New SX4 launched

I hear you brother. Our old Swift Zxi proved the same for us. We Switched to a  petrol Hyundai i20 Asta just after two and a half years of using the Swift and swore never to buy a Maruti ever again.

How many cars end up losing its gear box, speedometer, climate control system within 2 years of usage? The car was serviced regularly and maintained properly nor was it driven roughly. Neither the dealer nor Maruti were competent enough to give us a concrete explantion on our problem.

Competition is tough, Maruti better buckle up!!!

Thanks. It was long overdue. wasn't it ?

PS: Is there a way of posting multi quotes here?

All those who have read my previous posts know that I simply love my SX4. I too have owned it for two years now. Driven in city and highways and have never really faced any major problems. Minor ones like the boot not closing smoothly was sorted out by the service guys the day i brought it to their notice. As far as stating that "80 feels scary like 120", I am amazed at the exageration. Even in city traffic, I have to closely look at road sides for cops, cos I know even in normal traffic I do cross 80 often and don't realise it unless I look at the speedo. Even at 150, no issues with handling, sterring etc. rather I felt I should push it harder but have always refrained from doing so, mostly becuase I normally have my wife and kid in there and do not want to take any chances. But even 150 in this car felt better than a 100 in wagonR or Indica. It was almost like a no effort deal. I have travelled a fair bit in NHC, cororla, Civic and Optra. Thoug I do find that all these cars a re great, I do not feel I am driving an inferior car in any respect when I get into my SX4.

Lastly, I too would say if it really was that bad a car it would not sell so many till now. OK, NHC has overtaken it but still it sells a lot for this segment. And I have not even talked of safety features in there.

If the experience reported earlier is true, it has to be one-off case as in my office alone (just about 100 people at me centre) we have as many as 5 SX4s and NO, there is no deal with maruti dealers with our company (few peole have commented this as they see so many sx4s parked outside). All the owners are very happy with their cars. Most have driven much more than me. A couple of them have already crossed 40,000 kms on thier SX4s. Yet, they are all extremely happy with it.

Thank God finally somebody is there for some decent remarks and faith.

Gosh i was tired of justifying my take for SX4,Just wondering why people pass off statements like "Not recommending Maruti to anyone"?

Does that make any difference to guys earning hard to spend their money on something worth spending on and at the end of the day realising that every penny was worth spending on vehicles manufactured by Maruti!

We all have Bad experiences with Vehicles but let us not be so partial to the extent that we end up passing statements on this forum against or in favour exaggerated to the extent that will affect perspective buyers' mindset.

Being honest is one part and coming to terms with reality is completely different.

Just came from long trip to Ambala from Delhi and back=400 kms.

My first long drive after the purchase,Man i did compete with Endeavour and Skoda.

Needless to say although 4 passengers on board including me,i had never felt panick,even after touching 160 kmph.

Have posted my experience on the Trip thread.

I can see you are quite passionate about your SX4s and i appreciate that its a good thing, I too was quite passionate about my Swift but the nagging problems and the inability of Maruti to address our concerns properly was simply frustrating and that passion quietly faded away.

Just because I had a problem with my Swift simply does not mean all Marutis would have the same problem. But that being said, after spending 5.7 lakhs(in 2007) of our hard earned money on the ZXi model of the Swift, just imagine how frustrating it was to lose such important components in the car so soon. We were even in doubt - what if the airbags failed to deploy in case of a bad accident. The whole purpose of having bought a ZXi would have failed.

If someone asks me how was your experience with your Swift? Surely, I can't be expected to tell fairytales to them!!!  After having driven an Accent GLX for 5 problem free years, the Swift sure was a huge disapointment to us. We came to realise the difference in build quality between a Hyundai and a Maruti.

During the Swift's last days with us, for the first time, Maruti probably acknowledged that our Swift  was defective. The dealers came to our home stating that they had orders from "higher up"(whether it was the dealership MD or from Maruti we could never know) to take back the car at a good price and immediately deliver a new Swift/Dezire ZXi( whatever our choice) to us. But this was after an e-mail was sent to Maruti with a CC to the editor of a prominent auto magazine!!!

I used that line and it is an exgerraaration because the correct line used was 'the car feels like it's doing 120 when it's doing 80'. Lot's of reasons for that. Lighter car, more air, tyre noise, inability to mask speed well. It has nothing to do with the quality of the product but I believe a 8 lakh plus rupee car should give us more then point A to B transportation specially since cars costing 5 and 7 lakhs manage to mask speed better.The SX4 does not feel scary at 80 but there are cars that are cheaper yet better then it at crusing at 80, 100, 120 and 150.

Why compare the SX4 to Wagon R and Indica? Ok a customer upgrading froma  Wagon R will surely find SX4 more stable at high speeds but a i20, Grande Punto and even older generation Corsa's do a better job at high speed stability. Why? One of the reasons why the SX4 doesn't feel as stable at 140 as a Honda or GM or Fiat is the suspension. The SX4's suspension is too jumpy and you tend to get thrown all over when it goes over bad roads. NVH is also a major reason why the car feels like it's doing 150 when it's actually doing 120.

No car is perfect let's accept that. SX4 needs better quality, suspension and feel good factor just like City needs more features and a more logical price and Linea needs a bigger engine with better plastics and Fiesta needs more space etc etc.

Points well taken.

Scope of improvements still empty.

Keeping aside what LOVE i have for the vehicle,Keeping aside bad management through some dealers of maruti,keeping aside the huge sales of a particular brand

I accept my intentions to the core-Good view for future buyers,honest revealations and some real good facts about any vehicle in particular.

Part of the suspension attribute lies in the fact that car is built for sturdy roads,pot holes and with a good margin of ground clearance at hand,the car does pretty well in all the spectrums.

The car is built to last and not to trouble you every 5000 kms.

The suspension in my view have no design fault nor that bad either even when compared to the cream sedans over 11 lakh rupees.

They are on rather stiffer side to avoid frequent repairs.

Air bags not deploying atleast never has happened anywhere in the world-Are we underestimating our MEDIA!
LOls on the lighter note lets call it for the day for this discussion.

Hope we do our best not to manipulate people at the other end of the spectrum who seek good help from the people on this forum with wide array of experiences both Good and Bad.

Well said Doc.

We must not forget that are buying a pretty complex peice of macheinery in a car. No matter what make or model you buy you ought to find some niggling issues in some of the peices. Probably the hand made Ferrari's, where even a nut or bolt can be traced to person who actually made it in the factory, are an exception.

I can understand the frustration of a person who spends his hard earned money and does not get the kind of product or service he desrves at that price. But frustration on one off cases should not result damming the entire brand, make or model. In general, including the reviews posted by so many users on Carwale, people are happy with swift and SX4. At the same time some people have had problems even with Honda, Toyota and Hyundai. It is wrong to pass comments which blame the entire Maruti brand and network. It insults the wisdom of lakhs and lakhs of people who have bought and own the cars from Maruti stable.

I am a highly happy Maruti customer.My SX4 is running very well for almost two years and it is one hell of a practical and value packed car in this segment.I consider that only NHC is better marginally but then NHC costs a bomb and NHC is not meant for Indian roads where you have one speed breaker evry km.