After years of dedicated hardwork, I've finally saved enough to buy a brand new White shirt that I'm wearing
(I'm on the right). Meanwhile my dad out ourselves a brand new S-Cross DDiS320 Alpha.
The reason we went for a 1.6 S-Cross is
1. This is our first brand new car. (So why not go for the fullest of the full option)
2. We are planning to keep it for at least 10 years (So why not go for the fullest of the full option)
3. 118bhp and 320nm torque. Does 0-100 in 11.xx sec and it doesn't handle like a boat. (Main Reason)
I know the above reasons are not exactly logical, but some excuses me and my dad made to convince my mom.
Other cars considered
1. VAG Cars: A few of my friends uses VAG cars. And decided not to proceed with it because of obvious reasons.
2. Verna: Though a brilliant car, packed with some serious punch and loaded with a lot of goodies, But I felt its handling a few notches below its competition. Creta 1.6 went over our budget.
3. Maruti Suzuki Ciaz: Showroom guys were not at all friendly. We requested a TD, they said they will call, but they never did.
4. Fiat New Linea: I am a big fan of Fiat and Ford cars because they are very much fun to drive. We saw the car and we liked it. Unfortunately their test drive car was not available that day. They promised me they will arrange a TD within 2 days. Next day the called, they had arranged me a test drive car. But it looked brand new. I've seen their TD car it was maroon in colour and it has "TEST DRIVE CAR" stickers on them. This one looked brand new and it was grey. When I started driving I realized its speedometer was disconnected. This scared the crap out of me. This could be a random car from their yard. And they might sell this car to some other guy and the SE was encouraging me to ride it hard and fast. Deal Cancelled.
5. Duster/ Terrano: 85PS Didn't excite us, I felt it lacked equipment and features for the price we pay. (I know compact SUVs are a bit expensive compared to sedans). 110PS was way over our budget
6. Honda City: We saw the car, Typical Honda. Quality was top most. Fit and finish was very good. It had fancy bits like sunroof, 3 power outlets, Honda connect, Reverse camera with "top view" ish mode etc. It ticked almost all our boxes. I've driven the old i-VTEC City so we booked a Diesel City VX without a test drive. Two days later they called and they requested us to take a test drive. They have some company policy that customers who have booked a car must have taken a test drive. During TD I realized Diesel Hondas are not exactly how I thought it would be.
it was noisy and it ran out of steam very quickly. This was the only thing we hated about this car. Still we decided to proceed with it.
7. S-Cross: Fast forward two days. I was chatting with a friend of mine, I told him I booked a City. I shared my experience I had from other showrooms. Then he said, "Dude, Have you considered S-Cross???". S-Cross! I completely forgot that such a car exists!. Since we have already booked a city, I was a bit reluctant to call Nexa guys. For a week, all in my mind was "You will be driving that diesel City for a long time, are you confident about your decision"? I was not. I couldn't handle the pressure, called Nexa guys and requested for a test drive. Test drive car came to my house next evening. They came with a 1.3 Alpha. It had all the things I wanted. 90PS from that 1.3 engine felt more powerful and refined than 100PS from Honda. Quality and fit and finish and interior space was great, it handled pretty decently. And it was cheaper than City VX. We decided S-Cross 1.3 Alpha it is. We cancelled City booking the very same day. We visited Nexa showroom the very next day for the booking procedures. Nexa showroom was one of the neatest showroom I've visited. Nexa guys where very friendly and very much professional. They know how to make us feel special. Meanwhile I saw their TD 1.6 S-Cross. I requested for a TD, they accepted. I told the SE I just wanted to feel the power, we have no intention of buying a 1.6. We (me, my dad, SE) took the car out, There was some turbo lag compared to DDiS200 but still it was not dead compared to Verna. after 1750 RPM it was
whoooosh, it pulled so hard 4500 RPM, 2nd gear
whooooshh 4500RPM, 3rd gear
whoooooshh. Speedo crossed 120 mark. Oh hell yeah I was impressed. 100 at 6th gear came at 1750rpm. I told myself "I must convince my Dad to get a 1.6". Then my dad told me "We are gonna keep our car for more than 10 years. So why not a 1.6?". Me- Why not? SE- Why not? We came back and booked a 1.6 Alpha. All colours except blue looked good to my eye. Since I am not that good in creative artisty stuff, we decided to go for the safest option WHITE.
Delivery Experiance:
Booked : 2nd March 2016
Deliverd: 16th March 2016
I was constantly in touch with the SE during this 3 weeks. SE offered us good discount. He also offered 10K worth free accessories apart from basic accessories like door mats mud flap etc. First we thought of Teflon and under-body coating. Then decided we will get it done from a nearby 3M Car Care. We thought we will keep our car look stock. But must do something since it was 10k worth free accessories. We decided to go for a spoiler, and a Suzuki Emblem ("S" emblem in the rear got replaced with "S U Z U K I") and we asked them to paint it BLACK. Because this set-up gives 30 BHP direct bump!! (10 BHP for spoiler, 10 BHP for the emblem, 10 BHP because it is BLACK). White spoiler adds only 5 BHP
. Spoiler-Emblem setup including painting was charged 8.5k. They returned 1.5k as cash. Delivery experience was amazing. Almost all Nexa-employees were present during this process. Key was handed over with a round of applause. It was not at all "take your car and leave and never comeback again" attitude few of my friends experienced from other show rooms. SE said "if you need any help, any assistance or complaints regarding anything like service etc any time in future, please do not hesitate to call". We were advised to keep our right foot under control for the first 1000 km.
So far we have no complaints about the car. But if you want me to nitpick, here it goes
1. It looks a bit plain from some angles. But it is not really a problem for me. For us, looks has very low priority when it comes to cars and bikes (Who cares about the looks, It has 118BHP and 320 NM torque, enough said)
2. We couldn't find a comfortable position for its rear head rests. it is uncomfortable at almost all positions.
3. Rear AC vents would have been nice. But we can live without one
4. JK Tires?
We decided to call her "PANDA" by the way