[dezpo]

Was looking for reliable, easy to drive everyday-city-car, with an occasional highway run once in 3 months.

Car's considered:
WagonR - old model
New Estilo - a VFM car, but didn't like overall styling
i10 - quality interiors, compact, proven product
Ritz - spacious interiors, fuel efficient, MASS, new model

I was ok with either i10 or Ritz, but wifiey liked Ritz. Need I say more
Buying experience:
Salesman @ Pratham Ring road, provided excellent service. Be it test drives, finance options etc. Patient and knowledgeable.
Finally, I decided on Ritz Vxi in white color and with expectation of delivery on the occasion of Dasara.
But vxi with white was not available with any dealer in Bangalore.

After few days Pratham confirmed that White Vxi would available. PDI went smoothly. Dealing with accessories department was not pleasant.
But the salesman and delivery team made sure that we did enjoy buying a new car. They were patient and courteous. Clarified doubts, had all papers in place. Co-operated with the change in delivery timing.


Accessories:
Freebies: floor mats, mud flaps, Ganapati idol, car freshener
Bought: Door/bumper beading, sil guards, car cover, nippon remote lock and ICE

ICE: Boston HXi710 HU, Boston Si694 6”x9” 2-way speaker with MDF trey, Boston Si604 6” 2-way speaker

Issues with accessories:
* Negotiations were not pleasant, I was asking for 10-15% discount. While he treated me as if I was asking for 40-50% discount Very unprofessional communication.
I know am not buying a merc or a beamer, but I deserve some courtesy.

* ICE was quoted for 13.5K as a 'package' offer, outside I got a quote for 11.5K for the same setup. When I brought this one up, he said with 10% discount price is the same!
* When I was preparing to leave with the car, noticed that in the HU manual few accessories are missing: Aux-in connector, open keys, trim-ring.
* Upon asking, only aux-in connector was handed over, which was taken out from another box
* Bubbles after installation of sun film. They claimed 18% bubbles were expected.
* Sun film on front quarter glass was missing. During 1st service, requested them to install them. First they claimed that you can't fit it there. I showed them a SX4 (which turned out to be Pratham's MD's), which had this. They promptly agreed and installed it. But, of course, with different color!!!
* Door beading was not struck properly, it's come out slightly.

I was let down and no time to run behind these guys, and decided to live with it


Car experience so far:

Please note that:
1. This is my first car. I had taken DL few weeks back and had driven friends 800/swift
around the house (not in city). It took sometime to get the judgement.
2. Haven't driven any other extensively
3. Have covered 1600kms so far, my experience as a driver is as old as the car

Good things -

• I feel steering is 'little' heavy, compared to swift.
• Precise and short-throw gears
• Refined and smooth engine.
• Doesn't need frequent gear changes
• Addicted to dash mounted tacho, is located at the right place. Can time the gear shifting.
• All round visibility is good.
• Surprisingly, smaller hatch window doesn't bother me much.
• AC is fantastic.
• Overall comfort of front and rear seats is very good.
• Plenty of storage options.
• Sufficient boot.
• White ritz looks imposing has road presence.
• Drove @100-120 on Bangalore-Mysore road, didn't make me nervous at any point of time.

Bad things-

• Gears are 'little' hard.
• Reverse gear doesn't engage sometimes, need to reengage the clutch.
• 4+ ppl, and it scrapes on some big humps.
• I'm 5'7", and feel thigh support could have been better.
• Dual horns, a little loud, ppl on the street may not appreciate.
• Minor rattle somewhere at the location near right A-pillar.

Mileage: Hovered around 13 to 13.5kmpl before 1st service.
After first service, first fill up gave me 14.8kmpl
I'm not reading much into this, as of now. Would wait till couple of more readings.
Mostly driven on Banneraghatta-road, BTM, Silk board, Sarjapur road.
Switch off the engine at signals.
AC is on 80-90% of the time.

Overall am happy with the car!

PS: While taking delivery after 1st service, noticed that these ppl drive our cars like go-carts in their complex! New as well as old cars

Some pics:

[Eddy]

Congrats on the car. Very well written review, albeit with more than two smilies

Originally Posted by dezpo

* Door beading was not struck properly, it's come out slightly.

