[aaggoswami]

Well, the car has done around 20,XXX kms. The service is due at 25,000 kms. I am planning to put the car in for service before that figure.
The reason why the thread is not updated is that there is nothing so significant to update. However, :

1) There is slight suspension noise from right front wheel, specially after coming out of bumps. I suspect it could be lower arm and or bush which needs replacement. But I cannot rule out greasing. Problem is monsoon where we had literally broken roads specially the place I have to visit daily. It was as good as offroading where only the traditional SUV like Fortuner, Safari, Scorpio will can come out without issues. Very bad stretches of road in my city.

2) Engine has become more responsive and alert than even before. Even with a light foot in CNG mode, it can do good speeds. My friends during one short city trip asked me if the car was moving on petrol or CNG mode. Its that good, the factory fitted CNG kit is really starting to prove its advantages.

3) The CNG filling point is located at a very convenient place. No need to pop up the hood everytime I visit CNG station. Whenever I am at CNG station, there are two things that happen:

• People fail to understand my particular preference towards one dispenser. I have to follow this as there is only one dispenser which has the MGV nozzle.

• Why I am so late in opening the hood. Then they realize that this is factory fitted kit and give a smile ( I wonder why ).
• I dont know whether I have mentioned this earlier or not, but if the fuel filling lid is open then the car wont start. Good safety feature.

3) The FE on CNG. Excellent is what I would say. With judicious use of throttle I got 25.5 km/KG in city with AC. The figure can drop to 15 km/kg too, depends upon traffic and driving style also.

[HONESTabdul]

10,000km service coming up. Needs the engine oil to be changed. The MASS in my town stocks only SERVO 20W40. Myself I have a soft corner for Castrol products. Suggestion please AAGOSWAMI...

[cletusarrarr]

Awesome thread although not many replies. Will be buying this car based on ur reviews and it's a whole lakh cheaper than the diesel variant thus a no brainer. Will post feedback here. What do those tyres suggested cost n buyback of stock tyres ? Suggestions welcome

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by HONESTabdul

10,000km service coming up. Needs the engine oil to be changed. The MASS in my town stocks only SERVO 20W40. Myself I have a soft corner for Castrol products. Suggestion please AAGOSWAMI...

Please check with you dealer if he would allow to use oil from Castrol. You can ask him that is it possible that owner of car brings in oil of his preference for his car. Generally the result is positive and you can purchase Castrol oil and give it to dealer while service. If you do so, make sure you personally see to it that they use the oil you gave them.

If the dealer does not allow then its better to go with what he says as it might affect warranty ( dealer is interaction point in case one has to make warranty claims ).

We recently got our car serviced and we went ahead with the oil dealer used.

Originally Posted by cletusarrarr

Awesome thread although not many replies. Will be buying this car based on ur reviews and it's a whole lakh cheaper than the diesel variant thus a no brainer. Will post feedback here. What do those tyres suggested cost n buyback of stock tyres ? Suggestions welcome

No idea about tyres, but you can check what tyres are available with VXi and then get those from outside. We got JK tyres ( dont remember which ) and they are noisy in the first place and an upgrade is a MUST. The cost of each tyres in my city earlier when we purchased the car was around Rs. 3500/- per tyre.

[cletusarrarr]

i wonder what the buy back would be, let me check what tyres i get i heard JK is the worst if i get something else wont require changing. will book my car soon and then post back here on updates on the wheels n overall experience,
thanks for all the updates n feedback for keeping this going.

[cletusarrarr]

I see you have crossed 15k Kms in little over a year, how soon before you recovered the CNG cost, also is it true that the CNG waggie resale is worse compared to petrol ?

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by cletusarrarr

I see you have crossed 15k Kms in little over a year, how soon before you recovered the CNG cost, also is it true that the CNG waggie resale is worse compared to petrol ?

Well, we are close to 27K now! Yes, 27K. 25K service was done with around Rs.3.5K cost and we replaced oil filter, airfilter. Moreover there were a few other things too like transmission fluid which was also changed, engine oil, brake fluid.

Well, at the current cost of petrol of Rs. 72/- and CNG of Rs. 45/-, we have almost covered up the cost ( yes well almost ). The prices are quick changing so with a cost of Rs. 40/kg of CNG, we have covered up the cost of Rs. 54,000/-. This is just very basic calculation without considering the car run on petrol.

About resale value, well, its actually the other way round. The car with CNG kit has an added value, mainly for the CNG kit. Its not that CNG cars will have lower value, not atleast in Gujarat ( where I was searching for second hand innova before dad booked a brand new one ). I realized that even our 1992 M800 which has run 1.33 lakh kms has a valuation of more than Rs.35000, mainly due to CNG kit.

[cletusarrarr]

thats quite alot of running, im estimating about 15k of running for my waggie for the yr and cng costs here in mumbai is about 31 to a kg, since we are buying it outiright and the 2 of us , this seemed like the ideal car. is there an option to add a removable carrier for long trips ? any idea on costs for that ?

resale value so im told for mumbai, that could also attribute to the higher kms covered but is a point to be seen. as of now in a small dilemma on what ice to be chosen.

[HONESTabdul]

Hit a dog today!!! The creature ran yelping, i didn't feel anything except a thud. Speed was around 35km/h. Checking the car casually in the evening found that that the lower part of the front plastic grill is cracked. along the base. The black grill that is. Apparently it bent back enough to swipe the lower part of the radiator. There is a slight longitudinal dent in that area as a row of the fins are slightly dented. Don't think it is any major damage as it does not affect the running. No rattling noise heard either. Man, it is one delicate car for sure

[cletusarrarr]

Originally Posted by HONESTabdul

Hit a dog today!!! The creature ran yelping, i didn't feel anything except a thud. Speed was around 35km/h.

