My father bought a Wagon R one and a half years back. We also have a Hyundai Santro at home. The one thing which struck me when I first drove the Wagon R was that the gear shift quality was absolutely terrible as compared to the Santro. One really has to wrestle with the gear shift lever to slot the car into overdrive.
Also there is a marked difference in the performance with the air conditioner running. This can be seen in the Santro as well but it is not as pronounced in the Santro as in the Wagon R.
Another thing which I don't like about the Wagon R is that the build quality is also poor as compared with the Hyundai's Santro. Within 4 months of owning the Wagon R it had more rattles than our then 4 year old Santro.
Now coming to the good part about Wagon R, it gives better fuel economy than the Santro and the cost of servicing is also cheaper than the Santro.
Overall it has been a fair experience of owning a the Wagon R. But, living with the Santro has been a better experience than the Wagon R and if given an option I prefer to take the Santro over the Wagon R even though it is the older and is not equipped with a power steering which the Wagon R we own has.
Although now I don't think one should go with either the Wagon R or the Santro as better options are aviailable from both the manufacturers. Namely, A Star from Maruti and i10 from Hyundai.
