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Hello Everyone!!!

As i have posted earlier about my experience in booking the car.
Here is the preview:

MUL Launched its entry level sedan replacing its old workhorse Maruti Esteem around 3 months ago. For past three months I have been doing surveys for a small car to buy. I had shortlisted Maruti Swift (Diesel Version) out of all the options. I was ready to buy the Swift VDi version which was costing me around Rs. 5.04 Lac (ex showroom, Chandigarh price). Then I was told that there was a waiting for 3-5 months for that car and to top it all they were not even taking in and new bookings for the car. The car was demanding a premium of around Rs. 20,000 if you want next day delivery. I was not at all ready to spend extra 20,000. While I was talking to the GM of a local maruti dealership, he told me that MUL is launching Swift DZire next month. I told him that I am aware about the car and I have seen the pictures. Quite frankly, I did not like what i saw in pre-launch pictures of the Swift Dzire. But that guy said he has seen the car in person and told me that it looked pretty great, infact he went on to say that the back of Dzire looks like Mercedes S-Class (which definitely isn’t the case). But, he insisted on me to wait for Dzire before buying Swift. I did not have any choice as the Swift VDi was not available and I was not ready to pay any premium.

So, when the Maruti Dzire was launched, after looking at their website, I liked the car. But, most the times cars look better in pictures shot by professionals than actual. So, the very next day I went to a local dealership to look at the car. Dzire looked even better in person than on their website. I took the test Drive and liked it. The rear of the car is very attractive. It has a chrome strip running in the center. Bootspace is around 460 liters. Price of the car was pretty decent. The Diesel Version costs between 5.39 lac to 6.70 lac. The petrol version costs between 4.52 lac to 5.92 lac. Features offered in the top end model and great like ABS and EBD, Airbags, automatic Climate control, steering mounted audio controls, tilt steering, height adjustable seats. None of the cars in this price range offers features like these and even some the cars above this price range do not offer features like these.

I was interested in buying the diesel version of the car. I finally decided on the Vdi model which was (before the price hike of 21K) priced at around 5.94 lac. Vdi has a double din integrated MP3 player, a display on the dashboard which gives you time and the temperature, superior upholstery, body colored door handles and RVMs, black A & B pillars, keyless entry, central locking with keyless entry (keyless entry is discontinued now), front and rear power windows when compared to Ldi version. For me this justified for the extra 50,000 in price.

The top model of the car ZDi offers features like ABS, twin air bags, steering mounted audio controls, automatic climate control, alloy wheels, 185X70X14 tires. All these features are very useful and worth paying for, but I didn’t wanted to get into a price bracket of around 7 lac. When you go into that segment, you start looking at other options which might not have the similar set of features but have better brand names like Honda City etc.

Overall, Dzire offers you a very good value for your money. And since its a Maruti, you don’t have to worry about things like spare parts, service centers and resale value.

So, I booked Silky Silver Swift DZire VDi. From the initial survey i found out that if I book the car now I will get a delivery in around 1-2 months. But I found out a newly opened dealership which promised me to deliver the car within a week. But it took more than a month for the car to arrive. I made repeated trips to the dealership and visited their yard. They sold 4 silver VDi’s before mine, however mine was the first one to be booked at that dealership. They kept giving me crap about previous customers changing their colors and they had to give priority to them. I am sure they have sold them at premium.
Anyhow, I now feel lucky that I got it in a month. The waiting period now is 8 months and premium is anywhere between 30k-45k. My car was delivered on 3rd May, 2008. Booking was done on 27th march, 2008.

Okay, lets get down to the car now.

Engine
Dzire comes in 1300cc Multijet diesel. Diesel engine is same that was in Swift. It’s an award winning engine which uses technology from FIAT. No complaints about the engine. Pickup is good, after around 2200 RPM. Noise level inside the cabin is very less for a diesel car. I have been keeping the RPM below 2000 RPM (and plan to do it for first 5k Kms), except a few occasions and speed below 60 for first 1000 Kms. All in all, I am very much satisfied with the engine of the car. EPS is good and turning radius is amazing.

Looks & Styling
The sedan is a replica of the hatchback with a boot attached along. The chunky C-pillar is moved towards the back and rear quarter glass has grown in size. Maruti has extended the rear doors and hence the seats are pushed to the back to give more legroom for the rear passengers. Front seats are comfy and very supportive.

Interiors
Interiors have been refreshed. Integrated single din stereo which plays MP3, WMA, audio CDs and radio is a welcome change. The Speedometer and tachometer looks good with chrome surrounds and are white-lit which looks cool at night.

