Reader’s Review: Riaz Momin Reviews his Chevrolet Beat LS

Completed 5000kms in 13 Months on my Chevy Beat LS – Petrol. Though I did not use much for last 1 year as I was out of country, but still did around 3000kms+ while it was under my control.

 

Here is little feedback, experience and moments while buying it about it and after it.

 

Buying a car was sudden thought for me. The money was actually belonging to Kawasaki Ninja 250R, but as a family man I had to sacrifice the Ninja and go for a Car. Now the obvious question was which Car?

 

My requirements were pretty simple,

1. A good city car as max usage will be in city.

2. Must be comfortable for 4 people and occasional 5.

3. Since car will be not used regularly, Mileage was not big concern, but 12-15kmpl is always appreciated.

4. Maintenance free or very low maintenance.

5. Decent looking one and not be one in the crowd. 😀

6. Budget not more than 5 lacs.

 

I had following options in my mind (one or two requirements above might not stand to the cars that I have thought of), Chevy Beat, MS Swift, Hyundai i10, VW Polo and Ford Figo.

 

Since my budget was just 5 followed with 5 zeros, Diesel cars were out of my list, and since the usage would be very low I was not much worried about a petrol car.

 

One day, I visited MS & VW Showrooms enquiring about costs, VW polo and MS Swift were already out of budget and had waiting periods so they were out of list  and was left with Beat, i10 & Figo. My dad’s friends and many others were pushing me for Wagon-R, but some how I developed hatred for new Wagon-R. Hence not in my list.

 

Next day visited Hyundai showroom, the Sprotz version of i10 was quoted around 5.5lacs and Era version was quoted around 4.7 onroad. Honestly, I was never interested on i10, but just enquired about and felt that it was over-priced and not worth, added to that the showroom personnel were not that customer centric leading me to remove i10 from the list and left with Figo and Beat.

 

Next visit was planned for Figo, but luckily one of my colleague got it. So I got chance to look at it closely. Straight away, I did not like the build quality and dated looks of it. I wasn’t much sure about its engine and drive, but known bad image if Fords service in hyderabad, I was apprehensive about considering this car, though at this time this car was selling out like Hot cakes. One more option gone! left out only with Beat.

 

I did not wanted to waste time by visiting showrooms, I was in night shift that week and had quite amount of time to read peoples experiences about Chevy Beat. Started off with GTO’s review on Team-BHP and I was pretty impressed with the review and car itself. Read almost all the thread related to Chevy Beat ownership and Ford Figo. I was having fair idea about Chevys A.S.S. was decent enough and I had 1 in 5kms radius and another in 15kms radius. Some more research about it all that week and gathered quite an information about it.

 

So made a visit to KUN Chevrolet near my office asking about the Beat. The sales representative was courteous enough to offer soft-drink/team for customer who came just to enquire about a Car, initial impression best scored. The base model of Beat which is PS was quoted at 4.20lacs on Road, LS model at 4.45 on road, LT model at 4.90 on road and finally LT with ABS, Alloys & airbags at 5.20 on road. I liked the build quality, interiors, looks of the car. It was good enough for 5 people to adjust and 4 people to comfortable sit in it. Its had good power and torque figures and good reviews about its engine and cars performance. I got the quotations for LS & LT models and left. Showroom personnel was suggesting not to go to PS model as it doesn’t have much to offer other than engine and body of the car. LS & LT models were in my budget. Now I need to decide which one I need to go for.

 

Had test ride of Beat LT, and loved it straight away. Tried to start already started car couple of time, so was the vibe-free and noise-free car was. A/C is super chilly and I was happy with driving comfort, head clearance and knee recess (might be wierd, but I would like to have some kind of support for my knee so that I dont have use my strength to keep my leg straight :D)

 

All the reviews that I read about Beat were for LT model. Audio system, Roof rails, climate control, fog lamps, rear power windows, rear wiper, body colored door handles, RVMs and spoiler, glossy panels on passenger and driver doors. These were features on LT model that were not on LS models. These were many features that cant be ignored, but still I had made my choice of going for my own ICE, as the audio system on LT model was not having brilliant reviews (speakers arent good enough if you are music lover). Glossy panels, Roof rails, body colored handles, RVMs & spoiler weren’t much of interest for me, but I would miss climate control and rear wiper. But the difference of 45000 is not small, I can get good ICE well with in 20000 and can use rest 25000 for other accessories. So finally the Choice was made, Chevrolet Beat LS it is. Took my parents, wife, cousins to showroom for their feed back. While my dad (influenced by his friends) still insisting me to go for Wagon-R, he was happy with car. My wife had no other feedback except the condition being the car to be in RED color :D.

 

So all the permissions from home are acquired now the the next steps of money (loan) and documentation was to be done. I took Loan from State Bank of Hyderabad with interest @ 8%. Though the process to get a car loan from SBH is tedious but you do have total transparency of the process that is happening because you are doing everything on your own. 🙂 I had to spend whole day at Loans branch in Hyderabad with all the necessary documentation, finally at the end of the day the cheque was signed and given to me which I need to give to showroom guys to give me the car.

 

Price & accessories details:

Onroad price: 4.30lacs

 

Insurance: Free and I had option to either go for 3 years maintenance package or free insurance. My calculation made me to decide that yearly maintenance of Beat might not cross 2000, so going for free insurance would be apt choice which was worth 10K.

 

Corporate discount of 5K.

