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-   -   Our Gentle Giant - Maruti Ertiga ZDi+ SHVS (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/199575-our-gentle-giant-maruti-ertiga-zdi-shvs.html)

A little about myself:
My name is Francis Vaz, I am from Mumbai. My love for cars had begun when I was 10 years old, and it has been increasing ever since. I completed my mechanical engineering this year; and what could have been a better graduation gift than my Team-BHP membership getting approved after a long wait of two years. I would really like to thank the moderators for giving me a chance to be a part of this community and to the members for their ownership reviews and DIY's which inspired me to write this review and do some DIY's of my own.

Prolouge:
We bought a new car in 2012 after selling our previous one which was a WagonR Lxi, it had completed close to 38K KM in around 7 years (2005-2012). The need to upgrade to a new car was required considering the age of the car. It had to be a 7-seater, which was the first requirement. Options considered were Mahindra XUV 500 and Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, Innova was too common and was hence not given a thought. After considering both the options, Ertiga was selected because of its cost, fuel efficiency, reliability, fewer niggles and issues as compared to the XUV (read rattles and squeaks), and Maruti's superb after sales service and support. Also, add to the fact that our previous car was a Maruti, my dad didn't want to take any chances since this was going to be our first big purchase. We opted for a diesel this time since the use was going to be more, with dad's daily office runs and weekly site visits. We went with the top ZDi model. The car had done close to 100K in less than four years, without any issues (as is the case with all Maruti cars).



Fast forwarding to 2017 and the bug to upgrade the car had bitten again.
By this time I was an avid reader of Team-BHP and had read through most of the reviews and user feedback on the forum. The reason to sell the car was its usage since it had done around 100K km, and the need for a minor upgrade was required. Considering the mileage of the car, the FE figures had reduced and you could feel the car was struggling to keep up.

Which car to buy?
The most difficult question, more difficult than the questions on the registration page. lol:

At this time the older Ertiga was still with us since we were waiting for good offers for the car. Since this was a minor upgrade, my dad suggested we should go with Ertiga again. But then too we had considered options.
1) Tata HEXA
2) Mahindra XUV 500
3) Toyota Innova Crysta

Of these, the HEXA ticked all the boxes and the XUV was left as a second choice. The Crysta was not considered this time due to its price, the top trim ZX variant with automatic was around 27 lacks OTR. This was Endeavour and Fortuner territory, and the Crysta felt overpriced at this cost.
We went to TATA motors showroom to check out the car and there she was in the beautiful blue shade, I went bonkers over the car and just fell in love with it and so were my parents. After considering everything and making sure this would be our next buy we came back home with all the brochures and paperwork for the same.
A few weeks passed and we got a call from a person who was interested in buying the old car. He came over, checked the car and handed over the token amount for the car and he agreed to the price we had quoted. I and my parents were a bit shocked as we had not yet booked our new car and we had to let go of our old one. The person wanted the car in a weeks time, and that left us with no choice than to go ahead with the offer since he wanted the car to be a birthday gift for his wife. After completing the paperwork and all the required transfer formalities the car was handed over to the person in the given weeks time.

Now came the biggest problem, we had no car for our use and we had to book a car at the earliest with the least booking period time. But as it turns out things don't always go the way you expect them to be. We went to the TATA showroom to book the XTA version and we were told that the car would take more than four months to be delivered as the XTA model was in hot demand. I was feeling dejected since I knew it was impossible to wait for four months and that Hexa was not coming home. We left the TATA showroom with a little hope and visited the Mahindra showroom on our way back home and the saga continued, three months waiting for the newer model since there were an ICE upgrade and some minor changes to the ongoing model, hence the waiting was more.
I was completely down in dumps and was regretting letting our old car go so soon.

Now we had one last option to go ahead with Ertiga again as dad had suggested earlier. I was not in the mood to go check the car and told dad to go ahead with the booking. I had seen a car in Blue Blaze colour and I had really liked it. So Blue Blaze it was. After talking with the Sales Executive (SE) we found that even the Ertiga had a waiting period of over two months and that was the earliest they could do. Since we had no choice and the duration was less than the other two cars we went ahead with the booking and paid the booking amount for the ZDi+ variant with Smart Hybrid system.
Now the long wait had begun, and a surprise was awaiting.

Two days later we got a call from our SE saying there is a car available for delivery who's booking had got cancelled and it is of the same colour as we wanted. Dad quickly asked him to send the pictures, and the car was confirmed. The SE told us that we can have the car by next week Monday as the RTO procedures were pending and there was a weekend. I asked the SE to send me the VIN number so I could check what batch the car was from, and to my surprise it turned out that the car was from the latest batches that had the updated Smart Hybrid logo at the back instead of the regular SHVS and an updated infotainment system with a newer firmware compared to the 2015 model. I was really happy to see the waiting period reduce to just a week instead of the two months.
Monday arrived and we reached Vitesse Worli, Mumbai, to take delivery of our car.


