I was confused in the same manner as you are, i went to buy brand new Suzuki Mehran VXR by thinking Maintenance and running cost is almost close to 0.
but the second i opened the door of the mehran at the showroom i had tears in my eyes that i should not be throwing away 7 lakh rupees to this piece off utter junk.
Mehran suspension is hard, spine crushing seats (atleast for me), AC is close to a puppy sitting inside the vents blowing air at you lol and make is so cheap that it makes one of the most macho men cry.
so in the same price tag i started to locate a clean very less driven alto which is far superior in quality and comfort compared to mehran, AC is superior too.
I live in islamabad and i can't bear the summers in a mehran because it has AC close to NO.
so alhamdulillah i bought this above mentioned alto. Maintenance cost of alto is exactly the same as i went for oil change.
oil filter costed 150 rupees and air filter costed 200 rupees.
and 3 litre of mobil oil cost 1500 rupees.
its just that mehran does around 15 Km/l and my alto does around 12-14 Km/l inside islamabad which is fine for me as it compensates with added comfort, better ride and not spine wrecking seats.