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You are right. I wonder why TD cars are so poorly maintained. When will the marketing guys ever understand that it is the TD car that results in "buying" or "skipping" decisions.

Called up the dealers in Chennai
- Sundaram Motors - Lady picks up. When i asked if a TD of "Magnum" is possible, she replies in a surprised voice "Magnum?". Takes down my number and said the concerned SP will call back.
- KLN Motors, Kilpauk - Lady picks up. When i asked if a TD of "Magnum" is possible, she replies in a surprised voice "Magnum?". Takes down my number and said the concerned SP will call back in 5 - 10 minutes.

Atleast Chevy have standardized their response.stupid:

I am anxious to see the outcome of my "first" calls. I remember when i called Toyota for "enquiring" about Fortuner. The SP called me within minutes and was after me to bring the SUV home for the TD.

And things like that make people pay 15L for a 1.3litre Diesel Corolla. Of course there are other reasons too.

On the other hand one needs to try a bit harder with the Magnum and oh boy, what do you get in return!
(besides saving 5-6 lacs)

One needs to figure out what one is willing to pay for and what one can compromise on.

PS: More when on the comp

Can some one clear my confusion?

I want a diesel car & has booked Verna 1.6 CRDI SX after a brief TD. I love the pulling power of modern diesels,the feeling of being pushed back & remain glued to the backrest of the seat just after the turbo kicks in like in i-20 CRDI, Swift- DDIS etc. Given the linear power delivery of the Verna, I have the following doubts in my mind. (Verna Diesel TD car is not available with the dealer, though I could manage one on a car ready for delivery to the customer, thus could not TD it the way I wanted.)

1. Will I miss the feeling of being pushed back similar to i-20 CDRI, Swift DDIS etc. ?
2. In the turbo zone say at 2200 rpm, will Verna offer similar pulling power like that of i-20 CRDI ?

After reading so many positive reviews on Magnum Diesel (Top end of Magnum costs less than Verna 1.6 CRDI SX), I took a TD of the car. It looked like that the car was actually not for TD but for display to the customers. It was kept fresh in side the showroom. To my surprise, they moved the same car outside for my TD. When they started the car in side the showroom, I could compare the engine noise from outside. I had heard the Verna CRDI in similar position in side the showroom ( as I was given a TD on a car ready for delivery & was kept in side the showroom). Same with NFF Diesel as well. NFF & Verna sounded almost similarly. Both were unbelievably quiet & I had not experienced similar quietness from a diesel engined car in side the enclosures of a car showroom. But the Magnum sounded much more louder. On the move, in side the cabin, Magnum became silent but not as good as Verna.

The ride of Magnum was excellent. It gave me a planted & matured feel. I intentionally took the car over undulations & pathholes at 110-120 kmph, but the car remained totally composed. Weight of the car @ 1370 kg. approx. had a role to play. Could not test the Verna in similar conditions( reasons mentioned above). Pick up of Magnum was good ( not excellent as I was expecting more after reading the reviews here). The horn buttons was little inconvenient for me to use. You almost push your fingers hard to get it into action. I feel, one may get used to this soon.

Sometimes, I do think why not to go for Magnum & save more than 25k. My querries:

1. How does the maintenance cost compare to that of Verna?
2. Mileage would be less than Verna. By how much?
3. I will keep the car for 7/8 yrs. Is it advisable to go for Magnum considering this.
4. Feeling of pushing back into seat after turbo: To my utter surprise, I felt it little less when compared to I-20. Am I wrong??

Thanks

1. If it is more than 32K for 45000 km, you get the extra money back. Practically, from what my friends who have owned the car for about 2 years have said, it hardly goes above Rs.5000-Rs.7000 per year on regular servicings. (I was quoted Rs.2400 for my 5000 km service)

2. ARAI - 17. Highways - 16. In City - about 12-14.

3. If a car is discontinued, they would ideally have spares and service for atleast 10 years, so you should be safe.

4. :Shockked:. No ways! That's the thing about the Magnum which gives the rush! Surely there was something wrong with the vehicle or the driving or the i20 had the Magnum's engine in it ;)


By the way, what's the waiting period told for the Fluidic? I was told that it is about 8-9 months.

