[laluks]

In my drive, I had to be towed out on a tricky situation.

What do you do when you want to be towed? You will not miss the tow hook given as a part of the tools given with the car and the unmissable opening in the front bumper to attach that tow hook.

You will immediately go for that small opening in the front bumper, attach the tow hook provided and be ready to be towed out.

This is what happens if you do that


The whole member tears apart with the bumper like paper

[ashis89]

After looking at your Kungfu Panda, I had started liking the S-Cross even though I detest MS cars. I felt this was an exception (also felt same about Ciaz) and was indeed a well built car.

My wife loves the S Cross, especially this facelifted model. Even though I had decided I wouldn't buy a Maruti, S Cross made me rethink my decision. This felt like a perfect balance among space, comfort, reliability, performance, FE and expense - a near perfect upgrade when I shop for a new car. I was wrong.

I have been following your thread since the beginning. The last update regarding rattles (the one thing that I hate in my Maruti) made me think away from the Scross. And today the SCross is written off.

I feel so sorry about you after reading your updates. I am sure Maruti service won't disappoint much and hope that Kungfu Panda is nursed back to the best of health as before.

- Ashis

[laluks]

Let us now understand how SCross is constructed. Let us have a look at the parts and diagrams.

Detailed diagram for the front Body parts


Detailed diagram for the Bonnet parts


Detailed diagram for the Front Bumper parts



I have marked 4 parts, A,B, C and D

A - Member assembly Apron Side RH
B - Member assembly Apron Side LH
C - Member front bumper, which is bolted to A and B from front, and also has the place to attach the tow hook, after removing the bumper cap.
D - Member radiator support, which has two tow hooks on both ends, and is again bolted to A and B from below. If you go under the car you can see these tow hooks.

Now the whole thing looks dicey. All the tow possibilities that you get are on places that cannot take such forces that arise out of towing.

For a comparison let me show how the tow hooks were in my Civic. These are some pictures when we were doing the gearbox input shaft bearing rectification. You can read about that here (Pictorial: Replacing the gearbox input-shaft bearing on my Honda Civic)

We had to remove the whole frame to access gearbox


This is the frame which has the tow hooks. You can now really understand how strong this component is and how it gets bolted to the chassis. This is serious stuff.


From the detailed diagrams of SCross, you can now very well understand the the three tow hooks given in the front for SCross does not even stand a chance to take the forces and jerks arriving out of a towing scenario. Scross simply fails in its engineering here. Just two bolts and sheet metal? Its simply not done

Bottom line, if SCross gets stuck, the engineering of this car can make you more stranded!! I just wanted to be towed out, and ended with my entire front body tearing out and going out of alignment.

I will now in my next post will detail the same with my experience, and what Kungfu Panda had to go through.

Consider this happens to a poor family who believed SCross - sold as a cross country car, and has gone out to some remote places, and had to suffer this ordeal? See how the car is advertised. (pictures from internet)

Really?




It just appears that SCross requires a flat bed tow truck!! This is unlike the swifts which we had towed out in multiple scenarios!! Case in point!

[aargee]

Originally Posted by laluks

RG, Kungfu panda is now at 38K

What are you planning...60K a year?

Originally Posted by laluks

My Civic of 10 years and 160K, never even had a squeak for that matter, on rough roads or tarmac

Diesel Civic? Cannot compare a sedan to a Cross over saar & especially Petrol to Diesel. Agreed Maruti has an inferior build than Honda (I doubt that in the recent years as Honda learned one or two tricks to survive in India), true comparison will be a 38K run KungFu Panda with another 1.3 SCro run nearly the same clicks on ODO

Originally Posted by laluks

Suraksha, yes. Kungfu Panda goes there only for service

Despite that these rattles huh

[laluks]

Originally Posted by ashis89

After looking at your Kungfu Panda, I had started liking the S-Cross even though I detest MS cars. I felt this was an exception (also felt same about Ciaz) and was indeed a well built car.

Ashis, I am disappointed and sad. I really wanted to love this car, you know how consciously I was ready to overlook few things too. But now I am disappointed.

Originally Posted by aargee

Diesel Civic? Cannot compare a sedan to a Cross over saar & especially Petrol to Diesel. Agreed Maruti has an inferior build than Honda (I doubt that in the recent years as Honda learned one or two tricks to survive in India), true comparison will be a 38K run KungFu Panda with another 1.3 SCro run nearly the same clicks on ODO

How does diesel / petrol matter to body rattles? I leave it at that. I know you love your 1.6, I can read it from your tagline. Agree to disagree here.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by laluks

How does diesel, petrol matter to body rattles?

I'll leave that to you to figure out. That towing thing that you posted is a shocker, that cannot happen no matter its Nano or Volvo, absolute shame on MSIL for making such poor unreliable engineering!!

Originally Posted by laluks

I leave it at that. I know you love your 1.6, I can read it from your tagline. Agree to disagree here.

Just FYI...it's up for sale for an offer that I cannot resist

[laluks]

Originally Posted by aargee

I'll leave that to you to figure out. That towing thing that you posted is a shocker, that cannot happen no matter its Nano or Volvo, absolute shame on MSIL for making such poor unreliable engineering!!


