Completed the first long drive on my Maruti Suzuki Invicto Alpha plus. Route taken: Ekm-Palani-Madurai (overnight stay)-Rameswaram/Dhanushkodi(overnight stay)-Madurai-Theni-Pooppara-Rajakkad-Neriamangalam-Ek

BHPian DieselLover recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Total Distance - ~1050kms

Total passengers: 6 adults and a kid, full luggage

1. This car is built for long distance cruising. Everyone was fresh even after 10hr drives. Enough space on all 3 rows
2. Suspension is good. no bouncing around on bad roads and no body roll.
3. More than enough power on express ways and ghat roads. Used Eco mode for 95% of the drive. Normal mode was used for some time while climbing up the ghats after Theni. The rubber band effect and the noise created by CVT is a little irritating during sudden accelerations.
4. Very powerful AC. The temperature outside was 38-40C at most places but it was very comfortable inside(I do not have sun films installed yet)
5. Amazing FE. The first refueling was after covering 770kms. Got 17.6kmpl (tank full to tank full). DTE was showing a range of another 60kms at this point. We were cruising at 80-90km/h through out.
The FE dropped to 11kmpl (on MID) while climbing the ghats from Theni in Normal mode. However, by the time we reached Ekm, it has gone up to 15kmpl.
6. Pathetic headlights. It was raining heavily from Rajakkad onwards and we really struggled to drive in the darkness. The high/low beams of the headlight has no visible differences and is equally bad. Any suggestions for upgrade or fixing additional lights?

Overall quite happy with the purchase. Planning more such trips in coming months.

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The car is giving a decent fuel efficiency and is eerily silent, especially for me coming from a VW Vento 1.6 TDI.

BHPian printh recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

After little deliberation, I took the plunge and got an Invicto Zeta plus 8 seater in Mystic white colour. I have clocked 1850 kms as of now and thoroughly enjoying the vehicle. I have probably bought the last of 2024 stock in Banglore and was able to get it delivered within a week after booking.

Some points noted are:

1. A feel of exclusivity - not so many Invictos out there. During a recent 1400 km round trip, I encountered only a couple of Invictos compared to an endless number of Hycrosses!
2. The vehicle is eerily silent, especially for me coming from the VW 1.6 TDI & Chevy 2.0 TDCI. However, truth be told, I do miss the diesel torque and turbo whistle, especially at cruising speeds.
3. It's giving decent FE till date. City figures range between 16-20 kmpl and highway figures between 15 -18 kmpl for carrying 4 adults, 3 kids & luggage. PS: I am a very sedate driver. Maybe it will improve after some more running and the first service is my wishful thinking.
4. Interior quality is subpar for the price you are paying. I guess that's the trade-off for the unmatched space it offers.
5. Internet search says Invicto boot space is 260 litres as compared to 300 litres for Hycross. I am not sure why the different numbers. Can anyone shed some light on it?
6. Speaking of throwing lights, the headlights are very poor. Thankfully I didn't have to to experience them during rainy nights. I am planning to do the Octa Q upgrade as soon as possible.
7. Nexa experience was pathetic to say. No one in the showroom had any idea of the vehicle, variants, or accessories and none cared to even explain it. They were firm in taking insurance from them but gave up in the end when they couldn't match the offer I got from Policy Bazaar.
8. Delivery experience was likewise pathetic with just lifting a dusty Black cover off the car & not even a flower garland arranged as requested by me.
9. The SA had no idea about the features, or technical details and was literally learning stuff from me.
10. I had fitted accessories like wheel arch cladding, side door beading, scuff plates and side step from a car accessories shop in Bangalore after going through the online reviews and again ended up with a big disappointment due to a shoddy job. The cladding is already coming off and it's not even 1500 kms after fitting them.
11. Other accessories planned include a Farad roof box with bars, Octa Q headlights, a horn upgrade, a rear bike guard and dashcam installation.
12. I had briefly considered PPF coating but didn't go for it given the high price & hassles during repainting in case of any minor accidents requiring painting.
13. The performance is more than adequate for a sedate driver like me who prefers to cruise around 90-110 kmph on expressways and 70-80 kmph on state highways. Even in hills, it was adequate to pull 6 well-built adults, and 3 kids and overtake multi-axle trucks while returning a 15+ kmpl mileage.
14. On expressways, cruising at and upto 110 kmph is effortless and calm though wind & road noise spoil the silent experience.
15. When fully loaded, the suspension is a lot more comfortable and smoothens rough patches than when driving alone. However sharp potholes and joints are felt regardless of vehicle occupancy. But hey I am not driving a GLS with air suspension is how I console myself!
16. I have been filling Shell V power for the last few tankfuls courtesy of the honeymoon phase of ownership - even though my mind knows that it makes no difference! Further fillings are going to be from any BPCL or HP outlet with regular petrol.
17. Any advice on sound dampening to reduce road and wind noise? Will the ones used during audio upgrades work well for the purpose?

