SX4 vs. Verna Petrol vs. Verna Diesel. Review on Maruti Suzuki SX4

I read a lot of reviews on SX4 comparing with Honda City. Well one thing you all will agree that every person has got a different taste and different ways to look at a product. So this review is completely based on my liking of a product. I am categorizing this review in two categories, DRIVE and FEATURE, SPACE and VFM (Value for money). I have not commented on mileage part because I don't know what dealers are claiming is correct or not.

I wanted to upgrade my Zen to a car in SX4 segment. And as an option I wanted to test drive SX4 and Verna. I did not consider Honda City just because of limited features at its cost.

DRIVE:

I planned to take test drives of both SX4 and Verna on the same day. First I drove SX4 (ZXi) and it felt very good driving SX4 (you can think of a person who is used to of driving a Zen and then driving a car with 102bhp). The suspension, the gearshifts, the seating comfort and the view of the road from driver's perspective was very good. I tried to sit at back and I found that there was enough leg space left even when the driver seat was completely pushed back. (I am 5'11", may not be comfortable enough for more taller people). Well the ride at the back was pretty comfortable even at very bad patches of the road. At higher speed, above 100kmph SX4 was really amazing, specially the way I was confident in handling it at 140kmph. I could not go above 140kmph so I cannot comment on that. So I made up my mind to book this car. But I wanted to try Verna as well.

So next I went to drive Verna on the same day. First I drove Verna XXi (Petrol version). And to my surprise, the drive was better than SX4 due to its pick-up (acceleration specially at 3rd gear). The car was adequately responsive and the gear ratios were well tuned for city driving. In no time I touched 100kmph. I enjoyed the drive of Verna as well. Only the thing which I did not like, it started vibrating over 130kmph and then I realized its limit. The breaking and suspension were equally good as of SX4. I was little uncomfortable with the seating position, it felt like sitting just under the steering, but I believe it is not hard to get used to of such seating position, it could be a problem for short people. Well the ride at the back seat was little less comfortable compare to SX4, I can say it was at par with SX4 on ok road (humps) but on bad road the jerks were little more compare to SX4. By this time I was totally confused between SX4 and Verna (Petrol).

Next I drove Verna (Diesel). To my surprise I did not find much difference with SX4 while driving on 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear (to be more precise below 1900rpm-2000rpm). Verna (Diesel) was little rough and not as smooth as SX4/Verna (Petrol). And this is just because different nature of engine. I understand to drive a diesel comfortably you really have to adapt the way a diesel car should be driven (like more on lower gears to get adequate rpm to trigger turbo). Now comes the surprise part of Verna (Diesel), as soon as the tacho touches 2000rpm mark the car accelerates like an aircraft start the run to take off on the runway. That was amazing. I really liked it. But sadly I was not very comfortable driving Verna (Diesel) in slow traffic specially bumper to bumper traffic. I feel there is a long way to go for diesel in lower segment of cars.

So as per driving, I felt Verna Petrol would be the best.

FEATURE (fitments), SPACE and VFM (Value for money)

I am not going to write detailed feature list since it can be obtained on the websites of respective cars. I would like to highlight the features which attracted me in both the cars (SX4 and Verna Petrol).

Verna is lacking on airbags which is not available in any of its variant. Here SX4 gains some points. Verna offers a 2 DIN stereo which I feel is better than SX4 because you can play cassettes as well as CDs (I don't know which one is better for loud music and thats not within my likes). I liked the integrated looks of different equipements on the dashboard in SX4 and steering wheel stereo controls. So I gave more points here to SX4. Verna has got driver's arm rest in XXi model which gives additional comfort in driving. The reverse gear position in Verna is not usual instead it is towards the left of 1st gear position (one has to just get used to of it). Another thing I liked in Verna is, in ABS model, all the 4 wheels have disc brakes and in SX4 in all the models only front wheels have got disc breaks.

Overall featurewise I liked SX4. There are many more small small things which I liked in SX4 and I have not mentioned in this part because it is either not there in Verna or I did not like the way it is installed.

Space wise I like SX4, the boot space is really enough to keep all my baggage which I normally carry to airport to go abroad. Verna has got smaller boot space but it is actually enough and with the option 40:60 split back seats one can create more space in Verna. The seating position in the middle of back seat not very comfortable in both the cars. Otherwise width wise SX4 can accomodate 3 people comfortably at the back compare to Verna. SX4 has a disadvantage due to its design. The disadvantage is because of not enough headroom near the back seat doors. So the head of a taller person needs to be bent a little which could be an uncomfortable seating position.

The ground clearance is very good in SX4-ZXi (190mm) compare to 170mm in Verna. This is one thing which attracted me a lot in this car.

Overall SX4 gives a feeling of a big car by looks, interiors, exteriors and the quality of finish. It is total value for money given its size and features.

Finally I booked SX4 just for two reasons, one is VFM, it feels like a big car and second its handling,   confident grip on the road at high speeds and on also comfortable on bad roads.

The dealer is not committing any delivery date before 3 months. Since I have made up my mind to go for SX4, I am ready to wait for 2 months and pushing everyone to deliver the car in 2 months. At the same time, if I see that the delivery is getting delayed further then I will not mind going for Hyundai Verna Petrol since the overall package is not bad, its just matter of my personal preference to go for SX4.