Advantages and Disadvantages of Buying New Maruti Alto K10 Car

Recently, a friend of mine asked me that I have been driving Maruti Alto Lxi since last four years now and I want to sell my old car. I would like buy a new car in the budget of 3.5 lacs and my father is really interested in New Alto K10 and is insisting me to buy the New Alto, but after using Alto for four years now, I would like a change and would like to buy a trendy and stylish car that has all the features and a price tag of 3.5 lacs or so. So can you find me a car in this budget? Also, I have seen Alto K10 and my father is insisting me to buy it because of its very good mileage so please give me disadvantages and advantages of buying Maruti Alto K10.

Advantages of Maruti Alto K10:

1. Alto K10 has a great pickup and no sluggish feel with AC on like we used to feel with previous variants of Maruti Alto.
2. The K-10 model has good strong foggies, tachometer in newly designed instrument cluster; 13” tires look good when fitted with alloys, smooth gear shift again better than the previous rough gear shift in old Altos.
3. Alto K10 has 1000 cc engine, 200 more cc from previous versions. This car can be precisely compared with WagonR and Estilo (Swift is better).
4. With K10, you can experience some throttle even at low RPMs (800-1200) on third gear at 10 to 15 kilometers per hour.
5. If you buy New Alto K10 Vxi, you will get a Pioneer 4290 head unit, a JBL GT5-S204 (4” for dashboard), a JBL GTO-938 (6”x9” oval for rear plank), power windows, body side molding, an autocop remote security system, front fog lamps, Plati India 13” alloy wheels, a dual-tone horn, manual central locking, sporty and trendy looks, body colored wide bumpers, low cost of ownership, Maruti’s trust, better mileage up to 17 kmpl in cities and up to 22 kmpl on highways without AC (with AC you can minus 2 kmpl), refreshed interiors, all at a price tag of approximately 348000 on road for metallic and 345000 on road for non-metallic.
6. You can choose from a range of beautiful colors like sunlight copper, superior white, silky silver, midnight black, ecru beige, and fire black red. Currently, I can see sunlight copper’s on road most of the time, as the color is very appealing.
7. Pickup is really good so people upgrading to Alto K10 from Old Alto should drive very carefully during initial days.
8. AC is as usual super cool. No drop in acceleration when AC is full on.
9. Temperature meter has gone and is replaced by one warning red light on instrument cluster, so if overheating happens, then the red warning light will flash.
10. A little more leg space on back.
11. Rear number plate given by the dealer is very thin and will create sound if you drive above 40 kmph, so it is better to replace it with more sturdy number plate.
12. ORVMs are black even in Alto K10 VXI, which look really odd as VXI has body colored front and rear bumpers, so you can ask the dealer to body color them for just a charge of 500 INR.
13. Suspension, brakes have been improved to suit new engine and bigger tires.
14. Improvement in suspension can be felt, even better than Alto X-Fun Limited Edition which also sold away mostly in sunlight copper color.

After going through the advantages of buying Alto K10, I would like to share a bit of disadvantages of K10 and those are:

1. This car does not have day/night mirror.
2. Alto K10 has same old dashboard and cheap plastics.
3. It has same ground clearance. With bigger tires, one would expect increase in ground clearance but no hope.
4. Alto K10 has pathetic horn sound, very shrill.

Here is the first mileage update of K10 from a friend who just bought this car:

With 100% AC on, tank full to tank full, his alto K10 gave around 14 kmpl mileage, not bad considering then engine is new, has potential of giving more mileage after six months or so.

The 20.2 kmpl mileage as claimed by Maruti is under “ideal condition” which means highway driving with minimum braking, 60 to 70 kmph fixed speed with minimum revving, and AC off and the mileage my friend reported to me is under “real condition”, i.e., 100% city driving with 100% ac on and lots of braking, clutch use, and quick accelerated moves for overtaking, so he is happy to get 14 kmpl on a 3 weeks new car with city driving and 100% AC. I also think that after 5 to 6 months, he would get close to 16 kmpl with AC on, as in initially the engine is programmed in such a way that it consumes more fuel and after 5 to 6 months, engine eases a bit and then gives better mileage. So it is my advice to people who are looking for better mileage and features mentioned above should have a look at ALTO K-10 in the Maruti-Suzuki showroom. This car looks and feels a bit bigger than the Old Alto and hence more legroom at back. Also you are getting K10’s new 1000cc 67BHP class performer K-Series engine which as claimed by Maruti returns a fuel efficiency of 20.2 kmpl (Certified by ARAI) under ideal conditions. And at this price Alto K-10 is value for money, so take a test drive and decide yourself.