9th May 2007, 20:25
| #151 | |
| BHPian  Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: New Delhi
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9th May 2007, 20:28
| #152 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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9th May 2007, 20:35
| #153 |
| Senior - BHPian | |
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9th May 2007, 20:54
| #154 | |
| BANNED  Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: ??
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Maruti SX4 priced at 7 lakh in Delhi, pricing and specifications of the Maruti SX4 in Bombay, Bangalore and Amritsar What I find interesting is that the Vxi has 195/65 R 15 tyres against 205/60 R16 for the Zxi. If one looks at the carbibles website, the next upsize for 195/65 R15 with 16" wheels would be 205/55 R16 (+0.4% speedo error, ground clearance lower by ~ 1 mm). Wonder why Maruti chose 205/60 R16 (-2.8% speedo error, GC increases by ~ 8 mm)? Possibly Maruti felt that 55 profile is too low for Indian roads and could cause tyre/wheel damage apart from a harsh ride. I do hope that the Zxi speedo is calibrated differently, but I doubt it. Just for interest, does anybody know the tyre pressures that Maruti recommends for the Zxi and Vxi? I am assuming that the Vxi comes with steel wheels and tubeless tyres. If I were to upsize a Vxi to 16" Zxi alloys, I would seriously consider 205/55 tyres as opposed to 205/60, because I would be reluctant to pay the inevitable penalty in handling with the higher profile tyres. But the fact that experts from Maruti/Suzuki thought it fit to offer 205/60 for the Zxi would make me pause. I also think that the Maruti had to provide wide tyres for this car because it is mandated by stability considerations, given the high SUV-like ground clearance. Otherwise Maruti would not have missed the chance to provide skinny tyres and offer better FE. Last edited by rks : 9th May 2007 at 20:59. | |
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9th May 2007, 21:00
| #155 |
| Team-BHP Support   Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Mumbai
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9th May 2007, 21:22
| #156 | |
| BHPian  | Great info, Geek....Let me try with those folks. BTW, anyone nearby marathahalli/sarjapur road? Guess, rns/bimal will be far off, but anyway to take early delivery, i can compromise this :-) Quote:
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9th May 2007, 21:35
| #157 |
| Senior - BHPian  | My test drive of the 1.6 zxi SX4 - enjoy Finally i had the option of taking a test drive with a supreme red sx4 at bimal indiranagar. somehow i made time from my office for this and headed to bimal. When i reached there without much ado, i was given the keys to the car standing outside. I had two friends with me both bulky guys, with one bimal person who was also bulky. which made it the perfect load to test the car. As I went towards the car the illuminated key ring welcomed me and said "Put the key here!" Once everyone were seated, the a/c went on (climate control if you please) and was set at about 20+ degrees on the dial. the car itself had done about 230kms so far. the amber lighting was just perfect to set the mood for the TD. since the tuner was on, i enjoyed the 6 speaker sound for a bit of time before i started off. i must say its not the best ICE one can have but fair enough as it looks neatly integrated into the car and also performs well. now no more konark car accessory shop or whatever atleast for stereo related stuff. being a bit comfy with maruti cars, it wasnt difficult to start the car. I must mention that the car is super silent upon start and it was difficult to say whether the car is on or not. Took a bit of reverse and went around bimal in indiranagar for a kilometer or so. 4 left turns and back to square 1. the rear view mirror in my opinion is a waste of time and energy using it. with two passengers at the back its difficult to even notice whats behind the car thanks to the sloping back windshield a.k.a skoda types! having said that i was left only with the two side mirrors which did a fairly good job of showing what was near the car at the back and sides. and the joystick is just great, much like playing a computer game on the mirror! one gripe though would be the horrible A-pillar design where maruti has successfully screwed up the whole visibility. why couldn't have they just kept it plain and simple? would have saved a lot of trouble and hard feelings. i for once really hated this part of the car. put it in the first gear moved it forward. for once i didnt want to bother about RPMs that i was in and tried it the way i wanted to naturally drive the car. the car is very eager to respond at first two gears after which the response is a tad bit slow, though the eagerness is never missing. the torque was much much better in the swift diesel, though i would never discount the sx4 for the way it handles. with four adults a/c on it still showed signs of NO fatigue whatsoever and this according to me is a delight for the city drives. i can only imagine how good it will be with either only me or me and my wife (only two people) in the car most times. coming to the a/c i had a bias after reading reports that the a/c wouldnt chill sufficiently, but to be frank i was frozen before half the drive was over and my friends at the back were relaxed and said they surely feel the a/c chill them pretty sufficiently. so lets pull the curtains down on the a/c perception with