May 17, 2010 12:22 PM
24519 Views
I bought Astar less than a month back (Hyderabad) and I have driven about 400 kms. I chose Astar after considering others such as i10, Santro, Spark and Indica Vista. What made me go for Astar was the impressive 16~17 km/lit mileage quoted by the sales person based on the feedback given by other buyers, and some even had quoted him 19 km/lit.
But after driving for about 4 weeks, I have faced the following problems.
Mileage is very low, only 8~9 kms/lit with AC on and 90% of the time AC setting is only 1. When it is cool, I even switch off the engine at traffic lights. Although I drive within the City limits there is not much of traffic jams and most of the times I am driving in 3rd, 4th and 5th gear. Other car sales person were honest enough to say that the mileage is 11~12 (Tatas) or 14~15 kms/lit (i10s). But I get a feeling I have been taken for a ride by Maruti.
Pickup is extremely poor. Most cars start moving when you release and hold the clutch. But with my Astar, when traffic lights turn green, I am struggling to get the car moving, even as other vehicles and even the autos have gone well ahead. It is so frustrating, that I almost by instinct shout the car to move with all the honking noise to hear from the vehicles behind me. Worse still, when I release the clutch when the car has started moving it suddenly stalls and I have to restart the engine (you can imagine the scene with all the vehicles behind me). When I press accelerator, the car moves suddenly. That is when I am alone. When there are 4 of us inside, it just does not move. It is very tense particularly when the car has to stop at traffic lights.
Shifting gears is another big tension, particularly gear 1 and reverse. Need a lot of effort to shift gears. Sometimes it would not shift to the intended reverse gear even after 5 attempts and then it makes that familiar karrrr sound
Now some good things:
· AC is fantastic, cools even at 1 with 40 degs temp outside, 10 out of 10
· Driving is smooth
· Very good brakes
· Dash board is good looking
· Looks good and better than other cars
It could be a bit premature to make the above comments, but buyers beware before you shelve out Rs 4.6 lacs of hard earned money. A bad choice as the way things stand right now.
