The only other turbo I have driven is the 1.5 Carens DCT, and I never really connected with that powertrain during the test drive.
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Completed 1100kms in Fronx Turbo Alpha AT. I have mentioned by selection criteria and test drive experience here. To summarize, I’m 6ft 4in tall, looking for a car that can be small enough to replace our AStar and be powerful enough to also replace our 4th Gen City CVT. It seemed to fulfill both purposes. We liked the noise insulation, ride quality, highway manners and performance.
About the purchase experience, we purchased it from ABT Nexa Guindy. The delivery ETA was quoted to be 45 days. Ended up getting it in 30 and this was after a week delay in connecting the car from Bangalore to Chennai. I requested for a PDI in their yard before releasing the loan disbursement. They agreed to it, but asked me to hand over the A star when the allotted car was shipped from the factory. I was able to select the insurance I wanted and their default option was good enough. I also had informed then at booking time that I wanted only select accessories and not the entire list. They mentioned I needed to pay the amount for the max insurance quote and accessories during payment, but I will be refunded based on what options I select. Though it took ~20 days after the delivery, I did get the expected refund.
I had selected, door visor, 3D floor mats and mud flaps from the accessories. The 3D floor mats came a week after delivery. At delivery time, I had also asked for the grey with red accent rear underbody spoiler. They said they’ll get me one but they couldn’t get the stock. I’ll try to source it from the official accessories page by Suzuki. The silver one doesn’t really sit well with the rest of the back/car for us. The telematics system, Suzuki Connect, took a week to activate as well. The Fasttag is from IDFC bank. I would have liked if I was given a choice. I would prefer a more mainstream bank, though I haven’t faced issues with it yet.
As for the car itself, we are thoroughly enjoying driving it. The very fact that we have covered more than a thousand kms in a month is a testament to it. Our experience from the test drive holds up. Loving how the suspension keeps us comfortable over rumble strips, patch works, smaller potholes, etc.
The car sounds a bit boomy when giving more than light throttle input at 1k RPM. However, things are refined above 1.5K and the pull puts a smile to my face above 1.8K-2K RPM. Please keep in mind that this is my first turbo experience though. The only other turbo I have driven is the 1.5 Carens DCT, and I never really connected with that powertrain during the test drive. I wanted something and the powertrain was busy doing something else. Back to the Fronx, over flyovers, if I want to avoid that boomy sound, I just pull the left paddle and get a gear down and it pretty much holds it till I descend.
Over flat roads though, pulling the paddles in D mode holds the manual mode a bit longer than I’d like. I would expect it to revert back to D after a 2-3 seconds of releasing the throttle, but it stays in M mode more than that and I have to upshift using the paddles and wait for it to revert to D. When I switch to manual mode via the shift lever, I have a feeling that it automatically shifts down, but I’m not sure. I need to notice that more carefully sometime.
One thing I missed updating in the test drive post was that the steering felt very video game like and the weighing up around 120 felt too artificial. However, I have gotten used to it and it does the job quite well. My wife like it very much as its light in the city. I still kinda prefer my 4th gen City’s steering (in the city at least, haven’t done road trips yet to have a comparison there). I also kinda like the full steering circle instead of the flat bottom thing.
Lights are sufficiently bright for the city. Not sure about rains. Keeping the headlight level at 2-3 seems to be right. The max setting is almost approching high beam state. Suzuki have erred on the side of caution with auto headlamps. They light up at 4pm itself once the sun is over to the side, or if I’m under a bridge even though it’s sunny outside, or even under a tree cover.
The front seats lack lumbar support. I have to slide down a bit to be comfortable. The City has a bit too much and this has too less. Thinking of getting one of those cushions for the back. Though they seem to go too much in the other direction. The seat is also not deep enough as the City, for my wife to sit cross legged like on the floor.
I liked the 360deg cam more than I expected. Helps in getting used to the size of the car quickly and also in navigating very tight urban spaces. The auto-IRVM doesn’t dim enough at night, at the high beams still do irritate me a bit. I would prefer going back to manual IRVM actually. As for keyless entry, if I take out the key while the engine is running, it sort of gets confused and doesn’t recognize the key for a while even after bringing it inside. I have had to switch off, get out and reenter the car to get it to recognize the key a couple of times.
The telescopic steering doesn’t come closer as much as I’d like. I think it comes out only a bit more than the one without telescopic adjustment. If I recline well to have a comfortable sitting position, I have to almost fully stretch my arms to reach the steering. So I still slide the seat a bit forward and have my leg bent a bit more than I’d like and change it up to have more recline to give a break to my back when driving for a long time.
Have done 2 tankfuls and got 10.2 and 9.8 kmpl. The MID showed 11.4 and 11 respectively. Driving was fully in the city. Completed the first service post that. It was supposed to be free but I insisted on changing the engine oil and filter and got a bill of ~3800 for it. The manual recommends changing the oil only at the 12 month service.
It took a while getting used to the brakes. For the first 500kms, the initial bite was very less and then it was too much when pressed a bit more. It was tricky to get the car stop smoothly. The auto start stop (ASS) cutting off the engine and the additional braking due to regen didn’t help either. After 500kms though, the bite is more progressive and I’ve gotten used to the regen. I still switch off the ASS though. I saved 500ml during the first tankful according to the MID. Not worth the additional jerks for me.
The telematics system works well. I switch on the engine and AC when I start from the house to the parking. By the time I start driving, it would have done the 90sec idling which helps the engine and turbo to warm up. The location tracking works well as well. I compared it to Google Maps’ location sharing feature and it updated the location a bit more frequently than Google.
Keyword: Clocked 1100 kms on my Maruti Fronx turbo AT: My observations so far