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From one Maruti to another: An Ignis comes home as a WagonR replacement

16th April 2025, 10:10 by Deepankar Sadekar

My mother still had a soft-corner for the Wagon-R brand but yet another thorough test drive of both these cars locked our decision.

BHPian freakmuzik recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Here's to sharing my experience of purchasing an Ignis as a replacement for a 2010 Wagon-R VXI ABS. Though there is a lot of information regarding the car on T-Bhp, I've always felt there might be some tiny thing that might be of help to some tiny soul out there. What's the forum for, otherwise? Hence trying to put out a brief, yet, honest journey of this purchase.

Ode to our beloved Wagon-R

My memory from 2010 has me with my family being excited to take delivery of our much awaited Wagon-R VXI (with ABS & Airbags, for which we had to wait for 6 months), the smell of freshly-baked interior trims, the feeling of sitting over the plastic seat covers, of praying that everything be good with the car after reading all T-Bhp gyaan as a teenager. The first ride back home is still fresh in my memory.

The very last pic of our Wagon-R that I took in September, 2024

Prior to this, we had a Premier Padmini of 1989 make as our primary car. Later, in early 2010, we got a Yellow Nano from the very first list of bookings. And then came the Wagon R in White, the blue eyed boy. The car took us safely to so many places, almost all of Kerala, a bit of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. I did my first highway drive with a learners license in this car. It saved my sister from an accident and also became part of our whole life, being with us for a considerable part of our life and a lakh kilometers. It was my mother's favourite child as she used it the most and we couldn't fathom how it was nearly 15 years already.

But, leaving the emotional part aside, the car slowly started showing its age with few parts needing replacements and a few more that might have to be changed soon. There were a couple of spots of rusting and the boot space was really tight too. Plus, there's the matter of re-registration in 2025 as well. So we finally made a decision to part ways with our Blue-eyed boy and start looking for an ideal replacement.

What to look for?

Since my mother drove the Wagon-R the most (maybe not in kilometers covered, but time spent), it was purely her comfort in mind coupled with other general parameters such as:

Easy Ingress/ Egress
Sufficient power for being driven on weird Kerala inclines with the AC on
Automatic
Hill Hold
Service availability
Decent Boot Space
Commanding driving position
Rear Wash & Wipe
Driver seat Height adjust

With this list, we narrowed down to test-drive the following cars: Wagon R AMT, Punch AMT, Punch EV, Citreon C3 (1.2 NA), Exter and Maruti Ignis.

The (re)search:

Let me share my inferences from the test drives here (have shared some of these in another thread before, but I feel it makes sense to put it down here again)

Maruti Wagon R

Likes:

All the usual Wagon-R traits - ingress/egress, view, nimble, etc.
Great usable boot space
Still the easiest car for the elderly
Lots of legroom all round
Good power thanks to 1.2 L and being super light

Dislikes:

Feels a step down in quality compared to the previous generation
Expensive for what it offers (top end)
Poor underthigh support at the rear
NVH was poor
This version of K-series feels dull and noisier compared to the one in Ignis

Good evolution in all ways except for the perceived quality and seat-comfort!

Punch AMT

Likes

Very well appointed interiors
Great view from driver's seat
NVH was pretty good
Very comfortable seats for 4 adults with good under-thigh support and decent legroom
Decent boot
Easy ingress and egress
Brilliant ride and felt rock solid on the road

Dislikes

AMT was a little slower to respond than W-R
AC took a bit of time to cool the cabin (The TD vehicle was 25k run though)
Power, though totally sufficient, wasn't amazing
Biggest con is the lack of Hill Hold
Horn position is the most impractical

Citreon C3 (1.2 NA)

Likes

Very mature Ride and Handling
Amazing AC
Very good under-thigh support esp for front seats

Dislikes

NVH was extremely poor with road noise and engine noise coming in
Only Manual
Interiors were super plasticky
Lack of features
The driver info display was super basic and looked very very poor
The whole car felt like a Maruti it terms of flimsiness
Non-adjustable rear headrests

Punch EV

Likes

Amazing power with well laid out drive modes
One pedal driving is super easy with the right regen
Seat comfort and sufficient space
Feature rich
Ride quality and stability + All other pros of the petrol