Only I had seen this colour in flesh, and so my parents, my brother and my cousins who accompanied us were blown away by the colour as they had seen the colour for the first time and it looked pretty good on the car.

Buying Experience:
We had purchased our previous car from Spectra Motors, Borivali, but since the car was not available and the waiting was too high we went to Vitesse Worli. The experience was smooth and the SE was very co-operative, and they did their best to help us get the car much sooner than we had expected.

Price Breakup:

Showroom Price : 9,52,750.
Registration : 1,09,448.
Insurance (Zero Dep) : 32,133.
Auto Card & Number Plate: 687.
Extended Warranty (2 years): 13,463.
Discount: 5,000.
Total Cost OTR: 11,03,481.

We also took the Maintenance Cost Protect (MCP) from Spectra Motors as we serviced our previous car there and it was closer to dad's office.
The cost for the MCP was 37,887 and was applicable for 60,000 Kms or 36 months.
The details are given below along with the break-up.



PS: The odometer at the time of writing the review was at 22000 km.

Likes:

• The design is subtle and not too loud.
• It is spacious and has a decent boot space even with the third row up.
• Fuel efficiency.
• Head Unit with Android Auto.
• NVH levels are decent given its a diesel, and the tyre and wind noise at higher speeds are also acceptable.
• Brakes are spot on and do their job of stopping the car very well considering the weight of the car.
• Navigation and parking sensors with camera available in the top trim. ( Was not available in the previous generation)
• 50-50 last row seat split. (The whole seat used to fold in the previous generation)
• Ingress and Egress is perfect even for the elder folks.

Dislikes:

• Headlights.
  The lights on the car are pathetic and have little or no illumination at all. For a car of this size, the throw of the light is very less and are only useful to let the oncoming traffic know where you are on the road.
• The cost of the car being over 11 lakhs OTR lacks a lot of essential features as compared to other cars of the Suzuki stable.
• It does not get automatic climate control even in the top trim, and the problem of the windscreen fogging is still present, which normally occurs during rainy season and winters. No matter what I try it never goes, and add to that the throw of lights, it makes driving the car a nightmare.
• No projector headlamps or DRL's.
• Part sharing. ( The AC controls and the driver side door panel controls in the car are exactly the same as in my uncle's 8-year-old Swift )
• The AC although cools well but takes a lot of time to cool the cabin, especially in the third row.
• Automatic is only available in petrol variant and is limited to the Vxi trim.

What I think should have been added to the car to make it better equipped with a revision in cost or a newer model:

• Automatic climate control.
• Cruise control.
• Atleast LED or Bi-Xenon headlamps along with DRL's.
• Rear disc brakes.
• Atleast 16" alloys.
• AC vents in the third row.
• Sunroof as an option.
• 6 airbags as opposed to the two in the top trim.
• Traction Control.
• Hill hold/decent.

Comfort:
The seats are comfortable and soft and provide a healthy range of adjustment. Under thigh support for taller persons may be an issue. The ergonomics of the car are balanced and most of the things fall in the right place as expected. Head room in the first two rows is more than enough, whereas the last row lacks some due to the sloping roof line. The under thigh support is the best in the middle row and so is the reclined support. The middle row can comfortably seat three adults. The third row although can be adjusted for more legroom by moving the middle row in front, but lacks under thigh support, which can be uncomfortable for some on long journeys.

Ride Quality:
The updated model has some tweaks done to the suspension as the car feels well planted at higher speeds and the wobble has greatly reduced. The steering is appropriately weighed for city and highway runs, and three point turns can be made quick without much effort. The steering is an EPS unit. The car handles rough patches and potholes very well as compared to the previous generation. Both the rear and front wheel wells get full plastic cladding that improves the NVH levels even more. The car is currently running on JK Vectra 185/65 R15 tyres with 5 spoke alloy wheels. The spare is a steel wheel.

