[NPV]

Originally Posted by sandygordon

I bought the 'zebra carpets' for 1k (bit on the expensive side)
Door sill illuminated plates were quoted for 3.6k, opted against it, too blue for my tastes. (I would have taken white ones).
Red blinking light shows the active state of security system.
Fog lamps switch is near the head lamp leveler on the right lower side.
Spoilers were available for Rs 6k, browns had not reached their stock, will be going for them after first service. Only these three accessories were available(spoiler, sill guards and mats).

Congratulations on the new acquisition and wishing you miles of happy drives on the brown hippo
Hope you will share your ownership thread soon with details of all the accessories and lots of pictures

[Vigkey]

Originally Posted by sandygordon

Got the delivery of my caffeine brown S cross.

Congrats sandygordon and what a gift you have got yourself this Onam!!! A fantastic acquisition!!! It looks great in the brown shade and the alloys greatly enhance the looks and stance of the car!!!

Not sure if you mentioned before, how much did the alloys cost you? Did the alloy seller buy back the OEM alloys?? and how much did you get for that???

Waiting for your ownership thread and also more pics of the mods you have done

Originally Posted by Satishtv

Here are the pictures of my S Cross 1.3 Zeta

Congrats Satish!!! Premium Silver is my favorite color on the S-Cross. The shade looks truly premium!!!

Hope to see your ownership thread soon and would also love to know if you have planned for any mods.

[vinit]

Took the test drive of S Cross. Very strongly felt that the manufacturers (all, not just Maruti) are making much more profit by selling hatchbacks at more than the price of Sedans by branding them as Crossovers. Didnt find the premium that they are charging for these crossovers, justifiable at all.

[sandygordon]

Originally Posted by vinit

Took the test drive of S Cross. Very strongly felt that the manufacturers (all, not just Maruti) are making much more profit by selling hatchbacks at more than the price of Sedans by branding them as Crossovers. Didnt find the premium that they are charging for these crossovers, justifiable at all.

As a prospective customer I had one big confusion - the size of the car. The really big headlights and big two slat chrome grille makes the rest of the car to be felt dis-proportionately small. Nexa showrooms and malls donot help much. I am adding a few pics of the car below for the purpose of size comparison.
After seeing these pics atleast few of the confused lot will stop calling it 'just another hatch'

[vinit]

Originally Posted by sandygordon

After seeing these pics atleast few of the confused lot will stop calling it 'just another hatch'

This is not a just a perception from the engineering angles of the car I suppose. Its more to do with the economics. How people will view different types of cars in terms of size and other parameters (hatchbacks, sedans, SUVs etc ) will be highly in relevance to their individual requirements. The real point is whether the "extra" that I am being charged for these crossovers is justifiable to the "extra" that i am being offered to. This is again an individual opinion and for me the answer is No.

[sandygordon]

Originally Posted by vinit

This is not a just a perception from the engineering angles of the car I suppose. Its more to do with the economics. How people will view different types of cars in terms of size and other parameters (hatchbacks, sedans, SUVs etc ) will be highly in relevance to their individual requirements. The real point is whether the "extra" that I am being charged for these crossovers is justifiable to the "extra" that i am being offered to. This is again an individual opinion and for me the answer is No.

Totally agree with the opinion part.
The phenomenon in the industry is not just for cross overs. What about D segment sedans ? The new cross over space was deliberately created to fit these in the previous D segment price points. In my case the comparable sedan is the Ciaz. I feel the S cross alpha DDIS 200 is priced well compared to the Ciaz. S cross offers a lot more for me than the Ciaz (Except rear ac vents). But Ciaz itself with its 1.3 MJD should have been priced a bit more competitively. Ecosport should have continued with the launch prices. Duster was the vehicle that changed the economics of this C-X segment - thats my terminology for the new segment. (C<C+<CX<D). I always wanted a spacious sedan, but at this price point I had to search the CX segment because it fits my budget and space requirements, (by space i mean not just knee room at the back). I would on any day pick the Jetta or the Cruze over the Creta, S Cross or Duster if budget was not limiting. I would not pick a ciaz or vento though. (my individual opinion).

[sandygordon]

I will be busy for a couple of weekends. Seems I will have no time this weekend for a detailed ownership report.

Swapped the alloys and the tyres for the Hankook Ventus ME 01 - 225 / 55 / R 16. Alloys were GTR. I did not get a mouth watering deal, but it was pretty decent. Got 31 k for buy back of the 4 alloys with the JK (16K for the alloys and 15K for the Jks). Hankook tyres costed 38 k for set of four and GTR alloys 30 k for the four of them. So I had to pay 38k for the change. But the ride has become super flat and silent. I might be losing a bit on the FE and acceleration front, but that is something I can live with.