Friend, I agree on the silence and refinement of the Verna. After waiting on toes with a cheque handed over and a signed booking form with the SA, I did not even go for a test drive of the NFF. Read TeamBHP,. took a TD and booked the Magnum. Delivery in a few days. :) Please look into all aspects and decide. IMHO the Magnum is better looking than the others here

Had written a long reply late last night, which was lost to a poor internet connection.

Nowhere does one see a Magnum in a comparo in magazines too.

Interesting!
That is what seems to happen all the time. People have an opinion without enough knowledge about it. And more importantly have a strong opinion without even experiencing it.

Which Skoda does your friend have? Laura, I presume. Where the Magnum is likely to score over it would be with more space, especially at the rear, expectedly a better ride, much lower maintenance, more reasonable dealers, hugely more VFM given the much lower upfront and upkeep cost.

Do update us with the experience, in case the friend does try your Magnum. Hope you'll do it after the running in, to save your car. Also that the car is likely to run better after a few thousand on the Odo.
It seems that they have thin margins on this car now. The perceived return on investment on advertizement would not be good enough. They would rather build the Cruze brand, which should be giving them much bigger returns/unit and also building a brand for a vehicle which is likely to be around for a longer time.

If I were the marketing in-charge of a car manufacturing company, that is one issue I would address. A monthly/random check on TD cars across showrooms. I guess with the low interest in the Magnum, there would be few serious TD requests (as your experience too suggests) and it would not be enough return on investment to maintain TD cars. It does hurt the brand on the whole though, as we all experience.



Standardized response!!!! rl:
Good one mate!


Good to see you here, after the Driven! thread, @Chitta. Had written a lengthy response to this last night but it got lost to a poor internet connection. Will add more later.

Maintenance
Magnum - Already answered by Keyur above. Typical service costs are reported to be between a few hundred to 3-4k.
Verna - Unknown, but likely to be higher.

FE
Magnum - Had a figure of 11-13 in mind for use in Delhi (not B2B traffic). But with more encouraging reports recently (including Keyur) would change my expectations to 12-14. Highway should be about 16-17, but would change a lot based on how you drive.
Verna - Is likely to be a lot better. It was mentioned in this thread before. You can check some ownership reports on the forum (bring home the fluidic verna IIRC)

7/8 years, Parts
The perceived poor resale should hurt less in this case.
Magnum seems to be more solidly put together.
One major reason this thread was started was to check on, if this car is going to be discontinued and if parts would still be available. You could go through it to gain more views. My GUESS is that it would not be a problem for some 5-6 years. After that one may have issues with slow moving parts. Reason? Well, there are enough on the road now for it to warrant stocking of parts. It also shares the basic engine with the Cruze and Captavia. Some Hyundai's also seem to have the same engine (Elantra, Sonata?, Tuscon), though it is probably manufactured under a different license.
Resale after 7/8 years is likely to be better on a Fluidic, but it is too far to really say with any certainty.

Mate, if you go in for a Magnum, go for the right reasons. Saving 25k on a 10L purchase should certainly not be the reason. This car has many other merits.

Quick notes:
* The ride, especially high speed ride, is hugely more settled in a Magnum as compared to a Verna.
* The rear bench is a lot better.
* Pinned back feeling - lots to say. Try being at about 2200-2300 RPM on second and after being there for a few seconds, depress the Accelerator pedal with some urgency - you should get the desired surge. For third gear try about 2500RPM or so. More on this later. The i20 is known to have a big Turbolag, which would be leading to that surge. It usually makes the car much more difficult to drive in the city, however.
* The car not being run-in may possibly affect the Magnum a bit more. There was some discussion on this on this thread before, after Torquedo's TD with a new Magnum.

Thanks for sharing your TD experiences mate. I wish others too express their TD experiences on this thread, as it would help others too.

Poitive buddy ~ next time you type a long post.
Here is what i do.
Ctrl A ~ Ctrl C ~ and then click the post button.
That way if it does not get posted you can always paste and post again.
It has happened to me quite a few times too. Highly Frustrating.

