In love with my A-Star Automatic. Review on Maruti Suzuki A Star

I wanted a car with Automatic transmission for convenience of driving in heavy city traffic, so I bought an A-Star Automatic in June 2012. I had only two options available, the A-Star and the Hyundai i10, none were available for test drive,  they dealers did not even had the AT versions in stock, it had to be ordered, so after a bit of research on the internet, I bought the A-Star.

It was a big gamble, this was the quickest decision I made while buying a car,  other cars that I own were bought after a very thorough research and took quite a while. So I bought this one without taking a test drive, they did not even had the 2012 model with beige interiors on display, I just saw the brochure. But I guess buying this Maruti was the best decision ever.

It is effortless to drive in the city, equally good on highways and hilly areas. It has the 4 speed automatic transmission. The shift is very intelligently designed and one can manually select each of the 4 gears in case one needs to while overtaking on highway or going downhill. It just needs a flick to the right to shift from top gear to 3rd while overtaking, you can also press the accelerator a bit hard, increased rpm results in downshift for overtaking.

The mileage is an absolute stunner on highways, I never expected this car to be so efficient being an automatic. Keep it till 90 kmph on highways and it will return a handsome figure of 16+ kpl with Aircon and very efficient in the city as well.

I would recommend this car not just to the people considering buying an automatic but also to the ones going for manual car in the same segment. This AT variant is equivalent to A star Vxi in term of features but it has ABS in addition to the Vxi, price difference is appx. 50, 000 INR. Generally, only the ABS would cost 20k so it is just 30, 000 extra you are spending for the comfort and luxury of an automatic transmission for as long as you keep this car. Every extra penny spent is worth it. You would easily get a discount of 40, 000-50, 000 on total on-road cost for this car. Maruti sells Dzire automatic fitted with same transmission but price difference with equivalent manual variant is appx. 1.30 lakh. This is the cheapest automatic transmission car available in India which I would highly recommend to everyone. Car is well built, offers a great value for money, great to drive for both women and men, driver seat is height adjustable, aircon is very effective, easy to park, good handling, very stable on high speed, automatic transmission is near seemless- not at all very jerky like previous AT cars, sufficient bhp. A little cramped for rear passengers, boot space is not much but that is about it for the flaws, I personally hated the looks of the car earlier but then I started liking it. Now I find it cute may be because I own one, others might still have a different opinion. It looks great in Metallic Grey. I always prefer it over my Fiat Linea and Swift while going out in city or sometimes on a long drive as well. It really brings joy.