Category: car

Car Rentals in Kuala Lumpur – SoCar vs GoCar

Introduction

As I was headed to Malaysia for a trip for 10 days, I needed an option to commute within the country. While renting cabs with drivers was definitely an option, there was no privacy enough, and there was no way to make my own decisions on where I wished to go when. I was not so keen to rent a cab outside of KL city.

We had plans to visit multiple places such as Cameron, Penang, Langkawi so I needed a vehicle which I was willing to drive myself. It was the best option as it would give me the convenience without burning a hole in my pocket. The trip itself was turning out to be expensive and I wanted a good option for inside the country travel.

Things that I was looking for

As any first time car rental customer, I had some concerns, so I needed these

  • Easy rental mechanism, including driver sign up and validation of
    license
  • Preferably use local Karnataka (state license from india) – without the need for IDP
  • App based car handling
  • Easy fueling
  • Easy breakdown service if needed anywhere within the country

Options available

Based on the market services available in Malaysia, two common providers of cars had their apps listed – GoCar and SoCar. The former had tie ups with Renault and had new cars such as Captur and Almera (Sunny) while the latter had tie ups with Perodua and Toyota to a large extent and had more exotic cars if required.

While GoCar did not cover fuel for their rental rate, SoCar did. However the story did not end there. In this review, since I rented SoCar, I will talk about only that service. Maybe the next time I would try out GoCar although I do not expect any major differences in terms of what you basically get for your money.

SoCar

There is something you need to know during your registration on both the apps. You need mainly three things.

  1. Your passport copy

  2. Your driving license copy

  3. Your own selfie of you holding your driving license

Please bear in mind that item 3 should be taken in such a way that you stand far away with the license in your hand. If you take a photo too close to you, that would be rejected. I faced multiple rejections before I got it quite right. If you face a rejection its only because both you and you holding the license is not clearly visible. Correct it and you should be through.

Some things about the app

The app is well defined. You find the common options that you expect to see. You can choose source and destination options, timings and even use the map to find where you want the car from. There are also some options for home delivery of the car for some extra money which can be a boon at times.

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The makers of the software have ensured finer options such as clock entry, drop downs, display of car choices are perfectly available on the screen making the app good enough to use to get the job done.

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Car control

This is the best part of the app. You can control the car directly from the app. You can unlock or lock the car from the app itself.

Other than lock and unlock there are also buttons for horn, and hazard lights in case you need the support of these means to locate your car. There are also two icons for roadside assistance and support call if you would need those. Personally I would say that this is the most important screen as far as driving the car around is concerned. I undertook a trip spanning Kuala Lumpur, Cameron Highlands, Penang, Kuala Perlis and back – which was almost 1500kms and never once did I feel anything in this screen did not work properly.

Profile section

The profile section of the app provides options to refer and earn, details on your reservations, payment options, promotions, notices from SoCar and help topics. It also provides an option for contacting support where you can “ASK” questions. You must be aware that the replies take typically a few hours to a few days so it is not that straightforward from the app. Better thing to do will be to call SoCar support if need be.

Promos

The last screen of the app provides promos as per the season and the occassion. These are either discounts or referral based bonuses as seen below. It is upto you whether or not you wish to use these and sometimes there are good deals in terms of discounts.

GoCar

The GoCar app is similar to the SoCar one, but GoCar has aligned with the Renault Nissan alliance in Malaysia so they have more Almera (Sunny) cars and Renault Captur besides the usual local brands and others like Toyota. These cars have rates that do not include fuel rates so its only the rental rate per day. But the car choices are good here as well.

The app is a bit basic compared to SoCar, and since I did not hail a car, I am not sure if the car can be remotely controlled from the app for lock/unlock etc. However I did notice that there were options to look for cars and call their support staff, besides options for making and viewing reservations, payment options, and promotions and deals.

In a later post I will talk about a few nuances of driving rental cars, but for this post I will leave you here with these details so you can take your pick of which car rental service you wish to rent while in Malaysia. Let me know your comments.

Honda WRV first impressions and drive review

Introduction to Honda WRV

I had the chance to give my Civic for service at Dakshin Honda. During that time, I got a chance to look at the Honda WRV and drive the car. From a long time after reading many reviews and watching many videos, today I got a chance to drive the car personally. I opted for the Diesel version since I know a good deal about Honda’s petrol engines already being an owner of a Civic and a City earlier. The diesel engine is something new since sometime now and it was prudential for me to try it out.

