1200cc – Mileage Reviews

Volkswagen Polo (Petrol)

One of the premium hatchbacks in town, the Volkswagen Polo was launched in February 2010. Over the past 3 years, the car has been one of the hot-sellers for the company in India. The latest variant, the GT TSI was launched in April this year. In terms of specifications, the Polo comes equipped with a 3 cylinder 1198cc engine that delivers a max power of 75 PS at 5400 RPM. This translates to a torque of 110 Nm at 3750 Nm. The Polo has a decent acceleration that can help you reach 100 kmph in just around 14.2 seconds at a max speed of 162.9 kmph. The overall dimension of the car is 3970mm x 1682mm x 1453 mm with a wheelbase of 2456mm. At a kerb weight of 1020 kg, the Polo is heavier than Brio which also has a smaller wheelbase and a higher power. The Volkswagen Polo comes at a starting price of Rs. 4.89 lakhs ex-showroom.

Manufacturer Fuel Claim:

We have discussed a few 1200cc cars on this blog. The Brio was one that the manufacturers claimed would deliver 19.4 kmpl which is the highest we have seen so far. The petrol variant of Maruti Suzuki Ritz on the other hand came at a lower 18.5 kmpl while the Suzuki Swift and Renault Pulse claimed to deliver 18.6 kmpl and 18.1 kmpl respectively. Compared to these figures, the mileage claimed by Volkswagen looks rather low. The company claims a consumption of 16.47 kmpl on the petrol variant. Although the Polo is a premium hatchback unlike a Swift, this difference in FE is definitely something to consider. In any case, do note that all the numbers discussed here are under standard testing conditions and real world performance may vary. So let us take a look at real customer reviews and test drive reports before arriving at a conclusion.

Customer Feedback Reports

Let us first start with the user reviews on ZigWheels. There are totally 4 reviews in all who have rated the car 4.5 on 5 for fuel efficiency. The reported number is somewhere between 14.5-15.5 kmpl on city roads. The owners however report that while the Polo does have a premium feel to it, the interiors could do with some improvement. Also, while it is not very spacious on the inside, the seats are still comfortable. However, if you are looking for a good boot space, the Polo will definitely make you happy.

AutomobileUpdates in their review of the Polo do not offer any particular insight with respect to the performance or rather anything. However, they report that the petrol variant should deliver a mileage of around 12.1 kmpl on city roads and 17.2 kmpl on the highways. This looks to be a more realistic expectation from the car than what was reported on Zigwheels; not that I am dismissing the review of the users there.

Carzy in their review of the 1.2L Polo note that the ‘trimmed’ interiors will make you fall in love with the car at first glance. This is in marked contrast to the user reviews we saw on ZigWheels. However, they concur on the fact that the interiors are pretty spacious even for tall passengers. On the topic of fuel consumption, the petrol variant of the car is noted to offer close to 13 kmpl on city roads and 17 kmpl on highway roads. It is not just the Carzy reviewer who finds the interiors impressive. Case in point, the review on Yahoo that says the interiors reflect the ‘sportiness’ of the car. In terms of FE, the test drive delievered around 12-14 kmpl which is along expected lines.

Next up, let us look at what the reviewers on MouthShut have got to say. There have been around 64 reviews for the petrol variant of the car and these reviewers have given the Volkswagen Polo 3/5 on fuel consumption. That’s a pretty low figure on an average. However, when you actually read through the reviews, you notice that while there are issues with after sales service, inadequate availability of spare parts, etc., the mileage itself is not bad. While you may notice a low fuel efficiency of just about 9-10 kmpl initially, this is likely to go up to 13-14 kmpl post the first service. Do note that this figure has been reporte by users driving primarily on bumper-to-bumper city road traffic.

So this concludes our review of the Polo’s mileage. I have summarized the figures from various sources in the table below. My verdict is that Polo is definitely a premium hatchback when you look at it from a price perspective. When it comes to mileage, the Polo is not bad and is definitely something you can bank upon.

Source	City (kmpl)	Highways (kmpl)
Official	–	16.47
AutomobileUpdates	12.1	17.2
Carzy	13	17
MouthShut	13-14	—
Yahoo	12-14	—
ZigWheels	14.5-15.5	—

Renault Pulse (Petrol)

Renault India launched the Pulse entry-level hatchback car just a year back during the 11th Auto Expo. This is based on the Nissan Micra – same engine and chassis with just minor differences in the front and rear exteriors. The Pulse is available in six colours and is available in both petrol and diesel variants. We will be looking only at the Petrol variant in this review though.