Did not go for the ICE upgrade or the 3M treatments this week. Will be done next week.

Here are some snaps of the little brown hippo. Will be penning the ownership report once I complete 500 km (280km already done in 2 days ).

Front end


Rear


The long side profile

The Alloys - GTR Black with Machined silver (GLA like ones)

[sudeepg]

The car definitely looks great, although your choice of alloys are not to my taste. I'd appreciate if you could tell me via your ownership report how the car fares in terms of performance with 4 people and luggage on board on highway as well as ghats. Is there a lot of weakness felt on the engine or is it adequate? Based on your feedback, I may revisit my plans to go for the S-cross. Thanks in advance!

[sandygordon]

Originally Posted by sudeepg

The car definitely looks great, although your choice of alloys are not to my taste. I'd appreciate if you could tell me via your ownership report how the car fares in terms of performance with 4 people and luggage on board on highway as well as ghats. Is there a lot of weakness felt on the engine or is it adequate? Based on your feedback, I may revisit my plans to go for the S-cross. Thanks in advance!

Obviously. Opinion on alloys varies.

Had a brief run with 4 adults and a kid on board. It felt ok. IMO the car could struggle on the that's especially in lower revs. Once you keep it in the turbo zone things are better. This observation is based on my brief drive on some inclines. I would suggest you to go for creta, 110 ps duster or the 1.6 for enthusiastic driving in the ghosts. Planning a trip to hill stations next month.

My use of this car would be for the city and highway with max 4 people on board. (Two people and a kid 95% of the time) if my requirement was ghat driving I would have looked elsewhere. Don't expect this one to light up the highways. I 'll pull well and can overtake those annoying trucks and can do a relaxed 90 to 110 mph on relatively empty road. Don't expect it to zoom past a Vento or a 110 ps duster doing triple digit speeds. You sure can churn out the last drop of performance from the 1.3 mjd as the poise and stability is superb. For a ripping performance be ready to revv her hard. May be you can get opinion on ghat performance from Ciaz owners.

[sudeepg]

Thanks a lot sandygordon. This does give me some more perspective of what to expect.

Originally Posted by sandygordon

Obviously. Opinion on alloys varies.

BTW, this in no way meant your alloys looks ugly or bad. It goes well with your S-Cross color though. I personally prefer silver type alloys.

Originally Posted by sandygordon

Had a brief run with 4 adults and a kid on board. It felt ok. IMO the car could struggle on the that's especially in lower revs. Once you keep it in the turbo zone things are better. This observation is based on my brief drive on some inclines. I would suggest you to go for creta, 110 ps duster or the 1.6 for enthusiastic driving in the ghosts.

Again, thanks for this info. It looks like the driver will be working a lot harder to get things going. The one thing I liked about the Hyundai's 1.6 Diesel is the amount of torque it generates. It was effortless to drive with lots of power and torque on tap. When I go to my home town, I encounter ghats and thus power on tap is important for me. Looks like S-Cross wouldn't be an option at the moment. The 1.6 diesel is out of my budget and 1.6 Petrol does not have a top end

Originally Posted by sandygordon

My use of this car would be for the city and highway with max 4 people on board. (Two people and a kid 95% of the time)

Same here. 2 adults and a kid 95% of the time on a 25:50:25 mix of city, highways and ghats.

[Indian]

Originally Posted by sandygordon

Here are some snaps of the little brown hippo.

Hippo looks really really nice. Congratulations Sandygordon, looking forward to your ownership thread.

[WRXXX]

First of all my hearty congratulations Sandygarden for the brown hippo and a beautifully matched alloys for the brown colour. Wishing many many years of safe and happy motoring.

I thought I should share my opinion about the class of vehicle S-cross belongs to, at least clear some air on the looks and looking old part for which S-cross is receiving some flak on. Having owned two crossovers previously and experienced its practicality, it would be an injustice to sit and watch comments fly by without a mention where this vehicle actually fits.

Originally Posted by vinit

This is not a just a perception from the engineering angles of the car I suppose. Its more to do with the economics. How people will view different types of cars in terms of size and other parameters (hatchbacks, sedans, SUVs etc ) will be highly in relevance to their individual requirements. The real point is whether the "extra" that I am being charged for these crossovers is justifiable to the "extra" that i am being offered to. This is again an individual opinion and for me the answer is No.

Originally Posted by dZired

Saw a silver S-Cross yesterday. And frankly, it looks just another car in the crowd, and does not have the road appeal of the Creta (just for the sake of comparison). While the Creta does look like a mini Santa Fe, the S-Cross is simply a glorified hatchback. Moreover, I personally think that the top-of-the-line variants with projector headlamps look a bit after-market.

