achieve. If you look at reviews for Creta many mentions that Duster is still better when it comes to ride specially as speed increases and Creta doesn't handle as well either.

Our review of the SCross says it handles quite well and high speed stability is better than Sedans like Vento/Rapid. At the same time ride is 90% there compared to Duster. I don't think a better balance can be achieved.

[sandygordon]

Originally Posted by ramzsys

Also, as per reports, the S-cross doesn't have the ride quality/handling of an SUV.

Creta wins in that department, displacing the Duster. Sigh.

A hatch never handles like an SUV. They have nothing in common in their driving DNA. Ride is supposed to be firmer.

To me duster is an suv like cross over closer to an off roader while the creta is an suv like crossover closer to a soft roader. And S cross is a hatch like cross over closer to a C segment sedan.

Except for the time of launch and pricing, in my opinion, the three are very different cars spanning a very wide spectrum (cross over). Confusion arises for a buyer only when he decides to shop at a particular budget, eventually resulting in cross shopping.

I have attached a plot hatch vs suv traits of cars and the size of stars indicates desirability. These are subjective and please take it lightly with a pinch of salt. Opinions welcocme

[Deep Blue]

Originally Posted by carfreak

No Nexa in Mangalore

Nexa is coming to Mangalore! So says todays' front page ad in The Hindu, address given as Kadri road to be run by Bharat autocars. Maybe you can enquire in Bharat autocars.

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by ramzsys

Creta wins in that department, displacing the Duster. Sigh.

Displacing Duster in ride /handling ?

Wait for the TBHP review, until then reviews indicate otherwise ( though OT).

What it doesn't have is the Duster's sorted dynamics. There is body roll around corners and the steering lacks feel, although these are relative to the Renault and not other Hyundais from whom this is a step forward. In fact the overall dynamics are even better than the big brother Santa Fe, which had the best dynamic package of all Hyundais by far.

http://www.motoringworld.net/cars/re...ssion/page/0/3

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by S2!!!

These were competent cars from the early 2000s, yet failures in terms of sales.

All of those cars listed from the past, that relate to the S Cross, were all very good cars. Their unconventional styling (Ford), steep pricing and the fact that they were not made by the top two cars companies were some other reasons for their failures.

Originally Posted by S2!!!

This is a bland car which will go unnoticed in a crowd

I have to agree with the design. It isn't eye catching in any sense of it. I saw the car displayed at a mall and there is nothing that I really liked about it. Those wheels are the most boring design of an alloy wheel I have seen in recent times.

Originally Posted by S2!!!

It is a solidly built car that feels more European than Japanese.

I am not surprised at the overall feel of the car being more European than Japanese. The roots of this car comes from the old Fiat Sedici, which was a car built on a Fiat Suzuki tie up. This car was not a Fiat in terms of looks but it drove like one and that seems to reflect on the new S Cross.

A point to note. When I was looking for a Bosch cabin air filter for my Fiat Linea, I was shown a model compatible for the Fiat Punto. When I checked the carton, the filter compatibility suggested Swift, SX4 and Fiat Sedici. This was not compatible with my car or a Punto.

Originally Posted by S2!!!

Maruti uses Fiat's 1.6L diesel in India before Fiat itself

This is just tragic. Fiat's cars needed this engine more than anybody else. Not that this would have changed their fortunes.

Originally Posted by S2!!!

Like the exterior, there's no 'wow' factor on the inside

Agreed and it isn't due to the lack of beige. I for one did not find anything exceptional with regard to interior quality. To me, the only part that felt and looked good was the dashboard. Contrary to what the review says, I found the rear door panels to be quite flimsy and unappealing. This car reminds me about what they did with the Kizashi. Its Suzuki's flagship sedan but felt nothing like it on the inside. The dashboard felt low rent and so did several buttons to operate the power windows, etc. Not what you expect if you are to shell out over 22lac.

Originally Posted by S2!!!

Even the rear quarter glass proves to be useful while joining a main road from a bylane, or when changing lanes

Not sure if I followed this. How does the rear quarter glass aid in relation to what you say?

Originally Posted by S2!!!

It's deep, but weirdly shaped which hampers practicality

The internal cavity is identical, if not as deep in Fiat's cars.

Originally Posted by S2!!!

This is the first Maruti on sale without a petrol engine on offer

In a way I am glad cause they don't have a petrol engine capable to haul something as heavy as the S Cross. The 1.4l will end up being a dud in terms of performance and even if they did offer the VVT 1.6l, this engine is known to drink gas.

All in all, a well documented review. Even though I am not lined up for a new car purchase, I am definitely heading over to a Nexa (Why?) outlet to drive a 1.6l S Cross. More than the engine, I want to experience the ride.

[prakash_ajp]

Nice review and looks like MS has a very good product in their line up. In my opinion Maruti will do well to price it a bit below Creta, even though I like the S-Cross more as a package, esp. with that engine and ride. But looking at Maruti going all the way to set up new brand/dealerships, I doubt it will happen.

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Not sure if I followed this. How does the rear quarter glass aid in relation to what you say?

Ideally (and as per law), before you change lanes etc., you need to do this:

1. Use the respective indicator
2. Look in the inner mirror,
3. Look in the respective outer mirror
4. Look over your shoulder (on the respective side) for blind spots.

And 4 is where the windows and quarter glasses come into the picture.

[shrek]

Originally Posted by sandygordon

I have attached a plot hatch vs suv traits of cars and the size of stars indicates desirability. These are subjective and please take it lightly with a pinch of salt. Opinions welcocme

Nice plot !

In cycling we use the terms 'road oriented hybrid' and 'off-road oriented hybrid'.
Perhaps a similar terminology can be used for crossovers as well.

And strictly speaking - anything without ladder frame chassis should come under 'crossover'.