Let’s take a look at the specifications. Like a lot of entry level cars, the Pulse too comes with a 1198cc engine that comes with 3 cylinders and 12 valves. This engine is capable of extracting close to 76PS max power at 6000 RPM that translates to 104 Nm max torque at 4000 RPM. This is not much if you compare the performance of this car with other models at the entry-level – Maruti Suzuki Swift as well as Ritz deliver 87PS power while the Honda Brio delivers 88PS. Of course the Pulse beats Nano’s 38PS power but I don’t it makes sense comparing Pulse with the Nano.

Speaking of the dimensions, the Pulse measures 3.805m X 1.665m X 1.530m with a wheelbase of 2450mm. The boot space is decent at 251 liters. You can fill close to 41 liters fuel at full tank. The Renault Pulse RxE is priced at Rs 4,32,300 ex-Delhi.

Manufacturer Claim On Fuel Efficiency

Renault has been advertising its 23.1 kmpl mileage quite aggressively. However do note that this figure is for the Diesel variant only. If you are looking at the Petrol version, the officially claimed FE is 18.1 kmpl. Again, this is under standard test conditions which are basically favourable road conditions that you do not get in city traffic. So your real world mileage could be quite lower. Again, to compare this figure with the official figure from the other cars from the 1200cc segment we have reviewed already, the Pulse seems to be on par with the Swift and Ritz while Brio still wins with an FE of around 19.4 kmpl.

Test Drive & Customer Reviews

CarKhabri in their review note that the Pulse can reach a speed of 100kmph from nought in just over 14.2 seconds. The car also seems to offer 14.2 kmpl fuel economy on city road conditions with the corresponding figure for highways hovering around 18.2 kmpl.

On AutoInfoz.com, there is no detailed review of the car which makes me curious about the source of their claimed city mileage for the Pulse. Anyway, according to them, you can expect around 18kmpl on the highway roads which comes down to around 14 kmpl in the city.

CarandMe.com has a similar story – there is no detailed review of the car. However, they do note the city mileage to be around 14 kmpl with highways tending to offer around 16 kmpl. I absolutely cannot vouch for whether this info has been provided from an in-house review or sourced from elsewhere.

Carzy again does not have a review of the petrol variant of the car. However in their listings page, they note that the petrol variant of Renault Pulse should be able to deliver around 14.3 kmpl of fuel economy on city road conditions while the same on highways could go up as much as 18 kmpl. Again, it is not clear if these numbers were derived from test drives or from third party sources. MouthShut, my favourite for user reviews has no reviews from customers owning a petrol Pulse.

Overall, I guess this review should not have helped you much. Most sources reviewing the car have done it for the 1500cc diesel variant and not the petrol variant. Also, those who have done have not made it clear if the city mileage numbers provided are from any manufacturer affiliated source of if it was derived from independent testing. In any case, the numbers I have been able to gather are detailed below. If you own a Pulse Petrol, do let us know the mileage you have been able to get in the comments below. It should help our other readers a lot.

Source	City (kmpl)	Highways (kmpl)
Official	–	18.1
CarKhabri	14.2	18.2
AutoInfoz	14	18
CarandMe	14	16
Carzy	14.3	18

Maruti Suzuki Swift (Petrol)

Maruti Suzuki launched the Swift in India back in 2005. Since then, the car has undergone more than a couple of changes with respect to the engine to comply with the reintroduced emission norms. The latest versions of the LXi, VXi and ZXi petrol cars come equipped with a K-series petrol engine with VVT. This has a 1197cc displacement and with 4 cylinders can generate a maximum power of 87PS at 6000RPM and torque of 114Nm at 4000 RPM. This is extremely similar to the engine specs that we discussed for the Maruti Ritz not so long back.

Talking of other important specs, the Swift measures 3.85m x 1.695m x 1.530m, has a wheelbase of 2.43m and a ground clearance of 170mm. The car weighs 960kg (LXi) and has a fuel tank that can take in 42 liters at its brim. The Suzuki Swift LXi is the cheapest variant available and is available at an ex-showroom price of Rs. 4.49 lakhs at Delhi.

Manufacturer Claim on Mileage

The Swift has a lot of things in common with the Ritz. Both cars have a 1197cc engine that delivers close to 87PS power. The physical dimensions are more or less the same on both cars. However, the Ritz weighs slightly more than the Swift. While the kerb weight of the Ritz is around 1030kg, Swift roughly weighs 50-60 kg lower. This has an implication on the overall mileage claimed by the manufacturer since a higher weight requires the engine to spend more fuel in moving the car and consequently lowers the efficiency.

However, that doesn’t seem to be the case. According to Gaadi, the manufacturer claims a mileage of 18.6 kmpl on the Swift LXi which is almost the same as what is claimed on the Ritz. So it’s either the better engine on the Ritz or that Maruti doesn’t really want to cannibalize the sales of one of its cars due to the other.

Test Drive & Customer Reviews

MaxAbout does not offer great independent insights this time. They note that the latest version of the car has bigger and better headlamps, automatic climate control and a steering wheel with music controls. However, their report on mileage doesn’t seem to be independently assessed. According to them, the Swift should deliver around 12 kmpl on city roads and 18 kmpl on highways.