Extremely dangerous. I am sure that it will come out as the car gets old. Best to get it fixed right away.

[aaggoswami]

1) Congratulations on your first car. Ritz is a very good choice as its pretty easy to drive thanks to high seating position and compact dimensions.

2) How is ride quality ? The suspension is on softer side and hence the car might be scrapping the bumps.

3) White color Ritz has good presence, I agree with you here, but in general I have noticed that overall, Ritz, due to its height mainly, has got quite a presence you dont get from other small cars.

4) The FE will go up a bit after a few hundered kms more. About service center drivers handling cars rashly, trust me, nobody is good here. Almost all the places have these drivers, be it hyundai, honda or Maurti or tata. They handle very badly. No amount of instruction helps, and it breaks my heart everytime I see the car being man-handled by these guys.

EDIT :
OT :
Sometimes, I feel that adding a boot to Ritz and extending the wheelbase by 50mm would give us a more spacious and better looking sedan than Dzire.

[Gandhi]

Congrats for your car. As you know, I too have booked my Ritz from Pratham. Your is White and mine is Black.

Enjoy your ride.

[shishir_bn]

Congrats on your wonderful colored car. Hope you have many nmore miles and many more stories to tell us. As far as "go-karting" goes it is true with many of A.S.S.

[dezpo]

My replies inline, in bold.

Originally Posted by Eddy

Congrats on the car. Very well written review, albeit with more than two smilies
Thanks!

Extremely dangerous. I am sure that it will come out as the car gets old. Best to get it fixed right away.
I wonder how they are going to fix it? with quick fix?

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

1) Congratulations on your first car. Ritz is a very good choice as its pretty easy to drive thanks to high seating position and compact dimensions.
Thanks!

2) How is ride quality ? The suspension is on softer side and hence the car might be scrapping the bumps.
I would say that it's swift-like, a little firm.


EDIT :
OT :
Sometimes, I feel that adding a boot to Ritz and extending the wheelbase by 50mm would give us a more spacious and better looking sedan than Dzire.
You never know, maruti might be thinking abt it

Originally Posted by Gandhi

Congrats for your car. As you know, I too have booked my Ritz from Pratham. Your is White and mine is Black.

Enjoy your ride.
Thanks! All the best to you too

Originally Posted by shishir_bn

Congrats on your wonderful colored car. Hope you have many nmore miles and many more stories to tell us. As far as "go-karting" goes it is true with many of A.S.S.
Thanks!

[.anshuman]

Congratulations for your supermini!! 14.8kpl is very good figure petrol car just after running in period.

[rendezvous]

Guys,
I'm proud to own Maruti Ritz. The driveability is awesome. After Optra, this is my 1st Maruti product. I own Ritz ZXi (color: Bakers Chocolate)

Just want to clarify that is it the new engine (K-series) or something wrong with my car. The sound of engine is not as smooth as it should be for a petrol variant. The driveability is rugged but even the sound of the engine makes me feel the same (ruggedness) as if I'm driving a diesel SUV.

I feel that its the K-series engine.

I had test driven petrol version of Jetta & got the same rugged noise from it. Apparently, Hondas, Chevys, etc (petrol) are so smooth

Can anyone clarify?

Thanks
Vik

[longhorn]

Congrats on your buy. excellent choice. you can't go wrong with this product. It's got the best petrol engine Maruti has produced till date. The Ritz has got a road presence that is lacking in other small cars including i10. It may be due to the high roofline. Somehow this car shouts " I'm big "when you stand next to it.

[rendezvous]

If I was correct in estimating the fuel consumed for the kms run, my car gave me an avg of 13kmpl with AC on & mostly driven on the hilly areas.
(what is the correct way to keep check on the fuel & calculate the avg in case of Ritz?)
The time when fuel indicator in Ritz reaches the end & starts blinking, how much petrol does the car has? By then has it reached Reserve or is there any other indication for reserve? Any idea???
In my Optra, once the fuel needle reaches E & even at times below E, after that an orange light starts blinking indicating that the petrol indicator has reached to the Reserve level.
Is there any way such kind of indication in Ritz?