Engine:
The 1.3L engine is proven and does the job quite well on the car. Making a decent 88.5bhp and 200Nm of torque, it is sufficient for the car to cruise along all day at 100 Km/Hr, with a full load of 7 adults. The FE is good and greatly varies on your driving style. The MID now shows the current gear and makes suggestions to upshift or downshift to improve fuel efficiency. There is a turbo lag and it is quite unpredictable and sometimes you may feel jerks as the turbo kicks in. The turbo kicks in at about 2000+ RPM and the power delivery is not linear. You can feel the sudden surge in power when the turbo kicks in, mostly while overtaking. The Smart Hybrid system is basically a start/stop system that turns the car off when the car is in neutral, the parking brake is engaged, and the seatbelt is put on. When you are waiting at a traffic signal, this is quite handy as the car turns back on immediately as the clutch is depressed, the vibrations when the car is idling are also reduced compared to the previous model. You can turn off the SHVS system but it turns back on after the car is switched off and on again.

Features:
The car now comes with Keyless Entry & Go. There are request sensors on the front two doors and one on the boot. Just keep the key FOB in your pocket and press the request button and the car unlocks and locks as required. The keyhole to turn on the car is now gone and is replaced by a start-stop button.
The HU is now a touch screen that has offline navigation loaded on to an SD card. The method to input the destination is cumbersome (since it asks for road number and house number etc.) and the voice command never understands what you say. The upside to this is Android Auto is now compatible with the HU and is extremely useful, as the navigation is taken care of by Google Maps. The sound quality is great and a huge improvement over the previous generation.
The MID now allows configuring door lock settings, alarm settings, lane change light flash settings and shock sensor settings.

Safety:
The car gets airbags for both driver and passenger. ABS, EBD and Brake Assist are available in the top trim. Both the driver and passenger side get height adjustable seat-belts with pretensioners. ISOFIX seat mounts were missing in the first model and so is the case with the facelift model. Ignore the seat belt and an alarm keeps beeping until the belt is plugged in.

Build Quality:
The build is typical Maruti's, no soft touch materials anywhere. The same plastic material is used for door panels and the dashboard. The door panels have some uneven cuts and unfinished sharp edges near the window frame.
Buttons used for steering mounted controls, power window, AC are economy grade. The gear knob is also from the same plastic material and the engraving on top of it has started to wear off already. Panel gaps are consistent, and are wide near the hood and boot area.


Time for some pictures:(Sorry for the unprofessional photographs, due to the lack of time and unavailability of the car during weekdays)

Exterior:

The heart:

DDiS badging on the front left and right fenders:

Hood gets insulation:

Exide conservo battery:

Request sensor on the front doors:

and one on the boot:

5 spoke alloy wheels:

Tyre profile:

Interiors:

The smart key:

Ancient AC controls:

Driver side window and mirror controls:

Storage space below the AC controls and the 12V power socket with USB/Android Auto and AUX connections:

Middle row passengers get a 12V power supply outlet, no USB ports:

First row seats:

Height adjustable seatbelts for driver and passenger:

IRVM with manual dimming lever:

Tweeter on the dashboard:

Cubby hole in the dashboard above the glovebox:

The shallow glove box:

Lever to open the hood:

Front driver side door panel:

Chrome finished door handles:

Front and rear passenger side door panels:

Damped roof grab handles:

Cubby holes and bottle holder for third row passengers:

Hook to lock the seatbelt in place for middle row:

Boot and last row seats with 50:50 folding option:

Screw jack to the right side in the boot:

Storage space below the boot:

The ICE is provided by Bosch. It's a touch screen unit that has offline navigation loaded onto a SD card. The map data is provided by Here maps and needs to be manually updated through the official Suzuki site. The head unit offers a lot of input options via AUX, Bluetooth, USB, SD card and iPod. The only downside is if you are using Android Auto, the USB port is occupied and you cannot play songs through a pen drive. You can add in a regular SD card with songs and use it, if you are not using the offline navigation. The system is decently responsive and I have not faced any issues regarding it's touch sensitivity or any random reboots. The screen is very bright and helps keep the glare off even during noon times. Turn on the pilot lamps and the HU dims the screen to ease driving at night. The map goes into night mode as well.

Startup screen:

Home screen:

When pilot lamps are ON:

Hold the setting button for 10 sec and the advanced information shows up; press the software version button and the firmware details show up:

Cute little compass:

The disclaimer that shows up when you click on navigation:

Interface of the offline navigation system:

Options to enter an address:

Entering manual data:

Reverse parking camera output is displayed on the HU, guidelines are static:

The HU supports Android Auto which makes life a lot easier, be it navigation, making calls, sending text message or playing your favorite song, it can do it all, just say "OK Google" and make a wish.:D
Connecting to Android Auto is very simple, connect your phone (should have Android Auto app installed from the Google Playstore) to the USB port with cellular data and GPS turned ON, and the bottom right quadrant shows Android Auto, tap it and you will be greeted by this screen.

