[onelife]

Dear Team-bhpites,

I know, this review has been pending for long and apologies for the delay. I had joined Team BHP with the intention of

writing review about my latest car purchase immediately after receiving it. Unfortunately, not everything happens as planned.

The (Mon)day to (Sun)day grind along with the changing weather (yes we have something called weather in Mumbai) ensured I was

not in the best of health or time to be able to write this.

But this morning, I decided enough is enough. Can't procastinate it anymore. After all, this is what I have been waiting for

so long and I owe it to Team BHP. Pardon me, if it gets long and boring. We all have a writer in us which is anxious to come

out at the first available opportunity. So, here I am, writing about the new car, IN the new car and for the new car .


Well, I do not want to make it a boring review by walking you through the features, drawbacks and photos of my brand new toy.

It has been done endlessly and honestly, much better than I could have done it. I will probably do it slightly differently. I

will take you guys through my buying experience (or is it ordeal !!) and what made me buy what I bought.

Like any major purchases I have made in my life, my final choice is always different from the initial set of choices. Well, I

guess I get educated in the research process and make a far more educated, albeit unusual, choice.

Ditto for my new car purchase!! It all started with me receiving a letter from ICICI. No, not another - Best loans mail. It

was the NOC for my existing Wagon R. 3 years !!!. I am now "debt-free" for my car. And my Wagon R was finally 100% mine. The

irony of the situation is, the moment it becomes 100% mine, I am getting restless to part with it. Why, you ask? Well it is

some financial jugglery which requires a lot of explanation. Long story cut short, car running expenses, depreciation of

value, tax savings on new car loans etc make it attractive to sell off your car and buy a new one. And above all its the

"desires" which drives us all to make illogical choices. So the mind was made. Now, the choice had to be made.

I had very simple decision points in mind. Never imagined it could become so complex. I surely did not want to buy the "old

wine in new bottle" stuff. So no more - value for money, utility cars. Last thing, I wanted was my same Wagon R type of car

and PAY MORE FOR IT. So I just wanted a nice luxury spacious luxury car with not really a budget in mind, as long as it was

under 10. Yet, there was a catch to this simple criteria. I needed more space inside, but NOT Outside. So I wanted the

smallest possible exteriors with maximum space inside. And yeah, in India, whenever you talk of spacious cars, all you can

think of is Tata. But, Tata it was NOT. Like I said, I did not want the "value for money, utiliity cars".

Well, this is 2010 and India has changed. So has the number of choices you can make in a car. I started with 2 cars in mind.

The Grande Punto and Hyundai i20. Both cars, recently purchased by people known to me and both being raved about. And they

were the so called high-end hatchbacks. We will come to shortly why I was not considering sedans. Of course, test drive is my

birth right and thou shall exercise it. I started with the Grande Punto guys. Beautiful car, good pricing, diesel option

available, seems like a good choice. Googled for Tata showrooms in Mumbai and landed up with quite a bit of choices. Now, my

workplace was in Vikhroli and residence in South Mumbai. So I was open to any of the showrooms in these areas or anywhere in

between. Closest to workplace, where i spend my waking hours, was the Chembur showroom. So called them up first.

"Grande Punto? Petrol or Diesel? Sir, we do not have diesel cars ready for test drive. But you can take test drive of petrol

car".

No way dude. I am not going to taste Idli and then order Dosa .

"Ok sir, we will arrange it for you from our Marine lines gallery, but you will have to wait for few days"

Marine lines you say? Well, great. Thanks for telling me. I will go to them and take it from there on my own. I stay there

you see.

Next day at the marine drive showroom - "Sir, we have only one Punto diesel for test drive and we have sent it to Chembur. So

you have to wait another 2-3 days".

Wow, was it med? or was it me getting fooled since they did not have any cars for test drives. Anyways, having gone there, I

did not want to return empty handed. Saw the Tata Menza. Man, that car is HUGE. I will test drive this.

"Gladly sir. Please step in".

Drove it around Bombay hospital(it is still not mumbai hospital !!) and got a feel of the car. Good car, spacious cars. Not

exactly a pleasure to drive, but not much to complain about. Interiors? Well, i got the same maruti feeling. Value for money,

but NOT LUXURY.


........... P.S. : Just reached office. Will continue this thread on my return trip.

[dockap]

dude it says honda jazz march 2010 in your sig so thats the car you purchased?

