[audioholic]

The car is at the 9000kms mark and like I have repeatedly mentioned, its pace has come down due to lesser days at work for me. However, some amount of kms are getting accumulated since I sometimes head to my native village from my office rather than heading home. It takes lesser time for me to reach my village than come to my house and hence that adds up extra kms and compensates for the lesser use, and also gives the vehicle a chance to stretch out on the highway.

I must appreciate the highway manners of the Celerio. Stable and planted both in straights and in curves. Here is a datalog of my recent drive in the morning to office:



The car never feels underpowered and accelerates well. Corners are handled confidently and brakes behave well when expected to. The suspension is not bouncy like the i10 or Brio which I have driven quite frequently on the same stretch of road. And compared to my earlier WagonR, it used to complain after 80-100 and taking curves without slowing down would never work out well.

That said, I am looking forward to early wear of the tyres and brake pads

Third service coming up in a week or two. And the judder issue will be taken up on a different thread.

[audioholic]

Two updates:

1. Got a VLT 70 sun film installed at my home from a dealer on JC Road. Went for a genuine Garware kit with box and warranty. I had been there to get my aunts celerio wrapped and he agreed to send his chap home since I was not in a mood to drive all the way into that region of chaos. Costed me 1800 and I was not willing to spend more since in case I was caught by cops I wouldnt regret to remove it. Might go for 3M RE for the front glass at a later stage.








2. The radio antenna was making an annoying noise when I went over a hump or drove below a tree branch since it would bang the roof and was nothing short of a nuisance. Hence replaced it with the antenna of the new swift.

Though the base screw is the same, the antenna of the swift has a rubber surround for the screw which is not present in the antenna of the Celerio.



I cut the surround slightly since it was flexible and a little was enough to seat it into the antenna base.



Old vs New


Job done, satisfaction for 170 bucks






And here is my aunts Zxi AMT:



Got the roof wrapped in white vinyl and an autografix vinyl sticker for bonnet and roof.

[Motard_Blr]

Congrats on the additions to your Celerio. Do update us on the effectiveness of the Garware window film. I am seriously considering getting something similar for my car but afraid of the cops. But your photos show that the film is pretty much unnoticeable from a distance.

[lifebuoy]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Overlooking all these, my mind was narrowed towards the top of the line trim with ABS. So this was to be the ZXi AMT (O). I had to pay an additional 13k for ABS, EBD, Brake assist and a passenger airbag. This was a superb offer and compared to old times,

My other favourite was Cave black but that was again not in the brochure and website, however, that colour was still being dispatched from factory. I guess that should be old stock and did not go for that option.

Since this variant does not come with alloy wheels, I opted to get the MGA alloys installed.

On road: ~649000
Less: 10000(offer) = 639000
Less Maruti Insurance: 16000 = 623000
Add preferred insurance with 50% NCB from WagonR: 7750 = 630750
Add MGA alloys(4), side protector and scuff plates: 19500 = 650250

Included in this price was a basic accessory kit(new scam to me) out of which the only thing I would use is the puncture repair kit. Rest is a set of car care items, air freshner and a set of crappy floor mats which I didnt strike off the list as that would send the accessory guy to depression. The cost for this is somewhere in the range of 3500 and I just let it go. I would suggest people to give this a skip. Totally useless.

Originally Posted by audioholic

The moment I started the car, I realised that this was no K10B that I had used for the past few years. Engine wise, the compression ration is increased and the use of a thinner oil means that the response from the engine is way ahead of how my wagonR used to behave. A few quick observations on the engine:

• Drive by wire instead of the cable in K10. This has made them tweak throttle response to open up wider at low rpms. This has partially caused the increased driveability.
• Low end is better and the engine is alive from 1.1K rpm below which the transmission doesnt allow it to go. My WagonR was dead below 2k RPM and this was really annoying.
• Difference in performance with AC is hardly felt compared to my WagonR which on switching off AC felt like a turbo kicked in
• Engine note in the K-Next is not coarse like in the K10 and noise is hardly heard in the cabin. Good sound insulation
• The K-Next gets hydraulic mounts in the Celerio compared to Rubber mounts in the WagonR. This has removed vibrations at idle which used come all the way to the rear in the WagonR.

