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-   -   2010 Maruti Alto K10 : Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/86584-2010-maruti-alto-k10-review-40.html)

Hi All,

I am glad to inform you that my new Alto K10 VXI has finally arrived. It looks so cool in the Sunlight Copper colour + the dark shade of sunfilm on glasses.

Thanks a lot for the info, it is very helpful. I was actually planning to get the audio setup during my first service, but now i will go for a setup from an external dealer.
This may sound like a silly question stupid:, But in case of an electrical faliure, if i want to claim the warranty or report the issue, am i suppose to remove the audio setup and then go to the MASS , or is it ok to keep it as it is.

I was under an impression that we need to keep the revv around 2K.So for the 10 odd kms that i have done, i revved max till 2.5 to 3K.

agree: about revving the engine in 2nd gear.

This car is light weight and powerful, so it is very responsive , which makes it fun to drive. The pickup is superb.

Thanks,
Sushil.

Welcome to the club.

There is no particular rev limit that needs to be followed. The max revs are 6.2K, so going till 4k should not be a problem. As a good practice, avoid revving hard on a cold engine during your ownership period. Rev hard only after a kilometer or two of driving.

As long as you connect the ICE using connectors and not cut any wires, there will be no warranty problems. I have yet to face any electrical problem in MUL cars in the last twenty years of ownership.

Yes the low weight with relatively high power makes the K10 a dream to drive.

I made a juvenile mistake the other day,was stuck in jam on the down slope of a flyover.Had switched of the engine and the hand-brake was on,as it was a longish wait.As the traffic started to move,i disengaged the parking brake and the car started to roll,as i started pressing the brakes again,i forgot the engine was not running,and as usual lightly started tapping the brakes,but for a second i became cold with fear when i felt the brakes felt so tight and not engaging!Had forgot all about the servo brakes,and immediately recovered and pressed it hard,and thankfully stopped just before the rear of the other vehicle.Although speed might have been hardly 10kmph,gave me quite a scare.Still living in my 800 days.:)


K10 passed the 1 yr and 15,000 km mark a few days back.Absolutely no complaints,no squeaks and rattles.

The leather surround of the gear lever has come out though,must get that fixed in the next service.

I think i need to get the air-filter cleaned,can this be done at home?I tried to see if i can remove the air box surround,had removed those two clamps,to check things.

I am still running on stock tyres,and they seem to be holding up well,rarely have i felt they are losing grip,even relative when pushing the car hard,but not too hard.

When in 60 and 2k,when you push the throttle the surge is immediate,no lag whatsoever,have sometime fumbled for the gearlever,to upshift,and then would realize that its already in 5th.

Have been getting 15-16 in city driving regularly with no AC.

Seems the K10 is toallymade for the long smooth GQ roads... as I am typing this message sitting outside Bangalore airport, my wifey and my cousin are driving my car from Chennai to Bangalore( I was in Coimbatore for a days work, hence asked my cousin to pick up the car from Chennai, wifey also joined him after some work at Chennai), wifey just called to say they are doing continuous 120+ with the engine ticking over at 3000 RPM. The little beast feels totally planted and feels totally un stressed as per feedback relayed from cousin. Coming from a Ford Ikon fan-boy like my cousin, its high praise for the K10. They did the Sriperumbudur -Vellore stretch in 50 odd mins. Seems the Bridgestone S322s I wrestled out of Khivraj Motors Chennai are holding up well in the curves.

Had my first drive in Alto K10 today. Impressed! I have used an old M800 and WagonR extensively, and the way this baby pulled from above 2k rpm really had me grinning from ear to ear.

120 is at 3000 rpm? What's the top speed?

I checked with a external dealer, i can get a Alpine HU with USB and AUX , and JBL 4 inch front and 6 inch back speakers for about 8K .

When i asked him about the warranty getting void, he told me that they will use tape socket which comes for around 150 Rs, that will take care of that. I guess it is the same connector that you are referring.

Thanks,
Sushil

As long as he uses connectors, there is no problem. Ensure that he does not cut/splice any wire to the MUL harness.

All the MUL certified ICE systems come with a set of connectors to connect the ICE to different MUL models.

