Pls recommend me a car

Academically, Diesel cars are sturdier, stronger & have better longevity.

In case your run amounts to 35/40 kms per day, you may consider Diesel car provided you use it for 4/5 years so as to achieve the breakeven of the excess cost of the car so spent by you. 

In that case, Indica (Diesel) will cost you below Rs.4 lac.  It will give mileage of 17/18 in city & 21/22 on highway (depending upon the driving conditions & style).

Therefore, your monthly fuel expense in Indica Diesel will amount to Rs.2200/- against WagonR (Petrol) or the like's Rs.3750.  So you will save approx. 1500 per month, i.e.Rs.18000/- per annum - i.e. 72K in 4 years / 90K in 5 years.

Diesel engines are quite refined these days - virtually as good as Petrol ones.  Therefore, maintenance & service cost of Diesel car is slightly higher than Petrol car - but not as much as it used to be earlier.

Your apprehensions are not totally wrong.  Estilo, like KVSK has stated, is the same as WagonR but for some reason it doesn't sell as much as WagonR - though it's better looking & more fuel efficient (by 1 km).  Therefore, resale, though should not pose a problem but will defiinitely not be as good as WagonR (relatively).  WagonR is sturdier & stonger (than Estilo).

Spark, again like KVSK has pointed out, is a good car - it comes with very good interiors & features - probably the best in its segment.  But again, it has not pick-up well, as compared to others in its segment, and therefore, it may not fetch very good resale value as compared to others (relatively).

My Dearest Friends,

  I am a first time car buyer from my 6th Pay Commission Arrears.  So i want to know for which car i should go?  i  have short listed 2 cars.  Maruti Alto LXI and Tata Indica Xeta GLS.. My daily commutation will be from home to office and back to home it is around 30 kms / day.  Highway would be around 500 kms once in 2 months. which one would be better. And one more thing i want the cost to be within 3 lakhs including everything and should have fuel effeiciency and less maintenance (NIL would be Best !!!  ) .  So please , please help me friends. 

Mohan Kumar                                                   29.4.2008

Bangalore

3 lakhs is quite a tight budget really - I doubt if you would get the Alto LXI for that or even the Indica - the lowest version itself will cost you more than that with all accessories included.

MY sincere suggestion would be to go for Alto LXI and to take a bank loan for about 50K - EMI would be of the order of 1300-1500 rupees a month.

The alternate option according to me would be to go a for a second hand car which is about 1.5 years. If you go for the base model of Alto, it won't have power steering and I would advice not to go for it as it is quite a tussle to drive a car in city without power steering.

Regards,

K Prasad

I would not recommend Alto Std version (Rs.2.43 lac), as AC is a must these days.  You can consider LX version (Rs.2.77 lac) that comes with AC but has no Power Steering.  Even in that case, on-road price with RTO Tax & Insurance would come to around Rs.3 lac – in that case, you will have to install accessories like CD Player later when your pocket permits.

By the way, Power Steering has become a necessity these days with traffic conditions worsening.  Power Steering gives better & easy control of the car and is safe, therefore.  However, Alto being a small car, one can do with Power Steering comfortably – I know a few people personally who have non-power steering cars even bigger ones (WagonR & the like) but seldom face any problem, as such.

But the best option, as stated by KVSK, is, however, to go for some loan for 50K or so, and go for LXi version – with AC & Power Steering both. In any case, I would recommend you to keep the 2^nd hand car as the last option.

Last…. Xeta & Alto are priced at par more or less (all versions).  Xeta is very spacious & comfortable, has better interiors & features, and is also sturdier & stronger.  But it is not as fuel efficient as Alto – Xeta gives 11/13 in city & 15/17 on highway while Alto gives 16/18 in city & 20/22 on highway (depending upon driving conditions & style).

My most beloved friends,

since i am a central government officer i dont have to pay life time road tax (Since government officers dont have lives !!!) so from that around 30,000 i am saving. tata is giving Rs. 25000/ - disocunt. so maruti is also giving some discounts. i have enquired in bangalore.  so on road price including all sundries maruti alto lxi comes around 2.90 and tata indica v2 xeta  GLS (ac &  Power steering)comes at 2.92.  pros of maruti alto are ac WITH HEater while xeta only ac. alto is 800 cc. fuel efficient.  while pros of xeta more length, more wider (19 cms more wider than alto), Digital clock (i just  like it in the dark when the time is being shown) light in the luggage compartment and 1200 CC engine.  only thing i want to know is service charges and which one's maintenance is least and spare parts are cheap and readily available

Mohan Kumar , Bangalore   

Hi Mohan,

Well, if you are getting a Xeta for 2.92 and Alto for 2.9, I would still say that you better go for Alto - reason being that you have previously stated that mileage is a top priority for you. If your family can fit into the Alto and you don't need the additional space in an Indica, why go for it then.

If your family is not fitting into it, then Xeta is the option really.

The whole idea being that you can go for a car that gives better mileage, but first of all you and your family need to fit into it first.

Cheers,

K Prasad