Attachment 1544258

A few observations on the transmission:

• Creep control is good and not to jerky. Removed my apprehensions of parking in a tight spot. No problem.
• The only problem in this setup is in M, if in 2nd gear, the TCM slips the clutch in case the car gets too slow. It wont downshift to 1 unless at standstill. This has to be done manually. In D mode however, downshift to 1 happens as soon as the speed drops below 10kmph or under a hard press of the accelerator

Currently in progress are
1. Leather steering wheel
2. Paint protection film

3. Detailing and sealant.

Planned activities:
1. Dual horn
2. Fog lamps
3. Door damping

Thanks audiphile for a fantastic review. Was in the planning to upgrade our Nano LX of Aug 2010 and had shortlisted the ZXI(O) manual and the Tiago XZ. Let me confess, your review made me to think about the AMT, keeping pathetic driving conditions of Delhi in mind. Primary user is my wife. With over 50,500 kms in six years with the Nano, she is quite Ok with a manual.

We took a test drive of the VXI AMT on Saturday and was impressed with its performance. The AC was great and the AMT drove well, the creep function helps a great deal in tight spot parking. Next was the Tiago XZA. The XZA throttle response was lazy (lag), maybe due to city mode. Acceleration in sport mode was fantastic. Interiors are far superior to the Celerio. Steering is super light and can be operated with just one finger, literally. However, the AC was cutting off too soon in low gear shifting, don't know why. Otherwise, ACs in both cars functioned well. (Necessary for Delhi summers). Brakes were super sharp on the VXI AMT and took some time getting used to, from the nano's brakes, with some play.

Wife needs bluetooth connectivity feature, good AC, central locking / security, good fuel efficiency, easy to drive and park and reliability. Period. Everything else does not concern her !

At the end of the day, we finally booked a Blazing RED ZXI(O) AMT. Dealer was trying hard to push his stock of Silver colour, but we refused. Our first Maruti after four TATA's !!

Although cost is not a limiting factor, but she is not the kind who would "waste" money on useless features. In present state, with an exchange bonus of 25K and 22,500 for the Nano, on road cost is approx 4.7L regd in Delhi. Need some advice here:
1. What are the costs of the alloys you have put ? Are they 14 inch ones ? What about cost of the steel rims ? What about the spare ? Steel or alloy ?
2. I'm being offered a Basic kit for 7,200/- including seat covers. Worth it ? The seat covers were the synthetic type, but very soft and with beige/black combination suiting the interior. Will it be MGA ?
3. Cost of fog lamps ? Are they MGA ? The dealer (Competent) quoted 3,700/- for a pair of fog lamps. What about operation ? This chap said they will put a switch on the switch rack near the headlamp leveller. What about your car ? Do they have to cut any wiring ? Warranty issues ?
4. Please advise on underbody rust coating. I had them done (Wuerth) for both the Nano and ARIA).
5. Should I get 3M paint protection from a 3M dealer or the solution offered by the dealer ?
6. What about reverse sensors ? I find them pretty useful, especially in the ARIA. Got one fitted from Reliance Autozone for 3,700/- in 2012 (ARIA) and works great.
7. Are the headlight bulbs adequate ?
8. Performance of the Bluetooth phone pairing system ?
9. Do the horns need an upgrade ? The nano horn was timid sounding.

Thanks for the help.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Motard_Blr

Congrats on the additions to your Celerio. Do update us on the effectiveness of the Garware window film. I am seriously considering getting something similar for my car but afraid of the cops. But your photos show that the film is pretty much unnoticeable from a distance.

I dont want to hype or give a rosy picture about the effectiveness of the film. The only difference I see is when there is sunlight entering from the car windows onto my face or skin, it no longer burns. Thats the noticeable difference. With the windows rolled down, the heat of the sun would cause a slight burning sensation on the skin but with this, I can only feel the warmth of the sun but no burning. Apart from that, I dont think there is a difference in cooling as such, since the windows are more or less vertical and the greenhouse effect is mainly due to the front glass. Also the AC is very powerful as it is, so the difference this film makes to AC is again not yet so prominent. Maybe I will park the car in sunlight someday and check if it heats up as before or not.

Originally Posted by lifebuoy

Thanks audiphile for a fantastic review. Let me confess, your review made me to think about the AMT, keeping pathetic driving conditions of Delhi in mind. Primary user is my wife. With over 50,500 kms in six years with the Nano, she is quite Ok with a manual.


At the end of the day, we finally booked a Blazing RED ZXI(O) AMT. Dealer was trying hard to push his stock of Silver colour, but we refused. Our first Maruti after four TATA's !!

