[aaggoswami]

Finally something more significant. Today I drove our CNG Waggie for more than 500 kms. Yes, today we were on trip to regilious places located in Saurashtra.

Here is my view :

1) The car is pretty stable at even 110-120 kmph. Quite effortless and one does not get the sense of speed the way it was felt in earlier Wagon R. The new Wagon R has got quite good stability as compared to earlier Wagon R.

At 110 kmph, mom did not even realize what was the speed until a glance at speedo.

2) Brakes are really good and easy to modulate. Good feel, can be used very effectively. Our's is one of the first CNG K10 Wagon R, so its LXi means no ABS, but the brakes are really nice even with not so good tyres.

3) AC is quite strong. Given the huge glasses, I thought on highway drives AC would be overloaded. But surprisingly the AC was more than upto the job. 90% of the trip blower speed at 1 or 2 would be more than sufficient.

4) Performance. K10 is genuine successor to G series engine. One has to get the engine working in CNG mode, but once cross 100 kmph in 5th, the car performs well. Basically the engine is happiest at higher rpms.

Earlier I thought that G series is ultimate, but after driving the car for long with 3 passengers in various situtions, I realized that K series is overall better.

5) Ride. Keep the tyre pressure at 30-31 psi. Would give better ride. At low speeds, some underlying stiffness was felt, but this could be due to tyres also. Damping is good enough, but falls short when compared with Ritz.

The suspension performs best when car is between 60-110 kmph range. Here the damping improves and absorption of irregularities is good enough.

At the same time, there is feeling of some dicey-ness, but the car never feels out of control. I always felt that things are controllable.

6) Handling. This car is a tall boy, but manners are better than earlier Wagon R. What I managed at 100 in Baleno was managable in Wagon R at 80kmph. Its only on really sharp turns when one has to be concious about the height. Not bad at all, but dont compare it with Zen ( original ) or low slung cars.

7) Space. Space is excellent. Front and rear legroom are very good for the segment. Sore point is that there are no bottle holders in doors. For rear passengers at the end of central console there is one bottle holder good for 500ml bottle. Thats it.

8) Gearshift. Nice and precise. Not of Esteem quality, but I would rate it 8/10. Sure slotting.

9) NVH. Tyre noise is excessive, we have JK Vectra or Ultima, not sure about it, but a change will reduce the noise. Outside nice is filtered out quite well. Engine noise is heard when engine is revved hard. But if one is cruising at 80-100 kmph, engine noise is not a problem.

10) What happens if one hits a dog in Waggie. Well that has already happened to dad in one of this trips. NO damage at all. Today I could avoid a hit as the brakes are really good.

Negative points :

1) Just 100 mtrs away from home, I had to decide whether to drop wheels 10 cm or to take a short cut to join main road ( roads are still not developed in my area ). I took a quick right turn to touch the short cut. The turn was half of one complete rotation of steering wheel. I tried to do this the way I would do in Baleno. My elbow hit the armrest on door really hard. This is one big negative. That door armrest ( where there are power window controls ) is located high. Anybody with broad shoulders has to be careful.

2) NO dead pedal.

3) K12M in detuned format is welcome. K10 is good enough, but in CNG mode, K12M would do better I suppose.

4) EPS. The steering wheel feels as if its free. Totally opposite to what Baleno offers. Very useful in parking as I found out at one popular temple where parallel parking was to be done.

5) Headlights. Good in isolation, but an upgrade recommended. Note that this is my view. My eyes are not that good and I was not selected in army only because of my eyes. My father finds them quite good. But a higher intensity will be helpful.

A few other words :

1) If somebody likes low slung cars, he will not enjoy this car. I was comfortable driving it, but the feeling of satisfaction is absent, I dont know why, may be I am used to Baleno, but then overall a bit boring to drive.

The car does everything in good manner. Good speed can be maintained, good brakes, good ride, good handling ( compared to other tall boys ), good power, good gearshift, but still that feeling one oneness I have with Baleno was not established here.

2) The car is an excellent choice for a family man. Very easy to get in and get out, excellent AC, reasonable boot, excellent space, everything one wants from a small car. A near perfect choice for middle class family man.

