Review after 3 years. Review on Maruti Suzuki Wagon R 1.0 LXi

Hi folks,

I am writing this review after using my WagonR LXI for 3 yrs. I had written a review when I purchased this car in 2005. You can read the same on

https://mouthshut.com/review/Maruti_Suzuki_Wagon_R-92927-1.html

Reviews here already contain the Pros and Cons which I will not again write here(I too mentioned them in my first review). So I thought it will be interesting for readers to understand the car after using it for some duration of time.

I have run the car now for about 16000 kms which is a low usage. The usage was 85% city and rest on highway. The servicing was done as per the manual and at Maruti dealers.

When I drive on the Bangalore-Mysore higway, I dont take the car beyond 100kmph. The reason is that the car doesnt inspire confidence in you with a feeling that it may take off the road. This apparently seems to due to its tallboy design and being light weight. I have streteched to 120KMPH, however it seems to run out of steam. Speed beyond 70kmph results in mileage going down and hence 70kmph is best on highway to get a combination of mileage and speed.

Coming to the acclerator, clutch and brake pedals. These are gap up from the floor and drivers with smaller foot(short guys) will find it uncomfortable to work on these pedals. Santro is better in this department although the lateral distance between clutch and brake is a issue in Santro.

Currently I am facing issues on my Sparkplug and Valves resulting in poor mileage of 10kmpl and a jerky 1st and 2nd gear. The service centre each time adjust the same which keeps coming back every 2 weeks or so.

When the valves and sparkplug are cleaned and adjusted the mileage increases to 12kmpl in city without a/c.

When the car was new I was getting 14+kmpl in city with moderate A/c and 19+ kmpl on highway with occasional a/c usage.

Coming to the tyres. Although the stock JK radials are still in good condition, the tubes seem to be of poor quality as the air leaks and every 10 days of usage I need to top up the air.

The JK tyres also do not give a good feedback of the road as it gives a wobbly feeling and there are 100 occasions so far when I had to stop the car and get down to see whether I had a punture!

However it looks like the new WagonR's come with MRF tyres which should do good.

Though it was unnecessary at the end, I had a wheel alignment and balacing done for Rs.440 since I had completed about 7000kms. The advise is that unless your car had a rough usage on bad roads or it wobbles at higher speeds, you need not spend on doing the mandatory wheel alignment and balancing every 5000kms.

Coming to the headlight. They are just about ok although I would liked them to be more focussed in illumination. Under city lights the illumination does get affected as you have good chance of missing that pothole.

Although the front road visibility is v.good, you have to be careful taking right turns as the right A pillar and the mirror cause a blind spot.

I also advise that the wiper be wiped every day with soft cloth for long lasting and it helps to wipe the glass shield on rainy daysmuch better.

The power brakes are no longer powerful enough even after replacing the brake fluid.

Coming to the better part, the wargonr is a excellent car to manouver in city traffic. It is very roomy and the luggage space is just great.

Touchwood, by Gods grace never had any breakdown(other than 2 punctures) and it seem that I can go on driving without giving it for service.

To summarise, after 3 years it has been a mixed feeling considering that there are newer and overall better cars in the market like the i10, Spark and Swift.