[giri1.8]

Car looks good in this colour, alloy from Ignis might make it even more better looking

S-Presso was the main contender here, the main reason being the glowing praises showered by GTO. OK OK! Hold your Guns! I know about the GNCAP safety rating. I know about the weak body structure. Yes! I love my wife and daughter! Of course, I’m a BHPian! See, my requirement is a city runabout car. To travel 3 kms one way to work and back.

Sad that we have come to a point, where we have to explain our personal preferences to people to not get judged

AMT variant could be the ultimate beater/city car IMO.

[kushagra452]

Congratulations! I like the choice of colour. However, I feel the Alto would have been a better choice. Alto is also a no nonsense car which just gets the job done. The higher center of gravity in the "tallish" S-Presso will certainly lead to perceptible body roll on corners. This can be challenging for new drivers (even experienced drivers!). You have already mentioned about the out of sorts feel of the steering wheel.

In any case, I wish you and your wife (and daughter!) happy motoring!

[AJ56]

Congratulations on the car! Regarding your ‘mandatory’ accessories kit, in the future don’t compromise and tell them flat out lying by omission is unacceptable as they didn’t inform you about this before. It’s a sneaky way for dealers to sell unnecessary low quality products that otherwise would be difficult to sell. Happened to my friend as well, he told them to cancel the booking and then they quickly said it’s optional and proceeded to remove it from the bill.

[Raghu M]

That's a fantastic review. Your buying experience could have been better had you looked at the price breakout. Dealers know all the tricks in the book on how to charge customers the 'accessories head'. It costs anything between 5K to 25K. Must say, the Orange S-Presso was very average looking. But your car has killer looks. Stance is good and am sure you will enjoy loads of miles of happy driving. Happy driving!

[TrackDay]

Congrats on the S-Presso. Very practical car indeed with easy maneuverability in Urban areas. Also it will be easy to park as well as find parking spaces in the big cities. The color of choice is also brilliant and does add character. Two other shades that I love on the car are the silver and red color. Wishing you a happy ownership experience !

[KPR]

Congratulations! Such a small car bring family members sit close like in a compact dining table. We have recently got a new Red Alto as second car. City runs with family or alone in Alto means so much fun for us. Hope you enjoy this in your Spresso too. Best wishes.

[carthick1000]

Enjoyed reading your experience of buying an S-presso. Also a fan of simple cars. They just do one job and do it well, rain or shine. Nice and refreshing to read such honest and tongue-in-cheek reviews. Of late cars and the reviews have become all too complex and detailed. Reviews like these keep it simple and sweet.

Originally Posted by Autodoc

Dislikes

1. The steering is super weird. It doesn't correct itself after a turn. I've easily driven 20+ makes and models of cars but have never come across anything similar.

The weird steering behaviour you mentioned is because of the very minimal or a compete lack of self-aligning torque in the steering setup. This is the torque which steers the car back to straight. Usually car suspension/steering systems are designed with positive caster, which provides the self aligning torque. In case of S-presso, MS should have made the decision to use a neutral / zero caster for atleast 2 reasons, which I can think of:

• Neutral / zero caster provides easy steering input without the extreme unstability of using negative caster. (Negative caster is the reason for unstable fluttering wheels of a shopping trolley) For such a light and small car, they can get away without power steering setup for the base models. Also for higher end models with power steering, they can use a low capacity assist motor.
• Packaging. The car is not too wide and not too long and the engine bay is quite compact. Due to the tall seating position, it is imperative to have a shorter nose to feel a commanding driving position. A positive caster requires even more room in the nose area than a neutral/zero caster setup. Probably if you drive a Wagon R, this might also have a similar steering behaviour. Owners can comment. I have not driven one myself.

Below is a nice video explaining self-aligning torque:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLbs8kBXgrw

I wish you a lot of fun and safe kms on your simple and humble commuter tool.

Cheers,
Karthik

[Mafia]

Congratulations! you make a good case for the car.

My wife has a similar requirement too. And she has shortlisted the s-presso as well.

I personally can't stand the looks. But looks are a subjective topic.

[shancz]

Congrats Autodoc, the review was well articulated and fun to read .
I could immediately picture the cops stopping you and getting disappointed on finding everything in order
My primary reason for buying the vehicles where I stay.

Enjoy your hassle free drives and the K10B.

Originally Posted by carthick1000

Probably if you drive a Wagon R, this might also have a similar steering behaviour. Owners can comment.

Thanks for the video Karthik and your reasons make sense especially the second.
I can confirm the same behaviour on wagonR(2016).