[vijaythacker]

your signature as well your avatar shares your jazz ownership and congratulate you on the same.Awaiting to read your another part.
Seems though jazz is overpriced its slowly getting accepted and many buyers end up taking her home.

[Ramsagar]

Great log. keep them coming. Glued to the thread.
Pls not to forget adding pics. BTW What color you choosed ?

[onelife]

Originally Posted by dockap

dude it says honda jazz march 2010 in your sig so thats the car you purchased?

Well, my avatar says so, my signature says so, even my nick says so and if you read my introduction even that says so.

yes Honda Jazz is the car. No suspense in that .

Originally Posted by vijaythacker

your signature as well your avatar shares your jazz ownership and congratulate you on the same.Awaiting to read your another part.
Seems though jazz is overpriced its slowly getting accepted and many buyers end up taking her home.

By offering discounts, Honda is now trying to bridge the gap and there are various features of Jazz which make it worth paying that extra. Still, the gap is a bit large and does not make it a very obvious buy.

Originally Posted by Ramsagar

Great log. keep them coming. Glued to the thread.
Pls not to forget adding pics. BTW What color you choosed ?

Thanks. Will continue the thread on my return trip today evening. Color is Silver. Pics, coming up soon.

@coolmel : sirji, when will you be able to help me out with the promised photosession

[prateekm]

Nice choice of car, it will surely serve you for years and years to come. I do feel it's slightly overpriced, but at the end of the day, one should go for the thing that makes him happy

O.T : Your profile says you are in Sales and office in Vikhroli. Are you in a s/w company starting with A?

[onelife]

Originally Posted by prateekm

Nice choice of car, it will surely serve you for years and years to come. I do feel it's slightly overpriced, but at the end of the day, one should go for the thing that makes him happy

O.T : Your profile says you are in Sales and office in Vikhroli. Are you in a s/w company starting with A?

Thanks Prateek. I was with A earlier. That was when I was finalising on my car. Now no longer there.

[onelife]

Ok friends. I am back. I realized that my earlier post did not have line breaks at the right places and must have made it very difficult to read. I had actually typed into notepad and then pasted into the team-bhp page (to avoid timeout issues). Seems it was not really the best idea.

And some of you did point out that my nick, my avatar, my signature make it very evident on which was my final selection. Well I never intended to create a suspense on this one. My focus in this thread is mainly on "Why I chose, what I chose and my initial feedback on that" :-).

So moving on with the story, getting the Grande Punto test drive seemed to be more difficult than arranging the finance for the car. It just made me a bit nervous. If this was their pre-sales service, then I am really skeptical about their after sales and lot has already been said about it. Anyways, I did not want that to come in the way and wanted to give the car a fair chance. I checked with one of my friends who had just bought the Punto. Seems, he was busy or maybe skeptical of handing over one of his prized possessions to me, even though it was just for a test drive. So he did not oblige :(. Not being the one to give up, I asked the Tata guys to come back to me as soon as they can arrange something for me. Now, while I wait for that, I do not want my search to stop. Called up the Hyundai guys (random number of closest location which google showed). Hyundai Kanjurmarg. Call made at 1030.

10:30 - "Will come back to you after checking availability.
10:50 - "Sir, we have one available, but without sunroof. I will come to your office by 2:00pm"
2:00 pm - "Sir, we are outside your office"

Well, that’s what you call service. Impressive. Took one my friends who is a so called expert in cars along with me. My first brush with the i20. Not bad huh !!. Drive was smooth. Rear space - pretty good (very important for me as that is what I use 90% of the times). Nice features. Electrical OVRM (ORVM? or whatever it is). ABS, Airbags, Climate Control. Seems like my choice was made. Well this was also the drive when I had my first glimpse of the "Jazz" which passed through while driving. Nice car, must be driven by some rich brat who has got money to spend on a pricey hatch. Of course, later events proved me wrong. You need not be a rich brat to buy a Jazz. It really is value for money, depending on how you define value. More about that later. Watch out. That might be interesting . Coming back to i20, I am already in talks with the salesman of the booking date, the delivery etc. Some nasty surprises come up.

"4-6 weeks waiting sir. Discount? What are you talking about? You should be glad, we are selling you this car. Diesel? Another 2 weeks waiting and burn your pocket by another lakh. If you need it, call us, else we really have lot of work. Boot space? Well cant' have good rear space and boot space and yet have a hatch." I am glad that I was proven wrong on this point later.