3) There were a lot of cars from Surat going towards Saurashtra. Encountered i10, Santro, F10D wagon R, even G2HC ( NHC ) and Innova. Trust me, they all had trouble catching up with me when I was in high speed cruise mode. More than enough power. Dont underestimate the K10B. And when I was in petrol mode for 12 kms., others specially in VTVT kappa 1.2 or Santro, or i10 or any other small car upto 1.2l engine had a tough time catching up with me or overtaking me. Some of them were shocked ( specially a lancer guy ) how can a waggie move so fast and quick. For enthusiasts, its just below par, but for family persons and general car buying public, engine has more than enough grunt.

4) The doors need a bit heavier hand to close them as compared to Baleno. The switches for power windows are better than Baleno.

5) This car did all that Baleno does with almost similar ease. My parents were quite comfortable even after the journey was over. My father said that in Baleno some fatigue does set in, but in Wagon R, fatigue is less.

To sum it up, a fantastic city car and good highway car for a family man. Can satisfy an enthusiast upto some extent. Better than i10, Santro, Estilo, etc. One of the best buys in today's small car market.

My ratings :

Engine : 8/10. A very nice motor. Can take Waggie to good speeds and effortlessly keep it there.

Braking : 8/10. Ours is non ABS LXi version, but still very nice brakes.

Handling : 7/10. One has to be concious only in really sharp turns. Else things are quite manageable. Even at high speeds, the stability in straight line is vastly better than earlier Wagon R.

Ride : 7.5/10. Sweetest in 60-110kmph range.

AC : 8.5/10. We have Baleno and this car comes quite close to Baelno in AC department.

Space 9/10. Excellent.

Comfort : 8/10. Very effortless to drive and seats, specially front seats are good. Rear seat space and overall comfort is also nice.


PS:
In our earlier drives, dad and me used to drive in different sections, but this time there was no expresshighway and I was the only person who drove the car entirely during the journey.

I have chosen a very peculiar route to give my views. The place we visited is Salangpur in Gujarat ( a famous Lord Hanuman Temple ). A good mix of high speed sections, corners ( various types like smooth large radius and some sudden 90 degree ), variety of good and bad roads. Then we visited my maternal grandmother in between when the temple was closed between 12 to 3. I have driven Baleno on similar route earlier also, so I have compared Waggie to Baleno at various places.

[GTO]

Aaggoswami, excellent report. And congrats! I wasn't aware you got yourself a CNG WagonR. Have moved your post to its own new thread. Please add some pictures

Drive safe.

[yogiii]

Congrats, Even I had a doubt over the AC effectiveness with those huge glasses !
Lxi has power windows ? How many 2 or 4 ?
Did you manage to check out the mileage with CNG ?

[sachinj12]

Congrats on the car

You got me more confused with this excellent report of yours. Still dilly-dallying between Alto K10-Nano-WagonR.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by GTO

Aaggoswami, excellent report. And congrats! I wasn't aware you got yourself a CNG WagonR. Have moved your post to its own new thread. Please add some pictures

Drive safe.

Thank You Sir for appreciating my review. This would be dad's daily drive to office so prime concern was city driving. Over and above that, Waggie also has to do other duties of city car so I will be driving it also. Plan is to sell off M800 and put that CNG kit of M800 into Baleno. But I am against it. Still not decided. If I had decided to continue with my job, we would have got Innova, but after some working, I decided to go in for higher studies, so Waggie came in. But its better than what I expected.

About the images, my only camera was Nokia 3110c which has gone bad. Dad's E72 has images of a crashed Ikon near Salangpur ( took images of the crashed Ikon during the recent trip I had talked about in the opening post ). Will take a few images of Waggie also and upload them later for sure.

Originally Posted by yogiii

Congrats, Even I had a doubt over the AC effectiveness with those huge glasses !
Lxi has power windows ? How many 2 or 4 ?
Did you manage to check out the mileage with CNG ?

AC is really good. Maruti has done homework here quite well. My uncle has earlier generation Wagon R in A'bad and the AC is better than that car. It was confirmed by my uncle and aunt when we visited A'bad earlier. My uncle told me that they have never got so much effective AC in their F10D waggie.
LXI has two power windows i.e. the front windows are powered. Rear are normal manual windows.
FE with CNG is above 30 i.e. around 31-32 if driven sensibly. Otherwise near 28 if driven at higher speeds. I have noticed that after 100 kmph the consumption is increased as I did maintain higher speed on return journey as there was no traffic on diwali day evening. If one drives with light foot at 80-90, 30 km/kg is not difficult to obtain.