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Saw a silver S-Cross on road today. Just another vehicle. Unfortunately this looks old / normal already. Had seen a competitor vehicle in red too, that looked lovely & eye catchy even from a 100 ft distance.

Originally Posted by Aksthedreamer

It is bigger than what it looks like in pictures. It might be an overgrown hatchback but the space inside is unmatched by any other hatchback, atleast I never sat in such a spacious hatchback before.
But I feel it is definitely over priced.

This is not "hatch" for what it is, it is a wagon. And think of wagon as something that has engulfed its boot and doubled its space. Difference really is in the way rear passenger headroom and luggage area flexibility wagons offer over their respective Sedan Avatars. So S-cross is a "Sedan+" vehicle. Now coming to crossover part, crossovers usually attempt to better best of both worlds that is highway/good road cruising ability of a Sedan and bit of bad road-ability(soft road) of SUVs, I agree that there are very few vehicles which truely achieve best of both worlds. Example:- Audi AllRoad and Some Subaru vehicles etc.

About the Ugliness part, some vehicles look great when they are understated and purposeful and ugliness doesn't come in the way people choose such vehicles. A purposeful and well built vehicle gets its fan club equally well. I think there is a classic example of such vehicle that garnered huge appreciation and became mother of all crossovers that exist today and that is "Subaru Outback". It never looked nice from day one Just like the S-cross but it was built purposeful and understated in its presence. And guess what, one of the most popular vehicle for weekend getaways in mountains and recreational areas is this vehicle in many parts of the world. When this vehicle was initially launched it directly went against then what were known and meant for hitting the trails and weekend getaways in snowy areas and mud trails. But market very soon realized what Subaru had introduced and it made more sense than tall wallowy SUVs and embraced it fully.

I would say we as a market slowly maturing to that aspect and it shows the way how modern day crossovers have become extremely popular in Indian sub-continent.

I can't stop but compare the way S-cross looks so similar to "Subaru Outback" and thought will post two pictures here for reference. Of course what is really missing in S-cross to become a true crossover is "AllGrip" AWD system as standard, but I do understand the logistics on why that is missing in the initial offerings.

Crossover truely is a lifestyle vehicle and makes sense for families which are very outdoorsy. And have an active lifestyle, for everyone else it could be just another vehicle and that is when the USP doesn't really hit home. When I went to purchase my first car I happen to see the wagon sibling in the same show room next to it and I was right away pulled in for the practicality of the wagon and I was okay with the slightly compromised handling for practicality and of course the compromised looks in some cases.

Now when the "crossover" terminology didn't even exist this vehicle came into the market and created a new segment along with its more "fun" oriented siblings later on. And see how the rear looks so similar to the outback in fact.

I think we need to mature as a market to appreciate the practicality of vehicles like these. We are already at cross roads and ready to pay 10L for "premium hatch"es and the S-cross is little more than a hatch and days are not very far to see more vehicles of these sort.

About the pricing part there definitely can be many debates, but personally I still think S-cross DDiS200 is still competitively priced. Once again my heartfelt congratulations to all the S-cross owners and wishing them the best.

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by romeomidhun

The 2016 SCross spotted overseas has a much more agressive front end,[/url]

This may come to India in 2017, the biggest will be the anticipated 1.4 Turbo in this version. Not to forget the 1.4 turbo will debut in S Cross in the Chinese market in Q3 2015 and later in other markets.

the new model will come out next year and could bring a new 1.4-liter turbocharged mill with it. At the moment, the only petrol unit you can get for it is a 1.6-liter atmospheric engine making 120 HP.

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/20...ime-99353.html

[vinit]

Originally Posted by WRXXX

This is not "hatch" for what it is, it is a wagon

There you are !! If you see the various ads of these crossovers, all companies are marketing their respective cars as "SUV" and from here the problem begins. (No company is marketing them as wagons, because then the aspiration angle may vanish as far as individual customers are concerned) As you said rightly, these are practical vehicles for daily use. What the customer is getting is a mixture of all types of cars but not a real "SUV" as such. And then one thinks about the price whether it is really justifiable to what one is getting.

[WRXXX]

Originally Posted by vinit

As you said rightly, these are practical vehicles for daily use. What the customer is getting is a mixture of all types of cars but not a real "SUV" as such. And then one thinks about the price whether it is really justifiable to what one is getting.

Correct. But the prices for most of the vehicles seem to have increased many folds now a days. I don't see why someone should be paying 10L OTR for vehicles like Polo/i20 or Jazz for that matter. The "premium" game started by Polo and i20 might have been the real cause. I see automobiles as commodities with very high depreciating values. Most of the manufacturers are cashing in on how the vehicle feels and built for the additional premium. And easily available loans for majority has skewed the perception of value even further. As lot of people seem to be judging vehicles based on emi differences during purchase.