[tazmaan]

Originally Posted by s.prashanth

I measured full tank to full tank, wife drives 99% of the time ac on all the time and she is still not fluent in driving and not over 40, in bumper to bumper traffic, each way is about 8kms

You are not alone, I get the same FE always around 8 kmpl. Its driven for very short runs always 2 to 5 kms in one start.

I did get 12 once on the highway nothing otherwise.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by ash_blore

I dont understand what you mean by "notchy"? Do you mean there is a "jerk"? I face it too in my car (if its reving more than an idle) and I suspect is normal. Perhaps if you explain this feeling a bit more we can help.

Notchy - difficulty to shift from P to R. Its too stiff. Shouldn't be that way. The problem with buying these used AT's is the previous owner would have used the gearbox god knows what way...

[ash_blore]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Notchy - difficulty to shift from P to R. Its too stiff. Shouldn't be that way. The problem with buying these used AT's is the previous owner would have used the gearbox god knows what way...

The gear shifter is definitely "notchy" as compared to a civic ( which is smooth). However, its not that bad as well so I suspect that the current owner has really abused the gear shifter. It may help to understand more about the current owner and how he used the car.

P.S> My car although is a year old has done around 4K KM only so my experience is still based on a realtively new car in terms of usage.

[LonelyPlanet]

Originally Posted by ash_blore

P.S> My car although is a year old has done around 4K KM only so my experience is still based on a realtively new car in terms of usage.

No offense but but I observe that you have prasied the car so much in various posts and still seemed to have used it just 4K /yr.
Seems a little odd !!

[ash_blore]

Originally Posted by LonelyPlanet

No offense but but I observe that you have prasied the car so much in various posts and still seemed to have used it just 4K /yr.
Seems a little odd !!

This is used only in Bangalore city traffic. My wife uses it 90% of the time to hit the gym, pickup and drop kids to various activities. I use it during the weekends when we go out.
Compared to my accent (geared) that I drive to work everyday, the A* is a blessing especially in the traffic.
I have taken it once to Mangalore - Goa and back to Bangalore. Smooth drive no issues at all. Gave great highway mileage (16kmpl) and was overall comfortable. Only down side was the lack of storage space but we dont use it regularly at all. Just the one long distance trip. Its strictly a city use car as far as I am concerned.

Hence the less mileage but the great appreciation.

[Williams_f1]

Hello all, I am in a tight spot of sorts,
my story:
We were planning to change my mom's Santro AT for some time now and between the A star AT and the i10 AT, we(my family) all voted for the small Suzuki, the reasons for this do not relate to this story and hence will not be covered here.
Anyhow, in Jaipur we have 4 Suzuki dealers, so we went to Prem Motors, they quoted a delivery time 1-2 months, I argued with them that nowadays the time for delivery has come down significantly, also dealers in Tier 1 cities stock the auto variants, but they countered that in Jaipur no one buys automatic cars, they have sold just 1 a star auto till date, so they stuck to their dates of 1-2 months, I wanted to try other dealers, so headed to Vipul motors, to my surprise they said they could deliver a Red A Star auto within 10 days, they told me the car was in stock, at the main plant, so went ahead and gave a cheque for 50 k, they gave me the bill, but the documents they gave me, they wrote "Delivery schedule: 1 month", on asking them why so? they should mention 10 days as they had told me, but they said that 1 month is standard company practice and this is just a formality. I said OK and went home hoping for a delivery in 10 days time.

Meanwhile, I had received a decent offer for my santro, and the thought that my mom had to wait just 10 days for the new car instead of 1-2 months, we decided to sell off the santro. The Santro went on 7th of september ( morning), the booking for the A Star was done a day prior. Things started going wrong from here.

