Pre-owned options were ruled out by the ladies of the house. So the decision had to be made for a new purchase. I got home an Ignis Alpha AGS Pearl Arctic White on 1st Jan. On-road price 8L (Noida)
BHPian P22V recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Requirement:
My primary car is a 2021 Rapid Onyx Tsi AT. This suffices most of our requirements as a family of 4 (Me, wife, mother, 2 yr old son). But of late there has been some need for a second car for reasons – my wife wanting to (re)start her driving journey, my mother’s occasional city trips, need for a second car when my brother comes home from Mumbai, running errands etc.
With all this in mind we (wife and me) started discussing about buying a car. Pre owned options were ruled out by the ladies of the house. So the decision had to be made for a new purchase.
With everything in mind, we narrowed down the following requirements and we planned to stick to them with little or no deviation.
1. Hatchback due to smaller footprint.
2. Petrol because the running won’t be too much.
3. Automatic transmission for ease of use.
4. On road price should not exceed 9 lacs.
5. Preferably top most variant because we would keep the car for a longer period of time.
6. Hassle free ownership.
With all these requirements laid out, we looked at the following cars.
1. Hyundai Grand i10 Nios AMT
Dealership experience was average. I booked test drive through Hyundai India’s website. There was no communication post that for a month. I called the selected dealership but still no reply after leaving a message with the reception. Finally I had to visit the showroom to talk to the sales executive. Thereafter the experience was good.
I took multiple test drives and ultimately rejected the car because I was not able to find a comfortable driving position no matter how hard I tried. I tried having test drives in 2 different cars and also drove my neighbor’s car but still the same experience.
2. Tata Tiago Amt
No test drive car available. Zero effort to make a test drive car available. Not interested to explain the features of the product. Just boasting about the 5 star safety rating of Tata cars and criticizing brands like Maruti, Hyundai. This was the same experience at 2 different dealerships in Delhi NCR region. Horrible to say the least.
One of my good friend owns a Tata Tiago XTA. So I was able to do a long test drive on his car. The car feels solid to drive, though the engine feels a bit underpowered. Did not feel any issues with the AMT gearbox in city but on open roads, overtaking took some planning (classic AMT behavior). However, the main issue my friend faced with his car was engine locking and car not starting without any issues. He had visited multiple Tata service centers and nobody was able to detect a problem. He even changed his battery after 2 years (15k kms) after advice from service center but still faced the same issue. He is frustrated to a point where he is planning to sell his 2 yr old car and strongly advised me to NOT buy Tata. But I had to make an informed decision not on one person’s advise.
So I talked to a colleague who also owns a 2-2.5 yr old Tata Tiago XZA. He confirmed that the after sales service experience is really bad. I also talked to a couple of neighbors and they also advised me to stay away from Tata.
In all the above instances, nobody criticized the car but the after sales service. This combined with the Horrible experience at the dealerships made me reject the Tiago.
3. Fire AMT
I called a showroom near my home and I was told that someone will call me by evening. In no time, I received a call from a sales executive who listened to me patiently, did not try to upsell Baleno, said that he will make the car available for a test drive in a couple of days. After 2 days, he was at my house at the time discussed with an Ignis AMT for test drive. After the test drive, I told him that I am also looking at other cars and will only make my decision after test driving. What I liked the most about this experience was that he was accepting about the shortcomings of Ignis (like build quality) and also appreciated cars from other manufacturers for the qualities that they have. He also made sure to list down all the positives of the car and the brand i.e. Maruti Suzuki Ignis. I asked him to call me after a month. I was really impressed when I received his call exactly after one month and not before. I asked for a longer test drive and again he had to make the car available. After 2 days I took a longer test drive, this time with my wife. We went ahead and booked the Ignis Alpha AMT in Pearl Arctic White.
Mods done – Tyre upgrade to Continental UltraContact UC6 in 175/65 R16.
Here is a brief about my ownership experience after having driven 1.5k kms:
Likes:
1. Engine – Performance, refinement and fuel efficiency, the engine shines in all the areas. The engine never feels underpowered or out of breath for most of the use cases. Fuel efficiency I am getting is 16-17 kmpl tankful to tankful.
2. Size – The way Ignis drives in the traffic is commendable. It feels so agile and maneuverability is very good.
3. Comfort – the seats feel comfortable and I don’t feel any fatigue after a long drive.
4. Maruti’s after sales.
Dislikes:
1. AMT Gearbox – My reference point to an automatic car is Rapid Tsi AT. Hence it is taking longer than usual for me to adapt to this gear box. On an open road, when driven sedately, the gearbox behaves nicely (yes there are headknods but still). But the real pain starts when the car gets stuck in stop-go traffic. It becomes difficult to put the car even in 2nd gear and the jerkiness increases. I got myself into such situations on purpose just to experience the car in all types of traffic. Lucky for us, our (wife and me) daily commute mostly includes smooth sailing traffic.
2. Ride quality – The ride quality is very stiff. You feel every bump inside the car. On the flip side though, the ride quality at high speeds is fantastic.
3. Steering – The steering feels really light. At higher speeds, it weighs up slightly but overall experience is not confidence inspiring for me. For my wife though, the light steering is good to maneuver the car and she feels confident in doing so.
Here are a few pics of my car.
\
Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
