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

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:

  1. Easy Ingress/ Egress
  2. Sufficient power for being driven on weird Kerala inclines with the AC on
  3. Automatic
  4. Hill Hold
  5. Service availability
  6. Decent Boot Space
  7. Commanding driving position
  8. Rear Wash & Wipe
  9. 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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