Matiz-Mean Wonderful Machine. Review on Daewoo Matiz

Hey everyone,

Back from a month long hibernation with brand new review about an age old car... Well not really age old but at least an old car. MATIZ, my friends, I believe is the most under rated car. I bought a second hand Matiz which is a 2001 model. It has done 37K kms and I am the third owner. It is a SG model with AC and power steering. I own the light metallic green color.

Well firstly, anyone will be concerned about the looks of his car. The first look at the car from the exterior made me go crazy about it. It was small, cute and really sexy from the front and from the sides. From the back it was elegant. I then opened the door and boy was I in for a surprise?? The space in the front was sufficient for a 6 footer like me to sit without the seat being pushed all the way back. Space at the back was also fine and not cramped like in Alto or Santro for that matter. The interior was the same one from the company with coloured fabric and grey upholstery. It was pleasant. I was for the car from the look of it.

But you cant invest 1.5 lakhs for the looks. So I had to see how the car performs.

I got into the driver seat and fired the ignition. It was very smooth and quiet. I put it in first gear and the pull was not all that awesome like the Santro but for city driving it was sufficient. Now I moved up the gears upto the 4th and it was very smooth and the power was also sufficient for daily driving. The feel in the driver's seat was like that of a king. The power steering was very responsive and easy to handle the car in tight traffic and also cramped parking spaces. It was a delight to drive the car in the city. The power delivery was smooth and awesome.

So much for the ride in the car. Now for the negatives of the car:

• The indicator stick is on the left side rather than on the right like most of the Indian cars. It is a major drawback if you have to shift gears and also switch on the indicator at the same time.

  
  




• The boot space is very less and cannot hold more than two big bags. If four people in the family like to go out for an outing for four days then it cant hold the luggage for all these people.

  
  




• Gear shift is a cable one and not the rod one which is found in all the cars of today.

  
  

The draw back is that there is bound to be a problem during significant usage of the gear shift.

Now for the fuel efficiency of the car. It gives me around 13 kms in the city with AC on always and on the one long trip which I went I got 17 kms. But if the AC is on during the journey on the highways you feel the car craving for the power and struggles to reach 100 kmph. Thats something which I can live with as I dont travel on long journeys frequently.

Verdict: This car is for people who want to use it in the city and seldom go for long drives. The rumour about the spares not being available is not genuine as Vijay Sales and Service in Bangalore still service Matiz and get the spares shipped from Pune if required. All in all I am very happy that I got the Matiz which is a fun car to drive in the city and not bad on highways. I went for a 600 km long drive and felt the car was a tad underpowered when compared to the 1.1 L Santro. But since it is only an 800 cc car, no complaints. But the best part of the car is that it does not look huge from outside and is very beautiful when compared to the old Santro (not the Xing) and interior is spacious as the boot space is compromised. I would recommend this car to any one who wants a second hand car at a reasonable price with the desired comfort features of Power steering and AC. Hope you find this review useful.

Take care guys and c ya soon

Maddy