i have been a santro victim and would like to share my experiance, if it cud help someone avoid falling into a pit.
no offence intended but i had a terrible experiance overall with this crappy brand. firstly, never in my life did i face such problems with any car i have driven (tht includes mehran). just to quote a few, worn out front discs, very peculiar kind of sound while braking, very poor braking performance specially on highway, had to get the a/c gas refilled during the very first year and tht too, cudnt make it perform any better etc. etc. now the point to b noted is tht i drove this car hardly for a year and was so frustrated tht had to dispose it off in eleven months. i had a santro club GV. throughout this year, it cudnt get tuned on cng even though i used to take it to authorized dealers for maintenence. on highways, usually during shifting between 3rd and fourth & fourth and fifth gears, the engine used to turn off as soon as i used to hit the clutch pedal, leaving me in a life endangering situation, at times. till very last day, this prblm wasnt resolved by any of the authorized dealers available in khi. once i was supposed to travel to hyd and a day earlier, i visited sherwani (hyundai's authorized dealer) at super highway, for scheduled maintenance including brake service. next day, on my way to hyd, a very strange and loud sound started coming out whenever i pressed the brake pedal. as soon as i reached hyd, i took it straight to one of my known local mechanics there and he pointed out tht its origional brake shoes have been replaced by the ones being used in corolla 82 model. yeh to haal hai inke authorized dealers ka. aur is per bhi inke nakhray toyota waloon se chaar haath barh ker hain. moreover, i bought it brand new from their authorized dealer but the piece i got delivered had its front doors colored different from the rest of the body and the difference was too obvious specially during daylight. in the end, i was so pissed off tht i decided to just dispose it off becuase not a single week passed tht i didnt take it to the workshop for one repairs or the other. i then switched to cultus in 2006 and Alhumdullillah, its working perfect for me despite the fact tht i took it as a second hand car of 2005 model, with only 8,000 kms on its mileage meter. now it has completed its 40,000 kms recently and not a single prblm as yet other than its shock absorbers, which i am looking to replace by the end of next month may be. still, i wud highly recommend u to go for cultus bcause of its reliability and much better road grip and dont even think about this crap called santro.