My friend yesterday took the delivery of K10 Vxi. I drove it home for them and then we went out for dinner in the night where I pushed the car a little through the curves.Will mention some of my observations below.

I have Ikon flair with me. So i would understand the fan-boyism, though I am upset with the k10 a little. The cars new and have not been taken on the highway yet, but yesterday I pushed the car through some corners in the night at 40-50kmph and to tell you frankly, after reading all the praises being showered on it, I was disappointed with it's behaviour. The car was understeering through a right corner and I had to correct it instantly and slow down.

Oh yes, please tell me about this, I found the brake very ordinary infact close to scary. The bites come only at the end when you fully press the brake pedal.
I have warned my friend to be careful and drive slowly keeping the brakes in mind.
Will not compare it with my Ikon, but still Ikon has not scared me in the last 3 years and brakes have done their job well.

That's bad. I found the gear shift very notchy. If you are not careful , the gear might just slip from 1st to 4th while shifting to 2nd. Engaging first sometimes takes a bit of hard push.

My friends car has also come with Bridgestones, but as I said before, i didn't find the grip too inspiring and upsize is a must.

That's a very good number to report. How much do you get on highways?
[quote=Sushil.H;2612268]Hi All,

Being light weight works in its favor surely, but still I am not sure how much safe it will feel on the highway doing 120kmkph and above. I know it can surely keep up and sometimes even beat some car but still i would be wary to take it above 100kmph.
As it is the first drive has not inpspired much confidence in me for the car. Though will keep a keen eye for it's behaviour and report her.

EDIT: also guys, the clutch is two -steps and feels very light.

Congratulations on you new acquisition.

Never noticed under steer, or may be I am used to it and keep compensating unconsciously

Brakes are not as progressive as is desirable. The saving grace is that they do bite and once you get used to longer travel required it will become a second nature. I got used to them in a couple of days.

Yes the gear is a bit notchy, but I slot it perfectly every time. May be it takes time to get used to.

Change the OEM tyres to Michelin and feel the difference - braking, cornering and ride quality.

FE numbers I have got are
. 9 with AC and clogged air filter extremely short journeys < 1 km start to stop.
. 11 in extremely short journeys with AC
. 13 in light city traffic with AC
. 15 in light city traffic without AC
. 19+ on highway with 5th gear predominating at 90-100km/h

The acceleration is good, and gearing such that you can go above 90 in second gear - ideal for overtaking on highways. The car is light, practically half the weight of C segment, hence it is extremely sensitive to road surface. It will jump more on undulations, and feel harsher than bigger cars on bad roads. On smooth NH stretches it will glide along. Due to good streamlining there is very little effect of cross winds. I have drive it till 120, others have taken it to 140, but I would say that 110-125 is safe enough. Any way on most N out of Delhi there is a speed limit of 90 and the cops are extremely vigilant, so you can do high speeds safely only at night or early mornings.

We took delivery of silky silver Alto K10 Vxi for my sister on 23/12/2011 and here are first impressions:

The car is easy to drive, power steering is light enough for the city and esp for ladies. I drove it for about 150 kms and was very happy for its performance, though I was trying to drive sedately with RPM being kept under 2500 at all times. I feel it would mostly run in 4th gear in city, would it affect FE?

The gear shift is good compared to alto 800 though would like it to be a bit 'tighter'.

Once I drove it with full load, four adult passengers along with me, and still it accelerated without me feeling any load! That wasn't the case with earlier alto.

I wasn't able to test FE but it has been driven for 180 kms with about 2 notches moved on fuel indicator from full position.

Only grouse is lack of space, if they could have made alto k10 a little wider and wheelbase longer by 6 inch or so it would have been much better.

I feel they have increased the boot space which isn't really required, considering this is a city car, but rear leg space should have been increased.

Now a question for alto K10 owners, when is the first oil change due and I've heard its 5W30 oil, we really don't want synthetic oil considering the annual run is only about 4500 kms, what are the options for mineral 5W30 and at what price.

Congratulations on your acquisition.

