[raman.aries]

Thank you for the review. I have been waiting for it since the launch of the vehicle. The 1.2 engine option for this car seems to be a very smart move from Maruti.

I took a test drive of this car since I am considering buying one couple of months down the line. Specifically, I wanted to see how well the AMT model performed. I must admit that Maruti seems to have improved their AMT offerings over the last couple of years. Two instances where the car impressed me were
1. While pottering around at 55kmph in 5th gear, I floored the accelerator to find out how fast it downshifts and then to which ratio. The car shifted down to 2nd gear (the lowest possible at that speed) and took off after a second's delay. Not bad.
2. With 3 people on board, I stopped on a steep incline using service brakes and then pressed accelerator after releasing the service brakes fully to figure out if the car would move backwards in such situations(I've heard horror stories about AMT's wherein the car would roll backwards). I must admit that the car move back maybe a couple of inches, but engaged quickly and then moved forward. There was no need to use hand brakes.

[BoneCollector]

Superb review, like always. I had been waiting for this since a long time. The new Wagon R is more practical than the outgoing one. I had shared my thoughts when I saw it first on 22nd January.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post4531008 (Next-gen Maruti WagonR spied. Edit: Launched @ Rs. 4.19 lakhs)


https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...ml#post4531867 (Next-gen Maruti WagonR spied. Edit: Launched @ Rs. 4.19 lakhs)

I'm glad Maruti has provided the door lock-unlock button on driver door like other cars. The previous generation didn't have a separate one and one had to use the driver side lock-unlock button for the same. We may replace our Wagon R with the new one sometime next year.

As far as I've been told, a rear view reversing camera can be attached to the head unit as the unit is the same one as that in Baleno. Am I missing something?

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Other Points

• First service (check-up) at 1,000 km / 1 month, second at 10,000 km / 12 months, and thereon every 10,000 km / 1 year. First 3 services are labour-free.

Originally Posted by NaXal

A friend of mine has one in ZXi trim (K12) & as per manual second service (inspection) is at 5000kms. 10k kms is third service (inspection).

Kindly refer to the attached image from owners manual.

Thanks.

I think that the 2nd free service would be at 6 months or 5000kms, which ever is earlier and 3rd free service at 1 year or 10000kms as rightly pointed by NaXal. All Maruti vehicles, be it 1L or1.2L K series, have the same service schedule.

[DicKy]

Thanks blackwasp for the detailed review.
Should say I thought maybe the WagonR would miss the official review treatment, but here we are with a full detailed one.

Have a 2009 WagonR at home and was salivating at the JDM WagonR, or at least something resembling it to replace our Waggie as the family's beater car.

But lo and behold, Maruti gives us a bloated one with a derriere that looks more Mahindraish

As a current owner, hard to look at the new one objectively without comparing to the older models for each little things.

Postive
- Of course the engine. Master stroke move by Maruti, have to give it to them for doing the unthinkable. Compared to the old F10D engine that I have, the K10 performed poor in stop-start and slow moving traffic (better as speeds increase). Glad to see the 4pot 1.2 in the new WagonR. Makes it's case stronger, especially in making the AMT perform better

- More space as evident, without increasing exterior dimensions I guess.

- Better ride and handling than the 2009 WagonR is a given.

Negative

- Interior storage space. Biggest pet peeve about the new WagonR. Just looking at the stupid dashboard makes me go

Look at the storage, ledges et al in the old Wagonr, pic taken from F10D WagonR guru @paragsachania 's thread.



The JDM WagonR, ( prefer the black one )


The new one looks like it exists just to hold the latest touchscreen gizmo.

- Decontenting
Has been already discussed, but the removal of adjustable head rests is the most noticeable one

- Steering feel
It's a given that WagonR will have light effortless steering, but Maruti has continued to give a dead steering that has zero feedback and poor return-to-centre action.

- ORVMs - Looks like they tried to give it 'car' ORVMs. Could have given a taller boxier ORVM, that would give a good view behind, while not protruding from the body much. Damn wind drag and high speed noise, this is a city car!

Have to agree with the point that, if one goes for the 1.2 version, might as well stretch a bit for the more polished Ignis.

[NPV]

Wonderful review with all attention to detail as is customary in Team BHP reviews, thanks for sharing

I think overall, Maruti has done a great job in this iteration. The identity crisis in the outgoing model due to the presence of the WagonR Stingray has now been addressed, with this model.

As an owner of the outgoing model of 2016 vintage, I'm surprised by missing bits like rear speakers, adjustable head rests and front retractable bottle/cup holders. The 1.2 litre engine option and the infotainment unit are very good additions though.

