[George Thomas]

This SUV built by Maruti and Toyota will outsell the Creta, Seltos, Kushaq and other mid size suv's on the strength of it's manufacturer's nameplate and the mileage figures quoted by them. It is also helped by the generous dose of features that make it more appealing to the customer.

[84.monsoon]

Cross-posting from the Hyryder thread as this info will be relevant to prospective Grand Vitara buyers as well.

The latest Autocar issue has tested the Grand Vitara strong Hybrid against the Seltos Diesel AT and Creta Petrol IVT. The theme is “Is Hybrid the new Diesel?”

The Grand Vitara hybrid fares very well on almost every front:

- 0-100 time if 12.82 seconds versus the Seltos Diesel AT’s 12.91 seconds and the Creta IVT’s 13.63 seconds
Top speed if 180 kph versus the Seltos’s 175 kph and Creta’s 170 kph
- City fuel economy of 23.77 kpl versus 10.31 for the Creta Petrol and 12.9 for the Seltos Diesel - that is almost 130% better than the NA Petrol and nearly double that of the Diesel
- Highway fuel economy of 20.39 kpl versus the Creta IVT’s 13.78 kpl and Seltos Diesel’s 17.8 kpl - 50% better than the NA Petrol and 16% better than the Diesel

What is truly outstanding is the in-city performance of the hybrid.
- 0-60 comes up in 5.37 seconds versus 6.27 seconds in the Creta IVT and 5.53 seconds in the Seltos Diesel
- 20-80 in kickdown takes 7.11 seconds on the Hybrid, versus 7.68 seconds on the Creta IVT and 7.54 seconds in the Seltos Diesel.
- In 40-100 kickdown, both the Petrol IVT and Diesel AT overtake the hybrid - this takes 10.37 seconds in the Hybrid versus 9.67 seconds in the Petrol IVT and 10.04 seconds on the Diesel AT. Not a huge margin but I think the gap will widen post 100kph.

So in a city streetlight turning green dash, the hybrid will leave the other two behind!

I know the comparison with the turbo Petrol Seltos and Creta won’t be so favourable on acceleration etc., but then the fuel economy of those cars would be abysmal.

In the end Autocar concludes that the Hybrid has become the new Diesel due to the superior fuel economy without the pain of higher NVH of the Diesels. Hyundai and Kia must be very uncomfortable right now, although they have so many power train alternatives, they do not have a play in the hybrid market.

[Bhinder]

Hi team,

I bought the grand vitara delta variant a couple of weeks back and thought to share a few pointers:

1. The car in its sigma and delta variants are complete value for money (~13.5 lacs on road with some accessories for the delta)
2. Its a perfect car for sedate drivers or for people who are chauffeur driven (holds true in my case since my parents will be using it with the driver)
3. Absolutely not recommend for torque lovers and for people who like to cruise at triple digit speeds on the highway (although its ideal if one just cruises on the highways at 80-90kmph and in the city it does the job quite well for folks who don’t overtake a lot). As a side note don’t see any point driving fast and accelerating on indian roads given the high number of accidents
4. The displayed fuel economy already is 17kmpl ( covered around 900 kms of which 300 were on the highway)
5. For people in NCR the strong hybrid is a no brainer, although currently there is no rule in my hometown of Chandigarh but its just a matter of time it’s introduced here (most likely next year). 15 years is a given for this vehicle but due to hybrid tag (all be it mild) there might be a further increase in the number of years for hybrid vehicles.
6. Maruti’s ownership is absolute peace of mind which is an intangible and not accounted in the price ( I sold my 2010 swift vdi driven 1,70,000 for 1.75 lacs, also put my 2011 i20 sports crdi on sale which was going for 1.90 lacs). The point being the i20 was ~1.5 lacs more expensive, bought a year later and with 40k less on the odo and in a good condition still fetching just a handful more than the swift which again should be accounted for in the decision making in some way
7. The car simply does not make a sound, i have 3 diesel cars so took me a while to figure out if the car is switched on. The noise insulation levels while driving are also on point
8. Got some accessories worth 20k and additional alloys worth 45k. Post this the car looks totally complete in about 14lacs
9. Made the booking and got the car in 4 days from cm nexa mohali, for folks who want and early delivery try making a large chunk upfront
10. Build quality is definitely better but to be honest not at par with creta ( there is a general trend to judge build quality just by the weight and the thud ). I might be proven wrong if the ncap score turns out to be a 5

I hope this helps some members making or cancelling the decision to buy the grand vitara.