The oil change is at 10,000/ km or one year. Your driving seems to be similar to mine. I completed only 3400 km in the first year so got the oil changed then. Authorized service station, at least in Delhi have a "Maruti" certified oil, which is good enough. It is just recommended K series oil, with Maruti stamped on public sector oil drums. While changing oil, do change the air filter. I did not and the old one got clogged while washing, resulting in drop of FE by 4 km/L. Changed it as soon as I detected the problem.

The Alto K10 is really a two passenger car. You can force more persons, but at the cost of all round comfort. (read that the Ambassadors in Bihar load 15+ persons)

Just returned from a Chennai - Bangalore- Hubli- Palolem round-trip of exactly 2078 Kms. The car ran like a dream and with 5 people and 4 pieces of luggage with intermittent AC mileage was acceptable enough.
Quick facts:
1.Total distance covered: 2078 Kms
2.Total fuel cost: INR 9500
3.Total fuel used: 135 litres. Still have 2 bars left in the fuel indicator.Apportaining the fuel costs of 3 states, average mileage is 15.34 KMPL.
4.Top Speed : 160 KMPH ( section between Chitradurga & Sira). Have no idea about speedo error.
5.Average cruising speed on the GQ- 110-120 KMPH.
6.Average speed between Hubli- Karwar- 90 KMPH
7.Average speed on NH 17- 50 KMPH. Lousy traffic and slow Bolero derivatives rogered speed.
8.Tyre pressure : 32 ( rechecked it every time we started the car in the day).
9.The stright line accelaration thru the gears put a smile on our face every time.Cornering with 5 on board was much better than 3 on board. ( Planning to change to Bilstein B6s).
10.The CAI actually works and we could feel the freeness of the engine.( totally a personal feeling, can`t quantify the statement).
11.Over-heating was never an issue and I checked all fluid levels every time we stopped.

We sorely missed the old-style dhabas and Kamats are just not our idea of "highway on my plate". Only Purohit dhaba next to Kamat after Tumkur seems to remain from the old list of places we frequented during college days.

Last word: would I recommend Alto K10 to anybody else?
Yes: if you like something better than an Alto 800 and wont look at Eon,Spark or base level Beat.Best bet if your budget is capped at INR 4 lacs and no amount of hard-selling by sales staff would budge you.

No:If you are looking to drive a lot on the GQ and also double-laned state highways. The lack of safety features are appalling and even my wifey who would not let me buy anything else in Chennai is now seriously considering an upgrade to Figo diesel after just 7 months. Life I say is cruel and sweet in equal measure.

Had a drive from trivandrum to chennai in my WagonR last weekend. Was amazed by the number of K10s which easily overtook us and left us standing, even though we were maintaining a steady 100 - 110 kmph on the straights!
Understeer is clearly mentioned in the review as well. Better tyres should improve manners a bit! :thumbs up
Can you help me with the question i asked in earlier post?

What is the rpm at 100 - 120 - 150 kmph respectively? Was 160 kmph acheived easily or was the engine maxed out?

Hey CrazyDriver-

here goes the Speed - RPM list.
100 KMPH @ 3100 RPM with 2 people on board.
100 KMPH @ 3600-3700 RPM with 5 people + 4 medium sized bags.

120 KMPH@ 3300 RPM- with 2 on board.
120 KMPH@ 4100-4200 with 5 people + 4 bags

160 KMPH@ 5100-5300 RPM with 5 people + 4 bags.
Engine was not maxed out but we accounted for deficiencies of road design,tyre quality,flimsy build of all MUL cars( my wifey the owner NOW thinks all MUL are made of re-cycled dalda cans),presence of cattle, pedestrians & general stupidity of the idea of belting a car to Goa and came down to 110 soon.The 160 KMPH lasted 5 odd mins and we wanted to see if Japanese engines are really as good as they are claimed to be, but then again the engine is a gem and outshines the car by miles.
The Chevy BEat with this engine would have been the best car under 4.0 Lacs in India. Totally my thought ofcourse since I am sold on the Beat`s motorcycle type speedo design.
Sorry for the late reply since I didnt want to give an incorrect answer without cross-checking with my cousin who did the bulk of the driving.

stupid:Can you please explain how you got the same speed at two different RPM. Did you get one at 4th gear and the other in fifth, or were both at 5th gear?