[VVN]

Wonderful review. Rating it a well deserved 5 stars.

Can't say the same about the Wagon R. I was eagerly waiting for the review and my views are in line with the review especially when it comes to the interiors. Maruti has taken the car back by a couple of years by cheapening out. At a time when competitors are upgrading the car in all aspects, I don't understand why a market leader like Maruti uses it's position to cheapen out rather than lead with example. The new heart is the only positive thing IMO.

[ninjatalli]

Maruti has rolled out this version clearly for the Ola and Uber riders. The car feels c-h-e-a-p. Something a commercial vehicle owner is not really going to be concerned about. The big boot space, extra interior space, and only basic features with add-ons available sounds a win-win situation for the commercial unit as well as the budget-focussed personal owner. For those who want a more 'premium' feel, just head over to the premium offering Ignis; which is just a shade more expensive!

Good strategy by @Maruti.

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by NaXal

A friend of mine has one in ZXi trim (K12) & as per manual second service (inspection) is at 5000kms. 10k kms is third service (inspection).

Originally Posted by BoneCollector

I think that the 2nd free service would be at 6 months or 5000kms, which ever is earlier and 3rd free service at 1 year or 10000kms as rightly pointed by NaXal. All Maruti vehicles, be it 1L or1.2L K series, have the same service schedule.

Many thanks for sharing. Since I didn't have access to the owner's manual, I asked my friend working in Maruti to share a screenshot of the owner's manual. It is entirely possible that he got an earlier version which is different from the final one. I will request the mods to make the appropriate change in the review.

This is the one I got:

[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

This is the one I got:
Attachment 1880035

This is how Hyundai's service is scheduled. Our Santro had this 1 month, 1 year and 2 years free service.

[GTO]

Excellent review, thanks for sharing!

As an overall product, the Santro is indisputably the pick. Not only is it better built, has superior quality & higher levels of refinement, the Santro feels more stable @ 100 kmph cruising. I drove both at high speed & the Hyundai did handle things better. That said, I am a total engine guy and for self-driving / a personal car, I would buy the WagonR over the Hyundai. Reason = that jewel of a 1.2L petrol engine. Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed driving & high-revving this breadbox around Mumbai over a weekend. Cabin space & boot size are two other advantages of the WagonR that I don't care as much about, but the masses will.

On the other hand, if I was looking for a car for the family to use or an Automatic, it would be the Santro. Superior overall car + a smoother AMT.

[NaXal]

As I have already written, a friend of mine owns a Wagon R K12 ZXi. I have driven it quite a bit including some major highway runs. Below are my observations with positives & negatives.

Without any particular order,

• Excellent space on offer. Most, if not all most all, sub 4m cars including some C-SUV would feel shame looking at the space on offer. Being a tall boy it is always good on head room but really surprised to see how Maruti managed so much space inside. It out classes Brezza on boot space yet it feels roomier inside the cabin. For me, space is simply awesome & the biggest plus point of this car.

• Next big plus point would be it's K12 engine. Typical Maruti engine with lighting quick throttle response. It feels like electric car even in lowest of revs. Makes life so easy in city conditions with that much of sharp throttle response.
  
  Although its the same engine found in Swift, but I felt somehow the ECU MAP is different. It revs freely like Swift, its as responsive as Swift but the power delivery is gradual & very linear compare to Swift. There isn't any flat spot in whole rev range but Swift with same engine feels way more aggressive when you push the car for performance.
  
  I dont feel this type of tuning is bad, its easier to drive in city or back roads with much more predictable nature. Its way more relaxing compare to swift. It will get the job (overtaking, closing some gap or such) done but won't encourage you for more fun.

• Driving Dynamics have improved a lot over the out going model (we have one in family). Its actually lighter than the outgoing car as per specification but feels completely opposite while you drive it. Doesn't give that "tin ka dabba" vive at all. The new platform shows it's advantage with much better planted driving feel. Although the suspension is tuned for city with really soft settings but aggressive direction change under city speeds are way more reassuring over the outgoing model.

• Its no longer a "juggad" for highway. This car is well suited for those occasional 200/250 kms oneway highway trips. Even with full load, its livable on expressway & can easily cruise between 80-90 kmph. K12 engine has enough juice for those triple digit overtakes too. However the short comings are prominent when you push the needle beyond 100+. Its simply no match for Swift (I haven't driven Baleno or ignis, so I am unable to comment). If you drive more than 200/250 kms and push the distance up, more & more shortcomings are visible. Flat seats are good for city but become tiring, specially the rear passengers start to complain a lot. Light weight car, tall boy body roll, slower acceleration (refer up for the different ECU tuning point) & unpredictable braking starts to take its toll on the driver.