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As compared to Hycross ZX, with the Invicto I would miss out mainly on the ottoman seats and JBL sound system - things I can live without.

BHPian vvb8530 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Sharing my story here on why I decided to cancel my Hycross booking and bought an Invicto instead and how being loyal to brand Toyota has meant nothing. Since my case is not isolated and many others might be going through the same hassle or might have to in the future I am sharing this post on the Hycross thread, Mods may move as required.

My family has been extremely loyal to brand Innova since it was launched in India and in fact we even owned a Qualis briefly before the Innova. I am not even sure anymore but I think we have owned 6 Innova's to date each being run for over 100000kms and then replaced with another Innova. All of them have been serviced at the prescribed service interval of the ridiculous 5000kms but still done at Toyota dealerships only and mostly Lakozy Toyota in Bombay which if I am not wrong is partly owned by TKM India itself.

Now cut to May of this year, we own a 2017 Crysta 2.8 Z run about 125000kms used mainly by my father to be chauffeured in and a 2014 innova 2.4 V run about 250000kms which is the workhorse and used for factory runs and duties. Both of these needed to be replaced now and the initial thought was to retire the older Innova, move Crysta to workhorse duties and get a Hycross for my father to use. Having heard so much about the terribly long delivery timelines on the Hycross we decided to wait for the new Carnival to launch and then decide by then hoping for the Hycross deliveries to normalize too. However the older Innova was now showing signs of ageing and demanding work. One day crossing a Lakozy Toyota showroom in Thane on the outskirts of Bombay I decided to walk in and casually check on the status of deliveries, the state of Toyota showrooms and the level of staff hired by them is a topic to be discussed on another day but lets just say I have seen Paan shops in Gujarat better than Toyota showrooms these days. Anyways in contrast to what I had heard about the arrogant sales folks with regards to Hycross bookings I met an enthusiastic fellow who told me that though bookings for ZX variants is closed he will show a VX variant booking and later move it to any ZX variant, he also claimed that while officially waiting periods are 18 months plus he should be able to get us a delivery within 3 to 4 months. I ignored all the red flags and based on his word I thought of booking 2 Nos. Hycross instead and retire both the Innova and Crysta because the Crysta would fetch a good resale price and the hybrid Hycross would save us on somewhat equivalent amount in fuel cost. Now the enthusiastic sales fellow became over enthusiastic, probably the 2 bookings helped him achieve some target of his because next when I told him I am not going to take any compulsory accessories, coatings, etc and nor the overinflated insurance he agreed to it all. The same day I gave him a booking for one Hycross in VX variant to be converted to a ZX and the other one a ZXO to be confirmed the following day. Now from the next day onwards this fellow started chasing me for the second booking and even reconfirmed on whatsapp messages that I don't need to take insurance, accessories, coatings, etc from him however after discussing with the family we decided to hold on to the second booking of ZXO and wait for the Carnival instead. Only if we had known better about the bombshell on the pricing that Kia was going to throw at us a few months later