this. the controls for the stereo on the steering is welcome considering how i suffer in my maruti 800 stooping down after and below the gear shift to seek to the next song on my cds or the volume management. both these functions are there which are more than enough on the steering. now for the steering itself, its supposed to be an EPS and it behaves like one, but as someone else pointed out earlier, the feedback is also not absymal, and it is sufficient to get a good feel on your hands while manouvering the car. and for a car of those dimensions and tyre widths, manouvering was actually a breeze. the positions of the tiltable steering added with height adjustible driver seat is very welcome and one can make possible a lot of seating combinations. i did feel a tad bit of discomfort in the way i was sitting but i can excuse that since i did not preadjust the seat height and tilt, before going on the drive, i just drove with whatever was preset. now to the pedals. as for the clutch it was surprisingly soft for a 230km driven car, and i am sure that after about 1000km the clutch will become softer and softer to match the NHC. so that means that much lesser strain on your left leg! i also found out though over a course of driving 3-4 cars in my lifetime that what footwear you use greatly decides how much you stress your legs. so if your leg starts paining abnormally a footwear change (rather than a car change) might help!! though offtopic i would advise all drivers on this forum to also regularly do some leg exercises in the morning and night before and after you drive. it helps a great deal. the brake pedal was hard as usual since its a new car and i tested braking hard many times on the road, once i went at speed towards a parked indica and much to everyones bewilderment i slammed the brakes hard. spot on. not a millimeter change. it stopped where i expected it to. ABS and EBD at work and that too with style. the wider tyres definitely help too on the road grip a lot. its a different league altogether from what i ve experienced before. now the accelerator, unlike other cars, where the accel pedal is placed too close to the floor of the car purposely so that you dont force it much while speeding, sx4 was not exactly so. it was comfortable to step on the gas whenever i felt like knowing exactly how much i could go to the max. of course for your own safety i would request anyone using this car to keep a tab on the accel depresses! the pedal distances are adequate and this combined with seating arrangements are a good combination to have a lively driving experience.the gear shift was pretty much like swift, i cannot say for sure if it was notchy maybe the 3rd and 5th were a bit notchy, but generally nothing to crib about. one of the better shifts this car has! its sweet, round like a laddu and convenient to hold, can i compare it to the likes of the santro!? as for the potholes or humps etc, i did not exactly get a chance to test the ground clearance part, but i am more than confident that this car can soak up any bad road with utmost ease. as for body roll, i didnt notice much of it since the road was straight and i could touch not more than 60-70 at any point. never tried cornering or turning on bends. the boot is extremely practical and very usable. so rest assured you can dump all that luggage in and enjoy your seating comfort in peace. the seating space comfort is definitely not bad if you know how to arrange the seats. no way will your knee touch the seat at the back, no matter how tall the driver is unless he is more than 6.5ft or something like that. the door handles are like the fiestas, but much more sturdy, not flimsy like the fiestas (on the fiesta TD vehicle long time ago, i d seen a few km run car having a broken door handle!) beware you cant exactly stretch your leg in full comfort like the business class of a plane, but then the last time i did that was in my cousins accord in usa. that is one car which i understand eats breathes and lives space all over it! back to the point, the space is good and i am happy with it, if not very happy. sharp turns into crowded gullies could be an issue with high turning radius of i think 5.3m. this is one place where i think NHC is sweeter than ever. and this is the same reason i hated my palio (3-point turns). so when taking turns, you have to give the car sufficient space and then do it. what with those A-pillars blocking your sight it could get that much more irritating. the indicators and lamps are juicy and bright too, its crafted well. i have nothing to say about the looks of the car. personally i like it since it has the fiat input of styling! remember its a fiat-suzuki car anyways! the door handles are comfy to use and yes they do "thud" with reassurance. could not test the power windows much. no time for that. having airbags for your safety and ABS to be spot on braking is reassuring to me atleast. thats one reason i dont mind the stretch of an extra 2 lacs on my budget to go for this one. i will be taking the sunlight copper colour for now. if anyone can tell me how long car loans take with SBI and how much is the emi per lac on a 4 yr loan of 4 lacs, it would be useful. SBI has 2% foreclosure penalty as opposed to others and it has no pre-first-emi to be paid upfront. which is good. just more paper work thats all. the 5-people concept i think is not for this car. the middle armrest at rear spoils the whole comfort in which the fifth person can sit and i am particularly not happy with this. car makers must learn to gracefully