[anubhav7286]

I brought home the Grand Vitara Hybrid Zeta+ yesterday. I had been in the car buying zone for almost a year and finally settled on this one. I wanted a SUV in the near 30L price bracket. One thing I was clear on was that I want a newly launched vehicle, I didnt want to buy something that was due to a upgrade in about a year. I wanted something with low maintenance and a running cost that didnt put a frown on my face. For me the ownership experience had to be hassle free. My previous car was a Swift, owned in 2011 when the face lift had just got launched. I completed more than a lakh km on the Swift before deciding to move on from it.

The vehicles I considered during the process
1. Skoda/VW Kodiaq/Tiguan - I liked the test drive on both the vehicles, but the service stories kept me away.
2. Hyundai Tucson - I really wanted this car but with delivery timelines exceeding a year, I had to move on from this. Also, the car did seem about 5 lakhs overpriced
3. Mahindra XUV 700 - I never considered this knowing the extremely long timelines.
4. Tata Harrier - The interiors of this car wowed me. However, my mental block on the Tata brand name made me a little apprehensive.

With the Tuscon, I waited to take a test drive before making a booking. By the time I could manage a TD, the booking lines were long, and my wait period was nearly a year. I wasnt keen on waiting that long. When the Grand Vitara bookings opened, I was at the showroom ready to book.

My booking was at number 1 for the Intelligent Hybrid version. The showroom told me that they will not be able to get me a test drive of the Hybrid vehicle and the first vehicle that comes will be mine. I could cancel if I dont like it after it reaches the showroom.

Last week, the vehicle reached the showroom and I went to have a look at it. At one glance, I loved the colour I had chose - Chestnut Brown. I was a little apprehensive about the interiors suiting a 20L+ car. The interiors in the Hybrid Zeta + variant looked loaded and very modern. I knew I am getting this one home. Finished all formalities and took delivery of the vehicle on Friday.

The delivery experience was smooth and had a personal touch with this being our 5th Maruti vehicle. The showroom folks had kept the car ready with all accessories fitted and we finished the delivery formalities in less than 30 minutes.

It has been less than 24 hours since the Grand Vitara came home and I dam delighted with it. The hybrid motor is punchy and gives that added acceleration when needed. In the city, the electric motor silently comes on and it takes a while to notice that the car is on. The instrument cluster has loads of information and looks futuristic.

Here a few photos of the car.

[Tanu3000]

Hi Folks,

This is my first post on the Maruti Grand Vitara thread here. To give you a background of our garage, I own a VW Taigun GT+ which I acquired a few months back (Replacing a 7 year old Polo 1.2 MPI). My wife owns a Maruti Baleno AT that she daily drives to her office in Peenya. We love both our cars for what they represent/provide (Taigun: Best safety & performance/price, Baleno: Perfect city car for Bangalore), and are aware of both their shortcomings (Taigun: Subpar Interiors, Baleno: CVT Whine).

That being said, I had visited our local NEXA showroom (Kalyani Motors, JP Nagar) to check out the Grand Vitara. I was acutely interested in the interior fit/finish of the car, in order to see how my Taigun could possibly be improved. My observations below are based on just the display vehicle (Mild Hybrid Alpha variant MT). I did not take a test drive, as I wasnt interested in acquiring the car as such.

1. Exterior: The car looks imposing from the outside. it looks longer than its actual 4.34 meter length and wider too. This car will have a respectable footprint on the road. It does have an MPV silhouette (due to its length and comparatively shorter height) though.

2. The driver seat: My first impression was a bit claustrophobic, my Taigun is more airy and the driver doesnt feel as cooped up. I did appreciate the spacious footwell, where the 3 pedals and the dead pedal were very well spaced out. Coming higher up, I realized under thigh support is very inadequate. I could fit my entire palm between the seat edge and the underside of my knee (I am 5ft 9 Inch). The side bolstering on the seat bottom was too much and they were squeezing my legs together. My left leg was seriously limited by the center console. The window switches on the driver side were oddly angled towards the driver, which I found to be a rather ergonomic. I do struggle at times with the window switches in my Taigun while I am driving. But the downside was, the right side door arm rest too was angled and made resting your right elbow a bit odd. The seat back felt fine, I dint have any complaints on it.

3. The dashboard: The car on display had a pretty nice combination of deep brown and black dashboard setup. The deep brown was soft touch and was made of a nice finished leatherette material. The black plastic on top was another story. It had a rough grain which looked cheaper than the dashboard plastic on wife's Baleno. The steering wheel too had similar issues, a lovely leatherette finished wheel to hold on to held back by a horn pad which looked like a direct pick from the swift (No offense to dzire owners, but the Grand Vitara costs thrice as much as the swift and deserves a better part bin). I must still mention the soft touch leatherette portions, as they were real nice and encompassed the entire cabin (Front and Back).

