Accent-uated

I have a Hyundai Santro that is six years old. While giving the vehicle for service, I checked the other vehicles and came across the Hyundai Accent Executive. How do you rate this vehicle? Though old, this still seems a good car with a good price tag. How about mileage? My car is doing exceedingly well and my requirement is not too much (around 15-20 kilometres a day) and probably a once a month out-of-town tour of 500 kilometres. Is this the right time to go for an exchange?

V Lakshminarasimman, via email

The Hyundai Accent Executive is nicely priced, as you point out. It is about 12 years old in the Indian market, but it does offer decent comfort and ride quality and fairly well built interiors. The engine isn’t the most peppy, but delivers decent efficiency on the whole. For its price, the Accent is a good car, though if you want something fresher and one that offers a better driving experience, we’d suggest the Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire for you.

Indigo Nation

I want to buy a Tata Indigo eCS petrol. Is this a good car to buy? What mileage should I expect in city/highway driving? I am going to keep this car for five years, so is reliability an issue with Tata any more? Is the Indigo CS TDI with the new Turbomax (BSIV) engine going to be launched?

Rahul Barman Roy, via email

Lots of questions there, so we will try and answer them all. The Indigo eCS offers a lot of interior space in a package that is not heavy on your pocket. As far as efficiency goes, the Indigo eCS should give you about 11-13 kpl in city driving, while that figure can go up to 16-18 kpl on the highway with the AC running pretty much all the time. As far as reliability goes, Tata Motors has made positive strides, especially with its newer cars, so it isn’t so much of an issue now. Tata Motors hasn’t made an announcement yet about the new Turbomax diesel for the CS, but we don't see why they can’t offer it — it should be only a matter of time.

Swiftly now?

I am planning to buy a Maruti Suzuki Swift petrol, and I have read that Maruti is planning on a new Swift model. Is it worth waiting for the new car or should I go in for the existing model?

Dinesh, via email

The new Swift is a few months away, probably the first half of next year. So if you can wait that long, you can hold on to your cheque book. That, though, doesn’t make the current Swift a bad car — it’s still a fun car to drive and offers a lot of kit for your money. Maruti Suzuki have only improved the car over time, sorting out some quality issues and making the car a better riding vehicle. The 1.2 K Series petrol engine is torquey and efficient and the same holds true for the 1.3 DDiS diesel as well. The new one will have more mature driving characteristics and a new exterior and interior with improved space. We expect the engines to remain the same for the moment.

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