Google maps as compared to the offline ones:

Dialpad to enter number manually:

Say "OK Google" and the dots show up:

Extras:

Fuses used and their specifications:

Possible modifications/DIY's in the foreseeable future:

• Upgrading headlamps.
• Upgrading fog lamps.
• Changing rear bumper reflectors to LED.
• Upgrading pilot lamps to LED.
• Upgrading number plate lights to LED.
• Upgrading interior dome lights to LED.
• Adding puddle lamps to ORVM's.
• Interior foot-well/ Mood lighting.

Congrats. This color looks smashing! Ertiga is really a practical vehicle that ticks all the right boxes. I am curious why you didn't wait for the new version.


You bought Ertiga ZDI in place of your four year old Ertiga ZDI! Reminds me of how a WagonR buyer can't buy anything other than a new WagonR :)

Thank You.
Yes, the color is indeed one of the best shades for Ertiga. The car is already a year old we brought it in last May 2017, the newer version comes this year, we needed a car for dad's office runs and site visits, couldn't keep the garage empty, so Ertiga it was.
Yes, it seems people have a soft corner for Ertiga's and WagonR's.:)

Oh ok. I thought you bought it recently. Last May there was no other choice nor a reason to wait 1+ year for new version. Enjoy your car!


EDIT: As you have owned Ertiga, what's your take on the maintenance of beige interior? Also, have you tried to enable video playback while vehicle is moving? I think there is some local jugaad available that makes the system think that handbrake is applied, and hence the video can be played while driving also. Do look into it if you have passengers regularly. I have noted that especially for my family, a movie playing in the car makes the journey feel a lot shorter.

Sure sir thank you!
As far as the interiors go, its a bit difficult to maintain the color, but I wash my car every Saturday and clean the interiors as well. It helps to remove the stains more easily, than after they dry up and become more tough. A solution of dish wash liquid and some water is mostly sufficient, along with some gentle scrubbing. The seats and seat belts do get soiled, but I get the interior/exterior detailing done every 6-8 months, so they are maintained well. As far as the floor goes, I have got the floor lamination done, which is a rubber matting over the entire span of the floor, this helps in keeping the original carpet dry and as good as new. Any water spills wont seep into the original carpet and its cleanable too.

I have heard about the video playback mod, but it is not important to me, no movie fans in my family, songs do just fine. At a later stage I may give the YouTube Android Auto mod a shot.

Hey, congrats on your new ride but were you sure it was 4 months and not 4 weeks because no where have I heard hexa taking that long to deliver especially in a city like Mumbai. Majority of us got our's in 2-3 weeks.

Yes sir it was, although I am still under the impression that the dealership had some issues and that's why they gave us that timeline, I remember them saying that blue color and XTA was the best selling combination and that was the reason for the delay. I was reading on the forums here about the deliveries and most of the members had got their cars in a month or two tops.
Will keep this in mind during our next buy.:)

Congratulations buddy, on becoming an owner of the Ertiga all over again.

I own a 2012 Ertiga VDI from the first lot and it's 6-years with this machine. It can just chug miles in peace like none other machine does. We still have this and would be there for the next four years or so. Overtime, we felt the need for a safer highway cruiser since our Ertiga doesn't come with airbags (actually we had booked a ZDI but we ended up with the VDI; a story for another day) and there went our Italian Ladies in white and Tuscan wine and in came the Hexa XTA in Arizona Blue :D. I know a lot of friends who have considered the Hexa or the XUV as an upgrade from the Ertiga but replacing an Ertiga with another Ertiga is something which I haven't seen. Kudos to that and wish you many more miles and happy smiles with this no-brainer choice.

Varun

Congratulations on Ertga ZDi+. The color is indeed great. Arguably the best color on Ertiga.


Do you always use the third row? If not, at the exact price point, SCross is a much much better car in all aspects. All the things you have mentioned as MISSING, are present in SCross by default and plus, a lot more. Scross offers superb bang for the buck at ~11 lakhs OTR.

Sorry, I don't want to take away your excitement of a new car. Wishing you a long and safe relationship with the Ertiga. Cheers !!!:)

Yes sir the Ertiga does lack a lot of safety equipment, and an obvious upgrade would have been a HEXA or XUV, but as I said earlier sometimes things don't go the way you expect them to be.
I surely am missing the HEXA in our garage; but some other time some other day, there will be one.:D

Wishing you happy and safe miles with the HEXA, enjoy the BEAST.:Cheering:

agree:

Yes sir we use the third row often, and that was the first requirement when we brought our first Ertiga. The S-Cross if available in 7 seater configuration, would have been the next car in the garage, but unfortunately it isn't so Ertiga it is.:)

No problem sir and wishing you too all the safe and happy miles with the S-Cross.