I am planning to upgrade from my Suzuki Swift VXi to a midsize sedan. My daily usage is approximately 90 km, of which a good part will be on the highway and around 15 km in city traffic. On weekends, I will be driving the car with my family while on other days, I will have the services of my chauffeur. Because of my extensive usage, I am planning to buy a diesel car. The car should fit the following criteria: space, performance, refinement and low maintenance costs. My budget is Rs 7 to 9 lakh and I've shortlisted the Hyundai Verna CRDi (ABS), Ford Fiesta TDCi (ABS) and the Logan 1.5 dCi. I am told that the 1.6 TDCi version of the Fiesta and a new Chevrolet Aveo diesel are likely to be launched very soon. Should I wait for them? Ketan Karkhanis, via email
Since you have a comfortable budget, we suggest you go for the Verna CRDi since it satisfies all your different criteria. It has decent interior space, has very good performance thanks to a torquey and powerful engine and is very refined too. Moreover, the maintenance cost should not be much, thanks to Hyundai's overall reliability and reasonably good service quality. Both the Fiesta 1.6 TDCi and the Aveo diesel won't be here until 2009-10. | |
| Round two |
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| I am confused between the Maruti Suzuki SX4 and the Honda City. I drive around 35 km within the city on my daily commute. Once in two months or so, I zip out on a holiday covering around 1,000 km. I have been doing this in a five-year old Ford Ikon 1.3 and it's a car I plan to keep. In my second car, I am looking for good fuel economy and low maintenance costs coupled with driving fun. How would you rate the City's i-DSI engine? Is the City due for an upgrade? While it may be early to comment on the SX4, does the Honda have a higher resale value as against Maruti Suzuki ? Ravijit Chaudhri, New Delhi You are right when you say that the City is more fuel efficient than the SX4. Besides, the City is a well proven product over the last five years (the current platform) and is quite reliable. In the long run, we suspect the City will hold its value better. Maintenance costs are more or less the same for the two cars, though the SX4 is more fun to drive. The City received a minor facelift only late last year. So go ahead and book yourself the Honda. Any automotive questions?
Ask us at bijoy.y@bsmail.in |
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