Saturday, September 01, 2007

Car(e) to make a choice

The start:
Having just entered the new car market after having a faithful pre-owned M800 earlier, the choices (like in every other aspect of life these days) have been mind-boggling. I've jotted down the salient points leading to my car purchase - maybe someone else might find it useful. This is in no way a technical evaluation of various cars in the market today - there are more than enough of these available out there.

NOTE - ALL DETAILS MENTIONED BELOW ARE STRICTLY THE OPINION OF THIS AUTHOR AND DO NOT HAVE THE BACKING OF ANY SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. TAKE IT FOR WHAT IT IS - AN OPINION - AND NOTHING MORE.

The internet has been the starting point for my research - having discovered fairly useful sites.
Most of these sites have fairly the same amount of information - some presenting it better than the others. The best part about it is having the ability to compare information effortlessly that was earlier available only after numerous trips to various dealers.

Of course, the quantity of information is fairly overwhelming, especially to an auto - newbie like yours truly, but the usefulness cannot be discounted.

Two other websites that are VERY useful in terms of reviews and feedback would be:
How I went about it:
My parameters for buying were:
  • Budget - roughly Rs.5-6 lakhs, though somewhat flexible
  • Size - I wanted to graduate beyond the Maruti 800/Alto/Santro zone at this time
  • Size again - I was sure I didn't want (read - can't afford) a Merc, Sonata, Accord, etc - neither the purchase nor the maintenance :)
  • Maintenance - should be fairly trouble free and not too pricey parts
  • Mileage - should be decent
  • Performance - While a good pickup, torque and smooth acceleration/braking are definitely a plus point, these weren't the ONLY driving factors for a weekend driver like me.
Narrowing down choices

Mostly, I used the above websites for:
  • Comparing cars - price, features, performance, etc.
  • Cost details
  • Reviews, feedback, reports, etc.
Even with the above parameters it was fairly straight forward to narrow down my choices. Or rather, cancel out options I DID NOT want to consider.
  • Logan - new entrant, too risky - not many reality checks to go by
  • Chevy U-VA, Ford Fusion - never a fan of American cars. Resale value doesn't seem to be great and parts are known to be not too cheap.
  • Indica - hmmm, not sure but the looks aren't appealing enough - probably because there's too many of them out there :)
  • Palio - mileage, maintenance headaches... Never mind..
Having knocked the above cars off the list, that left behind the first choice:

Maruti Swift VDi
This was the obvious choice - price below 6lakhs (on the road), awesome performance, great owner feedback. Almost no negative points. Except a BIG ONE from Maruti itself which caused me to move on. The car wouldn't be available before 8 months after booking.
Having made up my mind to buy a car, I certainly did not relish waiting that long. So I thought of moving to the next best in the category - the petrol version

Maruti Swift VXi
I went ahead and booked the car paying the steep booking charges of Rs.50,000. However, a couple of weeks later, I realized even the 2+ months wait for this car was too annoying and requested the dealer (Bimal) to refund my deposit which he kindly agreed to. Thus Maruti lost one more customer to competition.

So finally..... (let the drumrolls begin)
Hyundai Getz Prime 1.3 GLS
I actually went by to the Hyundai showroom (Trident - Indiranagar) simply because it was really close to my house. I intended to test drive the 1.3 Getz because a friend of mine had just bought it and was all praise.
Strangely, none of the above listed sites have too much review/feedback information to offer about this car apart from its lack of mileage.

Anywas, once there, I test drove the Accent and was almost taken up by it - costing just 10k more the Getz GLX (on the road - Bangalore - 6.2lakhs), here was a "BIG" car, a tried and tested workhorse.
And then I test drove the Getz Prime 1.3 with my wife.

What pretty much closed the deal was:
  • Gearshift - The most amazing gearbox. Changing gears felt like a baby's bottom. Smooth as satin Has to be tried to believe. No other car I have driven has given this kind of feedback.
  • Mileage - Just below the Swift. For a primarily weekend driver like me, that is not an issue. In fact, Getz Prime is not really that bad.
  • Feedback from other Hyundai car owners - decent service, fairly widespread service network. Also, with this car requiring normal service once in 6 months/10k km. its not such a bad deal
  • Space - For the people behind, more than even Accent. Made the Swift rear seating feel like a Mumbai local train at peak hour. For us with our frisky 3 year old who actually refuses to enter cars, this is a HUGE bonus. Plus, the additional 60-40 folding, etc. make the car REALLY spacious.
  • What little feedback I did read from the owners was quite positive. Also, it did start appealing to me that one might pay extra for quality (GLS is certainly priced on the higher side). Besides, every other car on the road these days is a Swift (no exaggeration in Bangalore). The same is not true for Getz Prime.

Overall, this is more of a family car rather than just a driver's car.

It would lend itself well to long drives with many people, all enjoying the trip rather than just the driver.

Thus - a Hyundai Getz Prime 1.3 GLS it is :)

We (as in - my wife) has selected the dark blue option (Deep Pearl Blue). Hoping to get the car by the first week of Septemer. (Maruti Suzuki - note: waiting period < 2 weeks)

More REAL feedback to be added later.
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