Ritz VXI a good buy

I bought Ritz Vxi Brick Red in late dec 2009. This is our first car so I don't have much to say against Ritz, although I have driven i10 magna and Vista  Tdi so I'll try to do impartial comparison between them. This forum helped me alot to select my first car. I hope my review will help others too.

Exterior
Its a matter of opinion when it comes to looks. Before I bought this baby, I always used to comment on its looks. I always thought that the rear was not good.
But after buying Ritz there never has been a moment of regret. Now I find it very stylish and bold. The more I look at it , the more I like it.

It looks great from the front, the head lights have a nice shape and I find it quite attractive. The bonnet is quite high and gives you a feeling of a masculine yet cute car.

Vxi model does not come with the body colored ORVM(outside rear view mirrors) and door handles. The Vdi model however comes with body colored ORVM and door handles. This is not much of an issue though.

Ritz vxi comes with wheel cover which are quite decent. It even comes with fog lamps which I didn't find of  much use as we don't have fogs even in winter.:D

Overall the body looks stylish and appears tall with a strong build.

Comparison with i10 and Vista.

As far as the looks are concerned, I find Ritz to be more appealing than i10 but externally i10 is just right sized if you are looking for a mid sized hatch back, you will find Ritz to be quite big as compared to i10.

Vista on the other hand is very good looking as far as the exterior looks are concerned. I had almost decided to buy it until I sat inside it. Vista looks good from rear , it has tail lamps nicely placed and improved looks than previous Indica models.

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort)

The interior in VXI is good, the plastic quality is also good. The best thing about Ritz is the space. The driving position is good and gives a feeling of a big car with lot of space. The leg room and head room is sufficient even for a 6 feet tall person.

The back seat can easily accomodate three adults comfortably. I have elder parents and they find it very comfortable in the back seat.

In the front doors, there is provision for water bottle which is good , it comes handy at times. The dash board is equipt with regular odometer, fuel guage and in addition a tachometer which is placed in such a way that it can be easily viewed while driving.

There is a provision for audio system speakers in all four doors which is nice, you need not have to waste your back seat tray for the speakers.

Comparison with i10 and Vista tdi

The interiors of i10 any time beat Ritz, the color combination inside i10 is really good. But i10 does feel small when you have a habit of driving Ritz.

Vista Tdi is however more spacious and more comfortable than i10.  But it has a very poor interior, the plastic quality is very bad. When I test drived one and was trying to get out of the car, my jeans got stuck in a plastic part which was loosely fitted to the seat. The plastic was really cheap.


Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox

The Engine is real smooth , at times I had turned on the keys just to find that the engine was already running. As this is my first car I can't comment much on the technical aspects, all I can say is I had no trouble with it in four months.

The gears are bit hard as compared to i10 magna and Vista Tdi. But I was told that they will become smooth with time. It's not that I have trouble operating the gears of Ritz its just that they are not as smooth as i10 and Tdi.

But I always have trouble with the reverse gear in Ritz, it always gets stuck and doesn't latch in the first attempt. I have to let go the cluth a little bit and then it latches. But this a very minor problem. According to service engineers this would get better with time.

The pickup is good and it never lets you down while over taking. The gears are very nicely placed and you would have no trouble operating them .

Since four months I have driven about 1500 Kms, I don't have to drive long distances so I think I am not getting a good fuel economy as said by other Ritz  owner who claim the mileage to be around 16kmpl,

I have checked it consistently to be giving 13kmpl with occasional use of AC. I'll update on this if I go for a long ride. May be this will get better after second servicing.


Comparison
The gears in i10 are smooth and pickup is also good. The engine power in Ritz and i10 is same , Tdi's gears are smooth but somehow u always seem to feel like you are driving an old taxi. The clutch brake and accelarator of Vista were tight and hard to operate.


Ride Quality & Handling
The ride quality of Ritz is very good and handling is also very good , even in i10 there wasn't much of a difference.
I always find that while driving on a rough patch of road whenever all windows are closed there is lot of cabin noise, its a kind of vibration. I asked some veteran owners of cars, they said this is not abnormal it occurs in every car. I am not sure about this one.

In vista I thought the shocks absorbers were really good and so was the ride quality.

Final Words
Final word is that if you go for Ritz you won't regret buying it. Its bold,comfortable, stylish, spacious and fuel efficient.

Areas of improvement
The reverse gears should be made more smooth to operate.

Spacious, good interiors and comfortableReverse gear gets stuck very often