Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Downtown Skylines


Left : Cincinnati, Right : Chicago
Was quite impressed by the dazzling Trump Tower & Hotel in downtown Chicago ... downtown Cincinnati is staid in comparison ...

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Maruti Suzuki Ritz ZXi


Just replaced my 10 year old Hyundai Santro with a Maruti Suzuki Ritz ZXi.

The Indian car market is so overcrowded with small hatchbacks that buyers are spoilt for choice - one can choose from Hyundai i10/i20/Santro, Nissan Micra, Volkswagen Polo, Fiat Punto, Ford Figo, Indica Vista, Skoda Fabia, Chevy Beat, about half a dozen offerings from Maruti Suzuki - Alto, AStar, WagonR, Swift and of course the Ritz.

So why select the Ritz ??? For me it was all about looking for the best cost - value equation. Thankfully the decision making process was made quite simple ... Maruti Suzuki made me the best exchange offer for my existing Hyundai Santro ... and the Ritz had additional discounts to boot. Finally within the Ritz versions ( LXi, VXi and ZXi ) the ZXi came bundled with all the safety features I wanted.

Ironically Hyundai simply refused to buy back my 10 year old Santro ... while Maruti Suzuki offered me INR60K + INR12K "Loyalty Bonus". I was wondering how I'd demonstrated loyalty to Maruti Suzuki by driving a Hyundai for years !!!

Maybe they should call it the "Loyalty Shift Bonus" ... anyway who cares.