Just FYI...it's up for sale for an offer that I cannot resist

If you are hinting a diesel has more clatter and vibration and the car is prone to rattle, then I would say that up for the designers to prevent the same knowing the issue upfront, and not for the owners of the car to suffer their in capabilities. Anyways let that be


For sale? Good that you get a dream offer for it .

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by laluks

In my drive, I had to be towed out on a tricky situation.

What do you do when you wants to be towed? You will not miss the tow hook given as a part of the tools given with the car and the unmissable opening in the front bumper to attach that tow hook.

You will immediately go for that small opening in the front bumper, attach the tow hook provided and be ready to be towed out.

This is what happens if you do that
Attachment 1810875

The whole member tears apart with the bumper like paper

What the!! This is shocking beyond belief. I think the tow point is just a namesake and can't handle the load of the car. Might be fit for "rolling" only, not when trying to recover the car from a tricky situation. Or maybe in the infinite wisdom, Maruti used a part from Alto's bin

Can't justify this with any explanation, this is inexplicable. Raise this with them and maybe get someone from Maruti to show you why it failed.

[arvind71181]

Pathetic that the front portion comes apart like this when it gets towed. I am sure I am never going to use the hook on my car now (even though the possibility of me going slightly off road as well is remote) unless its already on a paved road

[laluks]

Pictures of Kungfu Panda after the ordeal


Member C - sheared and came out along with bumper


Alignment all gone bad


Left of Member C that sheared off, You can see it is bolted to A from the front



Left of member C showing the shear. It just looks like paper




You can see the place where you have to bolt the tow hook






Right of member C, showing it just started to tear!



Removed the sheared left of member C from A after unbolting it



Since the front tow hook gave away, we tried to tow it from the left hook for Member D. Member D along with Member B takes the force of the towing now. And as expected Member B took the impact!!


Member B




Member B, bent


Member A, thankfully still intact. But notice the sheet metal part, it will bend for sure on force. Since we did not tow from this side, it remains as it is.

[pavi]

Originally Posted by laluks

The whole member tears apart with the bumper like paper

Is this for real?? The chassis member???!!. At first, looking at the picture I thought someone might have done some terrific blunder by tying the rope on the bumper like we see in some of the funny videos in youtube. Never expected I was actually watching the chassis member. The Maruti designers might have come to the conclusion that 'Nobody takes a 4X4 SUV off road these days, hence let's make some weight reduction exercise at this portion' . May be this is what they call 'Nexa' (make sure you say the word very lightly as they do in their advertisements). Should we now tow the 'SUV' Brezza.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by laluks

Pictures of Kungfu Panda after the ordeal

Just not expected to see such levels of damage from towing. Was happy that the S-Cross is selling well in the market and Maruti hasn't gone 'cheap' in terms of overall build quality at least for the S-Cross compared to the rest portfolio but these images take the cake.

IMO this issue requires a separate thread altogether.

That portion showing the "tear" is horrific. Hope Maruti comes up with a sensible answer to this issue and why it happened!!

[laluks]

Originally Posted by laluks

Likes
....
10. Service centers every where, never too far away
11. Functional No Nonsense National engine, Good support and availability of spares, perceived lower downtime/wait times on issues. To me this is very very important factor. No point in buying a car and perennially waiting for spares to arrive
.....


Dislikes
....
4. Niggles like rattling and squeaks - that's a Maruti feature
.......
12. Haters of this car and negative feedback aplenty

When I started the ownership of Kungfu Panda, this is what I wrote.

Now let me come to these two points in likes. It turned out to be false during my ordeal. This was my perception, now I can bluntly say these two points are completely wrong.

Point 10, Point 11 proved wrong.
When I was going through my ordeal, about 10KMs away from Tapovan, or 35Kms from Joshimath, Uttaranchal, I thought help is nearby. Joshimath is a significant town on Badrinath route, even the district SDM has an office here. I thought I would get a Maruti Service centre there. It was not to be. Nearest one was 100plus kilometers away.

We got the details of that service center and called up. It was Rohan Motors in Gopeshwar, nearly 100Kms from our place. We spoke for support nearby, and we were told its either in Gopeshwar side or Badrinath side, both 100 plus kms away. In fact they themselves suggested we get local support from Joshimath, and gave some contacts to get going.

We also asked if spares would be available, and were told SCross spares will need to be placed and its delay to reach them will be there. Radiator have taken the brunt, so wanted to check if that would be available. My belief was its the national engine, parts would be similar. But it turned out to be a perception again.

So for me point 10, and point 11 has been proven wrong on the run. So its like owning any other manufacturer car. Maruti doesn't have an advantage nor the national engine.

I was really frustrated that the basic premise of my purchasing this car is been proven wrong, and that too leaving me miserable with a car that fails on you when you want to get out of where you are stranded.

Coming back to dislikes, I was ready to accept point 4 as a feature. I was ready to live with that. I consciously tried to love this car. But alas, my experience makes me think.

I now believe point 12 of dislikes section was not without reason.

I love my Kungfu Panda, I am in shock very much as he is. I got him ready to drive back home from Joshimath, two good mechanics, the real heroes of India, who went out of the way to help me bring him home. Kungfu Panda is now at home in Bangalore. He needs to be tended to.

I am sad, frustrated and dejected.

[arjithin]

Laluks, can you post the circumstances that led to the towing? And who and how was it towed??( not that its important in this case, but curious to know)

[Leoshashi]

What was the tricky situation which needed a tow? Pardon me if I missed it.