Personal experience & comparison of Wagon R VXL 2019 with Alto VXL AGS 2020

[chinyoti]

2- The fuel average, though much better than swift was not even near the over claimed numbers I saw in various owner reviews.

Hae, I'm glad this box doesn't goes beyond 11.75 kmpl I have tried everything.

Recently the car went to Lahore, Karachi till sukker it managed 16.5 later even on the new motorway managed 12 only.

I drive it Karachi to hub aprox 150 km daily. It manages 11.5-11.7 what ever I do

[sayedarsalanali]

When the new alto was launched in June 2019 and I went through the specifications of the VXL version with the given price I thought Pak Suzuki have themselves launched the killer for their product known as Wagon R. The reason for my fears were;
1- Even the VXL Wagon R is under equipped (though loaded with ugly alloy rims and rear chrome chamak patti)
2- The VXL AGS of Alto provided Auto Transmission in lesser price than that of Wagon R VXL

[sayedarsalanali]

Haha you broke the suspense too early

[chinyoti]

Sorry sorry, I'm just too bored.

[sayedarsalanali]

Once the Alto was launched, I started observing the Wagon R more critically in terms of the fuel average as if it is not fulfilling the fuel average criteria, will swap it with Alto once the insurance tenure finishes. And as @chinyoti mentioned the results were not up to the mark at all, the car gave average of max 12 kmpl in city driving with light foot and not getting stuck in traffic jams. Similarly with the AC off and trying to save every drop of fuel in the car the wouldn't give anything above 14 - 15 kmpl.

In Nov and December 2019, petrol was around 114.8 Rs / lit so in refuel of PKR 1000, 8.7 lit of petrol was filled.The car would give at an average of 110 - 120 kms with AC off. With intermittent AC on (say less than 30% of total time) the car used to give 100 to 105 kms per 8.7 lit (or 1000 Rupees petrol).

[sayedarsalanali]

No no lets write the thread mutually.

[sayedarsalanali]

As mentioned earlier, we use the hatchbacks as replacement of bikes it is very rare that more than 3 people sit in the car at one time. So having a lot of volume in the cabin was of no added advantage to us, thus we brought the new Alto home in January 2020. And sold the Wagon R after driving it for 22,200 Kms in one year.

[Massive_One]

Nicely narrated. you must be a very good storyteller : ) your children would love that in you : )

BTW what average were you getting from your swift (as comparison to WR) ...

waiting for your story...season II

[sayedarsalanali]

Now starting to compare the two vehicles based on my experience Wagon R (22k kms) Alto (2k kms).

Equipment

The Alto VXL AGS comes with a lot of bell & whistles as compared to the Wagon R;
1- All four power windows in Alto as compared to only two front power windows in Wagon R
2- Auto Retractable power side mirrors as compared to manual side mirrors in Wagon R
3- Multimedia Unit with screen in Alto compared to simple Head Unit of Wagon R. (Bluetooth connectivity is available in both)
4- Multi information display like fuel average, instantaneous fuel average and range available in Alto and not available in Wagon R.
5- ABS and EBD in Alto - not available in Wagon R
6- two airbags in Alto none in Wagon R

But surely Wagon R comes with a few things which Alto is short of
1- Alloy Rims
2- RPM Meter.......... will discuss this in more detail

[sayedarsalanali]

Don't know that if you really like the way I am narrating or getting too bored

Swift used to give something in between 8 to 9 kmpl in city with AC. Sometimes it would reach upto 10.5 kmpl but very rare.

[Massive_One]

hahaha, no no seriously it's good to read long narrated stories,especially these days : P

well, if WR is giving 11-12 , then 9-10 for swift isn't bad at all i think !

[sayedarsalanali]

• More on Alto's RPM meter

The Japanese version of this Alto also doesn't come with RPM Meter (except for a few variants including RS Turbo, Works etc) but there is a light that changes color based on how hard you are pushing the engine (RPM). If you are used to watching the RPM needle while driving the car, it is very uncomfortable in beginning to drive a car without the RPM needle going up and down.