7th september evening we get a call from Vipul motors, they shock us with the news that the Red A star, they had planned to get for was never actually there, it was mistake by the computer and it was never actually there, and the production of the A Star, has been discontinued, so please cancel your booking! they suggested we purchase the Dzire automatic as that was in stock, we flatly refused as we were not interested, they provided me with the number of regional sales manager of Suzuki Rajasthan, speaking to him, he told me that

"Yes, there a mistake by the computer and the Production of the A Star has not been discontinued but just temporarily halted due to problems at the Manesar plant, and only swift Dzire is being produced as it has the longest waiting period of all, and as the A Star does not sell that much so the production has been halted"

Then I told him my side of the story, how this car was for my mom, who goes to office everyday, and how on their false promises we had already sold our Santro AT, he replied stating that he didn't know all this had happened and promised source a car as soon as possible and asked for 1 days time to figure things out.

we started making contingency plans at home, we were really not keen on the I10 auto, the next best option was the Brio automatic, so on saturday, 8th of september I headed to the Honda dealer who said that brio auto would come sometime next month, probably around mid october, I was just warming up to this idea when I get a call from the Regional manager and Vipul that they have found a silver A star auto, just manufactured, and if you are willing to change the color from Red to Silver, we can get the car in 3 days, but you have to pay 1 lakh more to secure the car as for all automatics, Suzuki asks for a higher advance payment as these cars are made to order.
So we said ok, gave another cheque of 1 lakh, I had a lot of doubts in my mind, but figured that this is Life and stuff happens, thought that now we are getting the car quicker, ok not the color of mom's choice but still its ok, you must be thinking, a happy ending to the story, No! the story takes a dramatic turn for the worse! Read on, just to remind you all this was on saturday, 8th September.

In Jaipur, Wednesday is considered an auspicious day to take delivery of a car, so on Tuesday 11th september, I head to Vipul motors to find out where the car was? To my Horror, I am told that the silver car was booked by someone else prior to my booking, there is no car, nothing. Again I am told to talk to regional sales manager.

On the phone, he sounds very apologetic, he told me that as of now Suzuki is producing only 3 A star autos a month, the silver one was the first one and 2 more will be made in the month of September, so he put my booking in line for the next car, I asked what if there are more people in the queue before me, he told me that there is no way to find that out but hopefully I can get you a car in 15 days time, my logic is that if there more than 6 people waiting before then, I wont get the car this month or the next month, as there is production of only 3 cars a month. by that logic my mom would have to suffer for 2 whole months or more, had I known this fact I would have held on to the Santro a bit longer.

Today 4 days after my last talk with Regional manager, also 4 days less out of the 15 days he had asked for, he still said give me 15 days, I am trying pan India to source a car and hope for the best. I have very patient till now, but now its anger is getting the better of me.

I still want to buy the A star as I think its a great little car for my mom, I10 we don't want, Brio being more expensive will offer nothing more as the car is primarily will be used by mom alone, will only look at it if this A Star problem continues too long.

In hindsight I should have taken down the VIN numbers of the red and silver car, just for the record.

What I am asking of you people is to help me out, if you know someone senior in Suzuki who can help, or someone I can escalate the matter further too, I really don't want to go to consumer courts right now and just want to get the car asap.

Thanks everyone.

No.1

[CARDEEP]

^^^ @Williams_f1 how is your mother travelling to office these days... shared autos or someone from family is dropping to office in the morning & picking her up in the evening?

Not sure how would mother feeling... dependent... handicapped. Apologies for being rude, but, it seems that you never had the car buying plans in place & no contingency arrangement either (as you are stubborn for the new car not being a Hyundai &/or a big car either). On the top if it you have paid another lac without any VIN, etc. It seems that you are more interested in the incentive RM & Vipul Sales team earns over retaining booking for the top version of a car that does not sells well, rather than earning few hundreds in your account.

IMO Vipul &Maruti Suzuki RM are hand in gloves regarding his sale. In my city, they are allocating any MS model that too out-of-queue for a premium (few thousands, which my acquaintances have paid premium to get the deliveries of Dzire VDi & now the Swift ZDi, White colour both times, delivered Cash on Delivery). Add to this Vipul has dealerships in & around NCR like anything. I guess you are dealing with a dealer who is simply too big for company's regional sales team. You have no other option now, but, either to wait for the confirmed delivery date, as I do not feel going to consumer court would help you much.

