In this topic there is much less criticism on Wagon-R. Maybe because this is fan club. So here there are only those people present who like it.
However in this topic: Suzuki internal news regarding Wagon-R and Alto there were a lot of people who were saying that if Pakistan Suzuki had continued Alto (fifth generation RA410 chassis which was discontinued in Pakistan in 2012) with the new K10B engine. I am not posting this there but posting it here because in future people will be visiting less and less the topic about launch of the car, but they will be mostly visiting this topic which is about ownership experience of this car.
PakSuzuki Alto with K10B engine:
One thing is that K10B cannot be fitted in the RA410 chassis. In India they launched Alto K10 which was made 3 inches longer than the normal Alto with the F10D engine. All the 3 inches were added to the engine compartment to accommodate the K10B. Also, there are topics on team-BHP forums where people wanted to convert their Alto with F10D into Alto with K10B. There also are replies that it is nearly impossible to shoe-horn the K10B into this chassis, otherwise Maruti Suzuki would have been able to do this in the first place, rather than going for a minor redesign.
Oh, forgot to tell that the Alto K10 looks somewhat disproportionate with the engine bay stretched in an awkward manner, therefore people wishfully thinking that an Alto K10 would look as good as the Alto with F10A engine please look for images on the net and then decide.
Some good things in Wagon-R A1J310 which offer better user experience as compared to Alto and Mehran:
13" wheels: ride comfort is directly proportional to wheel dia. The outer wheel diameter of Wagon-R A1J310 is bigger than the outer dia of Alto. Therefore theoretically it provides more ride comfort.
Wheelbase: Longer the car, greater the ride comfort. That's why presidential cars are long, long limousines. Now Wagon-R A1J310 is longer than the Alto, therefore ride comfort should be better.
Wheel base of Wagon-R 2400 mm vs Alto 2360 mm.
Length of Wagon-R 3599 mm vs Alto 3495 mm.
Source of dimensions: Wikipedia (Alto) and post #77 of this topic (Wagon-R).
Spaciousness: Alto is better than Mehran but still even in the front seat you cannot stretch your legs, whereas in Wagon-R a full height 6-foot adult can stretch legs on the front seat and still barely touch the firewall. Rear seat leg-room is also good for people 6' high. In Alto only children can use the back seat for long-route. Reminder that Wagon-R is only 4 inches longer than Alto therefore parking will not be a problem for those who have space only for an Alto in their garage.
Acceleration: Alto had pathetic long-stroke engine which (in SJ410 Potohar) was suitable for towing and hill-climbing (I have previous experience of towing others and getting towed and Alto engine is best for this, you can clutch-in without accelerator). But not suitable for everyday city driving.
Braking: Alto had pathetic brakes. Even with booster and OEM NBK brake pads, the pedal feel, brake bite and stopping distance was not confidence-inducing. Whereas Wagon-R is getting good reviews in the braking department, that it is comparable to other modern cars. This would help reduce the class-divide on our roads, where some cars belong to new generation and the others despite being of new manufacturing date, use obsolete technology.
Steering wheel: Wagon-R comes with 3-spoke steering wheel which is more respectable than 2-spoke steering wheel of Alto.
Gear lever: Wagon-R comes with smaller gear lever just like Honda City or other 1300cc cars. Alto had a looong looong shifter which was reminiscent of loading vehicles e.g trucks, buses and vans and not that of a decent family vehicle. Easier gear-shift would definitely make the user experience better.
Beige interior: Ignoring some the dashboard which has some black accents, and door cards which also mostly black, the car is in light-coloured interior. The seat fabric is also beige. This means the car looks even more spacious inside and also would heat up less when standing in the sun (cabin heat). Will require less cooling power and quicker cooling. Also, it is a natural and pleasing colour to look at (brown is there in the nature, sand, trees, mountains, many animals' fur etc. are brown) compared to the donkey-coloured grey Alto interior.
Wing mirrors: The much important thing for drivers. In the JDM fifth generation HA12/HA23 Alto, the wing mirror has two pivots. One is a hinge style used for folding the mirror open/close. The setting of mirror is done by moving the mirror inside the shell (on a ball-and-socket arrangement). This is similar to other more expensive vehicles. However the wing-mirrors in Alto RA410 have single support used for both folding and adjusting the mirror. This support becomes loose with some use (such as many drivers for the same vehicle) and also need to be re-adjusted whenever you fold the mirror e.g for parking in a tight space. Mostly on highway speeds or on bumpy roads the mirror loses it setting and start to show the road below, which is not only irritating but also dangerous. Suppose you are in an emergency maneuver on the highway and you try to look in the mirror but suddenly note it has lost its setting and showing you your rear tyre instead of rear traffic. This was one reason people driving JDM Alto HA23 had better user experience.