4. The rear seat: The width of the cabin seemed similar to my Taigun, so seating 3 in the back would still be a squeeze. This is excarberated by the comparatively low ceiling, which makes the reat seat feel cramped (In comparison to my Taigun). The panaromic sunroof is a life saver here by getting in more light from above. But I do have my reservations about the material used to cover it. With the cover on, it was letting the showroom lights into the cabin. I do not know how effective it would be on sunny days on the outside. And I believe some one else has mentioned this, but there is a sag to the sunroof cover as well. The seat finishing was on par (Better than the Taigun GT+), less bolstering, so 3 can be more comfortable in the rear seat. Very short seat rear pockets though, you cannot store long/high items in it.

5. Switchgear: The switches on the dashboard, lights, door pad are all sub par. I would equate them with the switchgear on my Taigun (Which is also sub par). This seems to be an issue due to the part bin being shared across the maruti range . I detested the interior lights as well (Warm White) vs the white interior lights on my Taigun.

The Maruti Grand Vitara is a very attractive package on paper (High fuel economy, all possible features, respectable performance etc). But frankly I was not impressed by it in person. The design is not seamless (subjective) and the execution has inconsistencies (Lovely steering wheel vs budget grade horn pad). All its features and design elements seem to be shoe horned together to ensure Maruti Suzuki can check as many boxes on the brochure as possible. But all the checkboxes dont flow together in real life.

Our biggest disappointment was that the car is not as spacious as it appears to be on the outside. My Taigun looks much smaller from the outside, but feels much larger on the inside.

I had gone to Nexa with my father in law who is a die hard Maruti Suzuki customer (He owns a Baleno). He felt let down as well . All this for an asking price of 24.7 lakhs OTR Bangalore. 1.5 lakhs more than the Taigun GT+.

Hope my perspective helps somebody else on our forum.

Cheers.

[Small Bot]

I went to check out the Grand Vitara today in the Nexa showroom in Arcot Road, Chennai. They did not have the Intelligent Hybrid, only the regular Smart Hybrid, though the AllGrip was on display too.
This car ticked almost all the most important boxes, except for one - the headroom.
I'm an extra large fellow (1.9m, 110kg), so I couldn't sit comfortably in either the front or the rear. In the front, the console bit pokes my knee, but that's still mild as compared to how low the roof is. I looked up and the roof edge next to the sunroof hit my spectacles. To adjust, i have to recline the seat a bit, but that strains my neck while driving.
Next, the rear is absolutely claustrophobic. I thought I get that only in upper berths of Indian trains, but this was worse. I have to either lean forward or sit with my head slanted to one side in order to sit in the rear. Very uncomfortable and I couldn't stand sitting inside for more than 5 mins.
This is bitterly disappointing as I like almost everything else about the car. Such a nice looking car for the city, but it's almost as if they're discriminating against tall people. <Sighs>
PS: After seeing my visible disappointment, the sales person directed me to check out the Brezza in the Arena showroom in Ekkadunthangal. I'll post my experience with that in the Brezza thread.

[shivmarwaha]

Originally Posted by Small Bot

I went to check out the Grand Vitara today in the Nexa showroom in Arcot Road, Chennai. They did not have the Intelligent Hybrid, only the regular Smart Hybrid, though the AllGrip was on display too...

Look at the non-sunroof version. Headroom is better in those models.

[Eco_boost]

Went to check out the Grand Vitara at Shivam Autozone Nexa , Andheri East , Mumbai.
They had a blue All Grip variant on display with a Alpha AT Mild hybrid for test drives.
I’m 5’11 and found the rear headroom acceptable. However I cannot use the driver’s seat at full height. Need to compromise somewhere.
I liked the burgundy inserts on the dash more than the black and brown ones.
Interesting thing to note is that the SA was pushing for the mild hybrid , even after I answered that most of my driving is city heavy
Anyway I’m more inclined towards the mild hybrid as my annual running shouldn’t cross 8k.
Can current owners confirm if the power is sufficient for city/ occasional highway running.
They had a measly 1km TD route in peak traffic so didn’t bother to drive. (Have driven the new Brezza)
Also , prospective GV owners please note that the SA was confident about delivering mild hybrid versions in flat 7 days time. ( 6 months for strong hybrids)
It was a relief knowing that I won’t have to wait (suffer) for a year should I book one .
Cheers !

[Small Bot]

Originally Posted by Eco_boost

Interesting thing to note is that the SA was pushing for the mild hybrid , even after I answered that most of my driving is city heavy

Also , prospective GV owners please note that the SA was confident about delivering mild hybrid versions in flat 7 days time. ( 6 months for strong hybrids)

MSIL seems to have instructed their dealer execs to push hard for mild hybrids. The pricing seems to reflect that as well.