Thanks and congratulations on booking your Celerio. Here are your answers:

1. What are the costs of the alloys you have put ? Are they 14 inch ones ? What about cost of the steel rims ? What about the spare ? Steel or alloy ?

Paid 18-19k for the alloys(4). Need to check my own review for the exact price.

2. I'm being offered a Basic kit for 7,200/- including seat covers. Worth it ? The seat covers were the synthetic type, but very soft and with beige/black combination suiting the interior. Will it be MGA ?

Personally, I hate the MGA covers since they are just PU and not even artificial leather. Though they seem VFM for around 5k, I dont like them. I am planning to get the seats done in genuine and imitation leather combo in the coming weeks. But that is an expensive option (20k+) and not for the budget conscious.

3. Cost of fog lamps ? Are they MGA ? The dealer (Competent) quoted 3,700/- for a pair of fog lamps. What about operation ? This chap said they will put a switch on the switch rack near the headlamp leveller. What about your car ? Do they have to cut any wiring ? Warranty issues ?

They will install the fog lights from the Vitara Brezza. They are just a load of bullshit. Instead, ask them to install the fog lights of the Swift/Dzire/Ertiga/Ciaz. That is quite good. The main difference is that the Brezza has some unknown cheap quality bulb whereas with the latter you get H8 bulbs which you can upgrade to H11

Speaking about my car, the Fog lights are not MGA and I have brought it off Aliexpress. The switch was procured from MGP and it is the OE Switch used in all cars. I havent cut any wires and usually the MGA kit also comes with all the required connectors and harnesses for the installation. Details are here http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-do...tallation.html

I am not sure what switch comes with the MGA kit whether its the OE switch or some other type of switch.

4. Please advise on underbody rust coating. I had them done (Wuerth) for both the Nano and ARIA).

I got it free at the dealer itself so no idea which brand or cost.

5. Should I get 3M paint protection from a 3M dealer or the solution offered by the dealer ?

I would prefer 3M since I am not sure what brand your or my dealer uses. For my car, I detail it myself.

6. What about reverse sensors ? I find them pretty useful, especially in the ARIA. Got one fitted from Reliance Autozone for 3,700/- in 2012 (ARIA) and works great.

Your preference. My cars dont have one and I havent found the need for the same. However, you can install it anywhere, since the wiring is simple and quality more or less the same everywhere. Since these things require a lot of interior panels to be removed, I never get into such stuff.

7. Are the headlight bulbs adequate ?

Have upgraded the lights to Phillips XV+. And the LED fog lights do an awesome supplementary job. More than enough for the city and just OK for the highway. I would swear by 100/90 for highway use, but dont use the Celerio for night driving, nor much of highway use.

8. Performance of the Bluetooth phone pairing system ?

Very good. Only issue is when we restart the car, the pairing is lost and takes a good 15-20s to reconnect to the phone. During a call this is annoying, so I make it a point not to switch off during a call. We are an apple family(6s and 7) and the connectivity is very good. The voice clarity and loudness is also very good. Pairing is seamless and happens within 15s usually. No niggles faced with that.

9. Do the horns need an upgrade ? The nano horn was timid sounding.

Upgraded them to Denso twin tone horn which is the OE tone for Innova. The single horn was irritating.

[lifebuoy]

Hi Guys,

The Blazing Red ZXI(O) AMT was home on 30 Apr 17. Hooray ! Will post pictures soon. In the meanwhile, how do I store numbers on the audio unit ? Or, how does the phone book get populated ? My wife uses a ASUS Zenfone Lazer and I use a Nexus 5.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by lifebuoy

Hi Guys,

The Blazing Red ZXI(O) AMT was home on 30 Apr 17. Hooray ! Will post pictures soon. In the meanwhile, how do I store numbers on the audio unit ? Or, how does the phone book get populated ? My wife uses a ASUS Zenfone Lazer and I use a Nexus 5.

Congratulations! You will have to go to bluetooth settings, where you have an option to import contacts. If you do that, it will save contacts from your phone(s) but I am not sure how many contacts will be imported. I guess there is a manual option also to imported selected contacts. Since I am the primary user of the car only my contacts are imported. My parents phones have been paired but contacts havent been imported.

[jomson13]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Congratulations! You will have to go to bluetooth settings, where you have an option to import contacts. If you do that, it will save contacts from your phone(s) but I am not sure how many contacts will be imported. I guess there is a manual option also to imported selected contacts. Since I am the primary user of the car only my contacts are imported. My parents phones have been paired but contacts havent been imported.

