Team-BHP - Driven: The 2017 Maruti S-Cross Facelift
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-   -   Driven: The 2017 Maruti S-Cross Facelift (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/192400-driven-2017-maruti-s-cross-facelift-4.html)

The chrome lined grill is still OK, what is ruining the looks completely is the wide chrome border of the grill and its awkward shape as well as integration with the bonnet. It looks like buck-teeth jutting out of the mouth. Ugly. I am trying hard to get used to of the front "face", it's a hard job to do, since I love this car otherwise.

I would have preferred if MSIL had dropped the 1.3 variant and rather ONLY offered 1.6 on the S-Cross. That would have been a radical and truly NEXA worthy move.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elito11 (Post 4305209)
I would have preferred if MSIL had dropped the 1.3 variant and rather ONLY offered 1.6 on the S-Cross. That would have been a radical and truly NEXA worthy move.

+100

I am sure S-Cross would have still done decent numbers if Maruti had launched this face lift version with only 1.6 engine. When you give a cheaper 1.3 option (that too by almost 2 lakhs) : Majority of the buyers in India prefer it any day.

Being one of the people who thought the new design was horrible from day one, Now i have slowly warmed up to this design. Seeing this car in flesh in between traffic, this car stands out very well and for most of the buyers at least in India, that is one of the most important factors when buying a car above 10 lakhs.

The blue which all acknowledge looks amazing. The brown too looks so luscious when seen in broad daylight. The voice of disappointment in the thread about the weak engine is understandable especially when we have cars from one segment lower with much more capable engines being offered.

Quote:

Originally Posted by suhaas307 (Post 4304448)
Driving the 1.3L Diesel


SHVS and Re-gen braking:

Well, this little generator uses electricity from the battery to pass through some copper wires, thereby creating a magnetic field that causes a rotor to spin and start the engine. These spinning magnetic rotors generate electricity that can later be stored in the battery for future use. The Integrated Starter Generator also acts as the engine's starter motor. The system even manages to generate electricity when the car is coasting or going downhill.

The ARAI FE rating has gone up to 25.1 kmpl (earlier 23.65 kmpl).

Isnt that how all motors work? Or that others dont have copper wires?
Or is it that when its not 'starting' it charges the battery?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren (Post 4305124)
S-Cross 1.6 was discontinued due to multiple reasons.

1. Low demand
2. High import costs
3. Fuel quality related issues

Anyways, I have seen many enthusiasts getting pre worshipped S-Cross 1.6 since last few months :D The car has depreciated a lot and 1.6 Alpha 2015 models are sold for just 9 lakhs.

Fuel related? Is this documented somewhere ? MS officially state this?

While I understand the sentiments of lot of people in the forum passing their condolences to the 1.6 engine and bashing MS for giving an early death to it, how on world will MS be able to continue that engine when the sales numbers are very poor( read only 4K cars were sold)?? The pure maths does not work out in favour of 1.6 being continued in India.

For this early death, we cannot blame anyone except MS for pricing it too high during launch and then lowering the prices. Also when our folks were lapping up the SUV looking cars, MS provided us a bland look car which also resulted in poor sales. So it is a wise decision for MS to discontinue when there are no takers.

On a humorous note, with so many enthusiasts saying that they would have purchased S-Cross if 1.6 was available, they should have purchased before the facelift. At-least we could have seen a respectable numbers sold lol:

By the way to all who have purchased 1.6 in previous version- enjoy the exclusivity!! Only concern might be available of some critical parts in the future date and hence please take care of it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 4305063)
But at least the 1.6L has the post-2000 rpm boost to make up for the weak lower end.

If you give me a boring soup & salad to start with, then a yummy cheese burst pizza, I won't complain.

But if you give me sauteed vegetables after the soup & salad, I'll be left unhappy :).

Agreed and I am not denying it. But his points were related to below 2000 rpm so I thought he would have felt the same with 1.6 too. My experience with Car driving is just 35K KMS. 5K with Dzire and 30K with my Scross 1.3. Based on my little experience I could very well relate to all the observations people make about the turbo lag and drivability.

What I couldn't relate or understand clearly is the highway performance w.r.t other cars. It feels slow(from inside the car) even if I drive @100KMPH, easily cruises @120 KMPH and can accelerate 130 - 140 KMPH when required without pushing the engine too hard (100 @2200 rpm, 120 @2800prm, 140 @3300?). Most of my drives are highway drives and I easily go past most of the cars and I don't feel driving rashly. I totally understand the highway performance of 1.6 MJD as people praise it highly and compare it with cars of 20Lakhs.