Originally Posted by sachinj12

You got me more confused with this excellent report of yours. Still dilly-dallying between Alto K10-Nano-WagonR.

So confusion means you will make a better decision. Fun to drive = alto K10. VFM + practicality = Waggie. Check out both and TD both. I suggest that if you plan highway trips on the car, take your family members also and do consider their views also. I was inclined on either A-star or Alto K10, but eventually realized that it would be impractical considering that both of them are a bit low and rear space is not that good.

[yogiii]

Originally Posted by aaggoswami

FE with CNG is above 30 i.e. around 31-32 if driven sensibly. Otherwise near 28 if driven at higher speeds. I have noticed that after 100 kmph the consumption is increased as I did maintain higher speed on return journey as there was no traffic on diwali day evening. If one drives with light foot at 80-90, 30 km/kg is not difficult to obtain.

Now thats awesome !
MSIL claimed figures for WAGONR-26.9km/kg
Was the AC used all the time ?
Please comment about the drive ability with AC too, I mean do you have to rev a bit in the first gear when the car is standing still to get it moving or is it just like when you're driving on petrol ?
Wanted to know the significant changes due to the sequential kit.
As you are driving a M800 with CNG kit too you bring out the comparison pretty easily.
And I've heard that in i-GPI kits the car runs on petrol till the engine is warm enough and automatically switches onto CNG when optimum temperature is achieved.
Does it also automatically switches back to petrol when CNG is finished ?
I know there are so many questions for you too answer
Please try to answer as many as you can.
Cheers

[Volt]

@aaggoswami: That was a great review, however since yours is one of the first i-GPI cars on the forum, could you please elaborate a bit more on the driving characteristics on CNG, any handling compromises due to the increased weight etc? This would surely help many like me who are considering one of the newer CNG cars from Maruti.

[panks15]

Congrats for Wagonr CNG. was going to send you a message regarding how was your highway stint in wagonr.
Anyways enjoy the economy of CNG and power of K10B.
Do post the picks especially of filling up CNG, since you dont need to open the bonnet to fill up CNG in WagonR.
Drive safe. take care.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by yogiii

Now thats awesome !
1) MSIL claimed figures for WAGONR-26.9km/kg
2) Was the AC used all the time ?
3) Please comment about the drive ability with AC too, I mean do you have to rev a bit in the first gear when the car is standing still to get it moving or is it just like when you're driving on petrol ?
4) Wanted to know the significant changes due to the sequential kit.
As you are driving a M800 with CNG kit too you bring out the comparison pretty easily.
5) And I've heard that in i-GPI kits the car runs on petrol till the engine is warm enough and automatically switches onto CNG when optimum temperature is achieved.
Does it also automatically switches back to petrol when CNG is finished ?

I know there are so many questions for you too answer
Please try to answer as many as you can.
Cheers

1) Not sure how MSIL came upto that figure. The salesperson also had figure of 26-28, but when driven on light foot we could cross 30. Else around 28 on highways. The car is till date mainly driven on highways and we have calculated FE of CNG on highway only. Note that the pressure at CNG filling station also matters. Some error might be there. There are a couple of station enroute to place where I travelled where the pressure was higher than what we get in Vadodara city.

2) Yes. All the time. We would reduce the blower speed to 1 if need be and then to 2 again. But the AC was used all the time. My mom has dust allergy also, so AC is preferred.

3) Driveability does not suffer. We need not revv higher to get the car moving. When engine is hot, the car would switch to CNG quickly. Performance drop is minimal. Its only in 4th and 5th that quick overtaking will take a slight dip, so we have to use third. Else you would not even notice the switchover or even realize whether you are running on CNG or petrol.

4) In M800, performance drop is very high, but not so in Waggie. In 800 when CNG is about to get over in the car, the performance drop is further more experienced. In Waggie, there is no performance drop noticeable during normal drives. I was able to cruise at even 110 on CNG. No issues here.

Even the switch over when done manually is not noticable. I mean manually when one switches over to petrol from CNG or from CNG to Petrol, there is no jerk or anything.

