Nissa Micra - XL or XV?

Hi guys,

I have decided to gift a car to my father on his birthday. My father has been driving a Hyundai Santro Xing for past 6 years and was very happy with it.. But since I have had plenty of issues with my Hyundai i20, I wanted to stay away from Hyundai name..I considered and TD with my father Maruti Ritz, Hyundai i10 (as my father still wanted to TD it), Ford Figo, Skoda Fabia and Nissan Micra XV.. And he finally felt comfortable with Nissan Micra.. he found i10 also good, but not much of an upgrade from his Santro xing.. and all the other cars had some pluses an minuses, and eventually Dad and Mom both liked Micra.

But we test drove Micra XV, whereas my father wants to buy the XL model as the price difference is huge between these two (almost 65k), and you get a lot of gizmos in XV which my Dad won't find comfortable using.. and anyways since he is going to drive the car in a small town, XL offers decent features.. but the biggest eye catching difference I noticed is the black coloured dash board in XL compared to beige in XV.. and to be honest, black does look a bit out dated.. so what do you guys think about this?

And one more thing that I need suggestion on is that the dealer has both 2010 manufactured and 2011 manufactured model.. and on 2010 manufactured model, he is giving decent discount in the form of free insurance+free 2 yr extended warranty+free accessories such as mud-flap, mats, seat cover.. and in 2011 manufactured model, he is not offering any thing.. not even free accessories.. so guys, is there a problem with the 2010 manufactured model which was rectified in 2011 one? and which one should I choose.

Will really appreciate your help here, as my Dad b'day is in first week of Feb so need to decide and book asap.

Thanks a lot.

Rahul

Rahul,

If budget is no problem, you should go for the TOP END model XV.

You will also recover good amount at the time of resale.

Go for it. Good Luck

Hi Manish, thanks for the reply.. Budget is actually a bit of a problem.. and moreover, the gizmos offered in XV version would only confuse my Dad, as he is not that big a fan of geeky stuff... he prefers the manual a.c. instead of auto one, and prefers to start ignition with a key rather than the keyless start.. and also the electrically folding ORVM are not much of use, as my father rarely uses the side mirrors while driving, and as the traffic is not much in his city, he gets away with it easily..

Common guys.. please help me out here.. looks like not many nissan owners or potential buyers out here

Rahul

Rahul,

You have the answer. Go with XL . There is no problem in buying the 2010 model in January 2011. Also, you father will atleast keep the car for next 5-7 yrs, so the resale will not effect too much.

Whats the problem then ??

You are sure about Nissan Micro after sales service in small city ?  I suggest you to go with Maruti because in there is no service issue with Maruti in small city.

Micro is not VFM car,  i belive.  Also pepole leaving 30K to 40K just for latest Model, which is worth for reselling.

Hi Manish, thanks for inputs.. still debating between XL and XV, as in XL the silver or white colour for 2010 model is out of stock with the nissan dealer in my dad's city.. and in xv, they have all the colours

Rakesh, Nissan does have a dealership in my dad's city.. though I do agree with you that Maruti After Sales is proven.. but to be honesh, Nissan is a far more reputed name in the Global arena than Maruti.. I have lived in US in the past, and there only Nissan, Toyota and Honda cars sell.. and Suzuki or Hyundai cars are a rarity.. the only reason why Hyundai cars sell a slight bit is because they offer dirt cheap prices and 10 yrs unlimited warranty.. so Nissan being such a reputed name, I am sure they will put in efforts to improve they after sales service and dealership base.. but yes, I am surprised that in their top model (XV) they are not offering alloy wheels, steering mounted controls and height adjusting driver seat considering the price that they are charging.

Being they have reputed name at US and other places, but not in India.  I am guessing that your father age is around 60+ ,  so they don't want botheration for service too.  

Getting service in India & US is big difference,  even you have to fight to take the service when matter stuck. 

Even Fiat have great brand and products but in India they are unable to manage the repo due to there India Policy towards Service.

Service is more depended on dealer basis,  if they keep stock ready,  you will get instant service,  else you have to wait,  and the business man's investing in moving products, so all other car dealers are not keeping ready stocks all the time,  so finally you will suffer.

If general sales are less in Micra,  how they improve the service.  on 2nd side,  Maruti sells cars due to there service only,  I know quality is very poor as compare to any other car in even India.  but service is good,  spare prices are less.  

Guess,  one day your father won't like the Micra dealer, then what happens ?  even they don't have choice to change the dealer.

If your father residing in metro or big city, than it is good choice, else NO NO.

It is my view.  any way looks of Micra is     

best of luck.

Rakesh is right too.

Also, silver will look more elegant in Micra  

Well.. then guys I am wondering that how will we Indians ever give a try to cars beyond Maruti and Hyundai.. and this will then make these 2 companies more and more sluggish as they kind of hold 80% of Indian car customer base.. And it is not possible for a company to open several dealerships in a city from the very beginning, as otherwise they will not make any profits.. so I guess all we can do is put our trust on good names like Nissan, Toyota and let them payback with good after sales service..

But to be honest, I feel that we Indian customers always get cheated by most of the car manufacturers.. for e.g., Nissan Micra XV is definitely not a cheap car.. it is around 6 lacs on road.. but still you dont find features like steering mounted controls, alloy wheels, and even basic things like head rest on the back seat, or even a decent chrome logo on the steering wheel.. whereas in other parts of asia, even the previous generation micra's used to have all these features, and for a much cheaper price.. and same applies to Hyundai i20, or suzuki cars.. as they come pre-loaded for ABS, Air-bags as these are safety features.. and the price of the car is much lower compared to India