include the arm rest without altering seating height along the seat surface. but then if you are only 4 in the family (the fifth is always an uninvited guest as i ve seen  ), then its more appreciated that the armrest is there. the headrests are reassuring too and with the neck cushion accesory purchase, it should do more good too in the long run. the FE has been a question mark and remains so. but the guy using the car claims 11 with ac though he has NOT measured it. frankly with so many positives going for this car, i have decided not to be bothered about it. i would rather enjoy the sedan the way its supposed to be enjoyed than being afraid each time i sit in the car about the emi and FE i pay for. last but not least, maruti has acted arrogantly in positioning this car as a car for men. its the sickest thing a company can do, as i ve personally seen many many women driving SUVs like scorpio with utmost ease! on a lighter note, maybe maruti left those SUVs to women and decided to give men only sedans! parting thought: even if the pricing is right, i dont think the grand vitara which is due might make any impact on buyers in that category unless its truly loaded with gizmos, gives great fuel effiency and perhaps maruti starts off a spin off division to cater only to high end cars it makes (include sx4 in that if you may wish to)  |
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9th May 2007, 21:42
| #158 |
| Team-BHP Support Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Mumbai
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9th May 2007, 22:06
| #159 |
| BHPian Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: New Delhi
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| wow - pretty exhaustive review there, geek - good you took your time to TD it. so can we see an sx4 in your t-bhp garage soon even i found the a/c to be quite decent - but then maybe it was evening, and you are in the most climatically hospitable city around. |
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9th May 2007, 22:09
| #160 | |
| BHPian  | Quote:
Anyways geek my sbi loan got approved today .It took them three days to approve the loan . They offered me a corporate discount of 0.50% . Your Rs 4 lac loan for 4 years will come to EMI's of RS 10,533.53 @ 12 % interest ( reducing ) . yes there is a 2 % foreclosure penalty ( which is the lowest in its category). There were not much paperworks from my end ( sbi guys told me for our company u dont need any paper work) . A list of documents submitted by me:- 1)pan card Xerox 2)3 year IT Returns ( only a formality but still required) 3)Pay slip 4)2 photographs 5)6 months bank statement 6) letter from HR stating that i am working in their comapny along with confiramtion of address 7)Photo identiy ( passport Xerox) Do pm me if u need any other info. Enjoy your ride | |
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9th May 2007, 22:15
| #161 | ||
| BHPian  | That was a nice review... Quote:
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Also how about the ride quality? There are some broken tarmac on 100ft road. managed to test the car on them?? | ||
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9th May 2007, 22:27
| #162 |
| Team-BHP Support  Join Date: May 2004 Location: Bangalore
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9th May 2007, 22:41
| #163 |
| Senior - BHPian |  Fiat Sedici's shares the same interiors and front and underpinnings with the SX4, i wonder Fiat is drinking booze while MUL is making hay with its diesel engines and sedici car. |
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9th May 2007, 22:46
| #164 |
| Senior - BHPian | @nikunj - i am a geek and i would (though in a so called illusionary leadership role) portray that i am hard-coder doing all the dirty work in a software company. other than that when you have an understanding wife who lends a lac, and an understanding tenant who lends another lac (his rental advance towards my house ), and me putting in another 2 lacs, it comes to (again an illusionary) only 4 lacs loan. remember that its actually 6 lacs, 4 lacs hard loan and 2 lacs soft loan (@ 0%) types. well thanks a million for that precise information. i will ensure that i approach them with all the documents they need as you have put it. the IT returns is a bit too much to ask for.@gkrish - its the area where you put your key to start the car, there is a circular illumination ring (halo if you may want to call it) which guides you to insert the key properly. its really good during power cuts or in dark areas. of course you do have the overhead light always, but this is a nice touch of class. as for the ac one can understand the pre cooled ac and the non pre cooled one well. in fact somewhere in the middle of my ride, i put the ac off and people started frying in about two minutes, and so had to put it on again, and we all came out sufficiently cooled again! as for the road, as i said, i did a short TD, but i am overconfident that this car can handle anything you give it to eat! potholes, craters, humps whatever. now for some photos: Finally i made out the difference between supreme red and sunlight copper. the one mclaren posted earlier was sunlight copper (mclaren - i m posting it here again for clarity sake! please dont mind)      Last edited by GeekSrik : 9th May 2007 at 22:48. |
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9th May 2007, 23:10
| #165 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: New Delhi
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