Engine Options and Variants

As usual the car comes with two engine options a 1.2L petrol and a 1.5L diesel. The petrol is a 4 cylinder SOHC iVTEC engine at 1200 cc, churning out 90bhp of power at 6000 RPM and 110NM of Toruqe at 4800 RPM. The diesel on the other hand is a 4 cylinder DOHC iDTEC unit, at 1500 cc, churning out a 100bhp at 3600 RPM, and a torque of 200NM at 1750 RPM which is very healthy at least on paper. Among other features it comes with 16 inch alloy wheels which frankly in my opinion could very well upsize to 17 or even 18 inches.

On the variants there are two types SMT and VX-MT which I will explain a bit later.

Exteriors

The WRV has a muscular look, and while its sides are taken straight from the jazz, the front now sports a grill which has elements from the new Amaze, City, and BRV. Still there are few elements such as headlamps which are distinct and make the car gets its unique spot in the Honda lineup. The tail lamps are stylish too and unique in the segment. The overall exterior proportions are well rounded for a car of this category and no complaints in this department.

Interiors

Coming to the interiors, Honda has a few interesting things to look at. Firstly the dashboard is well made and feels plush and nice. The stereo system is very flat and does not stick out like in other cars. Blends well with the dash and its like a perfect fit. Though I did not get a chance to use the system too much, by the overall looks its a nice touch screen unit which does the job of what people look out most for – navigation, music, phone connectivity etc. However no Android Auto or Apple Car play – sorry, if you need these look elsewhere.

The seat space in the rear is phenomenal. Being 5’10” and keeping the driver seat at my comfort level, I could still sit at the back with quite some knee room to spare. There is one another thing Honda have changed since quite some time now. And that is the gear shift. The earlier shift was like a stick and was rather flimsy to use with a rounded head. The new one is much better and is a delight in terms of proportions and slots seamlessly into the different gears. The dashboard has more rectangular edges rather than circular and this is not necessarily so bad looking either. Its just left to the tastes of different users as such.

You can also notice in the images that there is indeed a dead pedal and Honda have thankfully not omitted it. Your longer highway cruises would now be better with that rested left leg. And yes needless to say top end variants will come with cruise control as well as steering mounted audio and phone controls. There are also lots of cubby holes in the car making it possible to store multiple things all around. The middle storage compartment has some Civic-ish cues as well though not as good. You can also notice a chilled cup holder next to the AC vent in the photos.

The selling point in this car is the Sun-Roof. No other car in its category provides this feature and Honda have done in offering this feature here. However the practicality of such a feature is questionable as driving with an open sun roof would surely affect the aerodynamics of the vehicle a bit. In Indian conditions with so much dust, pollution, mosquitoes, rains, and what not – this feature would best be in closed mode, rather than the other way round. Not a big deal breaker for sensible people – honestly.

Wouldn’t mind having it, but won’t die to have it.

The front seats also have rear pockets to place those magazines and possibly even a Macbook Air or so. The rear has ample space for occupants. The floor height is slightly raised for middle occupant, so it would be a bit uncomfortable for longer journeys and one will need to switch places frequently. You can also notice a quarter glass after the C-Pillar which adds to more roominess and light within the cabin.

Drive

I specifically wanted to test drive the 1500 Diesel as I had never driven a Honda Diesel before. Given I own a Civic now which is 1800cc, I did not want to drive the lack lustre 1200cc petrol of the WR-V. So diesel it had to be and diesel it was. A few things about this drive

  1. The test drive route was long enough for me to test most parts of the driveability but short enough to return to base soon as well
  2. The engine is noisy – there have been reviews about the Honda’s noisy diesel engine in its other cars such as Jazz, Amaze, City etc and here its no better. If you buy this variant the noise comes along with you
  3. The steering is butter smooth – even better than the city or the civic I would say. Its an absolute joy to use in whatever condition of traffic. It is so sensitive, responsive and accurate that you really don’t have to try too much to manouvre
  4. In the showroom the clutch of the WR-V was very hard in stationary state of the vehicle so I was dreading whether it would be as hard during the drive as well but I am happy to say that the clutch was super soft and easy to use during the drive and rest assured you will not get a pain in your legs so soon with this car
  5. There is no automatic variant yet, but if news reports are correct then Honda might bring in the 1.5L variant mated to CVT just like in the city pretty soon
  6. There is a 2 month waiting period on this car now already

