Team-BHP - My city ride - bike on 4 wheels (Swift Diesel Ldi)

After 4 months of wondering about a small car, and looking at all options, today I have purchased a car. I was looking for a glorified motorbike which could do runs in the congested city roads. Take me to office and back, to the bank, to my friends place during week ends etc. As I get older I find myself a bit scared to ride my motorbike. Also it is a pain to ride the motorbike with my laptop and lunch bag.

It is a royal pain to drive my Judo / Innova to places like Triplicane or T.Nagar (crowded markets) . Taking the call taxi became expensive and I racked up anywhere between 3000 - 6500 Rs a month.

About 6 months back my friends and I went for a saturday dinner. One of my friends has a Wagon R and we went to "Murugan iddly shop" in Triplicane (Opposite to rathna cafe) and I was floored by the ease with which the car was being driven by my friend and parking it. I realized that if I had to have a social life living in chennai either I should ride a bike or have a small car.

My epic quest began as I instantly I fell in love with small cars. I test drove the Hyundai Santro, Wagon R, Alto, Astar, Zen, Ritz, i-10, i-20 , beat, swift and fiesta ( for figo ). Considered Honda Jazz, Punto, Indica, Palio.

Here are the considerations

Budget was upto 7 Lakhs . The car had to be extremely compact. I will be the only person in the car 99% of the time, so it must have a LOT of leg room and good visibility and my comfort in the car was of utmost importance. Price, performance etc were secondary.

Skoda was never considered for obvious reasons

jazz,Punto, i-20 - Rejected because too big on the outside

Figo - LOVED the fiesta Diesel drive. Superb engine. Such a sweet and well natured engine. Not a beast, but eager to please.The indicator/wiper misplacement was a bit unnerving. Rejected because my sister would disown me if I got a ford. She had two new fords and both turned out to be lemons.I am sure thats not the case with Indian fords, but had to keep my sister happy.

Indica Vista - Was still a bit big on the outside, also not happy with the TATA brand image.

i-10,Ritz - The Gear console which is on the dash keeps fouling on my left knee and is uncomfortable.Also, the power window strip on the door keeps fouling on my right thigh.

Zen - Did not like the 3 cyl engine. It has lots of power for a 3 cylinder but the power seems to come in huge chunks, like hammer blows. The engine does not seem to slowly yield power gradually as you would want for city drives. The power window strip on the driver side door kept fouling on my right knee and thigh. Did not have a variant with Power steering/Aircon with out power windows. Only Wagon R comes with a variant that has P/S,A/C but no Power windows.

Astar,Alto,Palio - The Seat was too low down and it was difficult to ingress/egress. Was impressed with the Astar leg room once I managed to sit in.

Beat - Loved the low end torque of the engine, the leg room and the equipment for that price. But body design is too racy for my taste. Also the Instrument console was rather funny.

Final contenders : Wagon R ( My favourite ) , Santro, Swift

Santro - Ingress/egress very easy. Had good leg room and had a variant with A/C, P/S but no Power windows . Was almost as comfortable a Wagon R. However , it lacked the total cute looks of the wagon R. It just did not have the charm the wagon R has. Also the interiors felt a bit cheap compared to the Wagon R. The wagon R interiors are not great either, atleast it does not pretend to look posh. Just did not feel like paying 3.8K for a base hyundai. PS: I checked out the one with the power windows and the power window strip(console on the door) kept fouling on my right thigh.

Swift - The One with out the power windows had good leg room and my knees or thighs did not rub against the door panel or the gear console. I found the ingress/egress to be a bit more difficult than the wagon R but was not as bad as a palio or a M800. Was not impressed with the bigger size (24 cms longer and 21 cms wider than the Wagon R). So I could not manouver it as well as I could with a Wagon R. Also, it had an unacceptable waiting period. Swift was not perfect but it was not horrible either.

Wagon R - The star of our story, I just love this car. It is a delight. Yes, every time I see a cute little wagon R , I am envious. The Wagon R does not pretend to be a stylish or a fast car. It is says "Here I am , I look weird, but my goal in life is to make your life a little easier" . I appreciate that kind of honesty in design.

Good aspects: Really small car(small size was very important for me )Ingress/Egress is a breeze, Model with out P/W but with P/S and A/C was available, loved the el-cheapo side view mirrors that can be easily replaced (in Lxi), Lots of little storage space, Good view for bumper to bumper traffic, a/c is reasonably effective.

Not so good aspects: My right thigh still kept fouling a bit on the driver side door even in the non p/w model. Marginal shoulder room, My right shoulder was maybe an inch or two away from the co drivers seat.

Having considered all the above points my choice was obvious.........

A swift DDIS Ldi. I know, it is such a sad ending for the Wagon R love story, but here is how the villain Swift DDIS managed to Sabotage the Sweet unsuspecting Wagon R.

Before I went to make the payment for the Wagon R , the sales man casually mentioned to some one in his that a Swift booking was cancelled. Just did not make much of it but decided to ask anyway. He said that it was a Swift Ldi White (My favourite colour). At that instant, I had a revelation, an out of body experience of sorts, I could imagine myself in a Peted Swift, crusing at 100 kmph, pushing the acclerator pedal, being thrown to 130 Kmph in a few seconds, the hard breaking before corners, downshifting before entering the curve ahead of Vellore and stepping on it, acclerating through the bend, having a great time , throwing the car around corners with confidence, downshifting even when I dont have to to pass some one.... I had bad thoughts.

In a second, the beautiful and pure love I had for the wagon R was jilted by the carnal and vulgar thoughts of the Swift DDIS.

I knew that I was not good enough for the Wagon R and it deserved a better owner. Some one who will understand it and love it. Not some one like me, who will be Sitting in a wagon R and eyeing a Swift DDIS standing next to me at the signal and wondering about the improper and vulgar things I could do with it.

I did not want to put my Wagon R through that.

As I left the stock yard after having taken pictures of my White DDIS, I saw a sweet little Wagon R in blue. I left the yard longing at it, thinking of what could have been ........ "Yengirudhaalum vaazga".

I get delivery of the Villain next Tuesday.