 

Free accessories: Central locking, mud flaps, car cover, floor mats (all worth around 4000) and was polish. 😛

 

BTW, I had already booked the car on Tuesday and delivery was promised after two days i.e. Friday. I gave showroom guys cheque on Thursday and had look at the car which was allocated to me (along with my friend to check for any damages) and they were ready to deliver the car on Friday, but my parents suggested me to take car on Sunday, Reason being it was non-working day (so less traffic) and they weren’t enough confident on my driving as it has been 10 years I touched a steering wheel. :D. So informed showroom that delivery will be taken on Sunday and not to invoice the car on my name until I had look at it. The wait was tough, the wait was like I went to buy my first bike, its was like when I went to buy my 2nd bike and again it was like to buy my 3rd bike :D. Was waiting for Sunday morning.

 

That fine day arrives, Me with my parents were present at showroom along with my Bro-in-law. The car was ready in the basement, Me and my dad had many inspections done around to see any defects and damages, but happy that nothing was found. I check all the documentations, invoices, cross-checked with documents that required for permanent registration. We had to wait for wax polish guys for almost 1 hour as they were at body-shop working on another car. Once the arrived the did their work and tried to shine a Brand new car! Showroom manager handed over the keys to my parents as told by me where as by Bro-in-law starting the car for! Then Me with my parents filled ourselves into the car and headed out you know where, to the petrol station. Showroom gave around 5 liters, but my dad suggested to fill it out as we were not sure how much it actually had. My BIL left on his bike meanwhile. Honestly, those were tense moments, I was not confident enough to drive my new car and I had to drive it for 15kms to reach home. But I was very happy in heart for achieving one more milestone in my life. Reached home, relaxed and slept that night thinking about where to drive!

 

Well this happiness was short lived, as I had to travel to UK with in 15 days for 5 months assignment. Well, I had 15 days to enjoy my new ride. Me and my family planned trip to nagarjun sagar dam which will make 400kms to-fro trip. This was enough time for me to complete majority of KMS for run-in of my car.

 

I was already might impressed with my first car, the engine, the performance and the comfort that it offered my while driving (around 200kms) in the city and now I had chance to prove it on open road to nagarjun sagar dam. with 3 people in rear and a passenger with me in drivers seat. I had to be careful enough to control the RPM as it was in run-in period, kept RPM below 2000 for 500kms and gradually increased it to 2500 while end of the trip. Though BEAT is not a full-fledged highway car, but I had server the purpose for me. 3 people in rear were ladies who were not cramped and were comfortable enough. As a driver, I was smiling more for every kilometer I completed, dodging bad roads comfortable, overtaking easily at speeds over 100kmph. I took RPM near to 4000 few times and could feel that engine might loose its refinement at higher RPMs, but that’s how the science is.

 

The trip was completed with 800kms on Odometer with top speed attained of 140kmph. Mileage was 14kmpl approx. After completing few more kms in city and reaching 1000kms mark, My car was ready for its 1000kms-Service (as called by Chevy) in 10 days of its purchase :P. I was extremely satisfied with the service, though nothing much expect for adjustments and nice wash, but 9/10 for Chevy’s A.S.S. and customer centric attitude of people over there.

 

So, I had to leave the car for 5 months, and my Bro-In-Law will be driving it just for sake of not keeping it idle. After these 5 months, I had to look at my car with some surprises for me. Good number of scratches on side of the front bumpers, due to compact parking area at my BIL’s home. Well I could not do much about it. Two days after I came to India from UK, I was assigned to one more project for which I had to leave in 10 days. So Again, not much time to spend with my car! And I had to use it as much as I can to get it ready for first service (5000kms or 6 months). My car was already 6 months old. So where ever I had to go I used the car, and It was city all the time. It did its job very well for which I bought it for.

 

The peppy lower gears, very good turning radius and crisp handling required for congested city of Hyderabad. Covered around 1000kms in those 10 days, got the car serviced with again very good service by KUN Chevrolet, Hyderabad. During these 10 days, I decided to ICE’up the car. Minister’s Road in Hyderabad is popular for Car Accessories shops. So before going that, again landed at Team-BHP and went over ICE and accessories threads. I went for JVC Double Din with Bluetooth and Best quality polk speakers in front and rear, with total going to Rs 22000 with Console for 15K and rest for speakers. Got the seat covers made out of medium grade leather for Rs 5K. So now my car is almost fully loaded. Two days after this I was in flight to London and with my car again in my hands of BIL and his compact parking area. 😀

 

 

Again, those 6 months had to be completed as per our Earth’s time cycle and I am back in Hyderabad, And I had surprises about my car. Now new scratches 😀 and new Car cover! Happy to see my family again and happy to see my bike and car. In last 20 days from today I have done around 1000kms and completed today total of 5000kms. Got it serviced (10000kms or 1 year) last week as it completed 1 year with only complaint being rough engine. And I was blown away by the work done the people. The Car was looking as its came out of showroom and was behaving like that.

 

At the end, I am a very happy customer (except petrol prices) of Chevy Beat and A.S.S. of KUN Chevrolet.

 

Some stats of lat 1 year of my car:

 

Effective price: Rs 4.30 lacs on Road.

 

Service costs: Rs 1200 as total for 1st and 2nd service. Got wheel alignment done at my expenses.

 

Total KMS done: 5000kms as of today.

 

Additional accessories: ICE for Rs 22000, Seat cover for Rs 5000 and Garware sun films for Rs 2500.

 

Insurance renewal: Rs 7800/-

 

Effective price after 1 year: 4.68 Lacs

 

If you read whole post from top to bottom, Thanks a lot for your time spent here. 🙂

1 thought on “Reader’s Review: Riaz Momin Reviews his Chevrolet Beat LS”

  1. Quote:

    The GW250 is at par with the Honda CBR250R in terms of power, but has marginally less power.

    Do I get that right or do I get that right ?

    Interesting bike though, hope it has a good tank capacity for fewer fuel stops, and doesn't compromise on quality.

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