Well, my wife now drives the Swift and i get to drive the Altis and Nano. I plan to take the Nano with me back to the US, if allowed. and i decided to give the car a makeover in fall 2019 and since then drive it sparingly on weekends to keep it looking spiffy. Meanwhile i needed a smaller car than Altis to drive around the block for groceries to work and started my search on the net. My budget was inr2.0 lacs.
I narrowed down the search to under 2.0 lac and i got pages full of Suzuki 800(Mehran) , Zen Estilos and Esteems Suzuki SX4, TATA Indica and original Wagon-R cars and nothing excited me to look at. Then one day i came across this 2009 TATA Indica Vista hatch in Mahindra First Choice listing for 1.5lac inr. I called the dealer and checked out the car. The engine was a 1.3liter quadrajet disel made by FIAT which is one of the best small bloc diesels in the world. The body needed some work and being a petrolhead i hesitated and asked for a day's time to decide. I spoke to my mechanic and he told me that the engine is a gem, rest can be easily fixed, So i called back and to my disappointment, i was told that the cars was sold and because i didn't give a deposit they could not keep it for me. So, i let it pass and i went about my business.
the 1.3lac 1.3liter quadrajet diesel engined 2009 TATA Indica Vista hatch that i let go due to indecision,
Then in the middle of January i dropped in on my Maruti-Suzuki dealer to pick up my Swift after regular service and asked the guys there if i can buy an used Wagon-R for 2lacs approx, I thought that i was going to be laughed at but to my surprise, i was told to call their True Value dealership and inquire, I did and the sales guy was nice and asked me to come over and check out their inventory and would discuss pricing in person.
So, i drove out a few days later and i was taken to their yard and shown a dusty Wagon-R that was available in 'as-is ' condition for 2.0lacs. The car was in running condition as i checked it out, the a.c was cooling good and the brakes were alright, All They would do was check all fluids and clean the car thoroughly before delivery, I asked my mechanic to check out the car and he gave it the thumbs up so i decided to go ahead with the purchase. Meanwhile i spoke to my sales rep at the main dealership and asked him to see if he can do anything for me in this sale. The True Value guys called me back a few days later and told me that for an additional inr 17,300 bucks they will bring the car up to snuff and i practically don't have to do anything to it other than drive it. I was very okay with that and i went ahead with the purchase. Thr car is now with me for the last 2 1/2 months and i love it ;cause it has the old 1.0 liter motor which is peppy as compared to the K-series which is like a go-cart in comparison. So enough of my prattle and here's a few pics of the car.
my latest car acquisition- a 2011 Suzuki Wagon-R VXI 1.0 liter petrol F10A14 engine
i forgot to take a pic of the engine, i will do so soon.