Sad to hear about that, the front bumper costs 2500-3500 im told. see if you can get it replaced.

i just booked my black wagon r CNG today as well, got garware grey 50 sunfilm and art leather seat covers, also asked for side mouldings on the car. expected delivery in 2 weeks, will be fitting the ICE from outside.

Also the dealer is getting a teflon coat done, will mostly proceed to 3M to get antirust done which has a 5 yr warranty. This is very much needed for me since i stay close to the sea.

The dealer is providing PVC matting, will also get the flooring laminated since im allergic to dust thus this would be better.


will post ownership reports in the thread and details once i receive the car.

[HONESTabdul]

Originally Posted by cletusarrarr

Sad to hear about that, the front bumper costs 2500-3500 im told. see if you can get it replaced.

i just booked my black wagon r CNG today as well, got garware grey 50 sunfilm and art leather seat covers, also asked for side mouldings on the car. expected delivery in 2 weeks, will be fitting the ICE from outside.

damage not that bad that i've got to get it replaced. its the black plastic grill as i said and i was able to repair it with Araldite. not easily visible. what i was worried about was the Condenser/radiator which had a small dent. That too is ok. Chekd out by the MASS.

[cletusarrarr]

i just got delivery of my Wagon R yesterday, i've pulled out all 4 door plastics to do the DIY yoga mat dampening. gonna fit the ice n more tomorrow.

will post pics of the final turn out. Ohh and drove on both cng and petrol , couldn't really tell the difference, everyone is asking me to drive it on petrol for the first 1k kms to prolong engine life, wonder if that's necessary.

[aaggoswami]

Time for Update.

1) Car has completed 31,1XX kms.

2) One breakdown. While at my native place, just next to our house, the car refused to start. Battery Down. This was after the case where I had helped the Micra crash site. Then after that, went to village, parked the car and after 4 hours or so, the car was down.

The car wont start. In ON position of ignition key, the fuel gauge, etc. would come on, but nothing else. The battery did not have sufficient juice to crank engine.

Had to jump start the car, came back home on liquid fuel ( and it was great ). After that no issues.

But this is an experience I would never forget, how come this can happen ? Battery suddenly down ?

3) After one spirited run to another institute, I am feeling that A/C is not cooling that effectively. On yesterday's expresshighway trip, my friends at the back seat complained that A/C was not effective. This was at blower position 3. At blower position 4 ( which is the highest ), there is less cool air than the amount of cool air i get in position 3.
This is another experience which I cannot call pleasant. Today also the A/C was a bit less effective. Either the heat is too much or there is some problem in A/C.
My be I have to fill in refregirant.

Can A/C filter be a problem ?
Would love to hear on this from others.

4) Engine is as good as ever. One truly good motor. I was able to cruise at 120-130 on Expressway yesterday.

5) NO RATTLES

6) Somehow, even with A/C, there is some amount of dust settling down into Cabin. Even the instrument cluster plastic panel has dust on it.

7) Ride at back is somewhat bouncy, but not to the point of uncomfortable.

8) CNG FE : 23 km/kg with A/C and 120-130 kmph driving, 4 adults, with A'bad and Vadodara traffic involved. Thats really nice IMO.
Petrol : Max 18 kmpl under my hands on highway.

The car has taken the customary hits and dents in city driving. Right headlight has got minor damage by a truck which tried to save a cyclist.


EDIT :
@mods:
Request to change the topic to :
Maruti Wagon R CNG Review, 31,000 kms update and first breakdown

[GT500]

Hi Aaggoswami,

Nice exhaustive thread , its nice that you keep it updated, very informative!

One thing I wanted to ask, did you follow any specific regime for running-in the engine after buying it.

Is there any specific number of months/days/kilometer that I should use petrol and not cng intitially and then use both cng.

Kindly advise as, I have heard different variants of how to run in the engine like to use on petrol for 2-3 days /use it on petrol for 1000kms and so forth.


Cheers

GT

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by GT500

Hi Aaggoswami,

Nice exhaustive thread , its nice that you keep it updated, very informative!

One thing I wanted to ask, did you follow any specific regime for running-in the engine after buying it.

Is there any specific number of months/days/kilometer that I should use petrol and not cng intitially and then use both cng.

Kindly advise as, I have heard different variants of how to run in the engine like to use on petrol for 2-3 days /use it on petrol for 1000kms and so forth.


Cheers

GT

Thanks GT500!

Regarding running-in, the dealer told us that the K series engines do not need any specific running in procedure. But I made sure that the speeds were limited during first 1000 km. No, the running in procedure did not require petrol only mode ( as the dealer himself said that running in is not required, let alone specific fuel type ! )

During the first 1000 km. our car was running on petrol for around 40% of the time.
So at the end of the day, IMO, you can use this car as a CNG vehicle from day 1. The first oil change is at 10,000 kms. and then, after every 15,000 kms. The K series come with synthetic oil from factory only.

Just make sure to run the car on petrol after every 250-300 kms. of running on CNG. The golden rule that I follow is that after every CNG refilling, drive the car on petrol for 6-7 kms.

I hope I have clarified myself. Any further doubt, do post in here...