Time to bid goodbye to always humble, ever eager to serve, ABSOLUTE fuss free, supreme work ethics, never a let down, never attention seeking and a sheer darling...my Maruti 800 AC 2003. And of course my first car, my pride.
She was serving wifey dear while I moved on to the sheer delight called Ford Fiesta Zxi (rechristened as "Classic" before fading away) in 2010. Any interest in reading about that? you can read it here
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ot-fiesta.html
Now that the Maruti was 12 year old, and being a Delhi registered car had a legal ~3 year life left, it was time to decide "when" rather than "should" we replace it.
Mechanically, and based on the condition of the car, it could very well add another 50K kilometer to the Odometer which is reading 85K as on date. The car does an average of 15 kilometers a day and is used to pick kids from school or to run some errands.
Buying a car has never been easy and it wasn't easy this time too. I am giving a quick summary of which options we looked at and why did we not go for that.
1. Renault Kwid : There is a lot of noise around this car with long waiting periods. Had a few spotting on the road and yes it's presence is definitely felt.
Dear folks, it took us a total of 5 minutes in and out of Renault showroom. The car is a con. Sounds like an aluminium canister when you close the doors. To make the matters worse, the display car was loaded with all "macho" accessories including chrome on front grill and what not.
The quality did not satisfy me and the looks horrified my wife. So thank you Renault, but this one is not for us.
2. Hyundai Grand i10 The car ticks most boxes. Of course looks very good (must add we did not look at old i10 at all primarily for its looks and being dated) and comes with very descent interiors and build quality.
It came very close to us (read "me") buying it but for my wife. She find herself very comfortable in a car that is sized not too big. Without getting too technical in size comparisons, let me just say she thought it was a tad bigger for her liking.
On top of that, the trim/variant that I thought would make sense was stretching the budget I had in mind. The Asta is 5.8 Ex-showroom and Asta AT is 6.5
Hyundai Eon and Maruti Alto K10 Her first inclination was towards these two cars only. More towards Alto K10 because she thought Eon looks way too puny and small on the road.
Honestly speaking, we did not spend too much time on these two cars. Did take a look at both of them while in the respective show-rooms but deep inside we knew that there has to be at least some "upgrade" when you are changing a car after 12 years.
Ford Figo The car is a stunner, for me it looks way better than even Grand i10. The 1.2 Trend MT variant was offering a lot of what I had in mind too at 5.2 Ex show room price. And being a Ford owner I knew the car is going to be nothing but pure fun to drive.
A few factors that went against Figo were, first of course that was true for Grand i 10 too..the size. A tad too bigger. I must add here that neat, state of the art gadgets inside the cabin does not matter much for wifey. She is clear in what she wants, needs a reliable car which takes her from point A to point B comfortably and to the extent safely.
And than the world famous apathy of Ford Dealers who takes forever to respond to queries let alone being pro-active.
And now the winner...
Maruti Suzuki Celerio Zxi AMT (or AGS
)
Truth be told, Celerio came as an after thought. Asked her to check out the Automatic. Though to begin with she thought she doesn't need an automatic. After all she has to drive a maximum of 15 kilometers a day in non-peak hours. But one test drive and she said...."Yeah..I could get used to it

"
The Official review page on Team-BHP said only Zxi make sense and I can't agree more. However, I wanted a Zxi Optional that comes with two airbags (instead of one in the Zxi) and an ABS. I rang up all Maruti Dealers in Gurgaon and Delhi and none had that in stock. To make the matter worse, none were committal as to when they can make one available. Promises ranging from one month to more than two months.
After a week long deliberation, I settled for Zxi. Thank you for reading the long post, now to the customary details.
Car: Maruti Suzuki Celerio Zxi AMT
Color: Glistening Grey
Dealer: Rohan Motors, Gurgaon
Ex Showroom: 510160
Discount: 22000 + 2100 (corporate)
Waiting Period:3 weeks
Going to be on the company vehicle lease plan, so my employer would be the "official" owner for 3 years and than it will be transferred to my name after I pay a buyback amount.
Happy motoring folks.