But when it comes to Ecosport, Nexon, Honda, owners say like:
1) Ecosport struggles after 120 KMPH
2) Breeza (1.3 MJD so considered) feels better than Nexon for Highway Drive(some reviews pointed this out)
3) Honda is as crude as 1.3 MJD.

So how does 1.3 MJD perform on highways compared to these cars? I couldn't really relate/understand so far.

On a lighter note, yes 1.6 MJD is like yummy cheese burst pizza, but people took free sample of it but still ordered sauteed vegetables so they had to take it off the menu :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute (Post 4305091)
thanks to Maruti for not breaking hearts of existing SCross owners

Who said? My wife is so heartbroken because of the new grill :). I personally felt bad about the projector headlamps. They could have given the same in our version too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elito11 (Post 4305209)
I would have preferred if MSIL had dropped the 1.3 variant and rather ONLY offered 1.6 on the S-Cross.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren (Post 4305218)
+100
I am sure S-Cross would have still done decent numbers if Maruti had launched this face lift version with only 1.6 engine

I am really glad that you are not part of Maruti's decision-making team.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhpfaninblr (Post 4304900)
. Lack of good engines is why Maruti has been reducing the weights of its engines to make the cars peppier. The Verna does not stall at 20Kph in 3rd gear as well.

You're kidding, right?

I've been driving the 1.3 for 40K KMS now over a period of two years and have taken it through steep ghats, highways and regular roads including bad roads. I drive everyday in Bangalore traffic and easily amble around in the third gear at 20KMPH. Never once has the car stalled or given problems in any of these conditions.

The problem in my opinion is the poor low end and high end tunes of the stock, which makes it a bit lethargic or perhaps boring to drive. The engine though is a capable one. A remap greatly improves this (even in 1.6 to a huge extent) and I've been on a different tune for 39K KMs now with no issues. Now, many will opine that a remap is not necessary. Sure enough, it isn't as long as one can live with that lag with a sedate style driving - planned overtakes, no hurry etc. But that in no way means that the 1.3 VGT is under-powered and may stall at 20 KMPH in 3rd gear.

Quote:

Originally Posted by govigov (Post 4304912)
The SVHS is said to be even more slower than the current gen 1.3 s-cross. It will not be running highways on fire. The car is too big to be used in the city and the tuning of the engine makes it even harder. This product is just a compromise.

The slowness may be due to the SHVS system and not a factor of weight. Between the Verna and the S-cross:

Verna - Length (4300mm), Width (1765 mm), Height (1590 mm)
S-cross - Length (4375 mm), Width (1700 mm), Height (1475 mm)

It's a cross over and do you really feel with these minor increases in Length, width and height it's too big to used in cities? I wonder what creta owners would have to say. The low end tune of the 1.6 is even worse than 1.3, making it even more difficult for city drives!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elito11 (Post 4305209)
I would have preferred if MSIL had dropped the 1.3 variant and rather ONLY offered 1.6 on the S-Cross. That would have been a radical and truly NEXA worthy move.

Me too! With a good price as well :)

I feel anything in the neighborhood of 14-15L is justified for that engine, nothing more. The launch price was atrocious and paving its way for a DOA kind of situation. I am not surprised to hear they managed to sell only 4K units in two years of launch of the 1.6

Quote:

Originally Posted by jkdas (Post 4305296)
Fuel related? Is this documented somewhere ? MS officially state this?

Most of the S-Cross 1.6 owners have observed that the engine is very sensitive to fuel quality. Maruti has officially not given any reasons for stopping 1.6. I believe you would have read about 1.6 engine failure thread and the reason as per MSIL was bad fuel.

The S- Cross looked liked a hurried project for Maruti Suzuki. The pre face-lifted model looked like a half cooked meal. It was a very capable no nonsense cross over, I had test driven this car and was instantly impressed by the interior and ride quality. But the bad pricing and plain jane looks did not let this car do well in the Indian markets.

The new face lifted model seems to have addressed all the issues and it just needs some good mouth to mouth publicity to set the sales charts on fire. I personally liked the new aggressive front, thicker rubbers and the spacious and quality interiors. These all bundled with the every reliable Maruti service makes it an interesting proposition. The only thing that will be sorely missed in the 1.6L diesel.

But we cannot have all the goods things in a single package, right ?