• I don't know if this problem is with this specific car, but I feel brakes are really soft & quite frankly outright poor. If you (Maruti) are giving this car a new platform from Swift, same powerful engine then I expect it to have similar brakes too. But some how the brakes are like a segment below & meant for a car with half the power. That's not all, somehow I feel, there is fraction of a second delay in actual brake force getting to the calipers & the pads biting the rotors compare to my brake pedal input.
  
  It creates some serious problem in city if I am tailgating in bumper to bumper traffic (I understand tailgating is outright bad habit but I am using this term as a metaphor to express a point). This serious problem becomes a major safety issue while you are on a single lane highway and queuing up behind another vehicle to perform a quick overtake.
  
  No, I haven't driven another same model car, but my friend took multiple test drives with different showrooms & their diffrerent test drive cars and he feels all of those are having similar brakes.

• Wagon R has excellent visibility partly due to its large glass area. Larger windows all around allows lot of light to get in. Makes the cabin feel a good place to be. But with light, comes the heat too. A/C isn't good enough for bumper to bumper traffic under the blazing sun. Unless the car is in motion carrying 25/30 kmph + speed, the A/C simply fails to cool the cabin. You can feel the cold air but the cabin fails to cool down. If the condition is overcast, it works fine. It works fine in morning, evening or night hours but its just that noon, under a blazing sun it shows its weakness. After brakes, this one is also a deal breaking point for me.

• Rear wiper wipes water, fine dust but somehow fails to wipe mud spray which you typically get in highway or if you are driving with trucks or buses around. I feel the spring responsible for creating the pressure of wiper blades over the rear windscreen is really weak. If there is something sticky like that mud spray, it simply wipes over that.

• Gear box is such a joy to use in city. Just like the steering, one can simply use his little finger for shifting the gears. Similarly clutch and rest of the pedals are really soft & light to use. It feels so easy & relaxing to drive in city.

• I haven't tested city fuel economy figures myself, but for highway & longer trips, there is a good 2kmpl (or more) difference between 0W16 & 0W20 engine oil. The car came with 0W16 & when we went for an oil change, only option from Maruti A.S.S. was 0W20. However, 0W20 feels better in highway compare to 0W16.

• Built quality is typical Maruti, very deceptive. At first glance & with shorter city drives, I felt the quality to be on better side compare to the older Maruti products. Exterior & interiors are having that better built, long lasting feeling but after bottoming out on few hard hitting potholes at highway speed, the alignment went haywire. Steering went off center. Closer inspection at Maruti workshop revealed faulty front shurts while doing the alignment & balancing. Unfortunately due to non availability of those parts, the warranty replacement is still pending.

• CASA accessories pack at 30k feels worth the price. My friend took it

• Approach / climbing angle is really poor & with this softer suspension this car already has many scratches on the front bumper skid plate.

• Default speakers are junk. 4 after market speaker purchase is a must for everyone unless you are planning to be a backseat user & enjoy your music via headphones.

• Volume controls are pain to use. You need to keep on tapping the capacitive buttons. Driver won't complain with his steering mounted controls but "home ministry" with her longer finger nails will miss the rotary / dial type controls.

• Shorter people (kids specially) may fail to reach an open boot for closing. It opens really high, sky high.

These are few observations I have made over few weeks of use. They are validated by my friend (who is the owner of this car) too. It is very much possible that I may have missed few. I may post if I find anything major.

Apart from this, the official review is excellent. So much attention to details, like smaller ORVMs & such. I agree to all the points mentioned.

Thanks.

[ajay_satpute]

No offence to current owners or prospective owners.

This WagonR is one of the most boring design from Maruti stable. It looks most disappointing from the sides. Honestly, it's not a face-lift at all. Previous WagonR, even though boxy, looked far far better.

I agree to the couple of strength of WagonR, such as space(strictly for 4 IMO), and fuel efficiency. But, as mentioned in official review, Ignis is far superior and modern car, coming from the same company.

Is Maruti doing this on purpose to differentiate cars sold in Nexa versus cars sold in regular Maruti showrooms? From Ignis to Scross, all cars sold from Nexa, have far better interiors and a premium feel to them.

[Motard_Blr]

Thanks for the great detailed review!

I do have one criticism, though.

Originally Posted by blackwasp

[center]...

The WagonR petrol has an ARAI rating of 21.5 km/l, which is better than the Santro (20.3 km/l) and Datsun GO (20.63 km/l). However, it is way off the Celerio's 23.1 km/l or the Tiago's class-leading 23.84 km/l.

...

This paragraph seems to be useless as the ARAI figures have no basis in real world conditions. For example, though the Tiago has the best ARAI number, in the real world, it has the lowest because of the weight.