So now I had one Hycross booked and a month after booking gave the over enthusiastic fellow a casual call to check incase there has been any change in the booking status. The enthusiasm had now been replaced with arrogance and I was told its too soon to check on the delivery status however maybe he sensed some sense of urgency in my voice because the immediate next day enthusiasm was back again and I got a call saying congratulations your car is on the way, wow what a turn around this was within 24 hours. He asks me to transfer the money immediately because there are others in queue so he wants to ensure the car does not get allotted to any one else. Ideally I would not transfer any money without personally checking out the car but I ignore red flags again and for me its a Toyota and Lakozy, brands I have trusted for long so I agree and ask for the proforma to share with our banker for moving the loan formalities ahead. Here is now where the plot thickens because the proforma received includes everything, all the extras, the over priced insurance which itself was 2L more than actual market cost, paint protection film, teflon coating and 1L worth of other shiny disgusting accessories. I considered it a oversight and ask for all of it to be removed but to my surprise its arrogance day all over again with a straight up refusal to any of the extras being removed, denying that he had agreed to it all at the time of booking, a mention that people are paying premiums for Hycross and you dont even want to pay for accessories and without this the deal will not go through. Our friend had possibly forgotten about his earlier mood swing and that he was overenthusiastic a few weeks back when he had agreed to it all in writing on whatsapp. When I sent him screenshots he tried to pull out the confusion card by saying things like I had promised all this for the second vehicle that you did not book, etc, etc. Anyways I realized that this was a proper scam now that these guys were trying to pull off just because I called them and they sensed some urgency so they thought they had found their mark who can be milked for some extra money. The next 2 days went away in arguing and fighting eventually leading to them retreating to their original agreement of no compulsion of the extras but this allotment has now been passed to someone else so I am back on the wait list and will be informed again when the next lot arrives. By now I did not want the car at all and wanted to cancel the booking but I had no other choice. Had got to know that all dealers were resorting to the same strategy to milk people like me but I tried still and again went to another Toyota *cough paan shop cough* showroom and met another Mr. Arrogance personified who straight up told me dont even think of delivery less that 18 months or if you want take up a fully chromed out Hycross with PPF and Teflon, etc etc for almost immediate delivery. I thanked him for his time and left without even leaving behind my contact number with the receptionist for which she followed me till outside.

It was amusing the state of the Indian auto industry, just that morning had read up in the newspaper about how auto sales were really down and most manufacturers were sitting on huge stocks with people not buying new cars and here I am sitting ready to buy two new cars and have nothing to buy and the brand that my family has been loyal to over so many years is trying to scam me instead of rewarding me. No I did not expect any form of financial rewards, heck I did not even expect to be given some kind of priority which ideally would be a very good idea for Toyota to maintain brand loyalty because I am aware Toyota is one such manufacturer that has a lot many more loyalists like my family but I guess they just don't care anymore and it reflects in their product line up for India as well. As a brand loyalist I only expected to be shown some basic respect and not tried to be scammed. I am not only buying their products but also have spent a lot of money in servicing using only their facilities over the years. If hotels, airlines, banks can reward brand loyalty why cant we expect the same from auto brands, even Airtel acknowledges my loyalty to them being a very old user and sticking with them then why cant I expect the same from Toyota.

Anyways coming to the somewhat happy ending, a few days later on my way from work saw an Invicto ahead of me and wondered why had I not considered one yet, its the same product and hopefully without the Toyota sales experience. So the next day decided to find out for myself and ended up at a Nexa dealership which I was actually expecting to be just a bigger paan shop but it wasnt, the sales staff were ummmm.. lets just say sales staff, not over excited but neither arrogant at all. To my disbelief they were offering almost ready delivery, no compulsion of any extras and while the cost of Invicto was lower than Hycross as it is to further sweeten the deal they threw in some discount and also included some basic accessories like floor mats so I booked an Invicto Alpha+ immediately. As compared to the Hycross ZX that I was buying I would miss out mainly on the ottoman seats and jbl sound system, things I can live without and the smaller sized 17inch wheels on the Invicto would possibly mean better ride quality anyways. The Invicto is now awaiting registration and I take delivery in the next few days.

Pics received post arriving at the yard;

As others might be going through issues with Hycross deliveries also, sharing my story here for anyone else in a similar situation can also consider an Invicto if you can live without the few misses and with the Suzuki brand. My total saving getting the Invicto Alpha+ over the Hycross ZX was approximately 4.5Lacs. I am still in the market for one more MUV, while the Carnival prices have pushed it out of my budget and I have sworn to friends and family of not buying another Toyota again I will try and hold on to the Crysta for as long as I can or till I can find some way to get a Hycross without getting myself involved with Toyota dealers.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

Overall, I will recommend getting Hycross VX for the lower end and Invicto Alpha+ at the top end.

