In follow up to my test drive during booking wait I have now had car for 6.5 months, 9000km driven, both free services and 1 scheduled/recommended engine oil and oil filter change at 7500km later, so hereās my review. Again I will be comparing it with my other car which I have been driving for 10 years, 2010 Corolla GLI manual, which is now used as a secondary car.
THE GOOD
-I recently became a father so having 6 airbags is very important to me. Finally feels like not driving in a death trap.
-Comfort on front seats is excellent. Better than expected really. I have gone from LHR to ISB on motorway and back, frequent use of Lahore Ring Road, as well as using it as daily car in city traffic for the whole time.
-Fuel Economy is outstanding for a car of this size. Its giving Alto/Cultus level of Fuel Econ. Iām getting 18 km/l on MID display and 17+ on tank to tank via fuelio app. I drive with a light foot anyway, and now with very frequent use of cruise control, since my commute involves a lot of the signal free corridors of Lahore, so I just reach 60-70 kp/h and put cruise on. It would be higher probably but when Iām not in areas where I can use cruise control I speed thru traffic more briskly to get out of those areas quicker which probably brings my avg down below its potential.
-Cruise Control is a godsend. It was one of the main reason for buying this, not having automatic gearbox and cruise control was a deal breaker for me so I was only considering cars with these features.
-Looks. Not a factor in my buying decision. (My older car is the ugliest corolla generation ever, and in a ugly Golden color to boot, so not a dealbreaker for me). Itās a very nice looking car in my opinion, both front and back. Its even a head turner, which I have never experienced before. I have Mineral Grey color, but Iāve seen so many New Swifts on the road and noticed they look good in every color, esp. GLX variant. Which just shows to me its a handsome looking car which can pull off every color. Ugly cars only look half decent in some colors that hide their aesthetic flaws (cough yaris cough).
-The LED lights are a huge upgrade. Definitely once you get used to the clarity and power, you wont ever be able to go back to standard headlight. Yes I know theyāre expensive as hell, thatās why I insured my car before I took it out on road.
-Power to weight ratio is quite satisfactory for me, especially as a light footed driver. much better than 1300cc corolla. It can be nippy when needed.
-Rear parking sensors are great. Arguably better than the mediocre rear camera, which is slow to pop up and low resolution. I mostly use the parking sensors when reversing rather than the camera.
THE BAD
-No armrest is very irritating. I plan on getting aftermarket one. Haven't had time to go to shops to look for one.
-Paint quality is very average. I havenāt noticed the huge flaws people have pointed out, but no doubt the paint quality is very Pak Suzuki. Not bad, just guzara.
-Rear camera quality is guzara, but I still appreciate it very much.
-SPORT mode is useless except for tanking your fuel economy (maintains low gear ratio, revs higher). Being a CVT it has a 0.5 sec delay lag which is to be expected, SPORT mode shortens this a bit but cannot remove it entirely, because physics, but the trade-off in fuel economy is not worth it at all.
THE UGLY/The Biggest disappointments:
-Visibility is very poor with big blind spots for me. Since Iām 6ā4ā, I have a tough choice to make. With seat at bottom height I get decent visibility but its uncomfortable for me. At the top height of seat Iām very comfortable but now the rear view mirror generates a huge blind spot right in my upper left, perfect size for hiding a motorcycle or even a car turning onto the road from above left. Its placement is very low compared to corolla, thats why it causes issue for me. Not an issue for shorter people I imagine
-Side blind spots are substantial in my option, even compared to my sedan.
-Furthermore rear view mirror is pathetic. The field of view is tiny, it seems to be just a flat piece of glass. Iāve seen supercars like Lamborghinis have bad rear view mirror visibility, but please Suzuki, this is not a Lamborghini. Please put decent rear-view mirrors on your cars
-Interior plastic quality is very bad, lives up to typical Pak Suzuki reputation. Plastic is rough and very scratchy, also gets dusty dirty very easily.
-Black Interior in general. I had toyed once with upgrading my Corolla Manual to top of line Grande with black interior, but after this experience I will not be opting for black interior cars. They are a dust magnet and a real pain to keep presentable. I donāt have a driver to clean my car everyday nor do I have the time or inclination, maybe its just feasible for those with drivers. Not to mention it heats up a lot. I have gotten nano-metallic heat reflection films installed for 15k on all windows, which I highly recommend.
-Infotainment system is pathetic. Some bargain basement Chinese android junk. Microphone is useless for calls. Touch screen is laggy and unresponsive. Google maps is slow and location lags behind car position by 2-3 secs, making you miss turns (checked by comparing it to phone navigation side by side). Overall system is so underpowered and slow I had to change its default theme to simpler one which made it run slightly faster. Itās just a glorified Bluetooth music player/youtube viewer. I canāt believe Suzuki is making us pay for e-waste.
-JATCO CVT in this is notoriously unreliable, so I have purchased extended 4th year warranty to cover it for extra year/20000 kms. 29k cost when I got it, mitigated somewhat by the fact you get 3x oil and oil filters with it, so actual cost out of pocket is around 8-9k, which is reasonable for a bit more peace of mind. I was going to get it anyway, but finding out it had JATCO CVT made it an essential purchase for me.
THE MEH
-Push start. Whatever.
-Keyless entry. Slightly better, although its caused me to start forgetting to take my keys out of older car when I drive it because Iām used to leaving car now without taking keys. I can live without it.
THE MOST PLEASANT SURPRISES:
-I had written off auto climate control as a shashka. But over time I have really come to appreciate it and it has completely turned my opinion around on it. My other carās Ac is too powerful, even in full heat I have to turn it off from time to time otherwise it just chills me to the bone. With Auto Climate Control I just treat it like home Inverter AC, I put it to a comfortable setting. (for me its 27āC usually, sometimes 26 in direct sunlight) and let it handle the rest. In the winter of Dec-Feb it would run the heater to maintain and now it runs AC, I havenāt had to mess with it at all. Definitely has become an essential feature for me in future car purchases.
-Similar story for auto headlights. It seemed like a shahska, but Iāve gotten to appreciate it taking one more thing off my responsibilities while driving/leaving car parked.
-Safety and Quality of Life feature like ABS, Traction control, airbags, and especially Hill-Hold Assist. Ive always been nervous driving automatics on hills/parking garages, because with a manual you have complete control via the tried and tested handbrake and clutch method. Auto gearboxes always made me feel Iām not 100% in control. But hill hold assists make even irritating situations like traffic jams on parking garage/flyover inclines easy to deal with.
-All of the above are like cruise control, they take a little burden of driving off driver.
Overall Iām quite satisfied with it. Fun to drive and feels like a modern car with complete features rather than a compromise that PKDMs feel like. Especially since I paid 29.9 Lac for it plus 29k extended warranty, 60k registration cost, and around 70k insurance (insured for updated rate of 40 lacs), plus 15k for heat reflection films. I feel it is well worth the price especially the GLX trim. If it only had a sedan boot I would consider it as an only car even. I've recommended it to everyone in friends and family whos asked me about it.