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| Alto K10 |
Now Maruti has introduced its new Alto K10 in India. It is powerful and a bigger car than the regular hot selling Alto 800. Moreover, it is a beautiful car over its previous generation K10. Let's check what's in it.
EXTERIOR
The car has changed completely. With this iteration its length,height and wheel base are increased and width is slightly decreased over the previous generation.
When you look it from the front, you may feel it has some resemblance to Maruti's discontinued model called A-Star. That may be because of that large grille. But it suits well with this new K10.
You can see a very thin air dam under the grille. Clear lense headlamps and small indicators are well integrated. DRLs and fog lamps are avoided in this K10. It is a good looking vehicle from front.
From the sides, you can see the 13 inch wheels. Small indicators are provided on the front fenders.
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| Side view |
ORVMS are in black color where as the door handles are provided with body colour. From the sides also you get some resmblance to the Hyundai's recently discontinued Santro. It looks beautiful from sides.
When comes to rear, from here also you can see some resemblance to a different model, I think it has some resemblance to the old Celerio.
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| Rear view |
Clear lense tail lamps are provided. You can see the K10 badging on the tail gate. Thick bumper is provided. There is an integrated spoiler and a high mounted stop lamp. The boot space of the K10 is improved, now it gets 214 litres instead the 174 litres available with the previous generation. Thus from exterior, it is a nice looking and a youthful car.
INTERIOR
The K10 comes with a full black interior colour theme. Although you can see some aluminium inserts around A/c vents, on the sides of touch screen, on steering wheel and on the door lever. The dashboard design is well suited for this car.
You get two cup holders and a USB charging port,a AUX port and a 12V charging slot on the front. A small cubby is available which can be used to keep your mobile phone. No center arm rest. There are bottle holders on the front doors only. No storage space is provided on the back doors.
The car comes with a 4 speaker music system whereas the earlier versions had only 2 speakers. Power window switches for the front windows are provided at the centre on the dashboard. The ORVMs are not electrically powered, need to be adjusted manually through the adjustable knob. Having manual A/c only, fit and finish of the controls are good.
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| Steering controls |
When comes to steering wheel, you get a nice 3-spoke steering wheel with switches for radio telephony and volume control.
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| Speedometer |
The digital speedometer display shows up in large fonts, is a nice feature. There is a small display on which you can see the trip info and information like fuel level and distance to empty etc.
When come to cabin space, surprisingly it is a spacious car. There is ample head room and knee room on both rows. Fabric seats are provided. But the cushioning on the rear seat is better than that of the front.
Seats are wide enough to sit comfortably, but adjustable headrests are not provided. Integrated headrest provided on the front seat is sufficient but at the back seat, it is of no use and won't get any support to your head and neck. Eventhough the car is certified for five passengers it is ideally fit for four only. Windows can be operated manually only. Sadly there are no storage space is available at back except a bottle holder at the center.
DRIVABILITY
The car comes with the same engine which serves the duty on the new Celerio. It is 999cc Dual Jet K10-C engine which produces Max.power of 66BHP@5500RPM and Torque of 89Nm@3500RPM. This engine is mated with a 5-speed manual and a 5-speed AGS/AMT transmission unit. Drivability is improved a lot with this engine.
It is a peppy car to drive. The engine and the gear box works well. The manual gear box is a silky smooth unit. Light clutch and smooth gear shifts helps a lot to drive in city and also on the highway. The car having excellent visibility. Now it comes from the HEARTRCT platform. Now it feels more planted in high speeds. The suspension also works well and so the ride quality is also improved. But road noise and tyre noise will penetrate into the cabin while doing high speeds.
Whereas in the automatic, the car drives smooth than in the older version. With the new K10 the automatic gear box is improved a lot. It works well as long as you are gentle with the accelerator pedal, but you can feel that little lag while trying to do some urgent moves. Still, this gear box is the ideal one to drive in the city traffic. Moreover it provides the convenience to shift the gear manually through +/- modes whenever you required.
Mileage-Offcourse, Alto is a middle class targeted car and so mileage comes as an important factor. The manual version of the K10 promising 24.39km/l whereas the Automatic variant claiming 24.9km/l. In real world we can expect somewhere between 18-22km/l.
SAFETY,
The car comes from the latest HEARTRCT platform. The car comes with 2 Airbags, speed sensing auto-lock, ABS,EBD, Reverse Parking Sensors and High speed alert.
Although it is a budget car and Maruti has done its best to accommodate most of the useful features in it, still it lacks some useful features like Powered ORVMs, Powered rear windows, bottle holders/ storage space for rear passengers, Rear Parking Camera and Hill-Hold assist (in AGS versions).
PRICE RANGE
The price of the all new Alto K10 starts at Rs.4 lakh and goes up to Rs.5.83 lakh ex.showroom.
CONCLUSION
Alto K10 is a pocket friendly peppy car. This car gives a better driving experience in both manual and in automatic variants. Having good ride comfort and it is spacious too. Definitely you can consider this car if you are a first time car buyer or planning to upgrade from an Alto 800. Then being a Maruti owner, you will get a piece of mind ownership experience and need not to worry about the after sales support and service costs. It is a perfect family car.
But if you can extent your budget a little more then definitely you can check Maruti S-Presso, & Maruti Celerio.
As always, Happy driving.
"No matter how small or big your car is, it's your driving machine. Respect it."
Note: All images in this blogpost are taken from manufacturer's website for presentation purpose only.
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