We already have a thread on this by GTO (Why the heck will Maruti-Suzuki not fix its defective & dangerous steering behaviour?) if you want to check it out. Will drop a ref to your post there too.

[raksrules]

Did you ever consider Celerio? If yes, what prompted you to not take and choose this?
Asking this because I am also seeking a new AMT / Automatic car and being new driver (myself and wife), we want to go with maruti due to many factors you already mentioned.

[Autodoc]

Originally Posted by carthick1000

Enjoyed reading your experience of buying an S-presso. Also a fan of simple cars. They just do one job and do it well, rain or shine. Nice and refreshing to read such honest and tongue-in-cheek reviews. Of late cars and the reviews have become all too complex and detailed. Reviews like these keep it simple and sweet.

Thank you carthick1000 for that wonderful explanation! Gave a lot of insight. I have gotten used to the steering and can switch between both my cars effortlessly. The problem now is the gear shifting, I have forgotten to downshift on 2 occasions already within the city

Originally Posted by kushagra452

Congratulations! I like the choice of colour. However, I feel the Alto would have been a better choice. Alto is also a no nonsense car which just gets the job done. The higher center of gravity in the "tallish" S-Presso will certainly lead to perceptible body roll on corners. This can be challenging for new drivers (even experienced drivers!). You have already mentioned about the out of sorts feel of the steering wheel.

In any case, I wish you and your wife (and daughter!) happy motoring!

Thanks for your input. More than anything else the primary requirement was an automatic. Since Maruti has discontinued the K10 engine in alto, AMT is not offered as a transmission option anymore. S-presso was the next best option.

Originally Posted by raksrules

Did you ever consider Celerio? If yes, what prompted you to not take and choose this?
Asking this because I am also seeking a new AMT / Automatic car and being new driver (myself and wife), we want to go with maruti due to many factors you already mentioned.

We considered the Ignis and Celerio briefly. Ignis was not chosen because we felt it was considerably wider than the S-presso; both driving and parking would be a problem. With the Polo at home, as a second car, Ignis didn't make sense.
Celerio has been around for some time now and it's due for an imminent update. The leaked and spy shots were not to my liking at all. The interiors felt a bit dated in the current model and S presso offered her a commanding seating position and good ground clearance was another plus point.

I honestly cannot recommend a better car for a new driver. It's just so effortless to drive and park. My wife is already feeling confident enough to drive by herself without me keeping a hand on the parking brake

[raksrules]

Originally Posted by Autodoc

T
I honestly cannot recommend a better car for a new driver. It's just so effortless to drive and park. My wife is already feeling confident enough to drive by herself without me keeping a hand on the parking brake

Thanks a lot for your reply. I am in double mind all the time. At one end, safety aspect comes in mind and I want to run away from anything but Tata (tiago etc) and on other end, being very first car ever for us, I want minimum fuss owning it. We have no intention of driving it far away from city and it would be in city driving most of time by wife to drop and pickup kids and travel in western express highway in Mumbai which is just a glorified name for a city road and the traffic there will prove it is not really a "highway".

I too read a lot about high seating position and such with spresso and felt it would be good choice for wife. I intend to go for top AMT model if I do choose it as once I start considering other options, the price creeps up by 1-1.5L and being first car, I want to keep it less (but no used cars being considered).

Thanks for your reply and I will keep my quest open. May be buy on first and get the knowhow of driving and once myself and wife are comfortable, we will sell it off and buy something else.

[anirbanjoy]

I think that the moderator reviewing my post may ban me, but I need to say it out loud anyway.

I like my Espresso more than I love my Fortuner. Period.

Oh, did I forget to say only on city roads?

It is not an age issue. Both are less than one and half year old. Espresso just feels so light, homely, almost like the floating feather in the opening scene of 'Forrest Gump'.

And there is another reason. Purely sentimental - and I was convinced that I am the only fool in this world to think like that. But your words below just made my day - loved it, cherished it, support it. Hope my son's experience overlaps with your daughter's.

N.B. If I do not get banned, I would definitely take a shot on a dual ownership post someday.

Originally Posted by Autodoc

Background

There is a small nostalgia element too here. The first car my dad bought was a Maruti 800. Circa 1994, I was 5 years old. He bought a blue Maruti 800 and it was the first Maruti 800 in our whole locality. It kept our family safe, took us to very many places and gave so many beautiful memories to cherish for close to a decade before we upgraded to a pre worshipped Zen VXI in 2004. I kinda wanted my daughter to experience the same.