The bluetooth system imports all the contacts, you cannot selectively import contacts if you want to. I didn't know this and now I have almost 1000 contacts stored on the system
I'm thinking of wiping it clean and uploading contacts from another phone that has only a few and essential numbers.

[no_boundaries]

Hi, I'm contemplating getting the Blaupunkt GTB 8200A on the stock HU.
Hoping for a better SQ I got the stock speakers replaced with Blaupunkt ICX663. I wasn't very satisfied with the bass output however the mid and high frequency improved after a month's use. The speakers cannot handle bass and start to creek at 50% volume setting. There's a good amount of rattle that creeps into the panels as well. Can you clarify -
1. Is the bass purely handled by the woofer or is the bass fed to the speakers as well
2. If its being fed to speakers, is there a way to cancel this out on the stock HU
3. How good is the bass peak. I mean does it have a good thump or does it boom
4. What do I need to buy apart from the Woofer and the wires that comes with it
5. Are there any major modifications done behind the HU to plug this in

Thanks. Big fan of your subtle mods.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by no_boundaries

Hi, I'm contemplating getting the Blaupunkt GTB 8200A on the stock HU.
Hoping for a better SQ I got the stock speakers replaced with Blaupunkt ICX663. I wasn't very satisfied with the bass output however the mid and high frequency improved after a month's use. The speakers cannot handle bass and start to creek at 50% volume setting.
1. Is the bass purely handled by the woofer or is the bass fed to the speakers as well
2. If its being fed to speakers, is there a way to cancel this out on the stock HU
3. How good is the bass peak. I mean does it have a good thump or does it boom
4. What do I need to buy apart from the Woofer and the wires that comes with it
5. Are there any major modifications done behind the HU to plug this in

Thanks. Big fan of your subtle mods.

You can consider the GT8200a. It is simple and straightforward and for the price paid its definitely worth it.

1. Bass is mainly handled by the Sub itself. You can get to know the load sharing by checking how much bass your speakers deliver when the setting is at Bass = 0.

2. There are no pre-outs on the Celerio HU. Hence, the only way to tap the signal is from the speaker outputs itself. Thankfully, the Sub comes with a low level converter built in and to just have to plug in the speaker signal. So there is no way to filter the bass that goes to the speakers which will lead to the Sub losing its signal as well. Hence, I have set Bass to 0 and then adjusted the gain on the sub. In this way, the speakers get negligent bass and they perform well without distortion or rattle the panels. Now in case I need more bass momentarily, I increase the Bass on the HU to +2 and that's the max I need. In case I need to cut bass, the same can be done on the HU.

3. Since it is a puny 8inch sub, it cant handle both low frequency thumps and the kick of the drums. Hence, I have set the crossover to 80Hz though it does work till 120HZ as the filter roll off is quite weak. The Sub performs very well with this setup and especially satisfies me since I love the deep bass notes and chords in the music and don't prefer loud kicks.

4. Nothing much except for speaker cable to fetch signals from the speakers to the Sub.

5. No modifications needed near the HU. I was very much against touching the HU and hence went with this option. You just have to tap the speaker signal from near the B Pillars on each side and then route them to the boot. In addition to that, the Sub just needs a 12V connection to the battery. It doesnt even need a remote turn on signal.

[audioholic]

On a different note, I was late to update that the car crossed the 10000kms mark last weekend. The third service was also done before hitting the 10k mark since I was pushing it very badly. Hence I dropped the car somewhere at 9500kms. From now on, I plan to stick to 8k kms service intervals since I drive in both open roads with a hard foot as well as dense traffic, which takes a toll on the engine oil and filters. Had asked them to replace the air filter, but it was not done.

Had to pay only for the oil and filter, AC filter(which was installed). As usual another set of clutch disc and cover was replaced to resolve the judder. There is not any major difference felt after service. Need to get the wheels aligned and rotated.

[no_boundaries]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Had to pay only for the oil and filter, AC filter(which was installed)

Pollen Filter / AC Filter : I was on the look out for this for quite some time now. I couldn't source it anywhere. Where did you get this installed ? Was it specific for Celerio. I was told its a part shared with Swift.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by no_boundaries

Pollen Filter / AC Filter : I was on the look out for this for quite some time now. I couldn't source it anywhere. Where did you get this installed ? Was it specific for Celerio. I was told its a part shared with Swift.