It might be a better to just have the city average and the highway average mileages as recorded during the test period.

[DCEite]

Nice review.

Having owned two previous generations of WagonR (both sold), i still miss the practicality of this hatchback.

However i have a doubt. The new WagonR is said to be based on the IGNIS platform. Yet, review mentions that Ignis is a better product than the WagonR. I would like to understand in what aspects Ignis is better than the WagonR, even when both are based on same platform.

[amitdan]

I was on vacation in Gangtok and happened to use the new Wagon R for my sightseeing. Apart from the normal tourist attractions on the hills our driver took us up to Nathula pass in the Wagon R. The ride was fine and even on the most arduous stretches the car pulled well (3 adults and two children). But this is not what impressed me.
I wanted a car to the airport and I had 2 large full size suitcases and a check in baggage size small suitcase. I had been using an Innova for all the other commutes and airport runs and was looking for a big car to transport us to the airport. The driver of the Wagon R kept on asking me to book him and I was sure that the large suitcases would not fit. The cabbie had been pretty helpful and just to convince him that my suitcases wont fit, I brought down my luggage a day before to fit in his Wagon R. I was absolutely astonished by the boot space (both capacity and space arrangement) which simply gobbled up the two full size suitcases and also the carry on suitcase. He only had to take the rear parcel shelf, but it was like a perfect fit.
Wagon R has been known to have roomy and spacious interiors, but if anyone has concerns about its seemingly small boot, you should not worry about it at all. It is a big plus.

[misquitas]

Originally Posted by GTO

Excellent review, thanks for sharing!

As an overall product, the Santro is indisputably the pick. Not only is it better built, has superior quality & higher levels of refinement, the Santro feels more stable @ 100 kmph cruising. I drove both at high speed & the Hyundai did handle things better. That said, I am a total engine guy and for self-driving / a personal car, I would buy the WagonR over the Hyundai. Reason = that jewel of a 1.2L petrol engine. Believe it or not, I actually enjoyed driving & high-revving this breadbox around Mumbai over a weekend. Cabin space & boot size are two other advantages of the WagonR that I don't care as much about, but the masses will.

On the other hand, if I was looking for a car for the family to use or an Automatic, it would be the Santro. Superior overall car + a smoother AMT.

Aah, the post I was waiting for and for quite some time now -- a concise and crisp comparison between Wagon R and the Santro.

Having done 1.39 lakh kms (and counting) on our i10 (2010, 1.2 VTVT) car, it's time for us to shortlist another compact car and we have begun the process of comparing the two recently launched cars, given our budget of about Rs 6 lakh.

As GTO has indicated, both cars are likely to appeal to different camps. Those in favour of a superior engine and bigger space are expected to opt for the Wagon R, while those who prefer better build quality, refinement and better stability would prefer the Santro. We are inclined towards the Santro at this point in time, since we plan to keep the car for 9-10 years and we believe Maruti cars age comparatively and considerably faster than Hyundai cars.

Originally Posted by GTO

Cabin space & boot size are two other advantages of the WagonR that I don't care as much about, but the masses will.

Originally Posted by amitdan

I was absolutely astonished by the boot space (both capacity and space arrangement) which simply gobbled up the two full size suitcases and also the carry on suitcase. He only had to take the rear parcel shelf, but it was like a perfect fit.
Wagon R has been known to have roomy and spacious interiors, but if anyone has concerns about its seemingly small boot, you should not worry about it at all. It is a big plus.

Incidentally, what is obviously a plus point for the Wagon R is also of concern to me -- the huge booth space. While I love cars with large and practical boots and it is a huge benefit for tourists vehicles and those planning to transport cargo, I have seen big boot spaces being misused to transport people! Here in Goa, I have seen many drivers misusing the 5-seater Maruti Omni and Eeco cars to place crude stools/benches in the massive booth space and transport schoolchildren in makeshift "school vans". I fear the Wagon R with its large, useable and practical boot space may also be misused to transport people.

Originally Posted by GTO

On the other hand, if I was looking for a car for the family to use or an Automatic, it would be the Santro. Superior overall car + a smoother AMT.

I have a query: We are inclined towards the Santro AMT for our family (my wife is uncomfortable with manual gears), but I have read alarming posts on this forum about the unreliability of AMTs after some 20,000-odd kms. This issue has been reported in Maruti and Tata AMTs, but there has been no feedback about the Santro AMT as yet, as it is still early days. Do you think this AMT issue plaguing other cars may have been resolved in the Santro or is it a safer option to go in for the manual variant, if we want to keep the car for 9-10 years?

Thanks and regards.
Melvyn