Wagon-R comes with the better wing mirrors and hope is high that it will improve the quality of life everybody involved.
Suspension: Wagon-R has wishbone shape front control arms (qenchian) which is similar to what came in the HA24 Alto sixth gen, and same design is used in the bigger cars (bigger for Pakistani market, not worldwide) such as Corolla etc. But Pak Suzuki Alto RA410 and Mehran come with simple straight control arms which are only restrained at one point and therefore there is much movement at speeds causing steering (and in fact whole body) vibration, increasing effort to control the car and reducing passenger comfort, resulting in more fatigue.
Door opening: The doors of Wagon-R A1J310 open nearly 90-degrees. This makes for easier entry and exit for especially Pakistani people whom (both males and females) tend to wear long and loose dressing. Also, for people who have old parents/grandparents, this is a boon because attendant can easily stand along with the elderly in the door opening and easily help them sit/exit the car. Cramped access was one thing a lot of people tended to note about PKDM cars because supporting our elderly is a big part of our culture and sometimes people's lives revolve around geriatric care-taking. Not being able to support the senior citizens in vehicle ingress/egress in a better manner was a cause of much hurt for some and thanks God the situation has been improved with the availability of Wagon-R A1J310.
Headlight cut-off: Although the world has progressed, we are still receiving obsolete designs such as Mehran, Alto and Bolan which do not feature cutoff in headlight, causing disturbance, annoyance and grief to others. Whereas I have witnessed many oncoming Wagon-R which despite the high ride height, do not introduce glare into the eye of on-comers. I for one would be much comfortable driving one since I could see the cut-off (someone who has Wagon-R please confirm if it does has a visible cut-off as seen from the driver's eye). It is much problematic for me if I cannot ascertain whether my headlights' cut-off is lower than the eye-level of on-comer or not. In case of Bolan, there is the bother to turn your headlight off at every traffic signal since its lights shine into other cars causing loss of privacy.
Knocking: Although K10B has a high 10:1 (source: pakwheels new car section) compression ratio and as a result is more efficient and delivers impressive fuel economy, it can still run on currently available fuel of whatever quality. None of the current owners have complained of knocking which is very much there in the high compression Honda City L13A 10.5:1 engine (source: Atlas website) and even in the corolla XLI it can be heard every now and then (so loud that you can hear it sitting in the next car).
Fuel economy: Alto RA410 with F10A was good only on CNG and had high petrol consumption. In fact Cultus was much more car and had less consumption (same case with both the engines). Wagon-R A1J310 wiith K10B has economical petrol consumption which is good in these days of CNG load-shedding.
Some negative points also:
PS should have made A/C mandatory, even if it meant increasing the price of the lowest trim. I feel nobody would be buying the lowest trim and they will either have to discontinue or would have to make A/C optional on that too.
Power steering: although Wagon-R has the modern electric power steering (EPS) which means less engine load, no oil to replace, no oil leaks etc. etc. still there is no need of power steering in such a light car. They could make it optional to so that only those people who are much elderly etc. could get the desired ease/relief by choice whereas others could save money on a feature they could potentially live without and not even notice.
Accessories: The optional items are mostly of aesthetic purpose. They could do better by offering other items which have greater functional value. Such as back-mirror with night switch. Or ABS. Or automatic gear. Or rear-wheel disc brakes (if they are there in the first place in the Indonesian, then no need for R&D). Or making the RPM meter optional on the lower trims as it is not a luxury gadget but a necessity for 12-valve engine. In 2-valve per cylinder engine you can seldom send enough fuel to the engine that it destroys itself, but it is much more likely in 4-valve per cylinder design.
Ground clearance: Ground clearance like most JDMs being imported is 8 inches. (I say with conviction because I have ysed measuring scale on a wide variety of JDM vehicles). This could give the owners some problems.
Local mechanics: In olden days when new cars were launched, companies also launched mechanic training sessions where professional mechanics or those people who wanted to repair their cars themselves, could go and learn. But then greed got the better of companies and they want people to only come to 3S (whereas 3S isn't even available in every city). Pak Suzuki has seen previous failures of their vehicles such as Liana whom the mechanics could not understand and ultimately people's investment was lost and no new customers also therefore had to be discontinued. PS could launch a training and info session series for the mechanics in the market so that the car could be made a commercial success. Otherwise this car would soon be flop and people would buy only Mehran which is older technology but mechanics can at least keep them on the road.
In India and other countries, Wagon-R comes with a 14-inch wheel option. This could be made optional by Pak Suzuki so that people have a choice to buy whichever wheels they like.