[NMM]

Greetings !!!
We've been looking to buy a vehicle as a work horse for our company, specs & details listed below

1. Seating: Minimum 3 adults
2. Supremely economical to run
3. Big Boot : (ideally) 2 to 3 boxes minimum 1 box ( 80 cms x 80 cms x 80 cms )
4. A/C
5. Price : under 4.5lacs OTR company registered Mumbai.
6. High Surface Area : easy to stick vinyl branding.

So with all the above information it was a no brain-er (probably still is) it had to be the Maruti Eeco CNG 5 Seater AC. Till the conversation with the Maruti sales guy made us think, the gist of the conversation is below :

-Maruti sales guy tells us :If your going to be branding the car, transporting machines & company employees you will have to go for the EECO Cargo ( goods carrier ). the EECO 5 seater cannot be used/registered commercially.

-We: Well be are buying it on our company name & using it for company work. We are not transporting goods for sale,distribution etc. We will be transporting our company people to customers for service/servicing & at times send them with machines...Are you sure?

-The Maruti sales guy : sure sure, company registered gaadi peh ads allowed nahi hai, aapko permission hee nahi milega.

-We: Hmmmm okay, fine forget branding.
(we took the above "no branding allowed" news at face value from the maruti guy, because however arguable, it seemed highly probable)

-The Maruti sales guy: Even giving service isn't allowed actually. Buy the Goods Carrier Eeco cargo for no hassles.

-We: buying company car for company people for company work is not allowed ?, really ? plus, we also need to transport 2 personnel + driver (mostly) & Eeco cargo can only fit driver + 1. Anyways we will check & get back to you thanks.

I asked around & he's (Maruti sales guy) apparently right ! (though with some ambiguity). By that virtue the only options that remain for (branded) goods carriers with minimum 3 seater :- a) Bolero Camper b) Tata Xenon which is substantially over budget & too large for all practical purposes. (FYI: The Bolero & Xenon are assumptions not verified)

Further, Since branding was now out ! We thought why not a car then ! we suspect we can get a good used Lxi (old) Dzire & install a cng kit that too meets all the specs & we reckon will be substantially cheaper than a new Eeco cng 5 Seater AC. Also, the boot is private unlike EECO which is also incrementally safer in the event that we have to park on the road (especially overnight)

I would love to hear your opinion,suggestions & advice.

Note from Support - please post in English for the benefit of our readers. It would help to include a translated version of the non-english text but keep these to a bare minimum. Thanks.

[GTO]

Don't know about the legalities of branding. Leaving that aside, there isn't a doubt that the Eeco CNG is the superior choice for you.

I'm a huge fan of used cars, but the Eeco is cheap to begin with, and therefore I recommend it over a used Dzire. A company workhorse will inevitably be abused. This is exactly where brand new car reliability, factory-fitted CNG kit and 4 year warranty (2+2 extended) will work in your favour.

Don't go through the hassle of searching for used Dzires & after-market CNG kits.

[NMM]

Update: due to the legalities the best option seems to be goods carriers, the options now being the Maruti Eeco Flexi CNG or the Omni Cargo { + dealer or after market CNG kit}. We have decided the Omni because a)its almost 40% cheaper than the eco flexi cng b) We plan to move not more than 150 kgs of cargo & c) Since we are doing this business in a new company we are not getting car loan, we have to purchase out right.

We had asked maruti to fit the sequential cng kit for the OMNI. 2 of the 3 maruti dealers we spoke to have said that the Sequential kit will be detrimental for the OMNI & only the regular loop kits is advised.

I would really appreciate some advise on the closed loop v/s sequential kit for the omni so we can take a decision on this dilemma !

thanks.