I think GM should give the Magnum a shot in the arm.
A facelift, along with a little update to the interiors.
and this car would make it back to the magazine pages too.
It's a great car, from what i have read. But it was launched too long ago, and hence nobody really talks about it. So would like to thank Poitive once again for bringing this car back in the radar for many Bhpians and guests too.
It truly is something one should look at before laying their money down.

Unfortunately people have a wrong perception about the resale value of GM cars.
Like many have posted the resale value of the Magnum is actually pretty good.

I am currently driving a Hyundai Accent which is a second hand vehicle. I have done 2 services in my one year of ownership and my experience is just OK, not exceptional. My experience is that they are very much a "gamandi" people, might be my experience with this specific service station. Next January I will give it to a different service center and need to see if this issues is specific to this service station or across Advaith Hyundai. Also, whenever I had given my Tata Indica Xeta for service at Tata A.S.S, I use to receive a call from Tata Pune asking for feedback. Here in Hyundai, I have written my experience in the feedback form both the times, still there is no follow up from Hyundai (I am not sure if this is their operating model, in which case it is absolutely fine). Thanks poitive, yes the medical issue is settled now and had a chance to visit the CASKA guys here in Bangalore (more updates towards the end of this post) My experience with the dealers at Bangalore was better when I called them directly. First I had tried booking a TD via Chevy's site which never worked. Then, I called up Kropex Bangalore (nearby to Electronics City), and a lady picked up the phone and promptly got a call back from SE and he came to office at the right time. Secondly I called up Trident Hyundai Bangalore, same story again, lady picks up the phone, promptly got a call back from the SE, he came to office with car at the right time. That is too good, I had my Accent serviced twice in my ownership and the average bill is 3500 - 4000, which works out to 7000 - 8000 per year (service interval is 6 months or 5000KM).

Now the update on CASKA
-------------------------
Yesterday I had been to CASKA Bangalore office along with a friend of mine actually thinking of getting one for his Honda City iVTEC. CASKA is purely OEM stuff and moulds well with the dash and integrates with the existing steering controls. If there is an MID like the one in Cruze, it integrates well with that as well. The cost is bit on the higher side - Rs.47,000/- (fitting extra) for the Honda unit. This is for the plain HU, now if we need navigation/ reverse parking unit/ tire pressure monitoring unit, we need to pay extra for each feature. The total package for City comes to about 57K-60K including fitting without TPMS (painting the bumper post sensor installation would be different). Again, they are not doing the fitting/ sales directly, but we need to go through the showroom from where we bought the car. As my friend's car was registered in Kerala, they were ready to get this done as a special case.

Now, for Optra kind of vehicles with 2 DIN space available where CASKA is not having an OEM HU available, they have standard/ universal kits. These standard units goes well with the car and gets moulded well. There are 2 models - one costing 33K and another costing 39K. Here also you get all the features like USB/ iPOD/ Bluetooth connectivity and optional Sat Nav/ Parking unit/ TPM etc.

We could not see a CASKA unit in action, so cannot comment on the audio capabilities of the unit. Even if I experience it, I cannot comment as I am not that audiophile, (if I am alone in my car, I normally put some bhajans or instrumental music), but not against music as well. The guy was confirming on the quality as he is personally using a CASKA unit, at the same time was skeptical on competing with ultra-high end equipments (which gives output equivalent to that of a professional sound processor).

At the end, it should look quite well if you are trying to change integrated systems that come with Cruze/ City etc. as this nicely integrates with existing system. But, if you are looking to change the stock HU of cars like the one of Optra for sound quality, we need to confirm the sound quality of this unit which we could not check. Again, if we are looking to change the stock HU to get more features like USB/ iPOD/ Bluetooth connectivity, this should suffice.

I really feel the price is at the higher end, so before we decide to move to this unit, we should actually check a CASKA in action and take a decision if that is giving what we need.

I have no idea about the Caska quality, but if the units are universal, you could very well go with something like a 2 DIN Pioneer AVH 3250 (full touch screen, usb, ipod, bluetooth, integration points for camera, dvd player, sat nav etc). The entire cost would be around 20K at max! And Optra does not have steering mounted controls, so no issues there either!

And well, the extra 15-20K can be put to good use.... maybe a tuning box.