Budget of 20-25 Lacs for Car/SUV (Petrol/Diesel)

Hi All,

My brother have driven Civic for the last 2.5 years. 

It was unfortunate that his Civic was being driven by his friend with 4 others - it crashed into a Dumper.

Fortunately, my brother was not there - and also more fortunately - no one got hurt. Though the Car was in such a condition that the Insurance people directly gave a cheque of Rs.8.5 Lacs.

Now, he is planning to take a Car/SUV and asked me for the same. 

Following points are for importance :-

1. Petrol of Rs.25,000 - 30,000/- monthly.

2. Car will be used only for max 3 years. Thus car with less depreciation required.

3. SUV - will be used for max 4 years.

The problem is that in such price range/segment - the resale value suffers the most - say maybe 50-60% in 3 years. New Honda Accord costs 25 Lacs. A person buying 3-4 years used Honda Accord in 15 Lacs - will prefer to buy a small car but a new 1. As such, if the price is quoted at 18 Lacs, the car will never be sold.

As such, the Cars in consideration are :-

1. Honda Accord 3.5 (+) are Honda tag, maybe best resae among worst, good car, (-) petrol car, maintenance.

2. Sokda Superb TSI 1.8 Petrol (+) big car, VFM, approx 25% cheaper than Accord, comfort of Merc E Class,, better mileage than Accord, (-) Skoda badge & maintenance

3. CRV - OK sort of a car, Completely build and ordered against payment hence costly, petrol SUV.

4. Maruti Grand Vitara - VFM, resale will be comparatively better.

5. Chevrolet Captiva - BEST among all, Excellent diesel engine, Lots of space, (-) resale. However, if used for 5 years, its worth.

6. Toyota Fortuner. (+) Excellent road presence, really VFM, (-) rough engine, bad Urban drive, looks VERYYYYYY HUGEEEE. In the Road test by Carwale, its said that INNOVA has better city drive than Fortuner. Hence, its a big down.

I have these thoughts in mind. 

Request you to add some expert thoughts so that a proper decision can be taken.

You can also add Camry to the list of options but frankly speaking if you are looking for an upgrade in Sedan from Civic than the options are only Accord, Superb and Camry. Though you can always consider a C class and 3 series or the Audi A4 alongwith if you have the budget and passion.

Out of these surelly Superb looks class apart due to its extrordinary feature list and real VFM. If you can live up with the Skoda Maintenence badge to go along than this is the car to go for.

Iam myself using Skoda Fabia and has been pretty satisfied till now.

Reg SUV's -- Well everyone has seen and read a lot about Fortuner but IMO this is a very old model of Toyota which is due for an upgrade in 2 yrs time as this model is in the international market for the last 5 years.

You can also consider the old dark horse and a very reliable Pajero as this car still stands out of the lot. Though the engine capabilites are much better in other models but this is a true 4*4 SUV and can be considered.

Superb 1.8 TSI , Laura L&K & Captiva are good options. If you really wish to have genuine 4*4 then Fortuner is the only option. I feel that Superb 1.8 TSI is the best in this price range.

The CR-V would be another good option. The honda badge is very prominent and would fetch a good resale as well. Having driven the civic your brother would be well aware about Honda interms of service and quality. Apart from that you have the XTrail and the Pajero but then the resale would be satisfactory. In sedans the teana and Passat would be good options.

CR-V now is imported as CBU - and thus is very costly (unnecessarily coz of the Customs Duty).

As such, its not VFM. Further, the resale value is also not that good as in the case of Honda Cars.

Personally, I suggest Captiva and then Skoda Superb TSI 1.8. Both these are somewhere in the 20 Lacs range - and say after 4-5 years, there a loss of 60%, the Loss is 12 Lacs Rs.

Whereas, if you go for Accord and it Costs 25 Lacs, and the loss at 50%, the Loss comes to 12.5 Lacs. 

Above this, the 5 LAcs saved (purchase Skoda/Captiva instead of Accord) initially will earn 2 lacs - which brings down the loss to 10 Lacs in the 1st option.

Captiva is better in Space, Looks, Build, Interiors quality, drive, performance, further, its Diesel. 

Fortuner not considered as it is a rough aminal.

Pajero is very old technology. XTrail is not a success - will be a problem for service/resale.

Captiva is also huge like Fortuner, but what is good is that it camouflages its size.

I am suggesting Captiva and then Superb 1.8. Any further thoughts for guidance..

here is the real deal.

forget CRV its damn expensive and over priced. and just a soft roaders. i mean this car is for soccer moms in US who use this so called SUV for carpooling.

forget pajero. yeah its macho and stuff man but it looks olddd!!! and underpowerd and outdated. dont go with the name tag. its just not worth 20 lacs.

captiva is good infact the best looking from a soft roader suv perspective. its diesel, you have the automatic version. with ESP and hill decent control and fairly loaded. your resale should not be that bad!! and you have that maintenence package of the chevy!

fortuner is VFM but you are not into it(dunno why, i personally like it. its sophisticated and yet butch!! its huge you say well so WHAT man its an SUV!! bigger if not better is not all bad too.

and finally out of alll of this cars/suvs. the only car which i think really really worth spending 20 lacs is the SKODA SUPERB. i mean it has everything. you have more space than the 5 series probably and all the features of the german saloons. at 18-20 lacs what else you want!! you cant go wrong with it. the feature list is the longest and so are the safety features!!definately worth 20 lacs go for it!!! go for the superb!

Spot on.

Considering the VFM Factor, Superb tops the list. Infact, the power delivery Torque of 250 Nm@1500 rpm is the best for city driving as against Accord 3.5 339@5000.

Confusion is between Captiva and Superb.

1 is SUV and other Luxury Saloon.

Skoda servicing / ASS can give nightmares. The dealer support is pathetic. Further, maintenance is also high compared to Chevy.

And most important - resale. Will decide when I will be in India during 18th Sept - 27th Sept.

Hi

Hand down winner go for the Captiva.

Comparision 

Take a test drive of all these cars 2 known which suits u most.

This will help during test drive

As festive season is just around the corner u can get great discounts

To save huge amount of money get the loan directly from the bank and insurance directly

This link will help u for insurance quotes

Resale value

I would recommend the Captiva, go for the 2WD version with the 150bhp + Manual Transmission.

The Skoda looks and feels nice on the inside, but it seems underpowered and Skoda support is dodgy from reports.  The Accord is a slightly disappointing car to drive unless the only attribute you're looking for is space.  Have you considered the Sonata CRDi - unless the 'badge' is very important to you, this car makes the most sense as it has power, space, great build, diesel economy and terrific support from Hyundai.  The Camry is a good option too, but not at the price they're selling it.

That leaves us with the Fortuner (which you clearly dont like), the Captiva and the Sonata.  I'm guessing you wont be looking at the Sonata.

Sonata suffers the highest resale. The Luxury cars from Hyundai (Elantra / Sonata) which are excellent VFM suffers resale.

That too is a problem in this case as the car is not meant to be kept for more than 3 years.

Otherwise, both earlier Elantr / now Sonata CRDi are excellent cars.