TVS Wego, the scooter of the year 2011. TVS Wego, my first ever vehicle.
The Chits
More than a year ago, I got my hands on this two-wheeler. I was confused between buying a Car and Bike, and was wondering what should I be doing. At home, along with Mom, Dad and my sis, we all made chits to decide what should I do. First chit was written “Bike”, second one had written “Car”, third one as “Car & Bike” and forth one as “None”.
Well you guessed it wrong, the chit that got picked was “Car & Bike”. Now to my amazement, I was finally able to buy both and the worrying bit was that I would need to look at financing both. I went to all possible Hatchback showrooms in Thane and checked almost every car under the budget of Rs. 3.5 Lakhs which got extended time and again as I was impressed by higher valued cars. One thing I was certain – which ever car I will buy it will have to be the top end model.
The Search & Death of a Wish
I liked Ford Figo for its space, and Polo for no reason at all. I wanted Spark and it was my first choice – the love coming from my affection for the cute Daewoo Matiz. But the confusion lasted even longer as I checked all hatchbacks including the Wagon R.
Finally, I was zeroing in on the Nano for the my first as I respected the car for its design and engineering and my mom found it very cute and even went ahead with the test drive which turned flop – the showroom guys did not have enough fuel in the Nano and the car stalled on a busy highway. I guess that incident put final nail in the coffin of my wish to buy a car or put it for later.
The Scooter Idea
I wanted to buy a Bike – either the Bajaj Pulsar NS 200 or Avenger 220. I wanted something more of a Cruiser than a commuter. At one point, I was even considering Royal Enfield ThunderBird 350. All these bikes cost in the range of Rs. 80K to 1.30 Lakh plus region. I was almost sold on the Bajaj Pulsar NS 200, for it was the bike with all the latest technology. But things changed with my Mom’s suggestion.
My mom has ridden scooters for more than 15 years of her life. She has ridden everything from Mopeds (TVS Champ & TVS Excel Super) to Scooterettes (Kinetic Honda, Bajaj Sprite, Saffaire and Sunny, TVS Scooty and HH Pleasure et al) in the past. So prompt came the suggestion that “If you buy a scooter even I can ride, so can your sister (who still does not know to ride). As such you wont be using it everyday or mostly it will be at home”
Ouch! My heart sank. But she had a point. It made sense. The rickshaw costs for anyone of us to go out had increased hugely. This could help them travel around when I am not at home.
Zeroing on the Wego
I immediately started searching the internet for the best scooter to buy. At least here, I wanted to buy a powerful one among the most. Honda Activa was in the list of scooters I did not want to buy as it was dated and everyone had it. I knew Yamaha had recently launched the Ray (at that time), but it was advertised as Girl’s scooter. Vespa launched their scooters for 80K plus, and it made no sense from cost point of view (they later reduced the prices by 20K! Ouch!).
The only other options were Suzuki Access 125 and TVS Wego. Suzuki Access 125 is powerful and it felt smaller in appearance and did not have a front storage. I also read some where that its merits were slightly overshadowed by another scooter – the Wego.
Cost was right, it has body balance and a very comfortable ride (among all scooters) and decent fuel efficiency. Bang on! I paid Rs. 54500/- OTR Dombivli for the scoot in all cash deal with full list of accessories.
And the registration number I got was cool too (no, I did not pay anything to get this number). 82 41 [ 41 x 2 = 82! Simple math, you will get this stupidity 🙂 ]
Mileage
I have ridden the Wego for pretty long distances, including to my office (41 kms one way) and Vashi / Mankhurd (28 kms one way) regularly. The longest, however was Igatpuri, as part of my office trip which was well above 110 kilometers.
Clocking well over 8000 kilometers in a year on this scoot seemed like rarely done. I had hit 3000 kms on odometer in mere 3 months.
Wego returned a neat 48 Kmpl average fuel consumption and it has been an earnest scooter in terms of fuel consumption, combined for City and Highway rides.
Not so Trouble Free
Soon after my longer rides to office, I started facing issue with the strange noise coming rear end. I rode back home at constant 30 kmph to avoid any untoward incident. Visiting the workshop next day resolved it, and the culprit was a loosened nut attached to the silencer. It could have caused a disaster. I would visit the workshop two more times before this issue was fixed for a long time.
In January, I met with a freak accident that was caused because of someone’s stupidity. There were minor bruises, but the Wego took some damaged. The handle seemed tilted a bit and had faced issues which were not going to be resolved completely at the workshop. Some bit had to remain back.
However the ride and handling of Wego remained and that was something that I started to enjoy a lot more. Next few months were trouble-free, and my Wego traveled its longest distance yet to Igatpuri. Come rains and the long rides took a backseat. I almost had been thrown out of the road due to mud on a section of highway road that did not have street lights and the oncoming vehicles refused to respond to my switching lights upper/dipper, for their lights distorted my vision completely.
Sudden Stalls
After the rains, I started my long trips again however this time I faced another issue. The Wego started stalling sporadically at speeds of 50-65 kmph over distances. I had to bring the Wego to complete halt, and then start it again to continue my journey. These happened couple of times before I realized how dangerous it could be.
I was on the Vashi-Mankhurd bridge, trying to overtake an oil tanker truck from middle lane and moved to the 3rd lane when Wego suddenly stalled. There was a Hyundai Santro coming from behind at high speeds which saw this and changed its direction – if not for the alert driver, he could have hit me and I could have injured badly to even leading to death.
As you guessed, the next day I was at the workshop again. Even after three visits, the issue still remains and I am forced to live with it. My long trips (the most of my trips for that matter are long ones) had come to a brimming halt. I was also told by a colleague of mine that his Wego experienced the issue. The TVS show room has not been successful in eradicating the problem. A plaint on TVS’ official Facebook page has not found any response from TVS’ as well. This is heart breaking, as this kind of problem could put my and many others life at risk.
I would still recommend this scooter for its Ride and Handling, which are far superior to Honda Activa, Dio or Suzuki Access. Though, I miss some extra power but the scooter pretty much makes up for it. But TVS needs to put more emphasis on customer service.