Dislikes

AC felt weak (TD car was again nearly 20k run and sun was crazy today)
Slightly raised floor made seating position a little less comfortable than the petrol

Hyundai Exter

Likes

Extremely roomy interiors
Plethora of features
Featherlight steering wheel
One of the better digital displays
Humungous boot space
AMT was pretty well tuned
Amazing air-con

Dislikes

Rear seats were extremely low compared to front, making the rear passengers feel very weird. Even the bolstering of the front seats did not work for me
Driving experience was very toy-car like: Dead and too light a steering, whole car felt a bit floaty
Interiors of the TD car had some faded plastics which was surprising
Ride comfort was neither there nor here
There was something about the car that felt like it lacked cohesion as a product and experience
Engine felt average for some reason
Finally, the looks didn't work for me at all

Must say, the Hyundai sales team were amazing!

Maruti Ignis

Likes

Great view from the drivers seat makes the car feel so small and chuck-able
Love the engine in totality and the note
Ride was very mature and the car felt planted till the 90 kmph. Didn't push further
Sufficiently well kitted
Front seats were very supportive
Overall build felt better than other entry level Maruti's
Amazing air-con

Dislikes

Rubbery steering with no-real feel and typical Maruti's lack of return-to-centre action
AMT is not the best in the set of cars
Rear seats are a little claustrophobic compared to the rest with limited legroom
Shape of the rear
Boot space is smallest among all the contenders
The fact that the car is nearly 7 years old
No Crash Test rating available

The second round of test-drive that sealed our choice.

Overall analysis

View from Driver's seat - Ignis>Wagon-R=C3=Punch=Exter
Ride Comfort - C3=Punch>Ignis>Exter=Wagon-R
Perceived Quality - Punch>Exter>Ignis>Wagon-R=C3
Front Seating comfort - Punch>Ignis>C3>Exter>Wagon-R
Rear Seating comfort - Punch>Exter>C3>Ignis>Wagon-R
Boot Space - Exter>Wagon-R>Punch>C3>Ignis
Engine+AMT - Ignis>Wagon-R>Punch>Exter
NVH - Punch>Exter>Ignis>Wagon-R=C3

Regarding the pricing,

Wagon R ZXI+ DT AGS- Rs. 8.30 L
Ignis Alpha AGS - Rs. 9.02 L
Hyundai Exter SX(O) AMT - Rs. 11.20 L
Tata Punch Creative AMT - Approx Rs. 11 L (from carwale)
Citreon C3 Shine NA Manual - Approx Rs. 9.3 L (from carwale)

My mother still had a soft-corner for the Wagon-R brand but yet another thorough test drive of both these cars locked our decision. Booked Maruti Ignis Alpha AGS in Nexa Blue from Indus Nexa showroom in the Kazhakoottam By-pass. We initially booked it with Sarathy motors but later figured they only had a showroom in Kollam which they did not mention. There were a few more stuff that they weren't transparent about so we went ahead with Indus.

Ex-showroom: 8,06,000/-
Insurance: 25,651/-
Road Tax: 1,04,780/-
Extended Warranty (6 yrs): 19,588/-
Registration: 1155/-
Fastag: 500/-
Nexacard: 885/-
On-Road: Rs. 958719/-

Discounts:

Consumer offer: 50,000/-
Bonus Offer: 20,000/-
Exchange Bonus: 14,000/-

Net on-road: 8,74,719/-

Since I wasn't in town, I got my father to check the car out in the yard and take a few photos for me. I definitely couldn't ask him to do a PDI but witnessing the car with a clean paintwork atleast felt good.

We had a decent delivery experience as we had to settle with the day before Onam. They had to deliver 60 cars so one can imagine the kind of confusions and delays but, they did their level best. The car did have a few fingerprints here and there, they forgot to put paper mats inside and all that. But still, I won't complain as the experience was respectful in total. For folks wondering why we chose such a busy date, this was the only time that all four in our family were in town.

Continue reading BHPian freakmuzik's Maruti Ignis review for BHPian comments, insights and more information.

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