It was different from what I got for my WagonR. However, it was fitting perfectly in the WagonR whereas it is fitting loosely in the Celerio. The filter was installed by the dealership during service. It looks like another default add on job that they have started doing. Since I wanted it to be done, I agreed for the same.

Got the wheels aligned and Balancing checked(earlier weights were not removed unless there was a change) and rotated. Unfortunately, the car had two punctures one before service and one after alignment. The tyres were rotated too as suggested by the roadforce machine. Excellent service as always at Tyre Professionals.



Quite surprised to see that the brake pads are still in good health after 10000kms of hard driving and braking.



They should need replacement at around 19-20k kms.

[k88k]

Got the 10K interval service done at Pratham Motors service center near Kudlu Gate.

I am seeing a very evident smoothness in gear shifting especially from 2nd to 3rd gear. So smooth is the shift, that it is barely noticeable. I am surprised that this is the same shift interval where juddering is being experienced by other Celerio owners. I myself was experiencing the mild juddering but didn't find it annoying enough to raise it to the SA. Will check the service record for any clutch related maintenance activity, which I guess is unlikely to have been performed.

Also, getting a .1~.4 increase in mileage.

[audioholic]

One year update: 14500kms done

The car turned one year old last saturday. For its birthday, I spent some time detailing it. I wanted to do a sealant application and hence, ended spending a few hours of effort into preparing the surface by claying and a light round of polishing(not much swirls accumulated) and then IPA wipedown. After applying sealant, my idea was to let it cure for a day or two before wiping off the excess since the last time I applied it, it did not last more than a few washes whereas on my Dio the same sealant(Meguiars M21) is still beading water after a month or so and a lot of drenching in the rain.

But this did not go well since I was out of station on Sunday and by the time I returned it was late, and on Monday I took it to office, airport and back home in heavy rain. Hence, the sealant part is still pending to be completed since I had to get the car washed.

Leaving that apart, here is a short summary of the last year with the car:

• Distance travelled as on 12/08/2017 - 14560
• Daily average - 39.89kms including weekends
• Cost of fuel and mileage not calculated religiously, except for calculating FE weekly which ranges from 12kmpl to 14kmpl
• Heavy footed driving + Late braking so FE should not be considered as a benchmark
• Totally three services, labour free for all three.
• Visits to service center - Six including service + one clutch replacement + two miscellaneous visits.
• Wheel Alignment done twice, balancing once done with weights and once done with existing weights to check for any deviation, all done at Tyre Professionals, which is our regular place.

Most of the other updates are already on the thread. A short summary of the changes done to the car from one end to the other:

• Phillips Xtremevision+ headlights from Amazon self installed
• LED Fog lights + DRL from Aliexpress - Self installed with OE fog light switch
• Number plates with frame from Movell
• Gloss black roof wrap self installed
• Antenna replaced with Dzire antenna
• Maruti Suzuki badge ditched due to difficulty in cleaning and replaced with Suzuki badge.
• Wiper combination switch replaced with one from S-Cross Zeta to enable variable intermittent wiping
• Steering wrapped in leather by Ceralli
• Noodle mats
• Blaupunkt Active sub-woofer installed by Throttle and later on finished by me
• Viofo A118C dashcam
• Garware VLT 70 charcoal coloured sunfilm for side and rear glasses
• Fastag - This change has worked the most during my trips outside of bangalore, mainly to my native
• Engine oil changed to Fully Synthetic along with the oil filter at my FNG - Autokraft

From the best I can remember, thats it


The only niggle now is a creaky exhaust when accelerating and braking hard.



During the recent months, the daily usage numbers have come down since the car does whitefield trips only thrice a week or so. It is bound to come down further as my Garage is planned to expand by a bit soon. That time I see the monthly usage might almost halve of the current.


Overall, I am quite happy with the car. For the price, the product has come way forward compared to Maruti standards and as a daily drive, this makes a strong contender. The car has excellent highway manners, but does not like being loaded up. The character changes when I drive solo and when there are co passengers, especially the heavier ones. The car struggles to gain speed above 100 when loaded whereas if it is driver only, it is a go cart. I have had superb solo drives to my natives, giving many cars a nice run. The brakes on the ABS version are a lot different compared to the non ABS car and I just love the linear feedback offered by the brakes. You brake and come to a stop just where you want, without over braking or having to stand on the brake pedal.

With a plan of adding two more wheels to my garage, the attention may shift from now on. That, when the plan executes given my work and travel schedule. As of now, this is the only picture of the car. Let the rains recede and I will finish the sealant work and show it off here.