The face-lift is a bit bizarre - the taller stance is appreciated but the front grill reminds me of a B-grade Hollywood movie with its piranha teeth. I preferred the S-cross over the Brezza but pretty much everyone asked me "Why didn't you buy the Brezza?" - if you told them about lesser space at the back and lack of all disc brakes, that invariably drew a blank with a retort - "But that is an SUV". Funnily enough, some British youtube videos did call the S-cross a Mini-Suv as well; though here it is marketed as a cross-over. I find it ideal for a city - it's comfortable. The face-lift is pretty much the same car with very minor changes; so I doubt the numbers will change much - it will remain an average seller while people wait for more Brezzas to come off the assembly line.

I did test drive the 1.6 and the same dealer was offering me a discontinued 1.6 Zeta at a very attractive price - he only had 1 left. I took it on the Eastern freeway and yeah, it was fantastic. But within normal city limits, with traffic I would myself changing the gears more often. The Zeta 1.6 also lacked a touch-screen HU and ACC, if I remember correctly. So, I didn't see the appeal in it considering most of my driving would be within city limits. But I can see why someone who spends a lot of time driving on open roads would love it.

I belong to the clan which likes the facelifted design. It looks so good in person that I overcame my repulsion for that grill when I saw it first in print. Note that it is not a cheap trick for India and Suzuki has the same facelift (Read chrome dipped) design in Europe too. The car really looks beefed up now than before.

Test drove the car last week and had mixed opinions. On one hand, the car is European with all necessary safety and convenience features (I think the instrument console brightness adjustment is a stark example!!) available across variants. It felt solid with good ergonomics. A very good upgrade for mid aged gentleman/woman drivers.

However, I found the sound insulation to be a huge let down. The engine noise and external noise was very loud inside the cabin and I suspect some cost cutting there by Maruti! The other let downs were the central tunnel like a 4*4 and average boot space. Also, the car is happy as a 4 seater in terms of rear space.

Having a Dzire Vdi, the engine had nothing to write about (both positively and negatively) IMO. The Delta variant seemed VFM and with some exchange/year end discounts it might be a good upgrade for urban customers upgrading from Hatches and Sub4 sedans.

Test drove the new Ecosport today, and S-cross is back in contention after feeling the rear space of the sub 4 Ford. The let downs of S-cross being the noise insulation, drivability, uninspiring touch screen and almost 75k premium over Trend+ Ecosport (Delta variant). Only long TDs shall clarify. ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by sudeepg (Post 4305348)
You're kidding, right?

Never once has the car stalled or given problems in any of these conditions.

The car stalls unexpectedly in city driving conditions. Admittedly this happens rarely, but it has happened atleast a couple of times for me. I know my Ritz DDiS which I drove for 136K kms would not stall in similar condition.

Quote:

The problem in my opinion is the poor low end and high end tunes of the stock, which makes it a bit lethargic or perhaps boring to drive. The engine though is a capable one. A remap greatly improves this (even in 1.6 to a huge extent) and I've been on a different tune for 39K KMs now with no issues.
The tune of the car does matter. The stock tune of the 1.3 s-cross is not that great, and people who have remapped are happier. Not all people go in for a remap and regular folks are not aware of the option. This also does void the company warranty. Some people prefer to keep their warranty intact.

The SVHS hardware does not ADD much weight. The car is already heavy. At 1240 kilos it is much heavier than other 1.3 DDiS cars in its class. The Ritz ZDi is @ 1125 kilos. The Ciaz Alpha 1.3 Hybrid is @ 1130 kilos. The engine in the Ritz produces less power, but with comparable lesser weight, it manages to be much more peppier than s-cross. The BHP/ton figures are much better for other cars with 1.3 DDiS engine when compared to s-cross.

The new Dzire in its Zdi Plus avatar weighs just 970 kilos. With its 74BHP engine it just smokes the s-cross on straight line acceleration. I had a hard time keeping up with the new Dzire on a recent trip. The new Dzire just pulls ahead and leaves the 1.3 S-cross far behind.

I get that the s-cross is a very capable platform and the car is very nice. The engine should have been better. The 1.3 just about keeps up with traffic and can be called strictly adequate.

PS: All weight figures are from carwale in its 'Specification' section

Took a chance to modify front grill.

Stock
Driven: The 2017 Maruti S-Cross Facelift-09.jpg

Version 1 with blacking out vertical lines
Driven: The 2017 Maruti S-Cross Facelift-09version1.jpg

Version 2 with entire chrome delete; have used body colour on outer edge, this can be black as well.
Driven: The 2017 Maruti S-Cross Facelift-09version2.jpg

Per an NDTV article, the new S-Cross has garnered 11k bookings already. In the same article they have mentioned that the "compact SUV" has a very bright future (sic).

I personally liked the looks of the facelifted version.


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