Wagon r duo a wonderful car

 

I have bought a wagon r duo in oct 2010 even though i know that the model has been relaunced after being phased out. What made me make this decision? I have a daily car usage of around 60 km and after calculating the per km cost of petrol , diesel and lpg i found that lpg @ 33.75/ lit an average of 15 Km  comes to around Rs 2.25/ Km , Diesel  @ 43/lit and average of 19/lit to Rs 2.26/Km , and petrol @ 54/lit and fuel average of 19 would be Rs 2.84/ Km. That convinced me to go for the lpg model.

My budget was 3.5 to 4 lacs and looking at the options indica dls would have come to around 3.9 lacs , and new wagon r for 4 lacs.I hate diesel cars because of the poor pickup , noise and tata cars have some of the worst interior quality.diesel car would be high on maintenance and my children get uncomfortable with the diesel smell.That effectively ruled out the indica option.

Maruti has given good discount of 40000/- on the wagon r duo and with an on road price after discount  of Rs 372000/- including insurance and road taxes in aurangabad maharashtra and running cost less then petrol my option was clear.I got my car from Automotive Aurangabad and I am satisfied with their service and the fast paper work to complete formalities so that I could take possession of car on dussera day.

I looked at other LPG options and test drove all of them here is my view.

Santro Eco Drive was as comfortable as wagon r duo but pickup from 2nd to 3rd gear in lpg mode was slightly less compared to wagon r duo. price was around 420000/- and I had no reason to pay more when i had a better performance car.Maruti spares price  and service is anyway unmatched till date.

 

Spark LPG Car looks very small from the outside but roomy inside.performance very good but then i don't know the long term cost of ownership since there are very few spark lpg on road i have not read many reviews of the spark lpg.spares must be costly too and resale value i guess will be unknown.

 

Indica Xeta LPG As i have told earlier tata cars have very very poor interiors with lots of cheap plastic , ugly wiring ( there are bare electrical wires visible below the steering wheel ). tata should learn that it is not only price that matters but asethetics too. any discerning car buyer would best avoid the tata stable.performance wise nothing to write home about.

 

In the diwali holidays  i took my wagon r on a 500 kn trip with the family. Got an average of around 17 km/ lit of lpg.I drove the entire trip on lpg and aound 50km on petrol as the lpg got empty.On a highway and in cruise mode lpg is really smooth and you do not notice any perfromance degradation. Normally in my city drive also I never use the petrol mode and always keep the button on lpg.With the AC on and when i slow down to around 30km the engine slightly falters but who cares when you are saving money running on lpg.

Till date I have done around 1500 km and will add more to this review after I cross 5000 km.

For the new owner of the duo here are some tips.When you start the car it does on petrol by default even though the switch is on lpg. the bottom light blinks yellow which shows that it is on auto mode. If you do not raise the engine rpm it will continue to run on petrol.So if you quickly want to shift to lpg , press the clutch and rev the engine a little. there is a audible click and the light goes from blinking yellow to steady yellow.This means the car is now running on lpg.If you want to run the car on petrol press the switch to petrol mode.the light is steady red which means it is now running on petrol.

A good driving tip for high average would be do not run the car in lower gears.Go as quickly as possible to higher gears.when you are driving on the highway do not hold the accelerator pedal to a single position.keep pressing and releasing the pedal. Also a good way to avoid clucth and brakes is to anticipate a turn , a speed breaker , traffic signals from a distance and release the accelerator pedal so that when you come to that teh car has already slowed down. This would save a lot of fuel and keep the average high.

you can write to me on my mail id and i will respond to all your mails.

 

exterior looks , compact features , good head room , easy to get in and get out , good fuel economyless boot space , distance between pedal and floor.shoes jam between the pedal and floor