[longhorn]

Originally Posted by rendezvous

If I was correct in estimating the fuel consumed for the kms run, my car gave me an avg of 13kmpl with AC on & mostly driven on the hilly areas.
(what is the correct way to keep check on the fuel & calculate the avg in case of Ritz?)

The right way to calculate FE for Ritz or any other car for that matter is to go be the tankful to tankful method. Fill it upto auto cutoff, and note the km reading. Drive as usual till the fuel reading reaches the 1/2 way mark. Fill to auto cutoff again preferably from the same pump. Note the amount of fuel that goes in. Total distance covered between the two refills divided by the amount of fuel that just went in will give your your actual FE.

[nairrk]

Indeed, well written review - Congratulation on your new buy.
meantime, you should have posted one or two pictures of the ICE?
The rear speakers- Looks nice job, well mounted.
Cheers !

[dezpo]

Originally Posted by rendezvous

Just want to clarify that is it the new engine (K-series) or something wrong with my car. The sound of engine is not as smooth as it should be for a petrol variant. The driveability is rugged but even the sound of the engine makes me feel the same (ruggedness) as if I'm driving a diesel SUV.
Vik

I feel it's pretty smooth, of course compared to 800/swift that I have driven.
May be you should talk abt this with service guys, after trying the demo car.

[dezpo]

Originally Posted by longhorn

Congrats on your buy. excellent choice. you can't go wrong with this product. It's got the best petrol engine Maruti has produced till date. The Ritz has got a road presence that is lacking in other small cars including i10. It may be due to the high roofline. Somehow this car shouts " I'm big "when you stand next to it.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by rendezvous

what is the correct way to keep check on the fuel & calculate the avg in case of Ritz?

First of all, congrats on your new car. Pls see longhorn's reply, I follow the same. Usually I refill when, only the last 3 bars are seen.

Originally Posted by rendezvous

The time when fuel indicator in Ritz reaches the end & starts blinking, how much petrol does the car has? By then has it reached Reserve or is there any other indication for reserve? Any idea???
In my Optra, once the fuel needle reaches E & even at times below E, after that an orange light starts blinking indicating that the petrol indicator has reached to the Reserve level.
Is there any way such kind of indication in Ritz?

I don't think there is any indication to warn, when we hit reserve.
Ritz has tank accomodates 43 lts petrol. On the display we have ten bars, so each bar corresponds to ~ 4 lts. This way I try to judge distance to empty or refilling.

Originally Posted by nairrk

Indeed, well written review - Congratulation on your new buy.
meantime, you should have posted one or two pictures of the ICE?
The rear speakers- Looks nice job, well mounted.
Cheers !

Thanks. Will try to post ICE pics, by this weekend. It's a basic humble setup, nothing exotic as such

[dezpo]

Crossed 5000kms last week. Got it serviced yesterday at Mandovi Motors, JP Nagar. Experience was much better than Pratham motors.
Paid Rs.660 for wheel alignment and rotation.

Since my last update, nothing much has changed. Car is doing good, ferries ppl to office and weekend errands like lunch/shopping.
Some minor rattles were there, which is fixed now. Gradually started revving her up, which is an absolute delight to do.

Two minor incidents:
* A biker rear ended and he turned out be a gentleman (for a change!). Couple of minor scratches on the bumper.
* Another biker came in the opposite direction, on crowded road and while passing scraped the front bumper.

Took up a long trip to western ghats, NR-pura/Humcha/Sringeri/Agumbe ~ 1000kms. First opportunity to push the car and loved every bit doing so.
Mostly kept at 80kmph, until we hit the ghats.
Roads were excellent, butter smooth! but single roads everywhere (no divider). Took sometime to learn 'cage-ways' in the curves.
As the confidence grew, started throwing her around the corners. Around 50-ish, could feel the body roll
... which is little disappointing for me atleast (bikes rule! bikes rule!).
Anyways, it's not built for this. No issues with tires though, they never complained.
Again, front seats could do with better thigh support even for my average height 5'7".
Otherwise rest of the things were spot on, ppl in the backseat had no complaint at all. That tacho got most glances, it's right there

While coming back touched 120 few times. On NICE road, I tried to see the effect of crosswinds.
@120kmph car was planted and held the line, no issues.


Mileage:
City : 14+ kmpl consistently.
Highway: 20.4 kmpl.