[TOR]

The BEGINNING

Well i must be a petrol head!!I still remember my haste as i rushed to a magazine store when i was prepubescent to get a copy of the 'autocar india',it cost 15/-i think(old age/amnesia now!!) then and i found myself alone as my friends had veered away to get ice creams.Few years later as i watched my mother being taught to drive,from the back seat of our old 'padmini', i was contemplating a sneaky exploit alone with the car when no one was at home.That opportunity arose about a month later with the sad demise of several of mom's 'orchids' in our garden as the out of control fiat ploughed though out garden.

In a few weeks time i drove the 'longest' in the 'shortest' distance(forward and reverse in out garage), but the nuances of driving were all laid down,then.Though my mom has long stopped to drive, any thing with an engine and wheels were always 'up my alley'.So it was after a lot of contemplation that i got my first car, a Silver santro in 2002.In the intervening 6 years the experience has been very pleasant. But of late an enlarging family and 'attention seeking' santro(rusty muffler-recurring like a periodical) laid precedence for a 'bigger' new car.

The DEZIRE

The Suzuki Swift Dezire (SSD) fit the bill perfectly.Was online on the day of the launch and enrolled for the test drive.In 4 days time got a call from maruti enquiring about 'my enquiry',pretty neat.The lady on the other end explained that there were six models,while i tried hard not to cut short the sales pitch!!I am sure she is from a call center and the details of the latest lip gloss would be more in line with her than the difference between VDI and ZDI, poor girl.(in a funny way as she was telling about the models, i had pictures of the modified turbo that maruti uses as against the fiat one,rolling in my mind..is that another symptom of being a petrol head?).

I was promptly directed to my nearby dealer(Indus motors) and got a call from them for a visit by their sales executive.One thing that i realize in retrospect is that the dealers give better care/more importance(i feel) to enquires made directly to maruti /via net, because i understand that an email is sent from maruti to the manager of the dealership about the request(the salesperson informed me about this email).Anyways, two young chaps turn up at my house and give the brochure's and as i tell them about the santro exchange, they call up the 'true value' salesperson,he comes over and give an estimate for my old car.Smooth(than Hyundai?..i guess).A test drive is fixed and these are my views(avoiding all that is common knowledge)

The EXPERIENCE

1) the boot is large and loading area is quite wide, but the bootlid 'supports' intrude a lot into boot space and that is a piece of poor design/bad cost cutting, a gas charged damper(like on hatchbacks) would have been much better off.

2)the rear seat angulation has made no difference to the lack of space in the back, but the larger rear windows(compared to SS) leads to a more 'airy' and not so 'hemmed in' seating.

3)the rear parcel shelf is 'wickedly' sloping downwards,what were they thinking?wont be able to keep anything on it unless one want 'home delivery' of what ever, to the drivers seat as brakes clamp down during an emergency stop.Also the shelf plays a part in restricting rearward visibility.

4) another factor that reduces visibility are the rear hear restraints, sure India's biggest export is 'brain power' but not sure we have 'that big' a head.This problem is circumvented partly in the LXI/LDI due to the integrated/non adjustable head restraints.

5)this might be a personal issue, the rear seat belt locks sprout from within the seat scab and not from the 'seat and backrest' gap(as it does in most cars,correct me if i am wrong),these plastic 'thingies' ruin the rear seat comfort over longer distances.Being a shade above 220 pounds i tend to take up more that the allocated seat space, maybe its time for me to go on that GM diet thing!!

6)another often pointed out defect is the absence of the 'dead pedal', i think more than comfort it plays a part in reducing 'reaction times' as one need to lift the foot through a lesser distance than while keeping the foot on the foot board.

7) having got used to a 'low fuel warning' light in the santro, the absence of the same came as a surprise. SSD has seatbelt/door ajar warning(well what next?mood warning light?)

8) the VDI(the model i was interested in) came with 165 section tyres,that a big no!!come on maruti can do better than that.

So theses were all nitpickings, what has been said about the rest of the car held true and i went ahead with booking the VDI.

Paperwork:

Had taken the Santro on finance for 3 years and i was a 'valued customer'(never had problem with my cheque's it seems), well thats the exact words that the ICICI representatives used as they came calling at my house i 2006.So these two 'young guns' wanted me to take a second loan on my car as they were offering a special 'interest rate' just for me(now where have i heard that line before!!), so i give in and that loan is still being repaid on my santro(ie the 'well customer loan).Now for exchanging the santro i will have to go for fore clousure of the loan amount.Have a feeling that this will be long drawn if i do it myself, so call up the Indus sales persona dn tell him the problem.He agrees to do the paper work!!good, was not expecting that.So what pans out is that the santro is taken in the fore closure calculated and the money deducted from the value of the car.Now ICICI charges 5% as fore closure charges but i am billed near the 6% mark and i also learn that the second loan is taken as for a second hand car!!and that has affected the resale value of the car,(as i think of the 'ICICI young guns' flashes of National Geographic channel video of a zebra being attacked by a pride of lions come to mind).
I decide not the take current finance for the SSD from the 'pride of lions' ehmm, ICICI and scout around the PSU banks...and i hit a jackpot.SBT was having a special deal for a month 11% interest/no processing charge/no foreclosure charge and acceptance of multiple forelosures. So the moral of the story is that PSU banks are much better( also the dealer salesperson gets a small dividend for a customer taking finance from one of the in house banks).The sales person that i interacted with ,Mr. Sanju Salim was entirely transparent and i found him to be 'true to his word' at several occasions.No wonder Maruti heads JD Power all the time.

The BOOKING

So this is were things stand,booked a 'Silky Silver' SSD-VDI and have been promised delivery in 20 days(i had a good laugh..), but guess within 4 weeks as the VDI's are easier to get.

Hope i have not bored everyone with my experience, just wanted to contribute something to the most 'alive forum' that i have come across.I humbly request the moderators to keep this thread open as i would like to give some more input on the SSD and my delivery experience.

[coolmob]

the missing low fuel warning light is still a mystery as none of the maruti cars have them!!!! they provide features of D-segmnet cars in low end cars but forget a low fuel lamp, brilliant!!!

[TOR]

Maruti not providing better tyres , even mud flaps is kind of, well cheap!