Engine and NVH

And now to the drive. Well I hate to say this – but the diesel engine – is a disappointment. Coming from driving a Nissan Sunny which is known for its young at heart and roaring to race character, this WR-V engine seemed to be mostly tuned for more mileage and subsequently that meant removing the driving oomph from the car. This is more of a Point A to Point B engine. Sometimes I felt this was worse than an automatic Jazz. I am not sure what Honda was thinking here but people do not buy diesel just for mileage but also for proper use of the higher powered engine. If you have driven the Nissan Sunny Diesel, or the Scorpio or XUV diesel, or even Figo or Ecosport diesel – that level of urgency, revv happiness, and response is sorely missing. I double checked many times just to clarify this doubt and this car shows no urgency for acceleration on this variant.

Accelerating this engine makes so much noise inside the vehicle that one wonders what is all that damping setup doing in the car. Engine noise will filter through easily and its not a great experience as such. Just for comparision – you cannot hear the Civic engine inside the car. Apple to Orange comparision really I agree, but its a Honda to Honda comparison at least.

Torque

The grunt is there. But not the acceleration accordingly. I even went real slow on higher gears to check the torque. The torque is disappointing too. Beyond a point – say about 10kmph the car starts rattling begging for clutch to be held. This is quite where the Nissan Sunny shines through – low end torque. Even the Civic manages upto 5kmph on petrol engines without stalling. Honda sure has to rework on this tuning to improve it to a better state of tune if they want the torque to be managed better.

Suspension

The suspension in the WR-V is spongy. And it is really spongy. You go on a road hump or a deep pothole with speed and this car throws the occupants either sideways or bobs up and down. That is quite normal on any car, but the whole point is that this jumping about does not settle down so easily. Even with 210mm of ground clearance you still fear it will go all the way down to scrape the bump. And that is definitely not a good feeling. For a comparison I do not get that feeling with my Celerio, or even for that matter with the Duster too. I wouldn’t say Scorpio is great in that regard but there are some smaller cars that can put WR-V to shame.

Agreed this is not about making the suspension rigid but rather soft and luxurious. But it is seriously not helping in WR-V case to achieve what is desired. So its best you drive this car slowly and steadily. If you want road worthiness and suspension awesomeness go to a renault showroom.

Steering

One word : Awesome. Period.

Airconditioning

This is one department for which Honda is well known for and in the case of WR-V it is no surprise that the air conditioning is super cool. Chills you to the bone and pretty quickly. Well done Honda.

Tyres, Ground clearance

The tyres are stable and can be upsized as well by another inch or two if needed – so lots of customization possible here. Ground clearance is good enough to ensure vehicle does not scrape anywhere.

Pricing & Conclusion

The asking price for top variant is higher than Ford Ecosport by almost 75000-80000 and touches nearly 13 lacs on road. Ford provides 6 airbags which Honda offers only two for instance. There are so many features others offer which Honda may not have. The car is steeply priced no doubt and the going points for this car is mileage, space, ground clearance, feature set and steering – though not necessarily a punchy drive. You can download the brochure here.

In the long run this car would keep you satisfied and won’t get damaged due to bad roads in and around city. Highway trips won’t be exciting but rather sedate as the car would likely pick up speed at steady speed and does not like to be revved. Honda should quickly fix the pedal press versus response time problem in order to make this car even better. They can focus on better damping of engine noise within the car as well and provide an option to have sporty suspension as well which is slightly more rigid.

If this car were to have its top variant at 10 lacs this would have been the best value for money in the market so far. But Honda is like any other company and after all it has to price the car either slightly below or slightly above its competitors. So it has decided to be in the 10-12L bracket.

Still this is a car that will keep you happy even though some parts of the experience is slightly disappointing or not upto the mark. If you have the money and want a car that has mostly everything – the WR-V will not disappoint you. But at the end of the day it is a car, not an SUV or even an MUV for that matter. The traits of an SUV are great suspension, handling abilities and punchy engine – Honda has some catching up to do in this departments.

And without an automatic variant – its one star less again for the final ratings.