5) Yes, it depends mainly on engine temperature. On highway after we had refuelled CNG, the change over to CNG was within 10 mtrs. as the engine was warm ( i.e. operating temperature ). But in morning, the car will move on petrol before specific temperature is reached.

Yes, it automatically switches over to petrol when CNG is over.

No issues on questions. Ask any doubt you have and if I have an answer, I will answer that query. No issues on that front. Thats why we are on TBHP.

Originally Posted by Volt

6) @aaggoswami: That was a great review, however since yours is one of the first i-GPI cars on the forum, could you please elaborate a bit more on the driving characteristics on CNG, any handling compromises due to the increased weight etc?
This would surely help many like me who are considering one of the newer CNG cars from Maruti.

6) No handling compromise, in fact the rear is slightly stiffer than wagon R pertol that we had test driven. But again nothing so much different. The CNG wagon R handles alike the petrol only car.
I have already written about the engine performance. Its only on very quick overtaking in 4th and 5th that one needs to downshift. At higher speeds like 90-100, the 4th or 5th has available grunt. One has to realize that this motor has good mid range and top end performance. Be in the meatier part of revv band and you will get smart progress of speed. For example, there is a noticable surge after certain speed in specific gear. I suggest you TD a CNG waggie to get the exact feeling. Worth doing it. The surge is not as strong as one used to get in G series, but still on CNG mode also in Waggie one feel that very minor surge.

Originally Posted by panks15

7) Congrats for Wagonr CNG. was going to send you a message regarding how was your highway stint in wagonr.
Anyways enjoy the economy of CNG and power of K10B.
Do post the picks especially of filling up CNG, since you dont need to open the bonnet to fill up CNG in WagonR.
Drive safe. take care.

One need not open the bonnet, there is filling point above the petrol filling cap in the fuel filler lid. I mean when you open the fuel filling lid, you have regular petrol cap and above that there is CNG filling valve. The nozzle for Maruti cars is different and filling is very fast. Almost three times faster than regular CNG filling that we do in our M800.

A few images. Sorry the images got mirrored as I captured them from my laptop camera. The tyres are 145/X, but with 165/X, the overall handling, braking and grip would improve. But we are not planning any upgrade as this would mainly be a city car in near future.

Dad had opted for the music system from Maurti Accessories. So the music system in the image is a part of accessory. The rear legroom is visible, and the front seat that is more pushed back is drivers seat. That setting with me in drivers seat. And then I am sitting behind the driver's seat seat still legroom is available. Note that I am approx. 5'10". With me in driver's seat my dad with almost similar height can sit behind me in waggie.

[yogiii]

1) Not sure how MSIL came upto that figure. The salesperson also had figure of 26-28, but when driven on light foot we could cross 30. Else around 28 on highways. The car is till date mainly driven on highways and we have calculated FE of CNG on highway only. Note that the pressure at CNG filling station also matters. Some error might be there. There are a couple of station enroute to place where I travelled where the pressure was higher than what we get in Vadodara city.
I think the ARAI figures are now calculated with some % of highway drive and some % of city drive and with AC too to get realistic figures.

2) Yes. All the time. We would reduce the blower speed to 1 if need be and then to 2 again. But the AC was used all the time. My mom has dust allergy also, so AC is preferred.
Now this is better, even I have CNG in my Alto and sometimes I need to switch the AC off to perform a fast overtaking maneuver.

No issues on questions. Ask any doubt you have and if I have an answer, I will answer that query. No issues on that front. Thats why we are on TBHP.
Thanks



One need not open the bonnet, there is filling point above the petrol filling cap in the fuel filler lid. I mean when you open the fuel filling lid, you have regular petrol cap and above that there is CNG filling valve. The nozzle for Maruti cars is different and filling is very fast. Almost three times faster than regular CNG filling that we do in our M800.
The nozzle is called MGV.

Dad had opted for the music system from Maurti Accessories.
How much did that cost you ?

Please find my replies in bolds.

[9thsphinx]

Hey can you please post clear pictures of the installation under the bonnet? I'd like to see the position of the vaporizer, filling valve and the entire setup.

Thanks

[indianv2]

Any updates on the scene? I wanted to know the CNG cylinder capacity installed in the WagonR.

