Should I buy a zen today?. Review on Maruti Suzuki Zen - Petrol

I was owning a maruti Zen till last month. The vehicle met all my needs throughout the time I was using it. It was a 1997 model vehicle which I baught it from the first owner when it had done only 28,000 kms in the year 2000. When I recently drove my colleagues two month old Zen, it is then I decided that I should write a review about it - Should I buy a Zen today?

Our family used to exchange cars every 2-3 years. Whenever we buy a car, we will do certain extra work like adding accessories to the vehicle. For the same reason, we never wanted to buy a new car and thats why all our cars were baught second hand.

My review is based on the comparison between the latest Zen and the old one.

Design & Exterior

Zen is known best for its design. It is one such car that will really show-up if you add some extra fittings like alloy wheels, sun film, wider tyres etc. The body has the perfect blend of curves and cuts.

To me, the shape of old Zen looked the best. There has been a lot of refinement made on the vehicle as days passed, but I think the refinements made the car worst. My reaoning is that the old Zen had better shape compared to the new one. Today Zen is a saturated car. They have spoiled the face of the car. There is nothing much to do in the exterior. While I was living in Bangalore, I have seen guys putting spoilers and things to make it look sporty. And it really stood out that way. Old cars with just imported alloy wheels looked great too. But with the new design, nothing extra done will stand out as in the old car.

Interior

If you compare the interior of the new Zen with the old ones, the new zen lacks quality. Everything inside looks plastic. It is sad that the VXI model has fabric on the door pad, starting right from the window side. This piece of fabric will get very dirty when you drive the vehicle with windows down. That is because when the windows are down, we tend to rest our arms on the door (not the door pad). You can imagine when it rains and if the windows are bit down. Even a bit of water could stink the fabric. Whereas the old Zen had a leather finish for the door pads and looked cozy too. AC is not very powerful in Zen. My cousin had a matiz and another have a santro. These two cars have powerful AC. Leg space for the back seat is horrible if a person of 175 cms is driving and sitting at the back. Boot space is also not that great. Its a good city car. Not for long trips. Rattling in Zen is a common scene. How much ever money we spend for rattling, it cannot be solved. So please dont waste your money for rattling of the car. It is an in-born defect.

Performance

I do not know to talk technically/mechanically. But to my experience, Zen was meant to be a powerful cute hatchback. The old engines with carburator gave more thrilling driving to Zen than the new mpfi ones. You dont feel the punch and pressure in new zens as we used to get in the old cars with carburator. But we cant complaint this because of the euro norms and technology upgradation. My car used to give me 13 kmpl in cities and in long it used to give me about 16-17 kmpl. I dont believe people who say they got 15-16 kmpl for Zen in city and 20-23 kmpl for long trips. They are making people carried away by their wrong feedback.

Maintenance

I have only serviced my vehicle in authorixed service centers. To me, the maintenance cost of Zen is a bit expensive. But there is a lot of difference in the performance of the vehicle when you service the vehicle outside and when you service the car in authorized service center. I dont know why. My another question is that maruti parts that we buy from outside does not last long as the parts that we replace from the authorized service center. Also repairing in a regular workshop will make you do frequent trips to the mechanic whereas reparing it in authorized workshop will help you go back only for the next service.

Overall

Zen has reached its last stage. It is always better to buy a vehicle after a year or within 2 years of its launch so that any defects will be corrected within that period. Also, for oldies or middle aged people, it is better they take wagon R for a higher seating for easy entry and out. I'm 30 years old and its now difficult for me to get in and out of that car.