Maruti Alto K10 Bad Product REGRET PURCHASING

 General Manager – Customer Care & After Sales

Dear Sir,

Please find the problems as summarized below:

·         I took delivery of the vehicle on 3^rd September 2010 from  Popular Vehicles and Services Limited at Annanagar,  Chennai

·         At the time of delivery I noticed that the back left hand side door was not closing properly and promptly showed it to the dealer.  He assured me that the issue will be sorted out during first service.

·         After driving for  25 days and around 800 kms, I found following issues with the car:

1.       First and Second gear shift is rough and car's movement jerky while driving

2.       Car vibrates while it moves at around 15KmpH on second gear.  It becomes essential to down-shift to 1^st gear before accelerating further.  I felt even the Maruti 800 which I have driven before performed better than this at low revs.

3.       A knocking sound emanated from inside the bonnet

4.       While decelerating, when I ease my leg from the throttle, sometimes the car suddenly slows down (as though someone has applied brakes).  And from low speed when I try to accelerate the vehicle, sometimes I find that the car picks up slowly and suddenly accelerates.

 ·         The service station diagnosed that the gear box and clutch problem and informed me that a sound was emanating from the gear box and they have to open the gear box and check.  They further said that, since they are not familiar with this model’s gearbox they will had to consult Maruti Suzuki and it will take minimum  3 working days to solve the problem. 

 ·         When I did not hear from them on promised due date, I contacted them again and they said they have not yet heard from Maruti Suzuki and they tried replacing the clutch disc and clutch cover assembly.  According to them it appeared to have solved the problem.  I got delivery of the vehicle after 10 days.

 ·         Further, they said they also had to change the engine mounting because a sound was emanating from the bonnet.

 ·         Subsequently, the service station gave me the assurance that everything was fine and all the problems were taken care of

 ·         This was far from the truth, the same day while driving the vehicle, I noticed a sound every time I accelerated from low speed.  I promptly called and informed the service person.  After few more days, I noticed oil stain in my parking area and called the service station person immediately.  He asked me to bring the vehicle to service station, which I promptly did.  This was on 16^th October 2010.  They detected problem with oil seal– again from the gearbox/clutch.  They further said that since this was a new model they have to get the spare seal from Maruti Suzuki and I will have to wait for further 2 working days to sort the problem out.  Till date I have not heard from them.

·         When I asked about jerkyness of 1^st and 2^nd gear, your dealer’s answer was that ‘since other car owners have also complained about the same thing, it is actually an inherent feature of the car and not a problem’!!  This logic does not make sense to me. My contention is that this might be a basic design problem with the vehicle itself and I see a major design problem brewing here.

 ·         Why does the engine mounting in a new vehicle require replacement? An engine mounting is a critical component and is supposed to last the lifetime of a vehicle. Again your dealer could not come up with a suitable answer my query.

The sad but unfortunate conclusion that I can arrive at is any one or all of the following:

• ·         The Maruti Alto K10 has basic design flaws
• ·         The vehicle has substantial manufacturing defects which is now slowly coming to the surface – and I have no way of knowing what is going to happen next when I drive my vehicle
• ·         The vehicle was used extensively by the dealer – for test drives etc. before being sold to me

You can also see my updates on the car at http://www.mouthshut.com/kirantellis/reviews

I had shortlisted Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 and Chevrolet Spark.  Went of Alto K10 because Maruti cars command better resale value in the market.  Now I wonder why!  I would have been better off going for second hand Spark.  Over all quality of spark is far better than Maruti Suzuki Alto K10.  Every thing from quality of plastics to overall build quality is much better.