WhichCarIndia

Ah, the perennial question. You see, the Wagon R came first (in Japan) and the Santro was Hyundai's attempt at making a small car with the Japanese Kei car concept (small 600 cc cars with fixed dimensions that puts them in a lower duty bracket) as the benchmark. So the Santro has more space inside and continous development of the successful Hyundai means newer engines and a rather contemporary car. I have been recommending Santros for a long time when I got the opportunity to drive the Wagon R in the mountains - the Raid de Himalaya of all things! And that changed my opinion of the 'bread box' Suzuki forever. The little R is absolutley well built, has a stunning 1.1 litre engine that has longer legs than you would ever imagine and it returns 13-14 kpl on a consistant basis. Guess what, now I love the way the R looks too - it is as utilitarian as a Prestige pressure cooker but it works. Wagon Rs are better bought second hand (under 25,000 km models aplenty out there for as little as Rs 1.5 to 1.8 lakh. You can expect the R to go on for 1,00,000 km before becoming squeaky. So the question is 'newer product' vs a 'modern classic' and I think the latter is better built and has more character over a period of time. Buy the R!

Bijoy Kumar Y