Fuel Economy
Before the first service at 1k kms, it gave an average of around 15. After the first service, on the full tank I got around 17 kmpl, 2nd tank gave 18.8 kmpl and last time I checked average was 19.3 kmpl with around 3000 KMs on ODO. 70% driving has been on highways with 30% in city, a/c always on.

Issues
A few people told me about the issue with the brakes. People told me that you have push really hard for braking. My car’s brakes were pretty good, never had any problem with it.
I do have the issue with the reverse gear. It gets struck at times. I asked on my first service about the issue and they told me it will be set after around 5k. I really don’t buy that. Is that really the case? What really is the issue? Is it gear oil?
Car rattles on bad roads with potholes. On a smooth road you won’t notice anything and its really very quite. Build quality of the car is not upto the mark. It makes a very cheap thud sound when you close the doors with windows rolled down. Interiors look good, but quality of plastic is very cheap. It seems like, if you punch the dashboard (not that hard) you can drill a hole in it.
The car didn’t really felt planted on speeds above 100. The issue were the tires (JK 165X70X14). I upgraded to Michelin XM1 (185X70X14).
After the tire change car feels planted and well in control on high speeds and while jumping into the turns on speeds above than normal.

After Market Parts:

• 4 X Michelin XM1 (185X70X14) – Rs. 8000 (after exchanging the old tires @ Rs. 1300 each tire, with Michelin costing Rs. 3300/tire).
• Autoform DriFit seat covers PU/Art Leather with proper bucket type fittings – Rs. 5500 with labor.
• Leather wrap steering cover (Stanley) – Rs. 1250
• 2 sets of Xenos reverse parking sensors (with alarm) – Rs. 2400. Before everyone starts telling me that “why do you need it in a small car like Dzire”, my dad drives this car sometimes. He is not really comfortable with the height of the car and has drive Zen most of his life.
• Pioneer speakers – Rs. 5400
• Relay for glasses (Brand: Scorpio) – Rs. 1000 (which will auto roll up all the window glasses when you lock the car. I have it in my Mahindra Scorpio and really am used to it).
• Sun control film (Lumar) – Rs. 1500
• Generic rubber footmats – Rs. 500
• Metal number plate (embossed type) – Rs. 600

Total: Rs. 26150

I do plan to get alloys with 15 inch tires later. Basically, after these tires are due for change. Have exhausted my budget for now!!!

See a plethora of the pictures below:
PS: It was raining when I clicked the pictures and sony cameras are crap. Pictures are not the best quality. Spots on the car/seat covers are actually on the lens and not in actual.
PPS: Its been raining for past 3 days, so car is not the cleanest.

A member (awarty) of a famous car community (TEAM-BHP) recently spotted the 3rd Generation all new Honda City somewhere near Pune. He clicked some photographs using his phone camera.

A lot of people are waiting for this car all across Asia. Honda will launch its all new city around the world in 2008.

Thailand and Malaysia will be the first ones to get the car and it would subsequently launched (in a couple of months in India).

Honda City is facing stiff competition from Maruti’s SX4 and they might launch the car in India a little sooner.

The new car looks a little broader and longer than the current version. Back of the car is more simple and resembles Lancer with no lights/reflectors on boot lid. Front grill looks like that of new accord. Interiors seems to be more or less same as the outgoing version.

Read the discussion about the car on TEAMP-BHP.

Here are the few spy / leaked / paparazzi pics of the car:

Windows XP Service Pack 3 was release by Microsoft officially.

You can either download the ISO file directly from Microsoft and burn it on CD or install it via Windows Update.

ISO file is 544 MB.
Direct Download Link
Download page on Microsoft.com

I have installed it on my laptop and desktop. I don’t see any significant changes so far. I keep on downloading updates from Windows Update, so I had most of the fixes installed.

SP3 includes IE7, latest version of Windows Media player 11, Windows Live Messenger and some other 100s of security fixes.

Instruction for installation of SP3 for people using MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac and Mac Pro running Windows XP via Bootcamp or any other software:
You will get following error:
There is not enough disk space on C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ to install Service Pack 3 Setup requires an additional 4 megabytes of free space or if you also want to archive the files for uninstallation,Setup requires 4 additional megabytes of free space. Free additional space on your hard disk and then try again.

Here is how you can fix it:
1. Click Start - Run - Type “regedit” and press enter.
2. Navigate to
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup]
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\Software
\Microsoft
\Windows
\CurrentVersion
\Setup
3. In the right pane, Right-click and select New - String value
4. Name it as “BootDir” and set its value to “C:\”

This should help. Try installing SP3 and should work fine.

