Big move

WHICH CAR?

I own a Honda Civic and a three-year old Toyota Innova (base variant) which I now want to replace. I have a budget of Rs 10 to 12 lakh on-road. I want either an SUV or MUV (diesel). It will be chauffeur driven and my daily usage is 100 km. Comfort and safety are important. I am thinking of the fully loaded Innova V. Is Toyota going to upgrade the Innova now? I can wait for 6 to 8 months. What is your advice? What other options should I look at? Any new launches which are worth waiting for?

Mahesh Verma, via email

There aren’t any SUV/MUVs around for Rs 12 lakh these days (apart from the Innova and not counting prohibitively expensive variants of the Mahindra Scorpio and the Tata Safari). If you are ready to spend Rs six lakh more, you can get yourself a Chevrolet Captiva — a well-built SUV that can take the rough despite its two-wheel drive underpinnings. Or else you can choose between the two versions of the Honda CR-V on offer (but both are petrol powered). An Innova facelift is due, but we have no idea when. Also expected is a cut-price SUV from Toyota (that is if Rs 12-15 lakh can be called cut-price!).

Driving prescription

I am in the market for a new car. I'm a doctor by profession and plan to replace my 18-year old Maruti 800 with a new car. My budget is about Rs 5 to 7 lakh and I usually drive about five to seven kilometres a day, with about 20 to 30 kilometres of weekend driving. I’m not looking at a Tata or Maruti product since I'm not sure about Tata’s service quality and am unhappy with Maruti’s service in my locality. My primary requirements are for a car that is spacious and has good ride quality as well as reliability. I’ve narrowed down my choices to the Hyundai i10, the Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Aveo and wouldn't mind considering the new Honda City if it falls within my budget. I am particularly fond of Fords since the Mustang is my all time favourite and I pretty much like the way the facelifted Fiesta looks. But I also hear that Honda offers some sort of discount to doctors and that the i10 has an automatic which should make my life easy. Please help me out with the right choice.

Sky Walker, Mumbai

You have eliminated almost all the nice petrol cars available in the price bracket and hence made our job very tough. But we will urge you to test drive a petrol Suzuki Swift if you want a bigger hatchback that has a safety kit (buy the ZXi version and hope your service centre behaves). The other option is to sacrifice some space and plonk your money on the i10 automatic — a brilliant car for city driving. And if you really like Fords, hey, buy the new Fiesta 1.6S – put on some Shelby graphics and enjoy life. And don't worry about the fuel consumption, you’ve saved enough by driving an M-800 for 18 years!

Automatic choice

I am planning to buy a Hyundai i10 Kappa with the four-speed automatic option. I’m aware that it makes for a good city car, but I wanted to know if it is good for highway use as well as in the hills.

J C Sreenivas, via email

The new Kappa engine has more linear power delivery and suits the automatic gearbox better. That means you will have enough power to accelerate hard from signals and overtake vehicles. It might not be all that spirited a car to drive in the hills, especially when fully loaded. But it will manage to do the job without burning a hole in your pocket.

Any automotive questions? 
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