The report on ProKerala seems to be similar with vague information on how the reported mileages were tested. They note the Swift to offer 11 kmpl on city roads that goes up to 16 kmpl on the highways.

There are a few reviews of the Suzuki Swift on AutoJunction, and according to these, the expected city mileage on the car is around 10.55-14 kmpl while on highways, it can go as high as 19.78 kmpl. This is apparently the economy a user observed on his Bangalore-Chennai trip.

IndianAuto.com does a great job in comparing the specifications and features on the petrol and diesel variants of the Swift. On their comparison page, the reviewers note that the diesel variant consistently gives around 2-3 kmpl more than the petrol variant. Accordingly, they expect the LXi petrol variant to offer close to 11.5 kmpl on city roads and 15.8 kmpl on highways with the overall figure hovering about 12.6 kmpl.

CarBHP does not have a great deal of review going on their site. Hence I am unsure if the mileage they claim on the Swift is from independent tests or sourced from elsewhere. Anyway, they say the overall economy on the Swift LXi could be around 12.3 kmpl.

One thing that has been coming up persistently on the MouthShut forum is a “brake failure” issue that a lot of users have been facing at low gears. Customers say that the brake becomes extremely difficult to apply or doesn’t work at first or second gears sometimes causing minor accidents. Maruti Suzuki apparently is in the know and so it’s likely that this issue may not occur on your newly purchased Swift. In any case, do remember to test it out before accepting the delivery. On the fuel consumption front though, the car has received a 4/5 rating. There are not too many reviews in the past year talking about fuel. However the one that did talks highly of it claiming 16.5-17 kmpl on city roads and 21 kmpl on the highways. Seems kind of unlikely though.

Here is a summary of the results noted from various sources. What is your view on the Suzuki Swift Petrol? Would you be going for it? Tell us your thoughts, comments and questions in the section below.

Source	City roads (kmpl)	Highways (kmpl)
Official	–	18.6
MaxAbout	12	18
ProKerala	11	16
AutoJunction	10.55-14	19.78
IndianAuto	11.5	15.8
CarBHP	12.3	—
MouthShut	16.5-17	21

Maruti Suzuki Ritz (Petrol)

Launched as Suzuki Splash in the rest of the world, Maruti Suzuki had to take the alternate name ‘Ritz’ in India because the ‘Splash’ name was already registered by Ford in India. Today, there are over 2 lakh Ritz on Indian roads today and this hatchback is definitely one of the latest success stories from Maruti Suzuki in recent times.

So now let’s go ahead with a discussion on the tech specs. The petrol variant of Ritz has a smaller engine than the diesel variant and at 1197cc pretty much belongs to the league of Honda Brio that we discussed earlier. The engine can deliver a max power of up to 87PS at 6000 RPM and a torque of 113Nm at 4500 RPM. The car has a 5-gear manual transmission on offer with a kerb weight of close to 1030 kg. In terms of size, the Ritz measures 3715mm x 1680mm x 1620mm with a wheelbase of 2360mm and 170mm ground clearance which is marginally more than what the Brio has to offer. The Ritz Zxi BS-IV model is available at a price of Rs. 5,57,739 ex-Mumbai. That is much higher than the Brio though.

Manufacturer Mileage Claim

A 1200cc car is typically an upper middle class buy, and mileage is a big factor in the purchasing decision. According to Maruti Suzuki, the petrol variants of Ritz (VXi, LXi & ZXi) deliver a fuel economy of around 18.5 kmpl under standard test road conditions. This means, this is the mileage you can expect under good roads with favourable wind conditions etc. So on an everyday city road with traffic and potholes, the mileage is going to be much lower. For a perspective, Honda claimed to deliver 19.4 kmpl on the Brio.

Customer Feedback

Carwale has an honest feedback of their test drive. The test, which was conducted during the monsoons when there is typically heavy traffic returned decent results. The reviewer reports to have seen an FE of between 12-14 kmpl despite him having to drive a lot in the first and second gears.

The test drive from ProdEase throws up a slightly lower fuel efficiency. In their report, the website notes that their test on city roads delivered close to 11.1 kmpl on the Ritz which increased to 15.5 kmpl on the highways. I really don’t think the traffic conditions during this testing was any worse than what Carwale had to experience. The low mileage reported is hence disconcerting.

Ronak from RonakG.com has a pretty good word about the Ritz with regards to the silent engine, sound quality on the music system and steering. With respect to fuel efficiency, Ronak says he was able to extract 14.46 kmpl under typical Bangalore city road conditions with AC turned on and using the premium Shell petrol.