[sayedarsalanali]

This perspective was given by my brother too when we were deciding the car, and based on this only we went for swift earlier. But practically driving a car with 9 Kmpl and 11.5 kmpl gives huge difference. Our Hatchback use is roughly 20 - 25k kms per year, so if we go on higher side the following calculations will give you the difference:

25,000 / 9 = 2,777.78 lit
25,000 / 11.5 = 2,173.92 lit

So 603.87 lit or @ Rs 115/ lit = Rs 69,444.7 per year difference only on fuel cost.

Also if you include the difference in maintenance cost, additional taxation, and higher depreciation the total additional impact will be more than 100K year for sure

[Massive_One]

i agree with you. If you buy a hatchback solely for city driving and that too not used on it's full potential, i.e., using the power of 1300cc and occupying all four seats quite often... and especially when you have a sedan also at home, it doesn't make much sense to buy another 1300 cc hatchback.

a 1000 cc or lesser car is justified in such situation, but overall, if one has to buy a hatchback for long and short routes combined, i think swift isn't a bad choice after all!!

[sayedarsalanali]

Coming back to Alto vs Wagon R comparison

Cabin Space
Wagon R for sure is the winner in this category as it has wider body with tall boy design. The vehicle is very good for people with 5 family members using it as main car. The head room and the leg room are very good - rather the best in class.

But Alto surprisingly comes with a lot of interior space too. With the Alto's front seat adjusted to provide maximum space in front, I can comfortably sit on the rear side with good leg space ( I am 6'2" tall). So you can say volume wise Alto is good for 4 adults comfortably sitting (2+2)

[sayedarsalanali]

i agree with you. If you buy a hatchback solely for city driving and that too not used on it's full potential, i.e., using the power of 1300cc and occupying all four seats quite often... and especially when you have a sedan also at home, it doesn't make much sense to buy another 1300 cc hatchback.

a 1000 cc or lesser car is justified in such situation, but overall, if one has to buy a hatchback for long and short routes combined, i think swift isn't a bad choice after all!!

Yes, Swift is a fun to drive car with a lot of power at your discretion.

[sayedarsalanali]

Power

Though Wagon R itself doesn't feel very powerful or responsive itself but also doesn't feel under-powered while driving in city with 3 - 4 adults in the car. The car performs alright under the speed of 70 - 80 kmph, and the engine power feels ok to pus it to higher speeds but the stability of the car and absence of safety features never allowed me to push the car beyond the speed of 90 - 100 kph (that too even on Shahrah e Faisal Karachi).

Alto instantly feels under-powered when you fit 4 adults (weighing 400 - 420 kg in total) with AC on. Also the car is a bit noisy from engine and you feel like listening the engine cry . But if you ignore the engine noise and continue driving the car and cross 30 - 40 kph with the above mentioned load, the car performs ok upto 70 - 80 kph and after that you feel the car's power limit is reached.

[chinyoti]

Swift was a all time favorite, but I had to drive a swift once, I still wonder where was all the power, the m13a isn't a very powerful engine. Maybe torquy since it comes with the Jimny.

The k12 would have been a fantastic engine for that car. I recently swapped a L13A on a city that came with L12A it gave me 13.5 kmpl on testing period.

[sayedarsalanali]

Handling & Stability

The driving position of Alto is better as compared to Wagon R in my opinion and the lower center of gravity makes the car handle better. Then availability of EBD and ABS enhances your confidence on the stopping of the car. I always considered Wagon R as box on wheels and drove it with utmost precautions, I started driving the Alto with same mindset but with 2000 kms and 2.5 months i feel alto is better to drive.

In the power section I mentioned that even though the power is there, the stability issues of the vehicle acts as constraint to unleashing the full potential of the engine of Wagon R.

[sayedarsalanali]

Bhai I never liked the Swift, neither before I owned it nor after owning it. Car is powerful and handles well as compared to other Suzuki cars. We kept the car for nearly one year, I will give the devil its due.

Any day I will select Honda City 1.3 (2009 onwards) over Suzuki Swift and if you talk about best handling vehicles I drove in Pakistan , I will go for Daihatsu Charade.