Chevy Beat – Find out whether it makes your heart ‘Beat’

After the Delhi Auto Expo, its time for the manufacturers to release the new cars and take the real test. Chevrolet is the first one to come out and announce its small car Chevy Beat.

When you first look at the car from a distance and without keen interest, you’d say that it’s the Maruti Ritz. Come closer with your eyes opened and you’ll find the two major differences, one the Chevy mark roof railings and big bold front head lamps.

Chevrolet Beat Exteriors

To be straight I really liked its looks. This looks fairly similar to the looks of Ritz but in my previous review on the later, I said that I was not quite impressed by its flat back design. Chevy Beat has a slightly more curvy back which looks much better from side on.

Chevrolet Beat exteriors look

Your eyes would definitely be pulled towards those front and rear headlamps, they are so beautifully designed with the modern combination of black and white colors. There are also the fog lamps that were shedding light quite a bit sideways and were very attractive too. The side indicator could have been white in color giving it more of a sporty look in whose place traditional Orange colored indicators were present.

How the hell do I get in to the rear seat?

I didn’t notice this difference till one of my friend saw that there were no door handles at the rear end. Instead the handles were recessed to the rear part of the window pane which nicely matched with the color of the Window. For looks it was good, but at the same time, it was a bit odd to extend the hand to that height and turn vertical (your wrist that is) to open the door.

Overall, the exteriors were quite impressive, much much better than the toy car Spark.

How are the Interiors?

The Dashboard

It isn’t like Spark. The Speedo and Rev meters are placed at the traditional ‘see through steering’ place unlike Spark where they were placed bang in the middle of the dashboard. Also, various indicator lights were given their dedicated slots instead of stacking all of them into the Speedo meter console that you’d find in other small cars.

Chevrolet Beat Interiors -Dashboard look

The shady black color to the dashboard and continuing the same tone throughout the interiors was exceptional (I was never a fan of Chevy Cars, especially in India, but it seems as though I can’t stop praising the new beauty).

The Unavoidable Technical Stuff

There are three versions of Beat at present, 1.2PS, 1.2LS, 1.2LT. However, you can also get the 1.2LT Option pack that you can Mod to your liking.

All the three variants have an engine of 1199cc displacement with 4 cylinders (16V DOHC), shedding 80.5ps (85ps for Ritz) of max power, 108Nm (113Nm for Ritz) of Torque, have tubeless tyres, have a rear spoiler, have body colored bumpers, have power steering, adjustable OVRM’s, have bottle holders, have a tacho and have a dual horn feature.

The Mileage as tested by ARAI is given as 18.6 which is almost always slightly more than what you actually get on the streets.

The Wheelbase is 2375mm (Ritz has a wheelbase of 2360mm) and tyres are sized 155/70 R14 (185/70 R14 for Ritz ZXi)

In addition to what the basic variants PS and LS have, the LT variant has alloy wheel (optional), Large rear spoiler, Roof Rails, Body colored door handles and mirrors, sunglass holder, rear defogger, rear power windows, tilt steering, Auto climate control with Auto AC, integrated Audio system, Rear wash and wipe.

The ABS and Airbags come as an Optional in 1.2LT.

Tell me the Price

The Chevy 1.2PS is priced at Rs.3,51,517 while 1.2LS and 1.2LT variants are priced at Rs.3,72,503 and Rs.4,14,474 respectively. The Option pack LT variant is priced at Rs.4,56,447.

All prices are Ex-showroom Mumbai.
Images © Chevrolet

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