There are a few good reviews of the car on AutoJunction. In terms of mileage though, the customers have reported between 16-19.5 kmpl on city roads. This is much much higher than what we have seen from other reviews and with even the manufacturer claiming only so much on standard test conditions, I have to ask you to take this figure with a pinch of salt.

On AutoCarIndia, the reviewer writes that the legroom on the rear is not exactly great although the same is good on the front along with a very good forward visibility. The reviewer was able to see 11.8 kpl on city roads with 16.7 kmpl on the highways.

There are over 150 reviews for the Maruti Suzuki Ritz on MouthShut and although this is a mix of all petrol and diesel variants, I only looked into what the customers of the petrol variants had to say. On an average, the reported mileage with AC on seems to be around 13.5 kmpl on city roads with the corresponding number for highways hovering over 16kmpl.

To sum up, the Ritz appears to be a great car with good economy on offer in the 1200cc segment. There are some recurrent complaints about the rear visibility and in the general ‘ugliness’ of the rear-side. But if it is not something that bothers you, there is nothing that should stop you from going for the Ritz. Except for the price, of course. What are your thoughts on this?

Source	City (kmpl)	Highways (kmpl)
Official	–	18.5
CarWale	12-14	—
ProdEase	11.1	15.5
RonakG	14.46	—
AutoJunction	16-19.5	—
AutoCarIndia	11.8	16.7
MouthShut	13.5	16

Honda Brio

This is the first time we are moving away from two wheelers and are discussing mileage on a car. Let’s see if there is interest. Honda launched the Brio in the Indian market back in September 2011 just before the festival season. Although the car has got rave reviews, the production has continuously suffered a hit due to supply issues in the aftermath of Japanese earthquake and Bangkok floods.

Brio means ‘cheerful’ in Italian. The Honda Brio is a 1198cc 4 cylinder engine car that derives a maximum power of 88PS at 6000RPM. The resulting max torque is 109Nm at 4500 RPM. The car has a 2345mm wheelbase and ground clearance of 165mm which is just about okay on Indian roads. The car weighs 920kg at the very least and has a total seating capacity of 5. The lowest variant of the Brio comes at a price of Rs. 4.1 lakhs ex-showroom at Delhi.

Manufacturer Claim on Fuel Economy

Honda Brio comes with a manual transmission as well as automatic transmission. In India though, MT is the most preferred mode and so we will discuss only this. According to Honda India, the MT variant can deliver around 19.4 kmpl under standard testing conditions. AT reduces the mileage a bit and only delivers close to 16.5 kmpl under standard conditions.

Customer Feedback

Let us kick it off with a review from CarWale. The author commends the Brio for its pretty generous leg space for a car this size as well as for its “killer looks”. However, the disappointment shows on the mileage front. The customer reports an economy of just 10.8 kmpl even after the first servicing.

MaxAbout echoes the Carwale review on the design front. The website notes the “outstanding styling” and “stunning design” as great plusses for the car. However, unlike the earlier review, this report claims a city mileage of around 13kmpl on the Brio that goes up to 19.4kmpl on the highways. This is exactly what Honda claims on test conditions and so now I’m not sure if MaxAbout really went about testing the mileage or if it just from the manufacturer.

The ZigWheels review takes a somewhat middle path. The reviewer tested the car with air conditioning on in the congested streets of Pune where the fuel consumption was noted to be around 13kmpl. On the highways, this was noted to go up to 16.7 kmpl.

In his review of the Brio after 5000 kilometers, Team-BHP member Shiv
notes that the car is “super silent” and has a really good steering. On the fuel front, the reviewer reports 13.5 kmpl on the city roads and between 17-19 kmpl on the highways. The reported numbers here seem to perfectly align with those reported from other sources.

There are around eleven reviews of the Honda Brio on Carzy. Overall, the reported FE figure here is much better than what has been reported elsewhere. The reported number varies from around 15-16.03 kmpl on city roads and around 17-18 kmpl on highways.

Finally, let’s take a look at what MouthShut customers have got to say. There are close to 43 reviews for the Brio on this website and the customers have overall given this car a 4/5 in terms of fuel consumption. On city roads, the customers who have reported the mileage have done so in the range of 11-13 kmpl. On the highways, the corresponding number is between 17-19 kmpl with AC on and much more when it is turned off. Overall, the reports have been positive about the Brio.

So there you have it. I’ve aggregated the results from various sources in the table below.

Source	City FE (kmpl)	Highways FE (kmpl)
Official	–	19.4
Carwale	10.8	—
MaxAbout	13	19.4
ZigWheels	13	16.7
Team-BHP	13.5	17-19
Carzy	15-16.03	17-18
MouthShut	11-13	17-19

So would I recommend it? Some reports show the number to be pretty low at 10.8 kmpl. However, a majority of the reviews note the number to be around the 13kmpl mark which is just about okay for a 1200cc car. So my recommendation is a thumbs up on the fuel front.