My Alto VX 1.1 has a 60 Litre cylinder (Litre - water capacity) installed and the maximum that I have managed to fill in is 8.75 to 9 Kg of CNG. The average ranges from 16 to 23 kms/kg of CNG. Seems like my next upgrade is the topic of this discussion .

[antriksh]

@indianv2, when I checked with a Maruti Sales Rep, he informed that 60 ltr water capacity cylinder in WagonR equates to 12 KG CNG.

@Aaggoswami, thanks for the detailed report, exactly what I was looking for about the Wagon R CNG. Can you please also confirm how much is the CNG tank capacity in KGs.

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by 9thsphinx

Hey can you please post clear pictures of the installation under the bonnet? I'd like to see the position of the vaporizer, filling valve and the entire setup.

Havent got a chance to give a good glance under the hood. But the filling valve is above the petrol filling cap under similar cavity. I mean that as soon as you open the fuel filling lid, there is one valve above the petrol filling cap. CNG is filled in from there, so we need not open the hood to fill in CNG.

Originally Posted by indianv2

Any updates on the scene? I wanted to know the CNG cylinder capacity installed in the WagonR.

My Alto VX 1.1 has a 60 Litre cylinder (Litre - water capacity) installed and the maximum that I have managed to fill in is 8.75 to 9 Kg of CNG. The average ranges from 16 to 23 kms/kg of CNG. Seems like my next upgrade is the topic of this discussion .

To the best of my knowledge the capacity is 10 kg. The CNG was exhausted in A'bad city in my recent trip, so we went to Adani station. There was a pressure gauge. The pressure initially was 160 kg/cm square. As the CNG flow would reduce to tank, the pressure in the fuel filling pump at Adani fuel station would go upto 220 KG/cm square. At that pressure, 10 kg went in.

Originally Posted by antriksh

@Aaggoswami, thanks for the detailed report, exactly what I was looking for about the Wagon R CNG. Can you please also confirm how much is the CNG tank capacity in KGs.

The tank capacity is mentioned above.



My view from recent trip.


Recently had another long stint in Waggie CNG. Was returning back from A'bad after attending "Confluence" at IIM-A. Here are my remarks.

1) Excellent city car. If one is comfortable driving a car in A'bad city, its a remarkable feat. The relatively narrow width and high seating made it very easy car to drive around. The light steering also helps a lot in parking. I had to do parallel parking in IIM-A, so can tell this for sure. Very easy to drive and park. Excellent work Maruti!

2) CNG mode does not come at the cost of power. There is always power available provided you are in correct gear. If you are in correct gear, the car would simply get in that small gap. Good grunt available in CNG is a very good benefit. Hard work done by Maruti is visible. Neither does one feel jerk or anything when we shift from CNG to petrol or from petrol to CNG.

3) The car would automatically shift from CNG to petrol mode once CNG is over, and the jerk is absent. Only the indicator would show.

4) Excellent sound insulation as compared to earlier generation Maruti cars. I can say its better than even Swift or Baleno. This also makes a stressfree drive. The engine is vocal in city but its not that vocal to make journey stressful.
On highway, engine smoothens out.

5) Could comfortable cruise at 110 @ expresshighway. Even at 120 the car is not stressed. Great improvement over earlier generation waggie.

6) Very powerful AC. But the blower is noisy at highest speed.

7) The music system that we installed as accessory ( standard on VXI ) has practical features like one touch mute button and a button to hold CD where you want to i.e. if I am playing a song and I want the CD to hold there only, simply press that button. The CD would stop at that place. Really good feature.

8) Ride quality is nice.

9) Maruti engineers were mad when then placed the vents that way. The music system might look good and those vents of A/C might look good where they are but in practical world, I hate this type of design philosophy in small cars. This type of set up is good for wide cars like LC, etc. but not for narrow small cars.

My left hand would get chilled on highway. In cities, its possible to drive with on hand on gear as the steering is light enough. But again in that also the left hand would be very quick as compared to left foot, but its managable, but on highways, really that weird position of A/C vents is not good. The good thing is that the AC would cool quite fast so eventually the blower speed can be reduced, but I would have like more conventional placement of vents.

Overall a very practical pacakage.

[Mpower]

So Maruti sells the new WagonR K10 in CNG and the old model in LPG (duo).