Does the Celerio really offer what it claims?

The ageing Tata Nano needs a refresh and our family has to now take a call on which car to go for given the limited budget and affordability at this point in time. This being a second car its purpose would be to only run it in and around home a few miles everyday.

(source: maruti suzuki celerio official website)

A call to Pratham motors in HSR Layout and a word with them on the interest in Celerio was enough for them to scramble a car for a test drive. The AMT (automated manual transmission) is lately catching the fancy of many Indian car buyers as well as automobile manufacturers. Maruti, Tata have taken early leads to jump into the business of making this transmission in order to woo two kinds of crowds – ladies who would otherwise find it difficult to drive a manual tranny car and the scores of individuals who are fed up commuting in a 2 to 3 hours gruelling traffic jam each day changing gears thousands of times.

The Celerio was the first of the bunch to sport the AMT, followed by Alto, and news of Wagon R jumping onto the same bandwagon. Tata however have cleverly put in an AMT only currently into their zest sedan, needless to say only on the top diesel variant retailing over 8 lacs ex-showroom. This cost would definitely put off a few prospective automatic car buyers.

(source: maruti suzuki celerio official website)

On the non AMT side, we do have many cars that already sport an automatic transmission including but not limited to the Maruti Ritz & Dzire, the Honda Amaze, Brio and the City, the Micra and Sunny from Nissan, etc. While these are pure automatics, the AMT is a different experiment to keep the mileage returned at almost that of a manual. While the CVTs like the micra are the most fun to drive, the AMTs are basically trying to address the mundane commute in a much better way.

A couple of pleasantries later, I let my wife drive the Celerio first after which I took to the wheel myself. There are basically two modes provided with respect to the automatic transmission. One is the fully automatic D-N-R mode where the car takes over what to do fully, and the other is the Manual (M) mode with + and – for upshifts of gear or downshifts. This mode must be enough to remind you of the fact that at heart these cars are still the manual ones, but the manufacturers have pulled off neatly the clutch handling part by automating that physical action of engaging or disengaging a clucth.

My drive was roughly about 2 to 3 kms with varying terrain: some smooth roads, few really bad speed breakers, and some roads with potholes. The first part was the fully automatic drive mode. The car picks up rather hesitatingly but settles down from first gear and the gears quickly move upto 2nd and 3rd thereon. The idea of this mode is to bring the car to the highest gear in the shortest time to conserve fuel on the drives. This is both good and bad. Good for the money saved, bad for the thrill lost of driving a manual car. With due respects to manual cars, I would not hinge on discussing those here. The only aim here is to let you know the comfort that AMTs aim to offer and evaluate whether the claims really make sense.

7-2014-Maruti-Suzuki-Celerio-Interior-Dashboard-AMT

(source: carblogindia.com)

The automatic mode is something I can term as a complete fuss free experience. Release the handbrake and you are all set to go. That’s it. Accelerate when you want, brake when you want and the car simply wont switch off. Wish granted and it performs great wherever you amble the car around. While moving from standstill since it picks up from 1st gear, all the way to 4th, its a smooth acceleration barring a momentary hesitation in second and third to lunge forward. Its not unbearable, and in my opinion not significant enough to delay you so much to get you frustrated (unlike the honda amaze automatic CVT).

While slowing down the car tends to remain in second gear most of the times unless you physically get it to a full stop where it would switch back to first gear. Now when you accelerate rather hard when its on second there is a certain vibration before the car settles down. This is rather annoying but I guess we have to live with this flaw for the remaining creature comforts of an automatic. Its just an overlooked aspect in my opinion and may be addressed in forthcoming revisions of the vehicle after customer feedback.

02celerio-interior

(source: mid-day.com)

Now the manual mode. Slide the lever to “M” or “D” on the go as you like. In “M” mode, the onus is on the driver to trip down (pull down the gear lever) each time a gear upshift is needed. For downshifts the level would be pulled upwards. This is more precise for me and its like driving a manual without the clutch pedal but with gear shifts 🙂 And the car can be made to listen to your whims of which gear you want to be on. One clever thing that you expected and is provided as a feature is that you only need to upshift while on the move. If you slow down the car downshifts by itself upto 1st gear. Smart.

autoshift
(source: motorbeam.com)

Even in the manual mode, the car tries to remain on second gear as much as possible. Not sure why this implementation was done this way, but that is how it is.