Not too happy with the attitude. But hey, their product must be really good to give them this attitude. So it should be a good choice. On way back to my office, my expert friends asks me to consider the Menza. It really gives you the C-Class feeling at price of a hatchback. You want to see it better? He shows me the team-bhp site and that really changed my approach of evaluation for my car. The most detailed reviews, the most detailed pics, opinions from experienced end-users as well as the experts. Now I could do it sitting on my laptop, rather than spending time in the sun and doing the test-drives. I am quite lazy, as you must have realised by now ( 1 week of owning the Jazz and no pics posted ). And I am not really an expert either.

So the status now ? I20 -tested, impressed. Menza - tested, impressed but not really on track. It is too big for Mumbai traffic and kind of parking which I have. Punto - Oh that elusive dream. I really need to test drive it somehow or the other.

So I decided to just walk into the Chembur showroom and bully this guy to give me a test drive of the Punto diesel. Now, this is a Tata+Fiat showroom and despite talks of the so called alliance, they operate like two different companies in the same showroom. The guy selling the Punto is not even interested in giving me any info on the Menza (pardon me, but I just couldn’t get the Menza out of my mind). He explains me everything about the Punto, loan scheme, EMIs etc. But no diesel test drive available. If you want petrol, I can give you right away. Ok, please. at least let me get a feel of the car.

My dear salesman takes me to a dusty Punto lying in an equally dusty place. I open the car, check out the rear (space !! What did you think). Well well well. My Wagon R surely had more leg space than this. I can't be sitting in this small cabin 2 hrs everyday. Disappointed !!. Ok let me see the boot (important for family trips). No, nothing impressive. Bigger than i20, but yet seemed smaller than Wagon R. Also, the dark interiors, just made everything look congested. Now friends, I cant be spending 6-7 lakhs for a car and still experience more or less the same space as my existing car. Seems this is going to be a useless time spent at the showroom. Anyways, lets do the test drive. Now, I am not really an expert on commenting on the drive quality, having spent most of my time in the rear seats. But even I could clearly the drag in the Punto in the lower gears. The car begged for more power and there was not much available. Heavy car, lesser power, less rear space, average boot. Well not all seems to be well with the Punto. To my dear friends, who own a Punto, I agree it is the most beautiful hatch I have seen, but hey "gaadi kaisa bhi ho, power maangta hain". Ok, I believe the diesel may be more powerful, but what to do, these Tata guys never allowed me to get my hands on it. So I give the benefit of doubt to the diesel, but still that would have not changed the space dynamics, which I so badly needed. Once again, my decision about i20 was NOW established. Seeing the Tata attitude, I decided not to look at the Menza as well.

So the status now? I20 - tested, impressed. Menza - still a candidate, but not quite up there. Punto - Ruled out. Jazz - Just seen. No feedback.

… Well enough for today. Nearing my house and seems like a logical break. So, more coming up in the next couple of days. This time, will try to put some pics.

[blackasta]

Nice going onelife. Though the Tata car is called Manza, not Menza
Hoping for pics soon.

[aman9393]

Congrats onelife.
I am hooked on to this thread.
And yes it's Manza

[onelife]

Originally Posted by aman9393

Congrats onelife.
I am hooked on to this thread.
And yes it's Manza

Yes sir. Thanks for pointing out. Can't even say its a typo, since I wrote it so many times with wrong spelling

Anyways, got a bit lazy over the weekend to continue this writeup and not yet got over the Monday morning blues. So will post this pic to keep you guys busy.

Hopefully, should get myself to write the 3rd part today.

[drvhplyevraftr]

Nice flow of writing there onelife. I am eager to read what happened next and what made you switch from i20 to Jazz.

BTW congratulations on your acquisition.

[wildon]

Originally Posted by onelife

So I just wanted a nice luxury spacious luxury car with not really a budget in mind, as long as it was under 10. Yet, there was a catch to this simple criteria. I needed more space inside, but NOT Outside.

Good Choice indeed for the given criteria.

My criteria was little different from you. A Good Looking (interior and exterior) spacious car with maximum features under 6.50 Lacs OTR. At last i outstretched my budget to another 18K to own my i.

[tacho]

A first of a kind ownership thread, in which the car isn't even mentioned! At least in the first post. Congrats dude.

[GTO]

Congrats on the car! However, we don't allow "buying experience" or "booking threads" anymore. Please PM me when you are ready with your writeup on the actual car, the driving and ownership experience, that's when it will be re-opened.

Thread closed temporarily.