I have seriously considered buying a Rio few months back before it was launched in Hyderabad and before I actually saw it on road. Here are my reasons,
I needed a second car, primarily chauffeur driven and occasionally me. Rio had more legroom in the back than my Scorpio. More importantly the reclining seats caught my attention.
I always prefer high seating position and I was not interested in a car. Rio had high seating position compared to cars and yet very compact and comfortable for Hyderbad city driving.
I had a Zen diesel before which had the same engine and for me, the TUD5 is rock solid and high reliable much beyond a lakh kilometres. It will not take you from 0 to 60 in 5 seconds, but it can keep pace with other cars in city driving even with the A/C on. With regards to the sound, I was very comfortable in Zen. Even if you compare a Zen diesel with Indica of that time(which was without turbo), zen diesel had higher and predictable power(It was ofcourse much louder). Actually I wrote a big mail using the feedback form on Premier Rio website asking them to relaunch Premier Padmini with TUD5(laugh at me for that,
) and said I said I'll be the first one to buy(I stand by this even today). I love them individually and the combination would be just right.
TUD5 is such a wallet friendly engine, I could not ask for more on a chauffeur driven car(our use is like the car will be running all day, some one or the other will be using it if there is a driver).
I prefer a car with low technology, no electronics involved. I think these will be the easiest to maintain for the kind of use we have. This is necessary since we do not usually change cars. Even after buying a new one, the old ones will be put to use for something else. Even when I bought my Scorpio CRDe SLX, I preferred M2DI to CRDe. But the interiors, lack of body cladding and inferior plastics and other stuff made me go for the CRDe. I did not mind the sound. If Mahindra stops production of CRDe and M2DI today, M2DI can easily be maintained for few more decades. I wonder if it would be possible with CRDe even for a decade.
Interiors are far better compared to the Bolero I owned. So interiors were not of a big concern. Even if we compare todays thar, I think Rios interiors are far better.
Though Bolero was a good option for me, Rio had more car like interiors.
Things I did not like,
Front end - very pathetic - I was seriously considering a custom crash guard to cover most of the front part and give it a much better look immediately after purchase.
Some of the interior plastics, example the power windows system looks so cheap.
Why I did not go for it,
I thought PAL will come out with proper sales and service network. But it came out with pathetic network. This made it clear the state of PAL. Though I like the car, why should I buy it only to realize that none of the parts are available after 6 months(except for that engine). I was all excited about the launch, but the excitement did not last. So far I have seen only two Rios in Hyderabad(may be I've seen the same one twice,
). God knows what will happen to them. This reminds me of the Sipanis Dolphin.
Thats about it. I still think its a good one, but it can be good only when backed properly. It will be great if the company changes the front end. I'm sure there will be like minded people, or others with different reasons, who will be inclined to buy this one if backed properly.