For the other bits that are worth liking about the Celerio now. Some colours are head turning in this car – I loved the green, red and blue specifically. The headlamp design, the indicators in the front are certain things that make the car look definitely good and modern enough. The rear seems in my opinion a bit disconnected from the whole frame, but its not totally worthless. The LXi version is for those who dont have money, and the VXi version is for those who have money but still dont get enough features for that money.

The difference is about 50000 bucks and for that money, you get power windows, wheel caps (yea we are still talking like its 1995), auto driver window down (I call this double click down), lots of chrome here and there, vanity mirrors (LXi owners wives would be an angry lot), rear parcel shelf (oh common maruti), 60-40 split seat (necessary in my opinion as a combination of passenger+luggage is possible at rear), central locks, and power windows. This feature set is worth paying the differential amount for in my opinion.

What the car is missing though is Airbags on AMT version which is a big minus (now you remember the indian dialogue “if i am driving slow i dont need airbags” 🙂 ). There is no stereo in either AMT version which is another minus. No seat covers, etc. The rear wiper is present which is much better than defogger. Another point is the gear indicator shows up on the console only in auto mode (wonder why!) if that really matters to you.

I don’t like manufacturers deliberately cutting down on the airbags just to make a model sell well. This shows the irresponsibility from their side on the lives of buyers. Even the impending rules from government for making airbags mandatory would mean they consider only the driver as a human being and provide a single airbag to satisfy the government. What I really hate is the either automatic or airbags choices which are really senseless and idiotic in the year 2015. I wish manufacturers use their heads more than just keep cash registers ringing by selling unsafe cars year on year. I wish someone puts up a petition challenging all this in a big way. For me an optional airbag facility would have made this an A+ car to drive. Unfortunately Maruti for their own reasons cut out that pleasure from buyers and dampened them for good.

So if I buy the car, I guess I’ll be one of those owners who’d have to tell anyone who asks “I am driving slowly why must I need an airbag?” to satisfy my foolishness of buying a car without these. The other way to ask this question is to say “I am willing to pay who is giving me airbags in this combination?” – that’s atleast a better proposition.

The space in Celerio is really commendable for a hatchback, and five people might be able to sit in peace. Overall I found the headroom, legroom and general comfort to be substantial for a car this size and Maruti has really worked on the space part and got this equation right on this car. Given Celerio is coming in with diesel, it would be a right spot that the company has got with respect to having its sales charts on fire. Not that it already hasn’t with whats available.

On bad roads the Celerio is a good boy and handles most bad-boy-road-humps with ease even when loaded upto 4 people and a kid. I really went on some seriously ugly humps and it didn’t bat an eyelid. The handling was good and the occupants did not complain or were thrown about much. I did find the pickup to be slightly less with AC on and 4 people loaded but I need to drive this car more to ascertain whether this is indeed a sore point or not. A 2km test drive was insufficient for me to understand this part. The window was slightly higher to my liking and kids would not be able to see out if they are on the rear seat. The Hyundai i20 is like that and there are some cars such as these which have deep seating which is both good and bad. The driver maybe able to feel the pinch with this kind of seating.

There is no seat height adjust or steering tilt which is really sad as I am pretty sure providing that feature is not going to cost Maruti a bomb. These are mainly missed out to keep that differentiation in sales and in my opinion these are really stupid moves to say the least.

In summary the Celerio is a likeable car for the way it handles, and the space. Sprucing up the feature list can make it the next Wagon R for the next decade or so. The AMT is a breeze and its a no brainer for new drivers. Five adults would be comfortable on this vehicle and on long drives it surely would be much appreciated for the cruises it can offer. The hill holding capability is not yet tested by me but I did see that on a sloping section of road, the car did not move backwards on releasing the brakes which means there is some sort of implementation to prevent that.

The LXi at the time of writing sells in Bangalore at 5.3 OTR and the VXi at 5.8 OTR. The recommendation is to go for VXi as the features are much better. All the colours are nice to look at and Maruti’s service assurance should keep 90% of the customers happy with any purchase you do through them.

There can be many things told about the car, but experiencing an AMT in action is a totally different pleasure and I am sure you would not have any complaints on that front. Until the next car review, this is Srikanth from the Bangalore blog signing off for now.