Maruti WagonR 1.2 ZXi Long Term Review – Most Practical Hatchback Under 10 Lakhs

Maruti WagonR has been one of the longest selling cars from the manufacturer for more than 15 years. Its tall boy design, spacious cabin and a practical boot make it the amongst the most preferred hatchbacks under 6 Lakhs. Right now, in its fourth generation, the WagonR has evolved a lot.

All these things I had in mind when I picked up the keys of the Maruti WagonR 1.2 ZXi for our long term review. We got to keep the car for nearly four and a half months in which, we also swapped our Manual variant for the AGS (AMT) variant for two weeks. In our long term review of the Maruti WagonR, we have talked about everything we have experienced with the car.

New Maruti Wagon R 2019 Review 13 image — The Sky Blue Shade Has Remained Constant From The First WagonR

Mostly, the WagonR has been confined to the city traffic and my office commute only. The 1.2 Litre petrol engine produces 83 BHP and 113 Nm of peak torque. The more powerful engine makes it a peppy car, ready to jump ahead with even minimum pressure on the pedal. So, overtaking and sudden acceleration is always a delight on the WagonR 1.2. Being an owner of the previous-gen WagonR 1.0, I personally liked 16 BHP and 22 Nm more on offer. Crossing 100 km/hr on the new WagonR isn’t much of a task, unlike the earlier one.

With a light clutch, the traffic commuting was made easier. Overall, in terms of refinement, the engine is definitely good. The cabin insulation is better than the earlier generation, but still, under hard acceleration, there’s too much of engine noise coming in. I would like to say, that WagonR has now, certainly, evolved as a better car to drive.

MID looks cluttered but offers a lot of important information

With the tall boy, mileage is another such point why people love this car. So, in our worst conditions, the car delivered 12 kmpl and around 19 kmpl in its best stint. However, we would advise owners to not depend on the driving range. Most of the times, we found that the range changed every time you switched on the car. One fine time, after travelling around 12 kms, the remaining range was 156 kms. After an hour, when I came back to resume my journey, the riding range was up to 202 kms. Also, once on a full tank, the riding range that displayed was 999 kms.

In our two week stint with the AGS variant, the WagonR came out to be another car. The pickup with the AMT was not at all great and I was frequently shifting gears up for overtakes. Also, if you press hard on the accelerator, the car takes its own time to work things out. Also, the gear shifts display lag as well as jerkiness. However, the AGS does manage to relax your knees in the traffic.

5-Speed MT is very light; Good for the city commuting

We had another strong liking for the WagonR because it doubled up as our camera car. The spacious boot and the not-so-high boot lip was helping us in taking many angles of a shot. That doubled up with the quick acceleration meant that it could even keep up with many premium and more powerful cars.

Talking about the other side of driving, the handling of the WagonR has a lot of complaints. First of all, the body roll is too high and even at speeds as low as 40 km/hr, the passengers were uncomfortable. WagonR had a lot of troubles staying the lines and every time you left the wheel, it would swerve towards the left. I checked with the service centre guys and they said that the calibration is alright.

Easy to handle but body roll is quite high

While the suspension setup is something to appreciate about but is still not up to the mark when compared with its rivals. The 14-inch tires of the Wagon manage to soak up minor damaged roads easily but throw a big pothole in its way and the car delivers spine chilling jerks.

Let’s discuss the experience from inside the cabin but not on the driver’s seat. Maruti WagonR offers generous amounts of knee space and headspace, that no one in this segment offers. With slightly reclined seats and perfect support to your under the thigh, the rear passengers are also comfortably seated. Five passengers can be easily seated inside the cabin. It could actually make a good car for short outstation trips now.

The fit and finish of the WagonR is just about all right. Starting with its 7-inch infotainment system, I used Apple CarPlay all times. The system shows now lag, starts immediately and quicky connects to CarPlay. The glare off the system is too much and with low brightness, it is very difficult to see what is there on it. After using it for nearly 5,000 kms, there was no rattling from the body parts. To be noted, the car had already run 4000 kms earlier as well.

7-inch Touchscreen infotainment is quick and smooth

The quality of the upholstery is good but is too light and easily starts taking stains over it. The cooling by the AC is not that great as it takes time to cool down the cabin on hot sunny days. Due to its spacious cabin, the AC manages to circulate air through the entire cabin, efficiently.

The new WagonR gets a lot of features over its previous generation. You get electric ORVMs, rear parking sensors, a semi-digital speedometer, rear-wiper, Turn indicators on the ORVMs, touchscreen infotainment, four speakers and a lot of cubby holes. One important thing that it misses is a rearview camera, which is now an important highlight even for the most affordable cars.

Since it is Delhi, scratches are inevitable. Of course, our long-termer went back with a couple of minor scratches. We had the Sky Blue colour which easily reflects minor scratches too. The quality of the paint is one thing that bothered me as in just a couple months, it started wearing out from the front and rear bumpers. Multiple black spots and lines started coming up.

Paint starts coming off in just a couple of months

So summing up on our long term review of the Maruti WagonR 1.2, it is still the most practical car that you can buy under 10 Lakhs. The tall boy has always been known for its generous space and easy to live with nature. With the new WagonR, add the engine performance and features in the list as well. Over time, Maruti has made the WagonR a perfect car for daily commuting and now, it also makes a great touring car. So Long, Tall Boy!

Kilometres Covered – 5231 kms (Combined MT and AGS)

Average Mileage – 16.8 kmpl

Worst Mileage – 12.1 kmpl

Best Mileage – 19.3 kmpl

Top Speed Achieved – 133 km/hr