Wonderful review. Rated it well deserved 5 star.
As I am looking to replace my 6yr old Swift, my mind was occupied only with Jazz and Creta in last few months that I had completely ignored S Cross. Maybe some uninspiring S Cross exterior photos from net contributed to this. Both Jazz and Creta disappointed me on varies counts. I was primarily looking for a AT car/SUV for around 14L for my city and highway drives(50:50). Jazz pricing was horrible with almost 10L OTR for AT and that was not a top end. And Creta's 17L for AT which is again offered only in 1 non-top end variant. After reading this wonderful review and knowing fully well there is no AT offered in S Cross I paid a visit to Nexa JP Nagar with my father and wife during weekend.
First the Nexa experience. Really liked the whole setup and the way customers are handled. Completely opposite to what I experienced at Hyundai showroom (Trident Hosur) last week. Entire 45min we were in the showroom to checkout the Creta not even a single soul bothered ask us why we are there, if that's your idea of selling a 17L car, good luck. My RM at Nexa was very well informed about the car and he patiently answered all my questions. He was all gaga over the way Maruti Suzuki has trained him and some other handpicked RMs last month in Delhi and told me that MS has invested around 600 crore for Nexa setup alone. Hope Nexa guys don’t develop complacency over the years and start taking customers for granted like few of us have experienced at Hyundai sales centres.
Now the car itself, first what I didn't like:
-As already pointed out by many, exterior design is no head turner not from any angle
-Awfully designed alloys, how does these even get approved? But only relief is they don't look as bad as pictures suggest.
-Boot space should have been more for a car of this size. But I get it, as per RM Maruti don't wanted to compromise on GC by providing spare wheel any lower than this.
-Proper DRLs should have been provided
-HU integration and dash design should have been much better
-No rear AC vents
-As per my RM, Maruti provides only 2 years of warranty by default. Customers can opt for 2yrs extended.
What I liked:
-Rear seats split 60:40 a major plus for me (This is provided in all the variants. In Creta only AT gets it, may be someone someday will explain me the logic behind this)
-Cruise control
-Rear leg room. I am 5.11" I was comfortable at the back with driver seat set to my driving position
-Bottle storage on all the doors
-Front arm rest which slides forward, extremely handy.
-Apart from 2 front doors rear boot door also gets sensor
-Those HID projector headlamps look gorgeous
-And, off course going by reviews the mighty 1.6 DDiS engine
Like few on this forum I took the plunge and booked Alpha DDiS320 Caffeine Brown colour

I think S Cross looks good in this colour especially front end with chrome inserts around fog lamp. Chrome doesn't look intrusive as it does on most of the new cars. I can anyway opt for different colour later. Here is the screen grab from one of the video reviews on the net.
How I wish Maruti had provided a AT variant as well, may be my next car. I really hope Maruti would provide good amount of official accessories. If better looking alloys are in the list, I will replace them with stock alloys before even I drive the car out of the showroom. I also think rear spoiler will add that sportiness to this otherwise dull looking exterior. My RM has told me that he will mail me the accessory list on Wednesday morning.
Now agonizing 48hrs of wait continues for the prices to be announced. I just spent few minutes to carefully scrutinize e-brochure to weigh my options for top 2 variants, Zeta and Alpha. This is what Zeta misses over top end Alpha:
-Leather package
-HID Projector Headlamps
-Rain sensing wipers
-Auto Headlamps
-LED position lamps
However certain features like reverse parking camera, cruise control and ACC are provided in both DDiS200 Zeta and Alpha while DDiS320 get these 3 features only in top end Alpha. I really liked the fact that Maruti is offering all 4 disk brakes, dual airbags, ABS and 60:40 split rear seats on all the variants including very low end Sigma. It will be interesting to see how much of price gap between different variants Maruti decides to keep. If DDis320 Alpha touches 15L OTR Bangalore I will change my booking to DDiS200 Alpha. Having driven the same 1.3L engine on my Swift for last 6yrs I know what it is capable of but will have to wait and see if its enough for a car of S Cross size, can't wait for the TD.