BHPian inwester recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I've been looking for a thorough comparison of the Suzuki Invicto vs Toyota Innova Hycross with all the variants and couldn't find a comprehensive guide that would help people looking for either of these vehicles. So, I decided to spend some time and get all the feature lists and do a comparison now that all cars come with 6 airbags.

Invicto Zeta+ vs Hycross VX

Features you gain vs. VX:

• LED DRLs and turn indicators

Features you lose vs. VX:

• Front and reverse parking sensors
• 360-degree camera
• Tire pressure monitoring sensors (TPMS)
• Auto-dimming inside rear-view mirror (IRVM)
• Automatic headlamps
• Acoustic windshield (dual pane) with green lamination (no IR cut in both; Zeta+ only gets green lamination)
• Rear defogger
• Front wipers with intermittent, time adjust and mist function (Zeta+ only gets intermittent)
• Immobilizer w/ Siren + Ultrasonic & Glass Break Sensor (Zeta+ only gets immobilizer)
• Welcome lights on outside rear-view mirrors (Zeta+ gets retractable ORVM but misses welcome lights)
• Additional remote operations – power windows close and AC on/off

Invicto Zeta+ ex-showroom price 7-seater – Rs. 24,79,000

Hycross VX ex-showroom price 7-seater – Rs. 25,30,000

Winner: Hycross VX

VX Costs an extra 50k which I think is more than justified. More than the price, it’s the missing features in Zeta+ like parking sensors, auto-dimming IRVM, defogger etc. which makes it un-recommendable. For 8-seater add 5,000 to both.

Invicto Alpha+ vs Hycross VX(O)

Features you gain vs. VX(O):

• Leatherette seats
• Ventilated front seats
• Powered driver’s seat with memory function
• Electric tailgate
• Dual-zone climate control
• Wheel arch cladding

Features you lose vs VX(O):

• LED front fog lamps

Invicto Alpha+ ex-showroom price 7-seater – 28,42,000

Hycross VX(O) ex-showroom price 7-seater – 27,27,000 (add 5,000 for 8-seater)

Winner: Invicto Alpha+

It’s a little tricky here. If you want an 8-seater VX(O) is your only option. If you want a 7-seater maybe spend a lakh more and get the Invicto Alpha+.

Invicto Alpha+ vs Hycross ZX

Features you gain vs. ZX:

• None

Features you lose vs ZX:

• Powered Ottoman 2nd row seats
• JBL 9-speaker system with subwoofer (Alpha+ only gets 6)
• 18” alloy wheels with 225/50 R18 (vs. 215/60 R17 in Alpha+, which might not be a bad thing).
• Adjustable rear armrests (Alpha+ gets them but they are non-adjustable)
• Mist function on wipers (Alpha+ gets intermittent plus time adjust function)

Additional features you lose vs. ZX(O):

• Toyota Safety Sense System (i.e., Advanced Driver Assistant System / ADAS)

Invicto Alpha+ ex-showroom price 7-seater – 28,42,000

Hycross ZX ex-showroom price 7-seater – 29,62,000

Hycross ZX(O) ex-showroom price 7-seater – 30,26,000

Winner: Tie

It’s not straightforward here as well. Hycross ZX/ZX(O) is 1.2-1.8 lakhs more, so if you want a 7-seater with a branded music system and ottoman then get the Toyota version. If you want ADAS functionality ZX(O) is your only option. If you don’t care for those functions get the Alpha+, as it's decently kitted and will save you 2-3 lakhs on-road.

Here is the TL;DR version (from my perspective).

1. Overall I will recommend getting Hycross VX for the lower end and Invicto Alpha+ at the top end.
2. Avoid Invicto Zeta+. It's missing too many basic features for a car that will cost you around 30 lakhs on-road.
3. If you are in a hurry get the Invicto Alpha+ as waiting periods are substantially lesser.
4. If you want to save money and don't care about missing features or sunroof etc., get the Hycross VX, now that it comes with six airbags.
5. If you want most features and don’t care for ottoman or ADAS get Alpha+ (you can always get good speakers aftermarket). This will save you 2-3 lakhs on-road (depending on the state).
6. I also think Suzuki should’ve offered Alpha+ in an 8-seater version (since they don’t have the complexity of the ottoman and power recline mechanism) and that’s a missed opportunity.

Hope this helps.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.