I did not really miss driving the automatic now. Its 2nd and 3rd gears were enough to potter around at slow speeds with the car fully loaded.
BHPian TorqMaster recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
I drove the Marazzo M2 for about 1000 kms from Chennai to Dindigul and back, the past week. The car was rented from Zoomcar and had already clocked 1,03,xxx kms.
I drove the XL6 4Spd AT for 20K kms prior to this and have been driving automatics since the last 8 years.
Positives over the XL6
- Driving position and comfort. Much better than XL6.
- Gearbox was smooth to operate despite being used for 1L kms. I felt no problems getting back to driving a manual after using the XL6 AT.
- Passenger comfort on all three rows. This is the innova replacement now (not the crysta)
- Luggage space much better.
- Space inside the cabin and the overall roominess.
- Ride comfort over bad roads, speed breakers, ruts, high speeds etc.
- Useful high beams
Negatives (this car in particular)
- Basic audio system
- Some broken bits like the sunshade falling off, sticky seatbelts, broken bits inside near third row
- Fuel efficiency was only 15.5 kmpl . Being a 6spd high torque diesel, I expected more.
- Useless Low beams.
- Had to bang the doors to shut . It was because this car’s front had some damage due to which the panels were misaligned.
- Weird purple lighting for the dashboard
- No proper instant fuel economy readout. Maybe due to M2.
The car had strong vibrations at 100kmph. Perhaps bad alignment or wheel balancing. Hence I had to keep the car at around 90kmph to cruise comfortably. There were times I had to touch 120kmph to overtake vehicles and the car would quickly accelerate and then I would come back to 100kmph or thereabouts.
While returning from Dindigul we refueled the car and the check engine light came on. We were not sure if this would cause a problem on the journey. We were 4 adults and 4 children in the car, hence we did not switch off the car and kept driving for the next 8 hours. The car performed without a hiccup but the CEL remained on.
The car had many dents and dings in its doors, bumpers etc. Many rust spots from its past scars. It ran on steelies. Bits and pieces of its front wheel well claddings were hanging off. But it sounded fine, ran fine and brakes fine. No weird sounds from suspension or engine.
The AC took time to cool since the glass area is big. The second and third row servicing roof AC was effective.
At the end of the drive we paid 123xx for the rental and about 6500 for diesel for 1000kms. I thought the rental was expensive and the fuel economy was on the lower side. Perhaps the vehicle needed a service.
When we returned from the trip I regretted not buying this vehicle when I was in the market in 2021. I did not really miss driving the automatic now. Its 2nd and 3rd gears were enough to potter around at slow speeds with the car fully loaded. Never at any instance did I feel it was underpowered.
I quickly looked up the price of Marazzo and realised it was going to be discontinued.
If I was I the market now, this is the car I would buy.
Keyword: Why I regret choosing the Maruti XL6 AT over the Mahindra Marazzo