And, this is not just an isolated problem with Maruti Suzuki's dealer's high handedness, but, Hyundai, Toyota, Mahindra & even Renault dealers are cashing on their successful products. It is only the informed buyer, who can save his/ her neck & some money.

Sorry, for my rambling is of little use to you, but, I sympathise with you & hope that your mother & family have wonderful experience owning the car, which is quite frugal & delight to drive.

[sumannandy]

Originally Posted by Williams_f1

What I am asking of you people is to help me out, if you know someone senior in Suzuki who can help, or someone I can escalate the matter further too, I really don't want to go to consumer courts right now and just want to get the car asap.

Thanks everyone.

No.1

This is surprising. We paid 10k for first booking but since the car was not delivered on time, we paid 2k to another dealer and got the car in 2 days. The earlier 10k was refunded back to us.

It is surprising here that the sales manager is also not helping you out, but talk to other dealers who could help you for transferring booking and getting the car delivered.

For the other dealer you might want to pay the amount only after you check the car in their stockyard / Maruti stockyard near your city.

[pgsagar]

Will F1, get hold of the right dealer. Not all dealers have equal clout with Maruti. Some are better connected than the rest. When I bought my A-Star AT, I wanted white and both dealers said 30 day wait. But this dealer said there is a red one available ready for despatch from factory to some customer in Mumbai. He said if red is ok then he can pull some strings and get it here. I don't know how far the Mumbai customer story was true but true to his word, he got a red one within 6 days.

[Ford5]

The A-Star doesn't appear to be on Maruti's website anymore? Has production stopped?

[supremeBaleno]

Very much there on the website.

If you are saying that you don't see it on the home-page at bottom where all cars are depicted, you need to scroll left or right to see it. It is also available under the "Our cars" link and it's individual website http://www.marutisuzukiastar.com/ is also up and running.

BTW, while visiting the site, I noticed that while earlier the Zxi was the all-options packed trim, now they have created a new ZXi-Opt above it and moved the following to that trim :
Dual Airbags
ABS with EBD // Comes on AT as standard, like earlier
Front seat-belt pre-tensioner
Front seat-belt force-limiters

[living_fossil]

Hey ozzy. Congrats on your ride..Did your steering tighten up after the tyre upgrade?

[ozzyrules]

Originally Posted by living_fossil

Hey ozzy. Congrats on your ride..Did your steering tighten up after the tyre upgrade?

I drove with the stock tyres for only 100 odd Km, so can't really compare. But I guess any stiffness would be only when you're trying to park. While in motion, I haven't felt any stiffness. I have Yokos in 175 width and since these are slightly on the softer side, the ride quality has definitely improved. This I can say in comparison to the few test drives I took before the purchase.

Cheers!

[living_fossil]

Originally Posted by ozzyrules

I drove with the stock tyres for only 100 odd Km, so can't really compare. But I guess any stiffness would be only when you're trying to park. While in motion, I haven't felt any stiffness. I have Yokos in 175 width and since these are slightly on the softer side, the ride quality has definitely improved. This I can say in comparison to the few test drives I took before the purchase.

Cheers!

While Changing your tyre, did you chekout 14" rim? I was planning for 165/70/14 or 175/65/14 but an not quite sure if itll be a healthy upgrade.. whats ur opinion? And yeah "HAPPY NEW YEAR"..

[ozzyrules]

Originally Posted by living_fossil

While Changing your tyre, did you chekout 14" rim? I was planning for 165/70/14 or 175/65/14 but an not quite sure if itll be a healthy upgrade.. whats ur opinion? And yeah "HAPPY NEW YEAR"..

When I changed the tyres, I went with the stock rims and only later upgraded to alloys. So, 14" rims were not really in consideration. 175/65/14 seems like a good upsize. But do check out the ride and handling on a similarly tyred car, if possible. I believe TBHP member Sankar has 14" rims. You can reach out to him. Also, check if a 14" wheel fits in the spare wheel space. If not, you'd probably have to retain one of the OE tyres as a spare.
Happy New Year to you too. Drive safe and happy upsizing