The salesperson i saw today in fact asked me about my usage and then told me that it would take me seven to eight years to recoup the money i pay for the Strong Hybrid as compared to a Mild Hybrid.

Did you get a chance to sit in the non-sunroof versions? Up to Zeta, I suppose? I missed to check out the headroom in that variant.

[Chevyspark]

Originally Posted by Small Bot

MSIL seems to have instructed their dealer execs to push hard for mild hybrids. The pricing seems to reflect that as well.

It seems like they don't have enough capacity to produce sufficient no. of strong hybrid engine.

[d-g-p]

Originally Posted by Small Bot

MSIL seems to have instructed their dealer execs to push hard for mild hybrids. The pricing seems to reflect that as well.

Mild hybrid which the MSIL intends to sell more lacks few premium features from the strong hybrid. Ventilated seats, TPMS, HUD, premium speakers etc are found in Alpha plus but not in Alpha. It is believed that most of the designing and testing etc was done by MSIL. Why then they kept their premium offering (mild hybrid) less equipped to what Toyota would love to sell more.

[Eco_boost]

Originally Posted by Small Bot

Did you get a chance to sit in the non-sunroof versions? Up to Zeta, I suppose? I missed to check out the headroom in that variant.

No, they did not have one. Only Alpha.
I too want to checkout the zeta as it’s my preferred variant.

[tj123]

I finally got my Grand Vitara Zeta AT after a long waiting period for my other booking a Brezza. I always wanted a sub 4m car due to ease of parking in tight spaces. Any ways thing moved quickly after contacting the sales guy at Nexa they had one car in stock due to a recent cancellation. As per them there was no ready stock of lower variants but they did have stock of couple of Alpha models at that point of time.

The delivery experience was smooth and the Nexa dealership give me the vehicle within 5 days. The showroom just had some basic accessories like floor mats, boot mats and mudflaps, so there was no push to sell further. I just took the basic ones. It took one additional day to enable the vehicle telematics (Suzuki connect) which gives all kind of ride information.

So far I could not take the car out on highway, hence cannot comment on performance and high speed stability. Did a few short rides in Bangalores traffic, car is returning an fuel efficiency of 12-13kmpl with AC on all the time.

The ride position is quite commanding, I could find my seating position easily. The AT transmission is quite smooth and gives a linear drive experience. This engine and transmission fulfils most of my city driving needs as I am a sedate driver now The suspension tune-up and ride comfort is excellent in tackling bumpy/broken/no roads condition of Bangalore. The high ground clearance gives me an added confidence in tacking the speed humps. These are some initial impressions, will try to give some more details in the days to come.

[sriramv01]

I did a short test drive of the Grand Vitara Strong Hybrid on Sunday, yesterday. I think the showroom was having an unusually quiet day, I realized later that India was playing Pakistan in the T20 Cricket world cup.
Anyways in the short non-highway test drive that they allowed (Excel Auto, Baner, Pune) i found that 1) its a very silent drive when in electric 2) the ICE is unusually noisy when you floor the pedal 3) the ventilation seats are wonderful 4) boot space is a dampener 5) the lane watch camera are so-so.

I then did an immediate test drive of the KIA Seltos Diesel top end. I didnt find it much noisier that the Grand Vitara. But the Ventilated seats wasnt as good as the Grand Vitara. But the 360 deg camera is awesome. The moment I switch the lane indicator, the respective Camera come up on the dashboard and also on the infotainment screen. The images are crisp and the view is really broad and gives a good view of the happenings on the road behind you. The syncing of the camera with the lane change indicator was really impressive.

In comparison, the Grand Vitara claims to have all the cameras on the front, back and both the sides. But I didnt find the images coming up automatically when I switch the turn indicators on. Also when I manually selected the left side camera view on, I found that the view is facing downwards; it was as if the main purpose of the left side camera is ONLY to ensure that the left side of the car doesnt scrape the kerb when parking. The SA also explained that the right side camera doesnt really come on the infotainment screen. I found this strange. What is the meaning of 360 Deg if the right side view cannot come up ? And I also found the image quality grainy as compared to Seltos.

Did others have a similar impression of the ventilated seats and the 360 deg camera?


A final word the On the road prices of the Grand Vitara - Aplha+ (Full Hyrbid) and the KIA Seltos Diesel GTX+. Both are around Rs 22.6 Lakhs (give or take a few thousand).
So its really a question of enjoying excellent mileage or driving pleasure.

[Varun7774]

One correction here GV is definitely spacious than Taigun and not worth spending 24 lac on a underpowered car.