The reason why there is an error because iMac or any other MAC Computer uses EFI file format which Windows XP does not support.

Hello Everyone!!!MUL Launched its entry level sedan replacing its old workhorse Maruti Esteem last week.For past two months I have been doing surveys for a small car to buy. I had shortlisted Maruti Swift (Diesel Version) out of all the options. I was ready to buy the Swift VDi version which was costing me around Rs. 5.04 Lac (ex showroom, Chandigarh price). Then I was told that there was a waiting for 3-5 months for that car and to top it all they were not even taking in and new bookings for the car.The car was demanding a premium of around Rs. 20,000 if you want next day delivery. I was not at all ready to spend extra 20,000. While I was talking to the GM of a local maruti delarship, he told me that MUL is launcing Swift DZire next month. I told him that I am aware about the car and I have seen the pictures. Quite frankly, I did not like what i saw in pre-launch pictures of the Swift Dzire. But that guy said he has seen the car in person and told me that it looked pretty great, infact he went on to say that the back of Dzire looks like Mercedes S-Class (which definitely isn’t the case). But, he insisted on me to wait for Dzire before buying Swift. I did not have any choice as the Swift VDi was not available and I was not ready to pay any premium.

Last week, Maruti Dzire was launched, I watched the live webcast of the launch on their office website (http://www.marutidzire.com). After looking at their website, I liked the car. But, most the times cars look better in pictures shot by professionals than actual. So, the very next day I went to a local dealership to look at the car. Dzire looked even better in person than on their website. I took the test Drive and liked it. The back of the car is very attractive. It has a chrome strip running in the center. Bootspace is around 460 liters. Price of the car was pretty decent. The Diesel Version costs between 5.39 lac to 6.70 lac. The petrol version costs between 4.52 lac to 5.92 lac. Features offered in the top end model and great like ABS and EBD, Airbags, automatic Climate control, sterning mounted audio controls, tilt steering, height adjustable seats. None of the cars in this price range offers features like these and even some the cars above this price range do not offer features like these.

I took the test drive. Lets look at some of the positive things offered by Swift Dzire:

Engine
Dzire comes in 1300cc Multijet diesel engine and in a 1.3-litre petrol variant. Diesel engine is same that was in Swift. Its an award winning engine which uses technology from FIAT.

Looks & Styling
The sedan is a replica of the hatchback with a boot attached along. The chunky C-pillar is moved towards the back and rear quarter glass has grown in size. Maruti has extended the rear doors and hence the seats are pushed to the back to give more legroom for the rear passengers. Front seats are comfy and very supportive.

Interiors
Interiors have been refreshed. Integreated single din stereo which plays MP3, WMA, audio CDs and radio is a welcoem change. The Speedometer and tachometer looks good with crome surrounds and are white-lit which looks cool at night. Steering has been borrowed from SX4, top end variant comes with steering mounted stereo controls like SX4. As usual, top of the line variants comes with ABS and twin airbags.

Pricing:
Petrol
Swift Dzire Lxi 452274.55
Swift Dzire Vxi 500061.74
Swift Dzire Zxi 592649.92

Diesel:
Swift Dzire Ldi 541876.31
Swift Dzire Vdi 587672.36
Swift Dzire Zdi 672296.33

All prices are ex. showroom Chandigarh.

I was interested in buying the diesel version of the car. I finally decided on the Vdi model which is priced at around 5.94 lac. Vdi has an double din integreate MP3 player, a display on the dashboard which gives you time and the temperature, superior upholstery, body colored door handles, black A & B pillars, keyless entry, central locking, front and rear power windows when compared to Ldi version. For me this justified for the extra 50,000 in price.

The top model of the car ZDi offers features like ABS, twin air bags, steering mounted audio controls, automatic climate control, alloy wheels, 185X70X14 tires. All these features are very useful and worth paying for, but I didnt wanted to into a price bracket of around 7 lac. When you go into that segment, you start looking at other options which might not have the similar set of features but have better brand names like Honda City etc.

Overall, Dzire offers you a very good value for your money. And since its a Maruti, you don’t have to worry about things like spare parts, service centers and resale value.

So, I booked Swift DZire VDi. A friend of mine Navneet Sharma and Aman Chagotra also liked the car. They have been planning to buy a new car for last year. They finally zeroed in on Dzire.  From the initial survey i found out that if I book the car now I will get a delivery in around 1-2 months. But I found out a newly opened dealership which promised me to deliver the car within a week. If all goes well, I will get the car by this week. Thanks to Mr. Navneet for helping me get the car as quickly as possible.

Here are a few pictures for you: