Drove an A Star of my friend yesterday. It has cost him Rs 4.61 L on road (Maharashtra). Must say its a lovely car.Was metallic light green in colour with ABS,PW (front and rear),central locking and MP3/CD player.
The styling cues are quite radical and it may take time before we come to get used to it. As many of my friends have already commented on its styling.Similarly the Honda City that came in, in 2003 had many critics. The Xylo which I test drove very recently, also has a lot of gap areas in the styling department.
I too agree that the styling job of the A Star could have been better executed. The styling these days are given a backseat I believe.
Back to the topic, I saw the A Star bit by bit. The luggage space below the parcel tray is too miniscule to even carry two 24 inch VIP suitcases.Thats bad. And the hatch door opens at a height, meaning the rear bumper sits quite high on the body panel.The luggage floor is also perched at a height, with the stepney placed down below. So it will be natural that the luggage (lift off the parcel tray to accomodate the height of the suitcase) will hit the rear windscreen, crying for space in the small area.In Maruti 800's, the bigger suitcases hitting on the interior of the rear windscreen is common, but that is a 23 plus year old design.
The dash is quite well laid out and needs all the praise for getting each thing at its place.The CD/MP3 player inbuilt into the dash, with its four speakers is of a high quality and of Nippon make, though Nippon is nowhere mentioned on its front panel. Its a delight to listen to. The Xylo, Swift, DZire that I drove too have the same make music systems. The speedo console is large and accomodates warning lights and everything else. Its the only meter fitted to the dash.And my gosh, the dash designer must have forgotten about the tachometer, which sits up above the dash on the top right, with its back facing the inner side of the front windscreen.Thats a messed up job and an after-thought.
The power windows and the central locking are quite OK, much like any other Maruti. The interior plastics including PW control switches, leave a lot to room for improvement. Its below the Swift plastic quality. The inner door lining is all plasticky for the 4 doors.This is the variant that is placed second from the top.And there is no inner fabric lining on the doors-again a lapse on MSIL's part.The seat fabric is quite upto the mark for its class.
The steering is a bit smaller in diameter and the car has a double horn as OE. Thats a plus.The driver, for a medium height person like me (5'7"), has to peep raising his head with care from the front windscreen, to mind the traffic. The lower end of the front windscreen is quite high, from the drivers seat and this takes time to adjust to.From the Wagon R, Santro, Bolero , Scorpio or the Xylo you can look at the road from the drivers seat from a commading height. But here its a short car, we cannot expect the same.But at least MSIL could have given us the Alto or 800 kind of a view of the road. Thats missing.
Driving the car is a pleasure. The power steering is much too responsive and this car can be swayed through narrow lanes with great ease.The new 998 cc engine is a gem to drive and is extremely responsive and peppy. Engage the overdrive (5th) gear and is a breeze to drive with the very well executed gearbox, engine and steering matching their frequencies.The suspension is a bit on the tough side. It does not falter over potholes like other small Marutis, but gives a lot of protection to inner occupants with the ride quality.I drove the car at a maximum of 60kmph as its hardly done 95 kms on the odo, and is within its running in period. The car has an all new, three cylinder, 998 cc engine and never could I feel that I am driving a 3 cylinder engined car. The Japs have perfected the art of making 3 cylinder engines now.
The ABS brakes are life saving and again kudos to MSIL for the very well executed job on this small car with such a great option. The car has two airbags for the front occupants which is another great job done.
To get the feel as a passenger, I also occupied the backseat and prefered to be driven by my friend. The backseat can accomodate three adults, much better than many cars in its class and is quite wide (the Swift,Getz,i20 which are larger are excluded).I could feel that the car is a bit solid when it takes on the rough roads. The backseat ride should be the best in its class. We have come a long way from the Santro and Maruti 800 rear seats, which are only a bit better than a Bajaj autorickshaw.
So my overall impression of the car is that its a hot hatch with several minus points. But the plus points are also too many and MSIL claims that its USP, is its fuel consumption, with the 998 cc engine, thats at par with the Alto which has only a 3 cylinder 798cc engine. |